idax-sys

Raw extern "C" FFI bindings to the idax C++ IDA SDK wrapper library, generated by bindgen.

You almost certainly want the idax crate instead, which provides safe, idiomatic Rust wrappers around everything exposed here.

What this crate provides

622 FFI function declarations covering 27 IDA SDK domains (database, segments, functions, instructions, types, decompiler, debugger, and more)
115 C struct/enum/callback typedefs for data transfer across the FFI boundary
A C shim layer (shim/idax_shim.h + shim/idax_shim.cpp) that bridges extern "C" to the idax C++ API
Automatic bindgen code generation at build time — the output lands in $OUT_DIR/bindings.rs

Prerequisites

Building this crate requires:

IDA SDK — set the IDASDK environment variable to the SDK root directory (must contain an include/ subdirectory)
Pre-built libidax.a — build the idax C++ project with CMake first. The build script searches these directories:
- <idax-root>/build/
- <idax-root>/build/Release/
- <idax-root>/build/Debug/
- <idax-root>/cmake-build-release/
- <idax-root>/cmake-build-debug/
C++23 compiler — the shim is compiled with cc using -std=c++23
Rust 2024 edition (nightly or stable 1.85+)

Installation

[dependencies]
idax-sys = "0.2"

Build environment

# Point to your IDA SDK
export IDASDK=/path/to/idasdk

# Build idax C++ library first (from the idax repo root)
cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build

# Now cargo build will find libidax.a and the SDK
cargo build

FFI conventions

The C shim follows consistent conventions documented in shim/idax_shim.h:

Pattern	Convention
Error signaling	Functions returning `int`: `0` = success, negative = error
Error details	Thread-local state via `idax_last_error_category()` / `idax_last_error_code()` / `idax_last_error_message()`
String outputs	Returned via `char**` out-params, `malloc`'d — free with `idax_free_string()`
Array outputs	Returned via pointer+count out-params, `malloc`'d — free with `free()` or the appropriate `_free()` function
Opaque handles	`void*` (e.g. `IdaxTypeHandle`) — free with the corresponding `idax_type_free()` etc.
Boolean queries	Return `1` = true, `0` = false (never negative)

Covered domains

Domain	C prefix	Functions
Error handling	`idax_last_error_`, `idax_free_`	5
Database	`idax_database_*`	28
Address	`idax_address_*`	19
Segment	`idax_segment_*`	20
Function	`idax_function_*`	37
Instruction	`idax_instruction_*`	39
Data	`idax_data_*`	32
Name	`idax_name_*`	16
Cross-references	`idax_xref_*`	16
Comment	`idax_comment_*`	18
Search	`idax_search_*`	8
Analysis	`idax_analysis_*`	12
Types	`idax_type_*`	44
Entry points	`idax_entry_*`	8
Fixups	`idax_fixup_*`	12
Events	`idax_event_*`	10
Plugin	`idax_plugin_*`	12
Loader	`idax_loader_*`	12
Debugger	`idax_debugger_*`	67
Decompiler	`idax_decompiler_*`	32
Storage	`idax_storage_*`	14
Lumina	`idax_lumina_*`	2
Graph	`idax_graph_*`	10
UI	`idax_ui_*`	42
Lines	`idax_lines_*`	2
Diagnostics	`idax_diagnostics_*`	7

Architecture

  idax-sys (this crate)
       |
       |-- build.rs
       |     |-- compiles shim/idax_shim.cpp via `cc`
       |     |-- runs bindgen on shim/idax_shim.h
       |     |-- links libidax.a + IDA SDK dylibs
       |
       |-- src/lib.rs
             |-- include!(concat!(env!("OUT_DIR"), "/bindings.rs"))

Linking

The build script links:

libidax.a (static) — the idax C++ wrapper
libida.dylib / libida.so (dynamic) — the IDA SDK runtime
The platform C++ standard library (libc++ on macOS, libstdc++ on Linux)

Safety

Everything in this crate is unsafe. Use the idax crate for safe wrappers.

License

MIT

idax-sys 0.2.2