May 2008 - cffi-devel - mailman3.common-lisp.net

[cffi-devel] Weird segfaults interfacing with libsane
by Rupert Swarbrick 12 Jun '08

12 Jun '08

Hi there, I'm trying to use cffi to write some bindings for libsane. Having quite some success, but for the following (rather bizarre) problem. libsane expects: sane_init(), do some stuff, sane_exit() but when I call sane_exit after having done anything non-trivial (for example, called sane_get_devices), sbcl segfaults and dies. I realise that that's not the sort of question for the cffi list, _but_ I wrote a trivial C program that I think should be equivalent and it doesn't die. I can't work out *how* libsane can work in one case and not the other (!) so I was wondering if anyone could make any suggestions. I'm attaching the two source files here. The other piece of information is that I asked about this on #lisp a few minutes ago, and hefner very kindly tested it out, with no segfault at his end. I've had the same symptom with both the asdf-installed cffi and the darcs lotsastuff branch. I presume there's an error somewhere in my libsane config which explains why it's dying, but I'm hoping that someone can explain how it can fail in the lisp program and not in the C one. Oh, it's linux i386 with SBCL from CVS this evening. Thanks, Rupert

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[cffi-devel] Performance of CFFI:PARSE-TYPE
by Hans Hübner 02 Jun '08

02 Jun '08

Hi, I have recently switched to using the cffi+lotsastuff version and I find it very slow for certain applications. The reason for this is that PARSE-TYPE is called from FOREIGN-TYPE-SIZE, and PARSE-TYPE is very expensive. It would be relatively easy to cache the type parsing results in a hash table, but before moving forward in that direction, I'd like to know what your opinions on this is. Thanks, Hans

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[cffi-devel] Documentation build errors
by Rupert Swarbrick 31 May '08

31 May '08

Hi there, In my quest to work out what I've broken (this time) in the project I'm working on when I'm not doing something more useful, I just pulled the latest version of cffi (main branch) with darcs and rebuilt the documentation... Well almost. Various texinfo compilation errors. I don't really know texinfo, but the change below seems to sort them out (btw, this is the output of my first non-pull, non-get darcs command. Exciting! Although also hard to work out whether it's useful - some sort of versioning would presumably be more helpful... But maybe that's the point about darcs. Hmm. Anyway, I've added a seemingly missing @table command and corrected a capital T. So manually fixing it would probably be easy too :)) Rupert hunk ./doc/cffi-manual.texinfo 4528 -@seealso{Other types} (@code{:string} type) @* +@seealso{Other Types} (@code{:string} type) @* hunk ./doc/cffi-manual.texinfo 6174 +@table @var +

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[cffi-devel] defcfun optimization idea
by Attila Lendvai 22 May '08

22 May '08

hi! when i was optimizing time functions in osicat i was pondering that cffi:defcfun could add an ftype declaim to the emitted defun based on the ffi types. it may be only a heuristic, but most of the time the return value could be annotated which would help the compiler. it would also be useful if there was a way to tell defcfun to declare the emitted defun to be inline. </random ideas> -- attila

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[cffi-devel] null-pointer, *INLINE-EXPANSION-LIMIT* exceeded
by Tamas K Papp 22 May '08

22 May '08

Hi, When compiling a function, I get this strange error message: ; in: DEFUN UMFPACK-SOLVE ; (CFFI-SYS:NULL-POINTER) ; ; note: *INLINE-EXPANSION-LIMIT* (200) was exceeded, probably trying to ; inline a recursive function. The code looks like this, it is in my cl-sparsematrix package (asdf-installable), cffi version is 20080217, using SBCL 1.0.16.0. The code looks like below, I tried to come up with a smaller example but couldn't (does not happen in one-liners using null-pointer). null-pointer does not look recursive to me... umfpack-catch-error is a macro. If there is something obvious I am doing wrong, please let me know, if not, helpful hints on how to determine what is going on are welcome. (defun umfpack-solve (a-csc b &optional (symbolic (umfpack-symbolic a-csc))) "Use umfpack-solve to solve the sparse system A x = b, where a-csc is A packed in csc format. If you are solving many systems of the same shape, you should precalculate the symbolic object and supply it for a minor increase in speed." (with-slots (nrow ncol ap ai ax) a-csc (assert (= nrow ncol)) ; need square matrix (let ((x (make-ffa nrow :double))) ; Ax=b (with-slots ((symbolic-pointer pointer)) symbolic (with-pointers-to-arrays ((ap ap-pointer :uint32 (length ap) :copy-in) (ai ai-pointer :uint32 (length ai) :copy-in) (ax ax-pointer :double (length ax) :copy-in) (x x-pointer :double (length x) :copy-out) (b b-pointer :double (length b) :copy-in)) (with-foreign-pointer (numeric-goes-here (foreign-type-size :pointer)) ;; calculate Numeric object (format t "umfpack: calculating numeric object~%") (umfpack-catch-error (umfpack_di_numeric ap-pointer ai-pointer ax-pointer symbolic-pointer numeric-goes-here (null-pointer) (null-pointer))) ;; solve system (format t "umfpack: solving system~%") (umfpack-catch-error (umfpack_di_solve 0 ap-pointer ai-pointer ax-pointer x-pointer b-pointer (mem-ref numeric-goes-here :pointer) (null-pointer) (null-pointer)))) ;; return x x)))))) Thanks, Tamas

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[cffi-devel] Merging the cffi+lotsastuff branch; new dependencies
by Luís Oliveira 17 May '08

