How to PInvoke CMark's cmark_markdown_to_html - c#

I'm trying to PInvoke the following function from GitHub's fork of CMark
char *cmark_markdown_to_html(const char *text, size_t len, int options)
and here's my PInvoke signature:
[DllImport("cmark.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr cmark_markdown_to_html(
[In()] [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string text,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.SysUInt)] uint len,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.SysInt)] int options);
I call it as follows:
var retValue = cmark_markdown_to_html(markdown, 0, 0);
However, it throws a Marshaling exception the with the message:
Cannot marshal 'parameter #2':
Invalid managed/unmanaged type combination
(Int32/UInt32 must be paired with I4, U4, or Error).
OK, so I change the signature to:
[DllImport("cmark.dll")]
public static extern IntPtr cmark_markdown_to_html(
[In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string text,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U4)] uint len,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.I4)] int options);
Now it throws a PInvokeStackImbalance error
The name '$exception' does not exist in the current context
Native stuff is a mystery to me. Can someone help?

Stack imbalance
The reason for stack imbalance is described in Why are Cdecl calls often mismatched in the "standard" P/Invoke Convention?.
Basically you need to specify proper calling convention in the DllImport that will probably be cdecl:
[DllImport("cmark.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
Marshalling size_t
That one is discussed in what is equal to the c++ size_t in c# .
Assuming that CMark will always be native (32 bit on x86, 64 bit on x64), you should use (U)IntPtr.
If it is always 32 bit, then Int32 should be used.

PInvokeStackImbalance
Presumably CMark is using the default calling convention. The default calling convention for C code is "Cdecl", while the default used for P/invoke calls is "StdCall". The calling convention specifies how the arguments and return value are placed on the call stack. A mismatch between the used calling convention causes the stack to become imbalanced.
You can specify the calling convention to use from C# code in the DllImport attribute.
[DllImport("cmark.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static extern IntPtr cmark_markdown_to_html(
[In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string text,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U4)] uint len,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.I4)] int options);
Marshalling
In case you want your code to be compatible with architectures other than 32-bit, you would want to marshall size_t with UIntPtr. (Read #Eugene Podskal answer)
[DllImport("cmark.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static extern IntPtr cmark_markdown_to_html(
[In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string text,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.U4)] UIntPtr len,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.I4)] int options);
Then you can call the method like so
var retValue = cmark_markdown_to_html(markdown, UIntPtr.Zero, 0);

Related

DLLImport PInvokeStackImbalance

I am trying to wrap the bass.dll. Simple functions not too Advanced. Dont want to get that deep. However i am facing problems.
This is how i import the functions:
[DllImport("bass.dll")]
public static extern long BASS_Start();
[DllImport("bass.dll")]
public static extern bool BASS_Init(int device, uint freq, uint flag, IntPtr hParent, uint GUID);
[DllImport("bass.dll")]
public static extern long BASS_StreamCreateFile(bool mem, string file, uint offset, uint length, uint flags);
[DllImport("bass.dll")]
public static extern long BASS_ChannelPlay(long handle, long restart);
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
but when i call them, it doesn't work. I get the PInvokeStackImbalance error.
Managed Debugging Assistant 'PInvokeStackImbalance' has detected a problem in 'C:\Users\test\Desktop\testv.1.0.0\update\updated\test\test\bin\Release\test.exe'.
Additional information: A call to PInvoke function 'test!test.Main::BASS_StreamCreateFile' has unbalanced the stack. This is likely because the managed PInvoke signature does not match the unmanaged target signature. Check that the calling convention and parameters of the PInvoke signature match the target unmanaged signature.
This is the way i am calling them.
BASS_Start();
BASS_Init(-1, 44100, 0, IntPtr.Zero, 0);
long handle = BASS_StreamCreateFile(false, #"C:\Users\test\Desktop\James Morrison.mp3", 0, 0, 0);
//MessageBox.Show("Playing: " + handle.ToString());
BASS_ChannelPlay(handle, 1);
Thread.Sleep(10000);
I tried desactivating PInvokeStackImbalance but it didn't change anything. Just stopped occuring PInvokeStackImbalance. Hence it doesn't work.
Any ideas?
Thank you in advance.
P.S. please don't give me advices to use Bass.Net.
Your translations are very badly wrong. Every single one contains mistakes, I am afraid to say.
They should be:
[DllImport("bass.dll")]
public static extern bool BASS_Start();
[DllImport("bass.dll")]
public static extern bool BASS_Init(int device, uint freq, uint flag,
IntPtr hParent, ref GUID guid);
[DllImport("bass.dll")]
public static extern uint BASS_StreamCreateFile(bool mem, string file, ulong offset,
ulong length, uint flags);
[DllImport("bass.dll")]
public static extern bool BASS_ChannelPlay(uint handle, bool restart);
I suggest that you make sure you have the BASS C++ header file at hand, and also that you revise your knowledge of what the basic types are for C++ and C#.

