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Foreign function interface (C)

This is a guide to calling C code from Scheme. See the FFI cookbook for a variety of examples.

Get the current time from libc

This is about the simplest possible example. time(NULL) is a well-known way to get the current time in C. The time is returned as the number of seconds elapsed since the epoch (on Unix, midnight, January 1st, 1970).

Chez Scheme

From the REPL:

> (define libc (load-shared-object "libc.so"))  ; libc.dylib on Mac
> (define my-time (foreign-procedure "time" (uptr) unsigned-long))
> (my-time 0)
1581759013

CHICKEN

Make sure to have the r7rs egg installed: chicken-install r7rs

Create a Scheme library mytime.sld with an FFI stub in it:

(define-library (mytime)
  (export mytime)
  (import (scheme base) (chicken foreign))
  (begin
    (define mytime
      (foreign-lambda* unsigned-long ()
       "C_return(time(NULL));"))))

Compile the stub into a Unix object file (mytime.so) with matching import library (mytime.import.scm): csc -X r7rs -R r7rs -sJ mytime.sld

Use it from the REPL:

$ csi
#;1> (import (mytime))
#;2> (mytime)
1589710285

Gambit

Create a Scheme library mytime.sld with an FFI stub in it:

(define-library (mytime)
  (export mytime)
  (import (gambit))
  (begin (define mytime
           (c-lambda () unsigned-long
             "___return(time(NULL));"))))

Compile the stub into a Unix object file (mytime.o1): gsc mytime.sld

Use it from the REPL:

$ gsi .
> (import (mytime))
> (mytime)
1581758667

Return a string from C

Chibi-Scheme

Create the Scheme library file hello.sld:

(define-library (hello)
  (export hello)
  (include-shared "hello"))

Create the FFI stub file hello.stub:

(c-declare "
static const char *my_hello(void) {
  return \"Hello world\";
}
")

(define-c (const string) (hello "my_hello") ())

Generate a hello.c file for the FFI stub: chibi-ffi hello.stub

Compile the stub into a Unix shared library (hello.so or hello.dylib):

$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/.local/lib/pkgconfig"  # May be needed
$ chibi="$(pkg-config --libs --cflags chibi-scheme)"
$ so=so     # Linux, BSD; etc.
$ so=dylib  # Mac
$ cc -Wall -fPIC -shared -o hello.$so hello.c $chibi

Use it from the REPL:

$ chibi-scheme
> (import (hello))
> (hello)
"Hello world"

CHICKEN

Make sure to have the r7rs egg installed: chicken-install r7rs

Create a Scheme library hello.sld with an FFI stub in it:

(define-library (hello)
  (export hello)
  (import (scheme base) (chicken foreign))
  (begin (define hello
           (foreign-lambda* c-string ()
             "C_return(\"Hello world\");"))))

Compile the stub into a Unix object file (hello.so) with matching import library (hello.import.scm): csc -X r7rs -R r7rs -sJ hello.sld

Use it from the REPL:

$ csi
#;1> (import (hello))
#;2> (hello)
"Hello world"

Gambit

Create a Scheme library hello.sld with an FFI stub in it:

(define-library (hello)
  (export hello)
  (import (gambit))
  (begin (define hello
           (c-lambda () nonnull-char-string
             "___return(\"Hello world\");"))))

Compile and link it into a Unix shared library: gsc hello.sld

Use it from the REPL:

$ gsi .
> (import (hello))
> (hello)
"Hello world"