Native Code in your Application or Library

Scala Native uses native C and C++ code to interact with the underlying platform and operating system. Since the tool chain compiles and links the Scala Native system, it can also compile and link C and C++ code included in an application project or a library that supports Scala Native that includes C and/or C++ source code.

Supported file extensions for native code are .c, .cpp, and .S.

Note that .S files or assembly code is not portable across different CPU architectures so conditional compilation would be needed to support more than one architecture. You can also include header files with the extensions .h and .hpp.

Applications with Native Code

In order to create standalone native projects with native code use the following procedure. You can start with the basic Scala Native template.

Add C/C++ code into src/main/resources/scala-native. The code can be put in subdirectories as desired inside the scala-native directory. As an example, create a file named myapi.c and put it into your scala-native directory as described above.

long long add3(long long in) { return in + 3; }

Next, create a main file as follows:

import scalanative.unsafe._

@extern
object myapi {
  def add3(in: CLongLong): CLongLong = extern
}

object Main {
  import myapi._
  def main(args: Array[String]): Unit = {
    val res = add3(-3L)
    assert(res == 0L)
    println(s"Add3 to -3 = $res")
  }
}

Finally, compile and run this like a normal Scala Native application.

Using libraries with Native Code

Libraries developed to target the Scala Native platform can have C, C++, or assembly files included in the dependency. The code is added to src/main/resources/scala-native and is published like a normal Scala library. The code can be put in subdirectories as desired inside the scala-native directory. These libraries can also be cross built to support Scala/JVM or Scala.js if the Native portions have replacement code on the respective platforms.

The primary purpose of this feature is to allow libraries to support Scala Native that need native “glue” code to operate. The current C interopt does not allow direct access to macro defined constants and functions or allow passing “struct”s from the stack to C functions. Future versions of Scala Native may relax these restrictions making this feature obsolete.

Note: This feature is not a replacement for developing or distributing native C/C++ libraries and should not be used for this purpose.

If the dependency contains native code, Scala Native will identify the library as a dependency that has native code and will unpack the library. Next, it will compile, link, and optimize any native code along with the Scala Native runtime and your application code. No additional information is needed in the build file other than the normal dependency so it is transparent to the library user.

Using a library that contains native code can be used in combination with the feature above that allows native code in your application.

Continue to Testing.