How to create Qt-based Library That Can Be Called from C - c++

I'm trying to build a simple library that uses some of Qt's functionality (no event loop, just some image manipulation and file loading) and then call that library from a standard C program. I've reviewed the answer here, but the answer did not provide enough information for me to resolve the problem. I have built the library as a static library to be linked, and wrapped the function calls with extern "C", but I get a bunch of errors, starting with /usr/include/QtCore/qnamespace.h:-1: In function ‘QT_MODULE’:/usr/include/QtCore/qnamespace.h:54: error: unknown type name ‘namespace’.
Does anyone have a short tutorial on linking to Qt libraries from a C program? FYI, everything is under Linux (Fedora 15), and both the C program and the Qt library are being built with QtCreator.

Lets say you want to make a wrapper for creating and deleting QImage, it could be done something like this:
In your header file:
typedef void *my_qimage_t;
extern "C" my_qimage_t my_create_qimage(int width, int height);
extern "C" void my_delete_qimage(my_qimage_t image);
And in your source file:
extern "C" my_qimage_t my_create_qimage(int width, int height)
{
QImage *qimage = new Qimage(width, height);
return static_cast<my_qimage_t>(qimage);
}
extern "C" void my_delete_qimage(my_qimage_t image);
{
QImage *qimage = static_cast<QImage *>(image);
delete qimage;
}
The my_qimage_t type is, from the callers perspective, a black box. All manipulation has to be done through your library, by passing this opaque pointer around.

Related

Initialisation of C++ structures from C

I'm trying to use opencv C++ library with another lib in C. So I've defined a structure in an .hpp file which I've added to the .h of the C library
typedef struct {
cv::FileStorage fs;
cv::Mat mat;
} myCPPStruct;
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
typedef struct {
myCPPStruct * mycppstruct;
} myCStruct;
void initialize_myCPPStruct(myCPPStruct * mycppstruct);
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
In the .c files the initializer for myCStruct calls initialize_myCPPStruct which is defined in a .cpp file somewhat as:
void initialize_myCPPStruct(myCPPStruct * mycppstruct){
mycppstruct = {};
mycppstruct->fs = cv::FileStorage( "file.txt", cv::FileStorage::READ );
mycppstruct->mat = cv::Mat(3,3,CV_8UC3);
}
But once it tries to allocate a value to mycppstruct->fs, it gets a segmentation fault. I assume this is because there is no memory allocation in C, but I've tried
std::memset(stitcher->fs,0,sizeof(cv::FileStorage));
which also doesn't work as it can't parse cv:FileStorage as void *.
Will I have to use the deprecated C OpenCV library to make this work?
EDIT - More details about the compilation.
For the C lib, I recompile (without linking ie with the -c option)all the .c files where I've added C++ functions or structures using g++ while making sure I add the __cplusplus guards in the .h files. All the .c files without C++ code already have .o files compiled with gcc. I then compile the whole program with g++ while making sure to include the relevant library files. There are no compiler errors.
It seems the structure itself has not been created.
You might try this (or something similar):
myCPPStruct* initialize_myCPPStruct()
{
myCPPStruct* result;
result = new myCPPStruct();
result->fs = cv::FileStorage( "file.txt", cv::FileStorage::READ );
result->mat = cv::Mat(3,3,CV_8UC3);
return (result);
}
You need to allocate the memory for your structure:
myCPPStruct = malloc(sizeof(myCPPStruct));
Use the above line instead of:
mycppstruct = {};
Also,since your function is passing in the pointer and allocating the memory internally you need to pass a pointer to the pointer or the allocation will not be passed back:
void initialize_myCPPStruct(myCPPStruct** mycppstruct){
if ( mycppstruct == NULL ) {
//Abort as no address of the pointer to allocate passed
return;
}
*myCPPStruct = malloc(sizeof(myCPPStruct));
(*mycppstruct)->fs = cv::FileStorage( "file.txt", cv::FileStorage::READ );
(*mycppstruct)->mat = cv::Mat(3,3,CV_8UC3);
}
Or you could just change the above to:
myCPPStruct* initialize_myCPPStruct(void) {
myCPPStruct* ptr = malloc(sizeof(myCPPStruct));
ptr->fs = cv::FileStorage( "file.txt", cv::FileStorage::READ );
ptr->mat = cv::Mat(3,3,CV_8UC3);
return ptr;
}
First, let me point out the sentence which confuse me.
there is no memory allocation in C
Yes, there is. Have a look to malloc function.
char *my_allocated_string = malloc(sizeof(char) * 42);
Here you are, you've allocated an array of character of size 42.
Now, have a look to : mycppstruct = {};
That's not how you allocate a structure in C. You have to call... malloc() !
my_struct *s = malloc(sizeof(my_struct));
s->fs = 42;
Ok. Done. Feels better.
Well, first of all, you have to create a wrapper around your C++ code. Why ? Because C++ allows multiple definition of a given function (also call symbol) :
int my_func(int);
int my_func(char);
This is valid in C++. But, think about it, how is the compiler able to let two functions with the same name exist ? Well it's not. It uses a technique named mangling when evaluating the functions to create 2 different names. Mangling is use on everything function and method. Event on single functions.
C is not able (and willing) to create several functions with the same name. Otherwise, you will experience a kind of function-already-implemented error. When you declare :
int my_func(int);
the C compiler will create the symbol : my_func. No mangling.
To make both language interact, you need to reference to a symbol understandable by the C compiler. If you call my_func from a C source file, the C compiler will look for my_func symbol. Bu since C++ will modify its my_func symbol into something like _ZN9myfuncE, the linkage will fail. That's why you have to says to the C++ compiler to not use mangling on the function you expose to C. That's why you need extern "C" { }.
Feeww, so far so good...
Now you have to embed you C API into an extern "C" block :
In my_c_api.h :
void my_func(int);
void my_func(char);
In my_c_api.cpp :
#include "my_c_api.h"
extern "C" void my_func_i(int i) { my_func(i); }
extern "C" void my_func_c(char c) { my_func(c); }
You compile it to create your C++ library.
In your C compilation pipeline, you link against your new C++ library and header files. Then :
#include "<path_to_my_c_api.h>"
void c(int i,char s)
{
my_func_i(i);
my_func_c(c);
}
You cannot compile C++ code with C compiler. You have to compile te C++ code independently.
More on ISO CPP.