Memory access violation while passing void* param to DLL function

I'm adding new disk device to system from my C# code, so I want to call
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("Shell32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
public extern static void SHChangeNotify(long wEventId, uint uFlags, IntPtr dwItem1, IntPtr dwItem2);
like below
MyWin32Functions.SHChangeNotify(0x00000100/*ADDRIVE*/, 0x0005/*PATHW*/, driveLetter, IntPtr.Zero);
dwItem1 is void* and we should pass a wchar_t* (pointing to null terminated string) containing drive root in this case; so driveLetter above is
string letter = "Z:\\";
byte[] data = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(letter);
byte[] zdata = new byte[data.Length + 1];
data.CopyTo(zdata, 0);
IntPtr p = System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.AllocHGlobal(zdata.Length);
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.Copy(zdata, 0, p, zdata.Length);
(my code almost same as code in similiar case: How to call SHChangeNotify from C# without error 14007
but I get System.AccessViolationException)
Any suggestions what am I doing wrong?
The first parameter in your interop signature should be an int, not a long. Though the Win32 function is declared as LONG, a LONG in Win32 is 32-bit.
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("Shell32.dll")]
public extern static void SHChangeNotify(int wEventId, uint uFlags, IntPtr dwItem1, IntPtr dwItem2);
This MSDN article shows the common mapping between Win32 types an .NET types for Platform Invoke.

