Mono Internals
This section documents some of the internal APIs used
inside Mono that developers extending or altering Mono might
want to use.
Strings
Other Encodings
These routines are used when coping with strings that come
from Mono's environment, and might be encoded in one or more
of the external encodings.
For example, some file systems might historically contain a
mix of file names with both old and new encodings, typically
UTF8 for new files, and the old files would be encoded in an 8
bit character set (ISO-8859-1 for example).
These routines try a number of encodings, those specified
in the
MONO_ENCODINGS environment variable and return
unicode strings that can be used internally.
See the mono(1) man page for more details.
mono_unicode_from_external
Syntax
gunichar2*mono_unicode_from_external (const gchar *in, gsize *bytes)
Parameters
| in | pointers to the buffer. |
| bytes | number of bytes in the string. |
Description
Tries to turn a
NULL-terminated string into UTF-16.
First, see if it's valid UTF-8, in which case just turn it directly
into UTF-16. Next, run through the colon-separated encodings in
MONO_EXTERNAL_ENCODINGS and do an
iconv conversion on each,
returning the first successful conversion to UTF-16. If no
conversion succeeds, return
NULL.
Callers must free the returned string if not
NULL.
bytes holds the number
of bytes in the returned string, not including the terminator.
mono_unicode_to_external
Syntax
gchar*mono_unicode_to_external (const gunichar2 *uni)
Parameters
| uni | a UTF-16 string to convert to an external representation. |
Description
Turns NULL-terminated UTF-16 into either UTF-8, or the first
working item in MONO_EXTERNAL_ENCODINGS if set. If no conversions
work, then UTF-8 is returned.
Callers must free the returned string.
mono_utf8_from_external
Syntax
gchar*mono_utf8_from_external (const gchar *in)
Parameters
| in | pointer to the string buffer. |
Description
Tries to turn a
NULL-terminated string into UTF8.
First, see if it's valid UTF-8, in which case there's nothing more
to be done. Next, run through the colon-separated encodings in
MONO_EXTERNAL_ENCODINGS and do an
iconv conversion on each,
returning the first successful conversion to UTF-8. If no
conversion succeeds, return
NULL.
Callers must free the returned string if not
NULL.
This function is identical to
mono_unicode_from_external, apart
from returning UTF-8 not UTF-16; it's handy in a few places to work
in UTF-8.
Marshalling functions
mono_marshal_alloc
Syntax
void*
mono_marshal_alloc (gsize size, MonoError *error)
mono_marshal_asany
Syntax
gpointer
mono_marshal_asany_impl (MonoObjectHandle o, MonoMarshalNative string_encoding, int param_attrs, MonoError *error)
Description
This is a JIT icall, it sets the pending exception (in wrapper) and returns NULL on error.
mono_marshal_free_array
Syntax
void
mono_marshal_free_array (gpointer *ptr, int size)
mono_marshal_free_asany
Syntax
void
mono_marshal_free_asany_impl (MonoObjectHandle o, gpointer ptr, MonoMarshalNative string_encoding, int param_attrs, MonoError *error)
Description
This is a JIT icall, it sets the pending exception (in wrapper)
mono_marshal_free
Syntax
void
mono_marshal_free (gpointer ptr)
mono_marshal_get_castclass
Syntax
mono_marshal_get_castclass
mono_marshal_get_delegate_begin_invoke
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_delegate_begin_invoke (MonoMethod *method)
mono_marshal_get_delegate_end_invoke
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_delegate_end_invoke (MonoMethod *method)
mono_marshal_get_delegate_invoke
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_delegate_invoke (MonoMethod *method, MonoDelegate *del)
Description
The returned method invokes all methods in a multicast delegate.
mono_marshal_get_icall_wrapper
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_icall_wrapper (MonoJitICallInfo *callinfo, gboolean check_exceptions)
Description
Generates IL code for the JIT icall wrapper. The generated method
calls the unmanaged code in callinfo->func.
mono_marshal_get_isinst
Syntax
mono_marshal_get_isinst
mono_marshal_get_ldfld_wrapper
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_ldfld_wrapper (MonoType *type)
Parameters
| type | the type of the field |
Description
This method generates a function which can be use to load a field with type
type from an object. The generated function has the following signature:
type ldfld_wrapper (MonoObject *this_obj, MonoClass *klass, MonoClassField *field, int offset)
mono_marshal_get_managed_wrapper
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_managed_wrapper (MonoMethod *method, MonoClass *delegate_klass, uint32_t target_handle, MonoError *error)
Description
Generates IL code to call managed methods from unmanaged code
If target_handle is 0, the wrapper info will be a WrapperInfo structure.
mono_marshal_get_native_wrapper
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_native_wrapper (MonoMethod *method, gboolean check_exceptions, gboolean aot)
Parameters
| method | The MonoMethod to wrap. |
| check_exceptions | Whenever to check for pending exceptions |
Description
Generates IL code for the pinvoke wrapper. The generated method
calls the unmanaged code in
piinfo->addr.
