mdflib-sys

Crate that provides low-level FFI (Foreign Function Interface) bindings to the mdflib C++ library. It is responsible for building, linking and binding the C++ library so that it can be used from Rust.

Prerequisites

mdflib has the following dependencies:

• zlib: A software library used for data compression.
• expat: A stream-oriented XML parser library.
• cmake and build-essential (or Apple/Windows build tools): Required for building the C++ library from source.

Adding More mdflib Functions

The bindings are generated using bindgen from the manually exposed functions in './src/mdf_c_wrapper.cpp and './src/mdf_c_wrapper.h'. This allows Rust code to call into the C++ library seamlessly.

To add more functions to the bindings, you need to modify the mdf_c_wrapper.h and mdf_c_wrapper.cpp files to expose the desired C++ functions. cargo build will automatically regenerate the bindings when you make changes to these files.

Build Modes

The mdflib-sys crate supports two build modes for linking against the mdflib C++ library:

Using Bundled mdflib (Default)

By default, the build script will build and statically link against the bundled mdflib source code included in the bundled directory. This is the recommended approach for most users as it doesn't require any pre-installation of the C++ library.

To ensure the bundled source is available, ensure that submodules are initialized when cloning the repository:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Using System mdflib

If you have mdflib already installed on your system, you can configure the build to use it instead of the bundled version. Use --no-default-features --features=system with cargo.