SWIG LUA C++ wrapper

Question

I am new to SWIG and I am trying some tutorials but running into compilation issues.

The functions I am trying to wrap (ex.cxx) :

 #include <time.h>
 double My_variable = 3.0;
 
 int fact(int n) {
     if (n <= 1) return 1;
     else return n*fact(n-1);
 }
 
 int my_mod(int x, int y) {
     return (x%y);
 }
    
 char *get_time()
 {
     time_t ltime;
     time(&ltime);
     return ctime(&ltime);
 }

the SWIG wrapper definition (ex.i) :

%module ex
 %{
 /* Put header files here or function declarations like below */
 extern double My_variable;
 extern int fact(int n);
 extern int my_mod(int x, int y);
 extern char *get_time();
 %}
 
 extern double My_variable;
 extern int fact(int n);
 extern int my_mod(int x, int y);
 extern char *get_time();

the minimal setup to call the wrappers (min.cxx) :

#include <stdio.h>
extern "C" {
#include <lua.h>
#include <lualib.h>
#include <lauxlib.h>
}
#include <string.h>
//#include "ex_wrap.cxx"

extern "C" {
extern int luaopen_ex(lua_State* L); // declare the wrapped module
}

int main(int argc,char* argv[]) {
  char buff[256];
  int error;
    
  lua_State *L;
  if (argc<2) {
    printf("%s: <filename.lua>\n",argv[0]);
    return 0;
  }
  L=luaL_newstate();    // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8552560/embedding-lua-in-c
  luaL_openlibs(L); // load basic libs (eg. print)
  luaopen_ex(L);    // load the wrappered module
  if (luaL_loadfile(L,argv[1])==0) // load and run the file
    lua_pcall(L,0,0,0);
  else
    printf("unable to load %s\n",argv[1]);
  /*while (fgets(buff, sizeof(buff), stdin) != NULL) {
    error = luaL_loadbuffer(L, buff, strlen(buff), "line") ||
            lua_pcall(L, 0, 0, 0);
    if (error) {
      fprintf(stderr, "%s", lua_tostring(L, -1));
      lua_pop(L, 1);  // pop error message from the stack
    }
  }*/
    
  lua_close(L);
  return 0;
}

and the compile commands :

swig -debug-symtabs -debug-symbols -debug-csymbols -o ex_wrap.cxx -c++ -lua ex.i 
clang -std=c++11 -I/usr/local/include/lua -c min.cxx -o min.o
clang -std=c++11 -fvisibility=default -I/usr/local/include/lua -c ex_wrap.cxx -o ex_wrap.o
clang -std=c++11 -c ex.cxx -o ex.o
clang -std=c++11 -I/usr/local/include/lua -L/usr/local/lib/lua -llua ex_wrap.o min.o ex.o -o mylua
clang -shared -std=c++11 -I/usr/local/include/lua -L/usr/local/lib/lua -llua min.o ex.o -o ex.so

The last command fails with

Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64:
  "_luaopen_ex", referenced from:
      _main in min.o
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)

luaopen_ex() is defined in the ex_wrap.cxx generated by the swig command, but the linker cannot seem to find it. BTW, if I include ex_wrap.cxx directly into min.cxx, it compiles and I can run Lua code with this mini interpreter afterwards. Any ideas, thank you.

Answer 1

luaopen_example is defined in an extern "C" {} block in ex_wrap.cxx, but compiling ex.c with g++ declares luaopen_example as a C++ function, so the linker looks for a C++ mangled name to resolve luaopen_example(lua_State*) and not simply luaopen_example

Change your declaration in ex.c to

extern "C" {
 extern int luaopen_example(lua_State* L); // declare the wrapped module
}

and the code will compile.

( You might be also be interested in the answer to this question, which explains name mangling: What is the effect of extern "C" in C++? )