Dart-CBuild is a build system for seamless Dart/C interop. You write your C code, tell the system its signature, then call it from Dart. It's that simple.
Dart-CBuild is written in Python 3. It is tested on Python 3.9 but should work in all recent versions. It generates Makefiles for GNU Make, and can optionally integrate with cloc. You also need to have Dart installed. Obviously.
This repository includes an example to get you started. You'll want to have a read through native/HelloWorld.c, native/HelloWorld.gen, and bin/dart_cbuild.dart - those will tell you all you need to know. Then, type make run to see it in action.
To create your own project with Dart-CBuild, clone this repository and execute dart run reinit.dart to reinitialize the project structure.
cloc is a command-line utility for counting lines of code. Dart-CBuild can generate an exclude list so cloc doesn't count generated files.
Dart-CBuild generates a makefile with a number of commands that you can use.
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
| make codegen | Generates Dart & C code from .gen files |
| make libraries | Compiles C code into the build directory |
| make all | make codegen and make libraries |
| make run | make all and dart run |
| make cloc | Print a cloc summary |
| make cloc-by-file | Print a cloc breakdown by file |
To configure Dart-CBuild, place a codegen.yaml file in your project root. Here are the settings you can change:
| Name | Usage | Default |
|---|---|---|
| definition_ext | The file extension for codegen definition files | .gen |
| definition_search_path | Where to search for definition files (subdirs also get searched recursively) | native |
| dart_output_path | Where to output generated Dart code | bin/dart_codegen.dart |
| c_output_path | Where to output generated C code | native/c_codegen.h |
| use_cloc | Whether to generate cloc integration | true |
| cloc_exclude_list_path | Where to generate the cloc exclude list | .cloc_exclude_list.txt |
Supported annotations for use in .gen files.
| Annotation | argc | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| @LinkWithLib | 1 | Link the corresponding C file with the specified library |
| Annotation | argc | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| @Show | 1 | Change the visible name of the generated function |
None
| Annotation | argc | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| @Prefix | 1 | C on this class all start with a certain prefix. You should still write the method's full name in your .gen file, but the corresponding Dart method will automatically have the prefix removed. |
| Annotation | argc | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Initializer | 0 | This method should be used to create structPointer. It will be called when the class is constructed using the default constructor. |
| Getter | 1 | This method will be generated as a getter using the given name. |
| Show | 1 | Same as on a function. |
| Invalidates | 0 | This method invalidates the pointer, probably by freeing memory. After it has been called, the pointer will be set to a nullptr, meaning any further operations on the class will raise an exception. |