Calling External Code from Oct-Files - GNU Octave
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#### A.1.9 Calling External Code from Oct-Files

Linking external C code to Octave is relatively simple, as the C functions can easily be called directly from C++. One possible issue is the declarations of the external C functions might need to be explicitly defined as C functions to the compiler. If the declarations of the external C functions are in the header `foo.h`, then the manner in which to ensure that the C++ compiler treats these declarations as C code is

         #ifdef __cplusplus
         extern "C"
         {
         #endif
         #include "foo.h"
         #ifdef __cplusplus
         }  /* end extern "C" */
         #endif

Calling Fortran code however can pose some difficulties. This is due to differences in the manner in compilers treat the linking of Fortran code with C or C++ code. Octave supplies a number of macros that allow consistent behavior across a number of compilers.

The underlying Fortran code should use the `XSTOPX` function to replace the Fortran `STOP` function. `XSTOPX` uses the Octave exception handler to treat failing cases in the Fortran code explicitly. Note that Octave supplies its own replacement blas `XERBLA` function, which uses `XSTOPX`.

If the underlying code calls `XSTOPX`, then the `F77_XFCN` macro should be used to call the underlying Fortran function. The Fortran exception state can then be checked with the global variable `f77_exception_encountered`. If `XSTOPX` will not be called, then the `F77_FCN` macro should be used instead to call the Fortran code.

There is no harm in using `F77_XFCN` in all cases, except that for Fortran code that is short running and executes a large number of times, there is potentially an overhead in doing so. However, if `F77_FCN` is used with code that calls `XSTOP`, Octave can generate a segmentation fault.

An example of the inclusion of a Fortran function in an oct-file is given in the following example, where the C++ wrapper is

         #include <octave/oct.h>
         #include <octave/f77-fcn.h>

         extern "C"
         {
           F77_RET_T
           F77_FUNC (fortsub, FORTSUB)
                 (const int&, double*, F77_CHAR_ARG_DECL
                  F77_CHAR_ARG_LEN_DECL);
         }

         DEFUN_DLD (fortdemo , args , , "Fortran Demo.")
         {
           octave_value_list retval;
           int nargin = args.length();
           if (nargin != 1)
             print_usage ();
           else
             {
               NDArray a = args(0).array_value ();
               if (! error_state)
                 {
                   double *av = a.fortran_vec ();
                   octave_idx_type na = a.nelem ();
                   OCTAVE_LOCAL_BUFFER (char, ctmp, 128);

                   F77_XFCN (fortsub, FORTSUB, (na, av, ctmp
                             F77_CHAR_ARG_LEN (128)));

                   retval(1) = std::string (ctmp);
                   retval(0) = a;
                 }
             }
           return retval;
         }

and the Fortran function is

               subroutine fortsub (n, a, s)
               implicit none
               character*(*) s
               real*8 a(*)
               integer*4 i, n, ioerr
               do i = 1, n
                 if (a(i) .eq. 0d0) then
                   call xstopx ('fortsub: divide by zero')
                 else
                   a(i) = 1d0 / a(i)
                 endif
               enddo
               write (unit = s, fmt = '(a,i3,a,a)', iostat = ioerr)
              $       'There are ', n,
              $       ' values in the input vector', char(0)
               if (ioerr .ne. 0) then
                 call xstopx ('fortsub: error writing string')
               endif
               return
               end

This example demonstrates most of the features needed to link to an external Fortran function, including passing arrays and strings, as well as exception handling. An example of the behavior of this function is

         [b, s] = fortdemo (1:3)
         ⇒
           b = 1.00000   0.50000   0.33333
           s = There are   3 values in the input vector
         [b, s] = fortdemo(0:3)
         error: fortsub:divide by zero
         error: exception encountered in Fortran subroutine fortsub_
         error: fortdemo: error in Fortran