How to distinguish files of two separate programs with common file

I've project where I need to distinguish files belongs to linux daemon (witten in C) and simple linux program (written in C++). Those two projects used 2 shared files (helpers_functions). Daemon and program has different logging system. Daemon write to file, program to stdout.
Problem occurs when I want to log something in common functions for both programs (inside helper_functions file). I don't want to pass via parameter, that this is program A, or program B.
I've compile files belongs to separate programs with g++ flag -D, but what can I do, when I want to log from common files? I cannot define there anything, because I don't know when I use it for program A, or when for program B.
You could add a global variable
const int iamprogram = ...;
which is defined to be PROGRAM_A in program A and PROGRAM_B in program B to solve the immediate problem. You could also make this variable directly contain the file you want to log to:
const char *program_logfile = "/path/to/logfileA";
In the long run, I suggest you to refactor your code such that the common code doesn't depend on which program it is part of. That's much more maintainable and expandable for the case where you want to use the code for a third program as well.
I'm not 100% sure if runtime dynamic linking can handle this. It would definitely work if you statically link the helper functions into each executable.
Provide a logging function with the same API in both programs. Have the library functions that want to log something call this function. They get the implementation provided by the program that's using the library.
Header file included by each program, and by the library
// common_log.h
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" // for the following definition only, no opening {
#endif
// used by code that can be part of either program
void common_log(char *msg, int log_prio);
Implementation in the tty C++ program (simple logging):
#include "common_log.h"
#include <iostream>
// used by the rest of the C++ program
void simple_logger(char *msg) {
cerr << msg;
}
extern "C" void common_log(char *msg, int log_prio) {
simple_logger(msg);
}
Implementation in the daemon C program:
#include "common_log.h"
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
static FILE *logfp;
static int log_level;
// used by daemon code
void fancy_logger(char *msg, int log_prio) {
if (log_prio < log_level)
return;
if (EOF == fputs(logfp, msg)) {
perror("failed to write log message to log file: ");
}
}
// or use linker tricks to make common_log an alias for fancy_log,
// if they both have the same signature and you don't need to do anything in the wrapper.
//extern "C" // this is already C
void common_log(char *msg, int log_prio) {
fancy_logger(msg, log_prio);
}
This requires the linker to be able to resolve undefined symbols in the library using symbols from the program that's linked against it. I think that works, similar to a library providing a weak definition of a global variable, so the main program's definition takes precedence.
If it was ok for simple_logger to also be extern "C" and have the same signature, you could just name them the same and avoid the bounce function. Or if the common function could be an alias for the program's own logging function in either of the programs, I think there are linker tricks to actually do that, instead of compiling to a single jmp instruction (tail-call optimization).
You could implement a callback for getting the program specific output. There's two benefits: no dependency from common part to application (common part defines the interface) and you can make the distinction at run time vs compile time, which gives more legroom for future development, such as changing the output via command line parameters or user interaction.
In the following example, let's refer to the common code part as "library".
library.h
typedef void (*logFunc_t)( logBuffer_t );
void setLogOutput( logFunc_t applicationLog );
library.c
logFunc_t logger; // might be good idea to initialize to an empty function, but omitted here
void setLogOutput( logFunc_t applicationLog )
{
logger = applicationLog;
}
void log( logBuffer_t data )
{
logger( data );
}
application.cpp / application.c
// here you should have the extern "C" in C++ application to ensure linkage compatibility
// I am assuming your shared code is C
extern "C" void myLogger( logBuffer_t data );
int main( int argc, char* agv[] )
{
setLogOutput( &myLogger );
// ...do your thing
return 0;
}
void myLogger( logBuffer_t data )
{
// ...log wherever
}