mono_marshal_get_proxy_cancast
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_proxy_cancast (MonoClass *klass)
mono_marshal_get_ptr_to_struct
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_ptr_to_struct (MonoClass *klass)
Parameters
Description
Generates IL code for PtrToStructure (IntPtr src, object structure)
mono_marshal_get_remoting_invoke_for_target
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_remoting_invoke_for_target (MonoMethod *method, MonoRemotingTarget target_type, MonoError *error)
mono_marshal_get_remoting_invoke
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_remoting_invoke (MonoMethod *method, MonoError *error)
mono_marshal_get_remoting_invoke_with_check
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_remoting_invoke_with_check (MonoMethod *method, MonoError *error)
mono_marshal_get_runtime_invoke
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_runtime_invoke_full (MonoMethod *method, gboolean virtual_, gboolean need_direct_wrapper)
Parameters
Description
MonoObject *runtime_invoke (MonoObject *this_obj, void **params, MonoObject **exc, void* method)
We also catch exceptions if
exc is not
NULL.
If
virtual is
TRUE, then
method is invoked virtually on
this. This is useful since
it means that the compiled code for
method does not have to be looked up
before calling the runtime invoke wrapper. In this case, the wrapper ignores
its
method argument.
mono_marshal_get_stelemref
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_stelemref (void)
mono_marshal_get_stfld_wrapper
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_stfld_wrapper (MonoType *type)
Parameters
| type | the type of the field |
Description
This method generates a function which can be use to store a field with type
type. The generated function has the following signature:
void stfld_wrapper (MonoObject *this_obj, MonoClass *klass, MonoClassField *field, int offset, type val)
mono_marshal_get_struct_to_ptr
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_struct_to_ptr (MonoClass *klass)
Parameters
Description
Generates IL code for
StructureToPtr (object structure, IntPtr ptr, bool fDeleteOld)
mono_marshal_get_synchronized_wrapper
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_synchronized_wrapper (MonoMethod *method)
Parameters
| wrapper | the generated method |
Description
calls method while locking this or the parent type.
mono_marshal_get_unbox_wrapper
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_unbox_wrapper (MonoMethod *method)
Description
The returned method calls method unboxing the this argument.
mono_marshal_get_xappdomain_invoke
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_get_xappdomain_invoke (MonoMethod *method, MonoError *error)
Description
Generates a fast remoting wrapper for cross app domain calls.
mono_marshal_load_type_info
Syntax
MonoMarshalType*
mono_marshal_load_type_info (MonoClass* klass)
Description
Initialize
klass::marshal_info using information from metadata. This function can
recursively call itself, and the caller is responsible to avoid that by calling
mono_marshal_is_loading_type_info beforehand.
LOCKING: Acquires the loader lock.
mono_marshal_method_from_wrapper
Syntax
MonoMethod*
mono_marshal_method_from_wrapper (MonoMethod *wrapper)
mono_marshal_set_last_error
Syntax
void
mono_marshal_set_last_error (void)
Description
This function is invoked to set the last error value from a P/Invoke call
which has
SetLastError set.
mono_marshal_type_size
Syntax
gint32
mono_marshal_type_size (MonoType *type, MonoMarshalSpec *mspec, guint32 *align,
gboolean as_field, gboolean unicode)
Metadata Loader Locking: Internals
The locking functions here are used by code in class.c and
metadata.c to lock access to the shared hashtables inside the
MonoImage.
mono_loader_lock
Syntax
void
mono_loader_lock (void)
Description
See
docs/thread-safety.txt for the locking strategy.
mono_loader_unlock
Syntax
void
mono_loader_unlock (void)
Garbage Collector Internal Interface
The internal interface of the Mono GC is the interface used
between the runtime engine and the garbage collector.
mono_gc_alloc_fixed
Syntax
MonoObject*
mono_gc_alloc_fixed (size_t size, MonoGCDescriptor descr, MonoGCRootSource source, void *key, const char *msg)
mono_gc_free_fixed
Syntax
void
mono_gc_free_fixed (void* addr)
mono_gc_make_descr_from_bitmap
Syntax
SgenDescriptor
mono_gc_make_descr_from_bitmap (gsize *bitmap, int numbits)
mono_gc_base_init
Syntax
void
mono_gc_base_init (void)
mono_gc_invoke_finalizers
Syntax
int
mono_gc_invoke_finalizers (void)
mono_gc_is_gc_thread
Syntax
gboolean
mono_gc_is_gc_thread (void)
mono_gc_pending_finalizers
Syntax
MonoBoolean
mono_gc_pending_finalizers (void)
mono_gc_register_thread
Syntax
mono_gc_register_thread