Using Bindgen

The bindgen tool can auto-generate bindings from a C header file.

First create a small C library:

interoperability/bindgen/libbirthday.h:

typedef struct card {
  const char* name;
  int years;
} card;

void print_card(const card* card);

interoperability/bindgen/libbirthday.c:

#include <stdio.h>
#include "libbirthday.h"

void print_card(const card* card) {
  printf("+--------------\n");
  printf("| Happy Birthday %s!\n", card->name);
  printf("| Congratulations with the %i years!\n", card->years);
  printf("+--------------\n");
}

Add this to your Android.bp file:

interoperability/bindgen/Android.bp:

cc_library {
    name: "libbirthday",
    srcs: ["libbirthday.c"],
}

Create a wrapper header file for the library (not strictly needed in this example):

interoperability/bindgen/libbirthday_wrapper.h:

#include "libbirthday.h"

You can now auto-generate the bindings:

interoperability/bindgen/Android.bp:

rust_bindgen {
    name: "libbirthday_bindgen",
    crate_name: "birthday_bindgen",
    wrapper_src: "libbirthday_wrapper.h",
    source_stem: "bindings",
    static_libs: ["libbirthday"],
}

Finally, we can use the bindings in our Rust program:

interoperability/bindgen/Android.bp:

rust_binary {
    name: "print_birthday_card",
    srcs: ["main.rs"],
    rustlibs: ["libbirthday_bindgen"],
}

interoperability/bindgen/main.rs:

//! Bindgen demo.

use birthday_bindgen::{card, print_card};

fn main() {
    let name = std::ffi::CString::new("Peter").unwrap();
    let card = card {
        name: name.as_ptr(),
        years: 42,
    };
    unsafe {
        print_card(&card as *const card);
    }
}

Build, push, and run the binary on your device:

$ m print_birthday_card
$ adb push $ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT/system/bin/print_birthday_card /data/local/tmp
$ adb shell /data/local/tmp/print_birthday_card

Finally, we can run auto-generated tests to ensure the bindings work:

interoperability/bindgen/Android.bp:

rust_test {
    name: "libbirthday_bindgen_test",
    srcs: [":libbirthday_bindgen"],
    crate_name: "libbirthday_bindgen_test",
    test_suites: ["general-tests"],
    auto_gen_config: true,
    clippy_lints: "none", // Generated file, skip linting
    lints: "none",
}

$ atest libbirthday_bindgen_test