A call to PInvoke function has unbalanced the stack

Making a function call to .NET 4 to native code is resulting in the following exception:
A call to PInvoke function has unbalanced the stack. This is likely because the managed PInvoke signature does not match the unmanaged target signature. Check that the calling convention and parameters of the PInvoke signature match the target unmanaged signature.
Here is my definition in Native Code:
typedef void ( CALLBACK* CB_DOWNLOADING )
(
ULONG, // secs elapsed
LPARAM, // custom callback param
LPBOOL // abort?
);
FETCH_API HttpFetchW
(
LPCWSTR url,
IStream** retval,
LPCWSTR usrname = NULL,
LPCWSTR pwd = NULL,
BOOL unzip = TRUE,
CB_DOWNLOADING cb = NULL,
LPARAM cb_param = 0,
LPWSTR ctype = NULL,
ULONG ctypelen = 0
);
Here is the .NET counterpart:
[DllImport(dllPath, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
internal static extern FETCH HttpFetchW
(
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)]
string url,
out System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes.IStream retval,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)]
string usrname,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)]
string pwd,
bool unzip,
dlgDownloadingCB cb,
IntPtr cb_param,
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPWStr)]
string ctype,
ulong ctypelen
);
Where FETCH is an enum.
[UnmanagedFunctionPointerAttribute(CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
internal delegate void dlgDownloadingCB(ulong elapsedSec, IntPtr lParam, bool abort);
internal static void DownloadingCB(ulong elapsedSec, IntPtr lParam, bool abort)
{
// Console.WriteLine("elapsedSec = " + elapsedSec.ToString());
}
Can anyone suggest an alternative within the .NET 4?
Thank you very much for your help.
The only clear error in HttpFetchW that I can see is that C# ulong is 64 bits wide, by C++ ULONG is 32 bits wide. The C# code for the final parameter should be uint.
Other things to check include the calling convention. Are you sure it is cdecl? Are you sure that SetLastError should be true?
As for the callback, you make the same error with ulong. And the abort parameter is LPBOOL. That is a pointer to BOOL. So you should declare the C# parameter as a ref parameter. And the callback is declared with CALLBACK which is stdcall.
So the delegate should be:
[UnmanagedFunctionPointer(CallingConvention.StdCall)]
internal delegate void dlgDownloadingCB(
uint elapsedSec,
IntPtr lParam,
ref bool abort
);
Or simply delete the UnmanagedFunctionPointer attribute since the default is stdcall.
I think it exceptionally likely that since the callback is stdcall, so will the function. I expect that the FETCH_API macro expands to both the return enum and the calling convention. Since you did not supply those details, I can only guess. You'll need to check.
The other thing that we cannot check is CB_DOWNLOADING.
Anyway, with those assumptions, the function becomes:
[DllImport(dllPath, CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, SetLastError = true)]
internal static extern FETCH HttpFetchW(
string url,
out System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComTypes.IStream retval,
string usrname,
string pwd,
bool unzip,
dlgDownloadingCB cb,
IntPtr cb_param,
string ctype,
uint ctypelen
);
Source : MSDN
In the .NET Framework version 3.5, the pInvokeStackImbalance MDA is disabled by default. When you use the .NET Framework version 3.5 with Visual Studio 2005, the pInvokeStackImbalance MDA will appear in the Managed Debugging Assistants list in the Exceptions dialog box (which is displayed when you click Exceptions on the Debug menu). However, selecting or clearing the Thrown check box for pInvokeStackImbalance does not enable or disable the MDA; it only controls whether Visual Studio throws an exception when the MDA is activated.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0htdy0k3(v=vs.110).aspx

C# interop services - using C dll - void*

I'm having trouble interoperating with a DLL written in C. I'm not sure what type of param to put in place of void*
This is how the API of given DLL looks like:
POSNET_API POSNET_STATUS __stdcall POS_SetDeviceParam ( POSNET_HANDLE hDevice,
unsigned long paramCode,
void * paramValue
)
this is how I was trying to import it in C#:
[DllImport(EXT_DLL)]
private static extern int POS_SetDeviceParam(IntPtr hDevice, int POSNET_DEV_PARAM_IP, *type* paramValue);
in place of type I was putting:
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)] string and other L*Str
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] char[] and other type of arrays including of type byte
IntPtr which where AllocHGlobal, GCHandle.Alloc allocated before
even preceeding the method with unsafe and type = void*, combining above alloc aso.
raw type: string, char[]...
I ran out of possibilities by myself.
paramValue should have a value of an IP in following format: "192.168.1.1" - this is how it looks like in a C demo:
string ip="10.33.44.6";
POS_SetDeviceParam(hDevice,POSNET_DEV_PARAM_IP,(void*)ip.c_str());
In C# code, the hDevice is not being initialized - POS_SetDeviceParam should initialize it with additional params.
Any suggestions are very welcome!
You will need to use this P/Invoke signature:
[DllImport(EXT_DLL)]
private static extern int POS_SetDeviceParam(
IntPtr hDevice,
int paramCode,
IntPtr paramValue
);
But you'll have to do some work to that string in order to pass it through the IntPtr paramValue argument.
Perhaps you can try using Marshal.StringToHGlobalAnsi() as that will give you an IntPtr you can use. If using this method though be sure to free the memory once you've finished with it.
Thank you guys for all the suggestions, the code below solved my problem!
[DllImport(EXT_DLL)]
private static extern int POS_SetDeviceParam(IntPtr hDevice, UInt32 POSNET_DEV_PARAM_IP, IntPtr paramValue);
void Test() {
POS_SetDeviceParam(new IntPtr(), 0x00020005, Marshal.StringToHGlobalAnsi("192.168.1.1"));
}

