Overview Summary

Module java.base

# Package java.lang.foreign

package java.lang.foreign

Provides low-level access to memory and functions outside the Java runtime.

## Foreign memory access

The main abstraction introduced to support foreign memory access is `MemorySegment`PREVIEW, which models a contiguous memory region, residing either inside or outside the Java heap. The contents of a memory segment can be described using a `memory layout` PREVIEW, which provides basic operations to query sizes, offsets and alignment constraints. Memory layouts also provide an alternate, more abstract way, to dereference memory segments using access var handles PREVIEW, which can be computed using layout paths . For example, to allocate an off-heap memory region big enough to hold 10 values of the primitive type `int`, and fill it with values ranging from `0` to `9`, we can use the following code:

    MemorySegment segment = MemorySegment.allocateNative(10 * 4, MemorySession.openImplicit());
    for (int i = 0 ; i < 10 ; i++) {
        segment.setAtIndex(ValueLayout.JAVA_INT, i, i);
    }

This code creates a native memory segment, that is, a memory segment backed by off-heap memory; the size of the segment is 40 bytes, enough to store 10 values of the primitive type `int`. Inside a loop, we then initialize the contents of the memory segment; note how the dereference method PREVIEW accepts a value layout PREVIEW, which specifies the size, alignment constraints, byte order as well as the Java type (`int`, in this case) associated with the dereference operation. More specifically, if we view the memory segment as a set of 10 adjacent slots, `s[i]`, where `0 <= i < 10` , where the size of each slot is exactly 4 bytes, the initialization logic above will set each slot so that `s[i] = i` , again where `0 <= i < 10` .

### Deterministic deallocation

When writing code that manipulates memory segments, especially if backed by memory which resides outside the Java heap, it is often crucial that the resources associated with a memory segment are released when the segment is no longer in use, and in a timely fashion. For this reason, there might be cases where waiting for the garbage collector to determine that a segment is unreachable is not optimal. Clients that operate under these assumptions might want to programmatically release the memory associated with a memory segment. This can be done, using the `MemorySession`PREVIEW abstraction, as shown below:

    try (MemorySession session = MemorySession.openConfined()) {
        MemorySegment segment = MemorySegment.allocateNative(10 * 4, session);
        for (int i = 0 ; i < 10 ; i++) {
            segment.setAtIndex(ValueLayout.JAVA_INT, i, i);
        }
    }

This example is almost identical to the prior one; this time we first create a so called memory session , which is used to bind the life-cycle of the segment created immediately afterwards. Note the use of the try-with-resources construct: this idiom ensures that all the memory resources associated with the segment will be released at the end of the block, according to the semantics described in Section 14.20.3 of The Java Language Specification .

### Safety

This API provides strong safety guarantees when it comes to memory access. First, when dereferencing a memory segment, the access coordinates are validated (upon access), to make sure that access does not occur at any address which resides outside the boundaries of the memory segment used by the dereference operation. We call this guarantee spatial safety ; in other words, access to memory segments is bounds-checked, in the same way as array access is, as described in Section 15.10.4 of The Java Language Specification .

Since memory segments can be closed (see above), segments are also validated (upon access) to make sure that the memory session associated with the segment being accessed has not been closed prematurely. We call this guarantee temporal safety . Together, spatial and temporal safety ensure that each memory access operation either succeeds - and accesses a valid memory location - or fails.

## Foreign function access

The key abstractions introduced to support foreign function access are `SymbolLookup`PREVIEW, `FunctionDescriptor`PREVIEW and `Linker`PREVIEW. The first is used to look up symbols inside libraries; the second is used to model the signature of foreign functions, while the third provides linking capabilities which allows modelling foreign functions as `MethodHandle` instances, so that clients can perform foreign function calls directly in Java, without the need for intermediate layers of C/C++ code (as is the case with the Java Native Interface (JNI) ).

