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digitalmars.D.learn - Generating C Headers From D Code

reply Jack Stouffer <jack jackstouffer.com> writes:
I need to generate plain C99 .h files from a D module's extern(C) 
declarations, so that I can link a DMD generated .o file with a C 
code base. Are there any automated tools which do this?

I know the compiler has C++ header generation, and there's tons 
of tools which exist for importing C headers into D code. I'm not 
aware of anything which goes the other direction. Google wasn't 
much help either.
Aug 05 2021
next sibling parent reply Tejas <notrealemail gmail.com> writes:
On Thursday, 5 August 2021 at 16:28:35 UTC, Jack Stouffer wrote:

 I need to generate plain C99 .h files from a D module's 
 extern(C) declarations, so that I can link a DMD generated .o 
 file with a C code base. Are there any automated tools which do 
 this?

 I know the compiler has C++ header generation, and there's tons 
 of tools which exist for importing C headers into D code. I'm 
 not aware of anything which goes the other direction. Google 
 wasn't much help either.


I also can't find anything... until someone else comes with a 
better answer, maybe you can do this:

Use the ```-H``` compiler flag to generate ```.di``` files.

Remove all the ```extern(C)``` decls in the .di files.

Rename the file extension from ```.di``` to ```.h```

Technically, it should work. Hopefully someone else knows better.
Aug 05 2021
next sibling parent Tejas <notrealemail gmail.com> writes:
On Thursday, 5 August 2021 at 17:02:33 UTC, Tejas wrote:

 On Thursday, 5 August 2021 at 16:28:35 UTC, Jack Stouffer wrote:

 [...]


 I also can't find anything... until someone else comes with a 
 better answer, maybe you can do this:

 Use the ```-H``` compiler flag to generate ```.di``` files.

 Remove all the ```extern(C)``` decls in the .di files.

 Rename the file extension from ```.di``` to ```.h```

 Technically, it should work. Hopefully someone else knows 
 better.


A small tutorial-ish page for d interface files:
https://wiki.dlang.org/Compiling_and_linking_with_DMD_on_Windows#Writing_and_Using_D_Interface_Files
Aug 05 2021
prev sibling parent Jack Stouffer <jack jackstouffer.com> writes:
On Thursday, 5 August 2021 at 17:02:33 UTC, Tejas wrote:

 On Thursday, 5 August 2021 at 16:28:35 UTC, Jack Stouffer wrote:

 I need to generate plain C99 .h files from a D module's 
 extern(C) declarations, so that I can link a DMD generated .o 
 file with a C code base. Are there any automated tools which 
 do this?

 I know the compiler has C++ header generation, and there's 
 tons of tools which exist for importing C headers into D code. 
 I'm not aware of anything which goes the other direction. 
 Google wasn't much help either.


 I also can't find anything... until someone else comes with a 
 better answer, maybe you can do this:

 Use the ```-H``` compiler flag to generate ```.di``` files.

 Remove all the ```extern(C)``` decls in the .di files.

 Rename the file extension from ```.di``` to ```.h```

 Technically, it should work. Hopefully someone else knows 
 better.


Well, that's disappointing. I suppose everyone just makes there 
main file a D file when converting C projects so they don't have 
this problem.

Eventually I'll have to write a script which takes .di files and 
generates .h files, but doing it manually will have to work for 
now.
Aug 06 2021
prev sibling parent Adam D Ruppe <destructionator gmail.com> writes:
On Thursday, 5 August 2021 at 16:28:35 UTC, Jack Stouffer wrote:

 I know the compiler has C++ header generation


Your best bet is probably to use this and just do the slight 
modifications to turn it from C++ into C.

dmd -HC

followed by a modification script to rip some of the stuff out 
might get you somewhere.

A long time ago i made a program called dtoh that did it from the 
generated json but like i think that broke years ago, i haven't 
touched it for ages. can't find it anymore. dmd -HC surely better 
anyway.
Aug 06 2021