scalar_to_buffer

 my($pointer, $size) = scalar_to_buffer $scalar;

Convert a string scalar into a buffer. Returned in order are a pointer to the start of the string scalar's memory region and the size of the region.

You should NEVER try to free $pointer.

When you pass this pointer and size into a C function, it has direct access to the data stored in your scalar, so it is important that you not resize or free the scalar while it is in use by the C code. Typically if you are passing a buffer into a C function which reads or writes to the buffer, but does not keep the pointer for later use you are okay. If the buffer is in use long term by the C code, then you should consider copying the buffer instead. For example:

 use FFI::Platypus::Buffer qw( scalar_to_buffer );
 use FFI::Platypus::Memory qw( malloc memcpy free )
 
 my($ptr, $size) = scalar_to_buffer $string;
 c_function_that_does_not_keep_ptr( $ptr, $size); # okay
 
 my($ptr, $size) = scalar_to_buffer $string;
 my $ptr_copy = malloc($size);
 memcpy($ptr_copy, $ptr, $size);
 c_function_that_DOES_keep_ptr( $ptr_copy, $size); # also okay
 
 ...
 
 # later when you know that the c code is no longer using the pointer
 # Since you allocated the copy, you are responsible for free'ing it.
 free($ptr_copy);

scalar_to_pointer

 my $pointer = scalar_to_pointer $scalar;

Get the pointer to the scalar. (Similar to "scalar_to_buffer" above, but the size of the scalar is not computed or returned).

Not exported by default, but may be exported on request.

buffer_to_scalar

 my $scalar = buffer_to_scalar $pointer, $size;

Convert the buffer region defined by the pointer and size into a string scalar.

Because of the way memory management works in Perl, the buffer is copied from the buffer into the scalar. If this pointer was returned from C land, then you should only free it if you allocated it.

grow

 grow $scalar, $size, \%options;

Ensure that the scalar can contain at least $size bytes. The following are recognized:

clear => boolean

If true, $scalar is cleared prior to being enlarged. This avoids copying the existing contents to the reallocated memory if they are not needed.

  For example, after
 
   $scalar = "my string";
   grow $scalar, 100, { clear => 0 };
    

"$scalar == "my string"", while after

   $scalar = "my string";
   grow $scalar, 100;
    

"length($scalar) == 0"

It defaults to "true".

set_length => boolean

If true, the length of the string in the $scalar is set to $size. (See the discussion in "set_used_length".) This is useful if a foreign function writes exactly $size bytes to $scalar, as it avoids a subsequent call to "set_used_length". Contrast this

  grow my $scalar, 100;
  read_exactly_100_bytes_into_scalar( scalar_to_pointer($scalar) );
  @chars = unpack( 'c*', $scalar );
    

with this:

  grow my $scalar, 100, { set_length => 0 };
  read_exactly_100_bytes_into_scalar( scalar_to_pointer($scalar) );
  set_used_length( $scalar, 100 );
  @chars = unpack( 'c*', $scalar );
    

It defaults to "true".

Any pointers obtained with "scalar_to_pointer" or "scalar_to_buffer" are no longer valid after growing the scalar.

Not exported by default, but may be exported on request.

set_used_length

 set_used_length $scalar, $length;

Update Perl's notion of the length of the string in the scalar. A string scalar keeps track of two lengths: the number of available bytes and the number of used bytes. When a string scalar is used as a buffer by a foreign function, it is necessary to indicate to Perl how many bytes were actually written to it so that Perl's string functions (such as "substr" or "unpack") will work correctly.

If $length is larger than what the scalar can hold, it is set to the maximum possible size.

In the following example, the foreign routine "read_doubles" may fill the buffer with up to a set number of doubles, returning the number actually written.

  my $sizeof_double = $ffi->sizeof( 'double' );
  my $max_doubles = 100;
  my $max_length = $max_doubles * $sizeof_double;
 
  my $buffer;                   # length($buffer) == 0
  grow $buffer, $max_length;    # length($buffer) is still  0
  my $pointer = scalar_to_pointer($buffer);
 
  my $num_read = read_doubles( $pointer, $max_doubles );
                                # length($buffer) is still == 0
 
  set_used_length $buffer, $num_read * $sizeof_double;
                                # length($buffer) is finally != 0
 
  # unpack the native doubles into a Perl array
  my @doubles = unpack( 'd*', $buffer );  # @doubles == $num_read

Not exported by default, but may be exported on request.

window

 window $scalar, $pointer;
 window $scalar, $pointer, $size;
 window $scalar, $pointer, $size, $utf8;

This makes the scalar a read-only window into the arbitrary region of memory defined by $pointer, pointing to the start of the region and $size, the size of the region. If $size is omitted then it will assume a C style string and use the C "strlen" function to determine the size (the terminating '\0' will not be included).

This can be useful if you have a C function that returns a buffer pair (pointer, size), and want to access it from Perl without having to copy the data. This can also be useful when interfacing with programming languages that store strings as a address/length pair instead of a pointer to null-terminated sequence of bytes.

You can specify $utf8 to set the UTF-8 flag on the scalar. Note that the behavior of setting the UTF-8 flag on a buffer that does not contain UTF-8 as understood by the version of Perl that you are running is undefined.

Hint: If you have a buffer that needs to be free'd by C once the scalar falls out of scope you can use Variable::Magic to apply magic to the scalar and free the pointer once it falls out of scope.

 use FFI::Platypus::Buffer qw( scalar_to_pointer );
 use FFI::Platypus::Memory qw( strdup free );
 use Variable::Magic qw( wizard cast );
 
 my $free_when_out_of_scope = wizard(
   free => sub {
     my $ptr = scalar_to_pointer ${$_[0]};
     free $ptr;
   }
 );
 
 my $ptr = strdup "Hello Perl";
 my $scalar;
 window $scalar, $ptr, 10;
 cast $scalar, $free_when_out_of_scope;
 undef $ptr;  # don't need to track the pointer anymore.
 
 # we can now use scalar as a regular read-only Perl variable
 print $scalar, "\n";  # prints "Hello Perl" without the \0
 
 # this will free the C pointer
 undef $scalar;

Hint: Returning a scalar string from a Perl function actually copies the value. If you want to return a string without copying then you need to return a reference.

 sub c_string
 {
   my $ptr = strdup "Hello Perl";
   my $scalar;
   window $scalar, $ptr, 10;
   cast $scalar, $free_when_out_of_scope;
   \$scalar;
 }
 
 my $ref = c_string();
 print $$ref, "\n";  # prints "Hello Perl" without the \0

Not exported by default, but may be exported on request.