Quickstart

Clone the repository on a macOS machine.

cd binding-tools-for-swift
make
cd tests/tom-swifty-test
make

In order to run the binding tools, you will need a compiled Swift library which includes a .swiftmodule. Here are the options for the binding generator:

steveh$ mono tom-swifty/bin/Debug/tom-swifty.exe --help
Usage:
        tom-swifty.exe [options] -o=output-directory -module-name=ModuleName
        tom-swifty.exe --demangle symbol [symbol...]
Options:
      --demangle             Demangles the given swift symbols, printing human
                               readable trees of each symbol.
      --swift-lib-path=VALUE swift library directory path.
      --swift-bin-path=VALUE uses 'path' as the directory to search for the
                               swift compiler
      --retain-xml-reflection
                             keeps the xml reflection files generated from the
                               swift module.
      --retain-swift-wrappers
                             keeps the swift wrapper source code in the output
                               directory.
      --pinvoke-class-prefix=VALUE
                             use 'name' as a prefix for classes to hold
                               PInvokes. Default is 'NativeMethods'
      --print-stack-trace    prints a stack trace with each error.
      --wrapping-module-name=VALUE
                             sets the swift wrapper module name to 'wrap-name'.
      --module-name=VALUE    sets the name of the module that will be processed.
      --global-class-name=VALUE
                             use 'name' as the name of a class to hold global
                               functions and properties.
      --arch=VALUE           set the architecture to target. Default is 64.
  -L, --library-directory=VALUE
                             searches in directory for dylib files; can be used
                               multiple times.
  -M=VALUE                   [module-directory] searches in directory for
                               swiftmodule files; can be used multiple times
  -C=VALUE                   [combined-directory] searches in directory for
                               both dylib and swiftmodule files; can be used
                               multiple times
      --type-database-path=VALUE
                             searches in directory for type database files; can
                               be used multiple times
  -o=VALUE                   [directory] write all output files to directory
      --unicode-mapping=VALUE
                             XML file describing mapping from swift unicode
                               identifiers to C# identifiers
  -v, --verbose              prints information about work in process.
      --version              print version information.
  -h, -?, --help             prints this message

A typical set of commands to generate bindings is:

mono /path/to/tom-swifty.exe --swift-bin-path SWIFT_BIN_PATH --swift-lib-path SWIFT_LIB_PATH -o /path/to/output_directory -C /path/to/YOURLIBRARY.framework -C /path/to/binding-tools-for-swift/swiftglue/bin/Debug/PLATFORM/XamGlue.framework -module-name YOURLIBRARY

In this example SWIFT_BIN_PATH and SWIFT_LIB_PATH are paths to the Swift binaries directory and the Swift libraries directory respectively. On a typical macOS machine SWIFT_BIN_PATH is /usr/bin. SWIFT_LIB_PATH will be /path/to/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Toolchains/XcodeDefault.xctoolchain/usr/lib/swift-5.0. Do NOT use /usr/lib/swift as that does not have the full set of libraries for iOS, tvOS etc.

YOURLIBRARY is the name of the library you’re trying to bind. PLATFORM is one of appletv, iphone, mac, or watch.

If you add the argument --retain-swift-wrappers, the binding tools will leave a directory that contains the source to the Swift wrappers written during the compilation. If you add the argument --retain-xml-reflection, the binding tools will leaves a directory that contains output of the reflector in XML format.

The binding tools need the following to operate:

the location of the custom compiler and its libraries
the location of the Swift runtime glue framework for the platform you’re targeting
the location of your framework
the name of your framework

In addition, the tools can operator on separate .swiftinterface and .dylib files. This can be handled by using a -M argument for the .swiftinterface and -L for the library. It’s easier to use the .framework directory and a single -C argument.

Building and Running Samples

Samples source code is in the samples directory, but will not build and run there. Instead you need to make a packaged build, from the root of binding-tools-for-swift execute the command:

make package

this will leave a directory inside of the directory Pack-Man named binding-tools-for-swift which contains buildable samples. Most samples can be built by executing make in their directory. To try out a sample, do make runit for most of the samples. The piglatin sample is an iOS application. If you run make in its directory, it will build the binding and move the output files into the PigLatin directory which contains a Visual Studio Mac project that can, at that point, be opened and run.

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