For example, to compute the length of a string using the C standard library function `strlen` on a Linux x64 platform, we can use the following code:

    var linker = Linker.nativeLinker();
    MethodHandle strlen = linker.downcallHandle(
        linker.lookup("strlen").get(),
        FunctionDescriptor.of(ValueLayout.JAVA_LONG, ValueLayout.ADDRESS)
    );

    try (var session = MemorySession.openConfined()) {
        var cString = MemorySegment.allocateNative(5 + 1, session);
        cString.setUtf8String("Hello");
        long len = (long)strlen.invoke(cString); // 5
    }

Here, we obtain a native linker PREVIEW and we use it to look up PREVIEW the `strlen` symbol in the standard C library; a downcall method handle targeting said symbol is subsequently obtainedPREVIEW. To complete the linking successfully, we must provide a `FunctionDescriptor`PREVIEW instance, describing the signature of the `strlen` function. From this information, the linker will uniquely determine the sequence of steps which will turn the method handle invocation (here performed using `MethodHandle.invoke(java.lang.Object...)`) into a foreign function call, according to the rules specified by the ABI of the underlying platform. The `MemorySegment`PREVIEW class also provides many useful methods for interacting with foreign code, such as converting Java strings intoPREVIEW zero-terminated, UTF-8 strings and backPREVIEW, as demonstrated in the above example.

### Foreign addresses

When a memory segment is created from Java code, the segment properties (spatial bounds, temporal bounds and confinement) are fully known at segment creation. But when interacting with foreign functions, clients will often receive raw pointers. Such pointers have no spatial bounds. For example, the C type `char*` can refer to a single `char` value, or an array of `char` values, of given size. Nor do said pointers have any notion of temporal bounds or thread-confinement.

Raw pointers are modelled using the `MemoryAddress`PREVIEW class. When clients receive a memory address instance from a foreign function call, they can perform memory dereference on it directly, using one of the many unsafe dereference methods PREVIEW provided:

    MemoryAddress addr = ... // obtain address from foreign function call
    int x = addr.get(ValueLayout.JAVA_INT, 0);

Alternatively, the client can createPREVIEW a memory segment unsafely. This allows the client to inject extra knowledge about spatial bounds which might, for instance, be available in the documentation of the foreign function which produced the native address. Here is how an unsafe segment can be created from a memory address:

    MemorySession session = ... // initialize a memory session object
    MemoryAddress addr = ... // obtain address from foreign function call
    MemorySegment segment = MemorySegment.ofAddress(addr, 4, session); // segment is 4 bytes long
    int x = segment.get(ValueLayout.JAVA_INT, 0);

### Upcalls

The `Linker`PREVIEW interface also allows clients to turn an existing method handle (which might point to a Java method) into a memory address, so that Java code can effectively be passed to other foreign functions. For instance, we can write a method that compares two integer values, as follows:

    class IntComparator {
        static int intCompare(MemoryAddress addr1, MemoryAddress addr2) {
            return addr1.get(ValueLayout.JAVA_INT, 0) - addr2.get(ValueLayout.JAVA_INT, 0);
        }
    }

The above method dereferences two memory addresses containing an integer value, and performs a simple comparison by returning the difference between such values. We can then obtain a method handle which targets the above static method, as follows:

    FunctionDescriptor intCompareDescriptor = FunctionDescriptor.of(ValueLayout.JAVA_INT, ValueLayout.ADDRESS, ValueLayout.ADDRESS);
    MethodHandle intCompareHandle = MethodHandles.lookup().findStatic(IntComparator.class,
                                                    "intCompare",
                                                    CLinker.upcallType(comparFunction));

As before, we need to create a `FunctionDescriptor`PREVIEW instance, this time describing the signature of the function pointer we want to create. The descriptor can be used to derivePREVIEW a method type that can be used to look up the method handle for `IntComparator.intCompare`.

