ctypes from_param() truncating 64 bit pointers to 32 bit

[Stefan Behnel]

Joakim Hove, 18.02.2011 09:46:
> Thanks for answering;
>
>> I rarely use ctypes
>
> You should :-) Apart from my current struggle I think ctypes is really
> good.

I'm well aware that it's a very good solution for the cases where you can 
trade performance for minimizing your external dependencies. But being a 
Cython developer, those use cases are truly rare for me.


>> and I actually don't know how this specific case works.
>> However, you are not providing a function signature for the "print_addr" C
>> function in the BugTest case, so my guess is that it assumes the standard
>> signature for C functions, which is "int func(int)". That would explain the
>> 32bit truncation.
>
> Well; I think you are wrong.

Nicely put.


> First of all because what I showed in the
> Stackoverflow post was just a contrived example - the real code where
> the problem initially arose does indeed have the proper function
> signature.

Ok, then take care to post proper code next time. Details can be important, 
especially when asking about non-obvious problems.


> Secondly:<Uncertain>The use function signatures will be
> relevant for C-C linkage, but ctypes library only relates to the fully
> linked shared librarry lib.so where these signatures have been long
> lost anyway; that is why we have to specify the argtypes and restype
> attributes of the ctypes function objects?</Uncertain>.

Hmm, so you think that to call a C function, ctypes doesn't need to know 
what the exact signature is? That sounds a bit naive to me.

It's correct that all compile time information about function signatures is 
gone in the library. So you must provide ctypes with the exact signature to 
allow it to convert your input and output data correctly, and to put the 
values on the call stack in the correct calling layout.

Stefan