[Mono-dev] [PATCH] Add mixed-mode assembly support on Windows

[Kornél Pál]

Hi,

Just some update to the previous code.

Now I consider the patch being complete for inclusion in Mono. But I still 
didn't manage to build it using cygwin so I need some help.

This is still licensed under MIT X11.

Kornél

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kornél Pál" <kornelpal at gmail.com>
To: <mono-devel-list at lists.ximian.com>
Cc: "Miguel de Icaza" <Miguel at novell.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 20, 2008 12:40 AM
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add mixed-mode assembly support on Windows


> Hi,
>
> I finished implementing coree functions required for loading images 
> without
> mono.exe.
>
> The previously described issues remained however so I still need some 
> help.
>
> This contribution is licensed under MIT X11.
>
> Also attached a minimalistic mscoree.dll implementation that I used for
> testing this patch. Note that Visual Studio has to be started with the
> original mscoree.dll and has to be temporarily replaced with this
> implementation while debugging.
>
> Kornél
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kornél Pál" <kornelpal at gmail.com>
> To: <mono-devel-list at lists.ximian.com>
> Cc: "Miguel de Icaza" <Miguel at novell.com>
> Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 12:04 PM
> Subject: [PATCH] Add mixed-mode assembly support on Windows
>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I have attached my proposed patch.
>>
>> I need some help to finish mono_marshal_get_vtfixup_ftnptr. It should
>> generate a wrapper method based on the method token.
>> types:
>> VTFIXUP_TYPE_FROM_UNMANAGED: unmanaged-to-managed wrapper (otherwise
>> managed-to-managed)
>> VTFIXUP_TYPE_CALL_MOST_DERIVED: callvirt (otherwise call)
>> VTFIXUP_TYPE_RETAIN_APPDOMAIN: not important yet
>>
>> I would like to implement mono_marshal_get_vtfixup_ftnptr but I don't 
>> know
>> where should I cache these methods and how can I obtain a marshaler
>> wrapper
>> without using delegates.
>>
>> Also note that I was unable to build the patch using gcc:
>> /mono/mono/mono/metadata/domain.c:1172: undefined reference to
>> `_MonoFixupCorEE at 4'
>> /mono/mono/mono/metadata/domain.c:1217: undefined reference to
>> `_MonoFixupExe at 4'
>>
>> And I have no idea why it builds with MSVC and not with gcc.
>>
>> _CorDllMain and _CorExeMain is not finished yet but is only required for
>> Wine support so I didn't include them in the patch yet. They will call
>> runtime initialization code. MonoFixupCorEE is intended to be called from
>> Wine's mscoree.dll as well.
>>
>> Kornél
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Miguel de Icaza" <Miguel at novell.com>
>> To: <kornelpal at gmail.com>
>> Cc: <mono-devel-list at lists.ximian.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 7:47 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Mono-dev] Mono on wine redux
>>
>>
>> Wow.
>>
>> Well, that was fast.   Congrats Kornel!
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Kornél Pál <kornelpal at gmail.com>
>> Cc:  <mono-devel-list at lists.ximian.com>
>> To: Miguel de Icaza <Miguel at novell.com>
>>
>> Sent: 4/17/2008 3:17:24 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Mono-dev] Mono on wine redux
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>>> From: "Miguel de Icaza" <miguel at novell.com>
>>>> But what percent of .net apps are pure?  If that fraction is small,
>>>> as I suspect it is, then for Mono to really rock the world, it's going
>>>> to have to tackle impure apps, too.  That is of course incredibly
>>>> difficult,
>>>> and would require considerable cooperation between the Mono and Wine
>>>> projects.
>>>
>>> It is very hard to run into a mixed-mode assembly in the wild;   They do
>>> happen, but they are rare.   I can only think of three projects that had
>>> needed them in the history of Mono.
>>
>> I've done some work on this. And actually I managed to run mixed-mode
>> assemblies.
>>
>> Note that it is only possible on Windows because native code is usually
>> platform (arch and OS as well) dependent.
>>
>> I implemented support for loading image files using LoadLibrary so that
>> the
>> NT loader will take care of the image patching. I also had to patch the
>> in-memory image of mscoree.dll so that export address table point to
>> functions in mono.dll that is required for LoadLibrary support. This also
>> will enable Wine (and Windows is someone is willing to replace or modify
>> his
>> on-disk mscoree.dll image) to execute managed images using CreateProcess
>> without creating a mono.exe child process. This was the hardest part.
>>
>> IJW thunks (managed-to-native) are really P/Invoke methods with function
>> RVA
>> stored in method body RVA so it was very easy to implement, I only had to
>> remove code preventing IJW from work.
>>
>> V-table fixups (native-to-managed) are not difficult either but requires
>> it's own wrapper methods so my current implementation probably will need
>> improvements.
>>
>> Note that this still will not make Mono able to use MSVCRT because that
>> uses
>> unmanaged API of .NET Framework that isn't implemented by Mono.
>>
>> I am stilll working on a cleaned-up patch but will send to the list soon.
>>
>> Kornél
>>
>>
> 
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