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go-interlang

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Examples of calls between Go and C/C++ (and how to call a Go shared object from Node/Ruby/Python/Java)

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# Go interlanguage call examples

Examples of calls between Go and C/C++ and calling Go from dynamic languages.

The examples are designed to work on Mac and Linux. If you're using Windows,
feel free to reach out to me to request updates for examples that don't work
correctly.

## Calls from Go to C (`go_to_c` folder)

These examples use [cgo](https://golang.org/cmd/cgo/) to enable calls to C.

- Calling a C snippet in the cgo comment: [c_in_comment](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/go_to_c/c_in_comment/main.go)
- Calling a C statically-linked library (`.a` file): [static_c_lib](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/go_to_c/static_c_lib)
- Calling a C dynamically-linked library (`.so` or `.dylib`): [dynamic_c_lib](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/go_to_c/dynamic_c_lib)

## Calls from Go to C++ (`go_to_cxx` folder)

C++ has more complex calling conventions (e.g. function overloading, inheritance, templates) and so it uses [name mangling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_mangling#Name_mangling_in_C.2B.2B) which adds a step when calling it from Go. Below are ways to do it.

- Calling C++ via a C wrapper function: [c_wrapper](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/go_to_cxx/c_wrapper)
- Calling C++ via an auto-generated SWIG wrapper:
  [swig](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/go_to_cxx/swig)

## Calls from C/C++ to Go (`c_to_go` folder)

- Calling from Go to C and back again: [to_c_and_back](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/go_from_c/to_c_and_back)
- Passing a Go func as function pointer callback to C: [callbacks](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/go_from_c/callbacks)
- Calling a Go static library with `buildmode=c-archive` from C: [static_go_lib](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/c_to_go/static_go_lib)
- Calling a Go dynamic lib from C++ [cxx_to_go_dyn_lib](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/c_to_go/cxx_to_go_dyn_lib)
- Calling Go from C using [gccgo](https://golang.org/doc/install/gccgo)

## Calls from Python/Node.js/Ruby/Java to Go (`dyn_langs_to_go` folder)

Go now allows building a C-compatible dynamically-linked library with `buildmode=c-shared`. That allows any language that can call C dynamic libraries to call Go.

- Call from Python via [ctypes](https://docs.python.org/2/library/ctypes.html):
  [python_to_go.py](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/blob/master/dyn_langs_to_go/python_to_go.py)
- Call from Node.js via [ffi](https://github.com/node-ffi/node-ffi) npm module:
  [nodejs_to_go.js](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/blob/master/dyn_langs_to_go/nodejs_to_go.js)
- Call from Ruby via [ffi](https://github.com/ffi/ffi) gem: [ruby_to_go.rb](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/blob/master/dyn_langs_to_go/ruby_to_go.rb)
- Call from Java via [JNA](https://github.com/java-native-access/jna): [JavaToGo.java](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/blob/master/dyn_langs_to_go/java_to_go/src/main/java/javatogo/JavaToGo.java)

# Cross-language call benchmarks

There is a cost to calling between languages a Go to C call is about 50x slower
than a pure Go call and a Ruby FFI call is about 30x slower than a pure Ruby
call. For more details, see the [benchmarks](https://github.com/draffensperger/go-interlang/tree/master/benchmarks) section.

# Helpful Links

Cgo documentation: [golang.og/cmd/cgo/](https://golang.org/cmd/cgo/)

Documentation for `go` command (see especially `go build` section and "Calling between Go and C"): 
[golang.org/cmd/go/](https://golang.org/cmd/go/)

SWIG Documentation: [swig.org](http://swig.org/)

SWIG Go examples: [github.com/swig/swig/tree/master/Examples/go](https://github.com/swig/swig/tree/master/Examples/go)

Gccgo documentation: [golang.org/doc/install/gccgo](https://golang.org/doc/install/gccgo)

# License

The code in this repo is [MIT Licensed](http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).

go-interlang

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