mink-idl-compiler

The Mink IDL Compiler

Mink Interface Description Language (IDL) describes programming interfaces that can be used to communicate across security domain boundaries. It defines its own type system, independent of any particular target language. See Mink IPC for more detail.

The Mink IDL compiler generates target language header files which include bindings for Mink interfaces and their associates structures. The generated header files introduce proxy functions that facilitate method invocation using Mink’s Object_invoke IPC mechanism. This abstraction shields both client-side proxy, called stubs, and implementation-side proxy, called skeletons, from the details of direct invocation.

It compiles .idl files into language bindings for:

C
C++
Java
Rust

Branches

main: Primary development branch. Contributors should develop submissions based on this branch, and submit pull requests to this branch.

Requirements

Rust stable toolchain (cargo, rustc) - minimum supported Rust version = 1.81.0
clang and clang++ (integration tests compile C/C++ shims)
Optional: nightly Rust for sanitizer and miri runs

Follow these instructions to install Rust.

If you’ve installed rustup in the past, you can update your installation by running rustup update.

Usage

Run the compiler (file output):

cargo run -- tests/idl/ITest.idl -o /tmp/ITest.h

The target/output language is C, by default.

Generate Rust output (directory output):

mkdir -p /tmp/rust_out
cargo run -- tests/idl/ITest.idl --rust -o /tmp/rust_out

Run cargo run -- --help to see all available options.

Notable Features

Arrays of Objects
- bounded arrays of Objects are allowed (e.g. in IFoo[3] arr)
- Only 1 Object array allowed per direction per method (i.e. one array per in or out)
- At most 16 Objects can be moved in either direction
Objects in struct
- struct fields can include Objects
- e.g.
```
struct ObjInStruct {
  uint32[4] p1;
  ITest1 first_obj;
};
```
- Structs with Objects inside cannot be used in an array
- Struct fields cannot be an array of Objects

Restrictions

No cyclic includes.
Argument names within a method must be unique.
Every struct is aligned to the size of the largest member, this rule holds for recursive structs as well.
Interface consts must be unique.
- Error definitions are considered as consts.
Interface function name must be unique.
Structs with Object in them directly or transitively cannot be used as an array in a function.
Cannot have Object array and standalone Object parameters with the same directionality in a method.
Cannot have multiple Object arrays with the same directionality in a method.
New methods must be appended at the bottom since method op_codes are positional.

Development

For details on how to contribute, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Getting in Contact

How to contact maintainers. E.g. GitHub Issues, GitHub Discussions could be indicated for many cases. However a mail list or list of Maintainer e-mails could be shared for other types of discussions. E.g.

License

mink-idl-compiler is licensed under the BSD-3-clause License. See LICENSE.txt for the full license text.

This site is open source. Improve this page.