DLLImport -> how to handle a HANDLE in C#

in my C# code I want to import a C++ DLL. I use the dllimport and it works fine with a some of the functions. But in one function I get a HANDLE which I need later to call another function.
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll")]
public static extern int SI_Open(UInt32 deviceNum,ref IntPtr devHandle ); // this function gets the HANDLE
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll")]
public static extern int SI_Write([In]IntPtr devHandle, [In, Out] byte[] inputByte, UInt32 size,ref UInt32 bytesWritten); // this function needs the HANDLE
In my code these functions are called like this:
IntPtr devHandle = new IntPtr();
UInt32 bytesWritten = new UInt32();
byte[] byteArr = new byte[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 };
SI_Open(0, ref devHandle);
SI_Write(devHandle, byteArr, 10, ref bytesWritten);
If I do it like this I get an "System.AccessViolationException". I searched here and in the internet but didnt find a specific answer. How do I use the IntPtr correctly, so it works?
Best Regards
Toby
Your SI_Write function looks quite like Windows Kernel32's WriteFile.
So, I would do this:
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern int SI_Open(uint dwDevice, ref IntPtr cyHandle);
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll", SetLastError = true)]
static extern int SI_Write(IntPtr cyHandle, byte[] lpBuffer,
uint dwBytesToWrite, out uint lpdwBytesWritten);
EDIT: I found this documentation USBXPRESS® PROGRAMMER’S GUIDE on the web, and it states that the SI_Write prototype looks actually much closer to WriteFile than I thought. The doc states this:
SI_STATUS SI_Write (HANDLE Handle, LPVOID Buffer, DWORD NumBytesToWrite,
DWORD *NumBytesWritten, OVERLAPPED* o = NULL)
It means the .NET prototype should be this instead:
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll")]
static extern int SI_Write(IntPtr Handle, byte[] Buffer,
uint NumBytesToWrite, out uint NumBytesWritten, IntPtr o);
o is optional so you can pass IntPtr.Zero.
You are making a classic C programmer mistake, you don't check the return value of the functions. Which tells you whether or not the function failed. A likely scenario is that SI_Open() returned a failure code. You ignore it and use the uninitialized handle value anyway. A kaboom is not unusual.
The next possible mistake is that you don't use the CallingConvention property in the [DllImport] statement. It is fairly likely to be needed, Cdecl is the default unless the native function is declared with __stdcall. Also an excellent way to invoke a kaboom. If you still have trouble then you are going to have to debug the native code.
Btw, you get rid of the awkward syntax by using out instead of ref. In both functions.
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
public static extern int SI_Open(UInt32 deviceNum, out IntPtr devHandle );
try this:
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll")]
public static extern int SI_Open(UInt32 deviceNum, ref IntPtr devHandle); // this function gets the HANDLE
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll")]
public static extern int SI_Write(IntPtr devHandle, ref byte[] inputByte, UInt32 size, ref UInt32 bytesWritten); // this function needs the HANDLE
EDIT:
#Hans Passant is right. This is the correct way to pass a byte[] into a LPVOID parameter. ref used to coerce an object into LPVOID, but isn't needed for an array. What happens when you try this?
[DllImport("SiUSBXp.dll")]
public static extern int SI_Write(IntPtr devHandle, byte[] inputByte, UInt32 size, ref UInt32 bytesWritten); // this function needs the HANDLE
Did you try the answer #Simon Mourier gave? He was first to provide this declaration and his answer deserves to be accepted.
bad: static extern void DoStuff(**byte[] inputByte**);
good: static extern void DoStuff(**[In, MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray)] byte[] inputByte**);

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