Compiling C and C++

I have a program written in C and I need to use KDIS libraries which are written in C++. I compile my C program with automake&friends in KDevelop. How can I compile everything together?? Because I want to call some KDIS functions inside my C program.
Thank you in advance.
If you need to call C++ functions which are not declated extern "C", then you have to do so from a C++ program yourself. You can create one single C++ file in your project which wraps all the library functions you need in extern "C" functions to be used by the rest of your project. You'll have to tell autotools that you're using both C and C++. The file extensions should be enough to decide which is which.
To give you an example, consider the following mymagic.cc creating bindings for some libmagic written in C++:
#include <libmagic/magic.hh>
extern "C" {
int doMagic() {
magic::Wizard w("foo", 42);
magic::Result res = w.doMagic();
return res.getResultCode();
}
}
To the rest of your application, doMagic() would appear as just another C function. But the inside is C++, so it can use any C++ constructs you want. When you need to pass stuff from your library around, you should use pointers to opaque types. So in the header mymagic.h which is also used by your C code, you can write
struct magicValue;
int doMagic(void);
struct magicValue* createMagic(void);
void destroyMagic(struct magicValue*);
And in the mymagic.cc you'd then be more explicit:
struct magicValue {
magic::value v;
magicValue(magic::value val) : v(val) { }
};
magicValue* createMagic() {
return new magicValue(magic::value("foo"));
}
void destroyMagic(magicValue*) {
delete magicValue;
}
This link may help you understand how to mix C and C++ code in your application.
Also, look at this Stack Overflow question, I believe that's what you need.

How to manipulate/return data with dynamically loaded functions (dlopen)?