Now that we have a method handle instance, we can turn it into a fresh function pointer, using the `Linker`PREVIEW interface, as follows:

    MemorySession session = ...
    Addressable comparFunc = CLinker.nativeLinker().upcallStub(
        intCompareHandle, intCompareDescriptor, session);
    );

The `FunctionDescriptor`PREVIEW instance created in the previous step is then used to createPREVIEW a new upcall stub; the layouts in the function descriptors allow the linker to determine the sequence of steps which allow foreign code to call the stub for `intCompareHandle` according to the rules specified by the ABI of the underlying platform. The lifecycle of the upcall stub is tied to the memory session PREVIEW provided when the upcall stub is created. This same session is made available by the `MemorySegment`PREVIEW instance returned by that method.

## Restricted methods

Some methods in this package are considered restricted. Restricted methods are typically used to bind native foreign data and/or functions to first-class Java API elements which can then be used directly by clients. For instance the restricted method `MemorySegment.ofAddress(MemoryAddress, long, MemorySession)` PREVIEW can be used to create a fresh segment with the given spatial bounds out of a native address.

Binding foreign data and/or functions is generally unsafe and, if done incorrectly, can result in VM crashes, or memory corruption when the bound Java API element is accessed. For instance, in the case of `MemorySegment.ofAddress(MemoryAddress, long, MemorySession)` PREVIEW, if the provided spatial bounds are incorrect, a client of the segment returned by that method might crash the VM, or corrupt memory when attempting to dereference said segment. For these reasons, it is crucial for code that calls a restricted method to never pass arguments that might cause incorrect binding of foreign data and/or functions to a Java API.

Access to restricted methods can be controlled using the command line option `--enable-native-access=M1,M2, ... Mn` , where `M1`, `M2`, `... Mn` are module names (for the unnamed module, the special value `ALL-UNNAMED` can be used). If this option is specified, access to restricted methods is only granted to the modules listed by that option. If this option is not specified, access to restricted methods is enabled for all modules, but access to restricted methods will result in runtime warnings.

For every class in this package, unless specified otherwise, any method arguments of reference type must not be null, and any null argument will elicit a `NullPointerException`. This fact is not individually documented for methods of this API.

- Related Packages
  Package
  Description
  java.lang
  Provides classes that are fundamental to the design of the Java programming language.
- Class
  Description
  AddressablePREVIEW
  Preview.
  An object that may be projected down to a memory address PREVIEW.
  FunctionDescriptorPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A function descriptor is made up of zero or more argument layouts and zero or one return layout.
  GroupLayoutPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A compound layout that aggregates multiple member layouts .
  LinkerPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A linker provides access to foreign functions from Java code, and access to Java code from foreign functions.
  MemoryAddressPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A memory address models a reference into a memory location.
  MemoryLayoutPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A memory layout can be used to describe the contents of a memory segment.
  MemoryLayout.PathElementPREVIEW
  Preview.
  An element in a layout path .
  MemorySegmentPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A memory segment models a contiguous region of memory.
  MemorySessionPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A memory session manages the lifecycle of one or more resources.
  SegmentAllocatorPREVIEW
  Preview.
  An object that may be used to allocate memory segments PREVIEW.
  SequenceLayoutPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A compound layout that denotes a repetition of a given element layout .
  SymbolLookupPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A symbol lookup is an object that may be used to retrieve the address of a symbol in one or more libraries.
  VaListPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A variable argument list, similar in functionality to a C `va_list`.
  VaList.BuilderPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A builder used to construct a variable argument list PREVIEW.
  ValueLayoutPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout.
  ValueLayout.OfAddressPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `MemoryAddress.class`.
  ValueLayout.OfBooleanPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `boolean.class`.
  ValueLayout.OfBytePREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `byte.class`.
  ValueLayout.OfCharPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `char.class`.
  ValueLayout.OfDoublePREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `double.class`.
  ValueLayout.OfFloatPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `float.class`.
  ValueLayout.OfIntPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `int.class`.
  ValueLayout.OfLongPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `long.class`.
  ValueLayout.OfShortPREVIEW
  Preview.
  A value layout whose carrier is `short.class`.