koffi

Overview

Koffi is a fast and easy-to-use dynamic C FFI module for Node.js, featuring:

• Low-overhead compared to a static Node-API implementation (see benchmarks)
• Support for primitive and aggregate data types (structs and fixed-size arrays), both by reference (pointer) and by value
• Support for synchronous and asynchronous calls
• Javascript functions can be used as C callbacks
• Well-tested code base for popular OS/architecture combinations

The following combinations of OS and architectures are officially supported and tested at the moment:

ISA / OS	Windows	Linux/glibc	Linux/musl	macOS	FreeBSD	OpenBSD
x86 (IA32) 1	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	🟨 Probably	⬜️ N/A	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
x86_64 (AMD64)	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
ARM64 (AArch64) LE	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	🟨 Probably
RISC-V 64 2	⬜️ N/A	✅ Yes	🟨 Probably	⬜️ N/A	🟨 Probably	🟨 Probably
LoongArch64	⬜️ N/A	✅ Yes	🟨 Probably	⬜️ N/A	🟨 Probably	🟨 Probably

Go to the web site for more information: https://koffi.dev/

Project history

You can consult the changelog on the official website.

Major version increments can include breaking API changes, use the migration guide for more information.

Build manually

Koffi is built with a custom CMake-wrapper called CNoke, which also lives in this repository. Don't try to run CMake manually because it will fail.

Follow the documented build instructions to build Koffi from source.

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the MIT License.

Find more information here: https://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/

Footnotes

• The following call conventions are supported: cdecl, stdcall, MS fastcall, thiscall. ↩

• The prebuilt binary uses the LP64D (double-precision float) ABI. The LP64 ABI is supported in theory if you build Koffi from source but this is untested. The LP64F ABI is not supported. ↩

Similar packages

Other packages similar to koffi

ffi-napi

ffi-napi is a popular package for calling native functions from Node.js. It provides similar functionality to Koffi, allowing you to load libraries, define functions, and manage memory. However, Koffi is designed to be more modern and efficient, with a focus on performance and ease of use.

node-ffi

node-ffi is another package for interfacing with native libraries in Node.js. It offers similar capabilities to Koffi, such as loading shared libraries and calling functions. Koffi, however, aims to provide a more streamlined and performant experience, with additional features for handling complex data types.

ref-napi

ref-napi is a package that works alongside ffi-napi to handle complex data types and memory management in Node.js. While Koffi integrates these functionalities into a single package, ref-napi is often used in conjunction with ffi-napi to achieve similar results.