I've spent days reading and re-reading every tutorials I've found on the subject, and spent hours (and even days) browsing related questions here at SO, but I still can't get the following to work. Accept my apologies if this is a duplicate: chances are that I've seen and re-read many times the duplicate questions but couldn't understand the relevance of the answers to my problem. With that out of the way...
I'm trying to implement a plugin architecture for my Application. Plugins are compiled and installed as libraries. At run time, the Application then uses dlopen() / dlsym() to load and link to the plugin's functions.
The idea is that plugins (libraries) will implement a set of functions to return data to the main Application, or manipulate data passed from the Application.
In order to test this idea, I tried to implement a function (inside the plugin) that would return the (human readable) name of the plugin itself (as a std::string). I thought that would be something simple to start with.... :-/
Here is what I got so far:
// Plugin.cpp
extern "C" void plugin_name(std::string *name) {
name = new std::string("Example plugin name");
}
// Application.cpp
void* handle = dlopen("libplugin.so", RTLD_LAZY);
typedef void (*plugin_t)(std::string*);
dlerror(); // Reset errors.
plugin_t call_plugin_name = (plugin_t) dlsym(handle, "plugin_name");
// ... Some error handling code.
std::string my_plugin_name;
call_plugin_name(&my_plugin_name);
dlclose(handle);
// More code that displays my_plugin_name.
I've tried many different combinations, including one that seemed more straigtforward (but didn't work any better) where the plugin name is returned:
// Plugin.cpp
extern "C" std::string plugin_name(void) {
return std::string("Example plugin name");
}
I know I'm close: the code compiles and the Application stopped crashing ;)
However, I've got an empty space where I'd expect seeing the actual plugin name.
All the tutorials I've read so far go very quickly over the mechanism by which data is passed both ways: plugin <=> Application. What I'm trying to do with a "simple" std::string, I wish to do later with much more complex objects (i.e. a plugin function would take an object by reference and change some of its properties). The tutorials more or less all stop at the point of creating a pointer with dlsym() and do not give much examples on how to use this pointer.
So, how to do all that?
Another pertinent question: do I use a common header that I'd use both with the Application and with the plugin and where I'd define the function calls signature? How would I do this and how would that help?
The signature of a function is generated from its name and argument types (return value type doesn't matter). When you declare function with extern "C", C symbol naming scheme is used which apparently can't handle C++ types like std::string. That's why passing std::string as an arguments doesn't work.
I can't explain why returning std::string doesn't work. Maybe different calling conventions are used.
Anyway the correct way of importing C++ code from a shared library is to return pointers to C++ types from entry points. And this entry points have to have arguments with types available in C. (Entry point is a documented function exported from a shared library)
Here is a good article on basic aspects of loading C++ classes from shared libraries. This article will answer your question throughly.
Please note that there are pitfalls when using exceptions thrown from a shared library to the main applications. And with dynamic_cast of objects created inside a library. I've mentioned this topics so that you could be somewhat prepared when you face this problems.
[edit]
To make my answer more clear I'll add a couple of examples.
To get the plugin name you can use:
extern "C" const char * plugin_name() {
return "Example plugin name";
}
// main.cc:
void* handle = dlopen("libplugin.so", RTLD_LAZY);
// ...
typedef const char * (*plugin_t)();
plugin_t call_plugin_name = (plugin_t) dlsym(handle, "plugin_name");
// ...
std::string my_plugin_name(call_plugin_name());
// use it
To really use the plugin functionality you should declare a base class in a header:
// plugin.h
class Plugin {
public:
virtual void doStuff() = 0;
virtual ~Plugin() = 0;
};
// plugin.cc
Plugin::~Plugin() {
}
// myplugin.cc
class MyPlugin : public Plugin {
virtual void doStuff() {
std::cout << "Hello from plugin" << std::endl;
}
};
extern "C" Plugin *createMyPluginInstance() {
return new MyPlugin;
}
Try:
extern "C" void plugin_name(std::string **name) {
*name = new std::string("Example plugin name");
}
...
std::string *my_plugin_name;
call_plugin_name(&my_plugin_name);
As you are assigning a copy of the pointer you passed as the argument, not the one you intended to assign.
EDIT Here you go:
File main.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include <dlfcn.h>
#include <string>
// Application.cpp
int main() {
void* handle = dlopen("libplugin.so", RTLD_LAZY);
typedef void (*plugin_t)(std::string**);
dlerror(); // Reset errors.
plugin_t call_plugin_name = (plugin_t) dlsym(handle, "plugin_name");
// ... Some error handling code.
std::string *my_plugin_name;
call_plugin_name(&my_plugin_name);
dlclose(handle);
// More code that displays my_plugin_name.
std::cout << "Plugin name is " << *my_plugin_name << std::endl;
delete my_plugin_name;
return 0;
}
File plugin.cpp
#include <string>
extern "C" void plugin_name(std::string **name) {
*name = new std::string("example plugin name");
}
Just a word of warning. Although this compiles and runs, passing C++ types across the dll boundry is risky and the above code is just your code fixed enough to compile and run, it is not safe and has very explicit memory handling. You may want to attack the problem in a different way.
Please have a read of this question and its answers. There are many opportunities for incompatibilities across the shared lib boundaries in C++.

Sharing data with a dynamically loaded library (dlopen,dlsym)

My main program would load a simple dynamic library called hello.so
In main
void* handle = dlopen("./hello.so", RTLD_LAZY);
In main , pass a callback function called testing (defined somewhere in main.h) and invoke the hello() from the dynamic library
typedef void (*callback)();
typedef void (*hello_t)( callback);
/* do something */
hello_t hello = (hello_t) dlsym(handle, "hello");
hello(testing);
In dynamic library,
#include
#include "main.h"
extern "C" void hello( void (*fn)() ) {
/*do something and then invoke callback function from main */ fn();
}
Are there other ways to allow functions/data of main to be called/used from dynamic library apart from using callbacks?
No, this is the preferred way of doing it, in my opinion. Any other way that I can think of involves making the DLL aware of the objects in the program it's linked with, which is most likely bad practice.
Regarding data, just a reminder though you didn't ask, it's usually best practice to copy any data that needs to be stored, if it's passed across library/program boundaries. You can get into a complete mess if you have the library using data whose lifetime is controlled by the program, and vice versa.