17 May '08

Hello, I'd like to merge cffi+lotsastuff[1] with the main branch soon. People have started using that branch in several projects and that has generated unnecessary confusion. This branch includes the following new features: - efficient external-format support for foreign strings - cffi-grovel - emulated long-long types - other minor stuff The only problem is that this branch brings in 3 new dependencies: babel[2], trivial-features[3] and alexandria[4]. Is this a big problem? I hope it isn't and I'll do the merge soon unless there are any objections. [1] http://common-lisp.net/~loliveira/darcs/cffi+lotsastuff/ [2] http://www.cliki.net/trivial-features [3] http://common-lisp.net/project/babel/ [4] http://common-lisp.net/project/alexandria/ -- Luís Oliveira http://student.dei.uc.pt/~lmoliv/

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[cffi-devel] Good day.
by info＠bank-ghana-org 01 May '08

01 May '08

ATTN: MY NAME IS MR.ADAMS SMITH, THE MANAGER CREDIT AND FOREIGN BILLS OF BANK OF GHANA, ACCRA. I AM WRITING IN RESPECT OF A FOREIGN CUSTOMER OF MY BANK WITH ACCOUNT NUMBER 14-255-2004/utb/t WHO DIED IN A PLANE CRASH [ETHIOPIAN AIRLINE 961] WITH OTHER PASSENGERS ABOARD. SINCE THE DEATH OF THIS CUSTOMER I PERSONALLY HAVE WATCHED WITH KEEN INTEREST TO SEE THE NEXT OF KIN BUT ALL HAS PROVED ABORTIVE AS NO ONE HAS COME TO CLAIM HIS FUNDS OF USD15.5 M, [FIFTEEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS] HAS BEEN WITH MY BANK FOR A VERY LONG TIME. ON THIS NOTE I DECIDED TO SEEK FOR WHOM HIS NAME SHALL BE USED AS THE NEXT OF KIN AS NO ONE HAS COME UP TO BE THE NEXT OF KIN, AND THE BANKING ETHICS HERE DOES NOT ALLOW SUCH MONEY TO STAY MORE THAN FOUR YEARS, BECUASE AFTER FOUR YEARS THE ACCOUNT WILL BE DECLARED DORMANT AND THE MONEY FORFEITED TO THE BANK. IN VIEW OF THIS, I DECIDED TO CONTACT YOU TO ACT AS THE NEXT OF KIN. THE REQUEST OF A FOREIGNER AS NEXT OF KIN IN THIS BUSINESS IS OCCASIONED BY THE FACT THAT THE CUSTOMER WAS A FOREIGNER. I AGREED THAT 30% OF THIS MONEY WILL BE FOR YOU AS A FOREIGN PARTNER IN RESPECT OF PROVIDING AN ACCOUNT, WHILE THE REST WILL BE FOR ME. THEREAFTER I WILL VISIT YOUR COUNTRY FOR DISBURSEMENT . THEREFORE TO FACILITATE THE IMMEDIATE TRANSFER OF THIS FUND TO YOUR ACCOUNT AS ARRANGED, YOU MUST APPLY FIRST TO THE BANK AS A RELATION TO THE DECEASED INDICATING YOUR BANK NAME, YOUR BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER, YOUR PRIVATE TELEPHONE NUMBER, AND FAX NUMBER FOR EASY COMMUNICATION AND LOCATION WHERE THE MONEY WILL BE REMITTED. UPON THE RECEIPT OF YOUR REPLY, I WILL SEND YOU BY FAX OR E-MAIL THE APPLICATION AND THE NEXT STEP TO TAKE. I WILL NOT FAIL TO BRING TO YOUR NOTICE THAT THIS BUSINESS IS HITCH FREE AND THAT YOU SHOULD NOT ENTERTAIN ANY FEAR AS THE WHOLE REQUIRED ARRANGEMENT HAS BEEN MADE FOR THE TRANSFER. YOU SHOULD CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE THIS LETTER. TRUSTING TO HEAR FROM YOU. YOURS RESPECTFULLY, MR ADAMS SMITH +233244506074

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[cffi-devel] Greetings from Roger J. Garang,
by Roger＠common-lisp.net 01 May '08

01 May '08

Greetings from Roger J. Garang, Due to security reasons and the kind of place I am in BENIN REPUBLIC at themoment, I have to contact you in this manner with apology. I am Roger J. Garang, Son of late Dr. General John Garang the former rebel leader of Sudan who letter became the vice president of Sudan,before he was killed by a planned deal through a plane crash, which took place on Monday August 1st, 2005 in mountains located in southern Sudan. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4735725.stm He was buried on Saturday August 6th, 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4126370.stm After the death of my mother Mrs. Rebecca Garang on the 15th December 2005, the president of Sudan placed embargo on my late father's assets during his speech on January 2nd, 2006, which made me to flee from my country through road to another country where the United Nations granted me refugee under political asylum camp in Republic of BENIN Meanwhile, I am currently seeking to invest in small and large business enterprises in your country under partnership but I am preferred to deal directly with legitimate owners who can be able to handle my project rather than brokers or middlemen. Therefore, I would like to request full contact details where I can reach the Chief Executive Officer of your organization to enable us discuss further details on this project. However, I have a stake of USD$107,000.000.00 One hundred and fifty-Seven Million Dollars available for investment. So I would be honored if this is treated with Utmost Urgency and do not fail to include your direct telephone number for me to reach you easily for more imformation regarding this project. You can contact me only on my altanative email address (garangroger(a)yahoo.it) where i can be reach any time in the asylum camp 00229 97 98 99 52. Sincerely Yours, Roger Garang, (On behalf of the Family)

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