I am working on a project that requires implementing am unmanaged windows DLL. The DLL is used to communicate with a USB device. My code is in C# and WPF.
To initialize the DLL I call a function called:
InitTimerDll(Int32 wHandle, ref dllInitParams initParams);
When calling this function I have to pass a struct called dllInitParams and the Handle that the control is bound to.
I am using DllImport for function pointer as such:
[DllImport("myDll.dll")]
public static extern void InitTimerDll(Int32 wHandle, ref dllInitParams initParams);
Here is my struct:
public struct dllInitParams
{
public UInt16 simp;
public UInt16 simt;
}
All of the above are in a separate class called myDllInterface.cs. Here is how I call the InitTimerDll function from my WPF form:
public IntPtr Handle
{
get { return (new System.Windows.Interop.WindowInteropHelper(this)).Handle; }
}
private void initTime_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
myDllInterface.dllInitParams initParams = new myDllInterface.dllInitParams();
initParams.simp = 0;
myDllInterface.InitTimerDll(this.Handle.ToInt32(), ref initParams);
}
The first part of the above code explains how I get the handle and the initTime_Click shows how I initialize the struct, call the initTimeDll function by passing the handle and the struct to it. I have copied the dll file in the directory that the code runs in. My code compiles just fine but it creates an error when I click on the initTime button.
Error:
An unhandled exception of type 'System.AccessViolationException' occurred in ProbeCTRL.exe
Additional information: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
Why is this happening?
Without knowing exactly what the InitTimerDll() function does with the 'this' pointer, I would focus on the params structure. Try adding a structure layout markup like the following:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential, Pack=1)]
public struct dllInitParams
{
public UInt16 simp;
public UInt16 simt;
}
Also, double check that your structure is complete and accurate.
I found the problem. The code is fine the problem was the dll file, which was corrupted. A proper copy of the dll file took care of the problem. When using dll in your codes it is quite important to make sure you have accurate information, function calls, data types to passed and so on.
Thanks everyone for your help.
Have a look at the PInvoke tutorial: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288468%28v=vs.71%29.aspx
as Jim Gomes points out:
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
or something similar is definitely important.
Also, you're only initializing one of the variables in your struct.
Related
Suppose we have the following C++ code:
typedef int (*getIntPtr)(void);
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void InvokeFuncPtr(getIntPtr funcPtr) {
std::wcout << funcPtr();
}
We can match this definition in C#:
[DllImport("NativeLib.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl), SuppressGCTransition]
public static unsafe extern void InvokeFuncPtr(delegate* unmanaged[Cdecl]<int> funcPtr);
And then we can use this function like so:
[UnmanagedCallersOnly(CallConvs = new[] { typeof(CallConvCdecl) })]
public static int ReturnInt() => 123;
// ... Elsewhere:
unsafe {
InvokeFuncPtr(&ReturnInt);
}
When InvokeFuncPtr is marked with SuppressGCTransition this results in the program crashing with the error "Fatal error. Invalid Program: attempted to call a UnmanagedCallersOnly method from managed code.". If we remove the SuppressGCTransition attribute it works as expected, and 123 is printed to the console.
Is this expected behaviour? I imagine it amounts to the runtime seeing ReturnInt() as being invoked from managed code, simply with a couple of extra steps of indirection. If so, is there any way around this, or should I simply leave the SuppressGCTransition attribute off?
Yes, you should leave off SuppressGCTransition, as the stack is what the runtime uses to identify whether the caller is managed or unmanaged.
If there is no transition in the stack, there is no way for the runtime to tell that the stack transitioned to unmanaged.
Alternatively, you can leave off UnmanagedCallersOnly, and instead marshal the delegate with Marshal.GetFunctionPointerForDelegate.
I want to detect in my C# code whenever the user presses the physical snapshot button in a webcam.
I discovered that the webcam's own software application has a dll (emDLL.dll) that contains various functions, and I used Dependency Walker to know if it includes an exported function that does what I want. And yes, it has one, whose unmangled name is int IsButtonPressed(void)
Reviewing various responses referred to this issue, I managed myself to write the C# code below to test that unmanaged DLL's function:
using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
class PlatformInvokeTest3
{
// EntryPoint is assigned with the mangled name of the exported unmangled function int CEM2800Prop::IsButtonPressed(void)
[DllImport(#"emDLL.dll", EntryPoint = "?IsButtonPressed#CEM2800Prop##QAEHXZ")]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.I4)]
public static extern int IsButtonPressed();
public static void Main()
{
int Aux;
Aux = IsButtonPressed();
}
}
The problem is that when the code reaches the point when the function is called, appears an exception with the following error:
Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
I need to know what is wrong in my code and if there are some way to call from within my C# code that emDLL.dll function.
Thanks to all.
I am currently working on a project with really short deadline, so I don't have much time to understand everything. Also, I am not an expert in C++ development and memory management.
So, what I am trying to do is to create a DLL in with both C and C++ code. Then, I would like to call this DLL in a C# code. Currently, the communication between C++ and C# is OK. The problem comes up when I try to transfer a string from the DLL to the C# code. The error is this one :
System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.
at Microsoft.Win32.Win32Native.CoTaskMemFree(IntPtr ptr)
at System.StubHelpers.CSTRMarshaler.ClearNative(IntPtr pNative)
at NMSPRecognitionWrapper.Program.GetResultsExt()
at NMSPRecognitionWrapper.Program.<Main>b__0() in <my dir>\Program.cs:line 54
at NMSPRecognitionWrapper.Program.StartRecognitionExt()
at NMSPRecognitionWrapper.Program.Main(String[] args) in <my dir>\Program.cs:line 60
Also, I can give you some piece of code below (really simplified !). Actually, the C++ expose two methods : StartRecognition() launch operations to get some data from microphone, then process them and store the results. GetResults() return an instance of the results previously stored. The WrapperCallback() allows the C# part to be called when a Result is able for processing. The C# part, when the Callback is called, will ask to get the results using the GetResults() method.
I know the architecture may seem really inappropriate in this presentation, but I don't want to explain the whole project to validate the model, please be sure everything is correct.
To finish, the problem is when the C# callback call the GetResults() method. Trying to access to the resultsForCS seems to be impossible from the C#.
C++ part - header
// NMSPRecognitionLib.h
#pragma once
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) char* GetResults();
extern "C" static void DoWork();
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void StartRecognition();
C++ part - sources
#include "stdafx.h"
#include "NMSPRecognitionLib.h"
static char * resultsForCS;
static SUCCESS ProcessResult(NMSPCONNECTION_OBJECTS *pNmspConnectionObjects, LH_OBJECT hResult)
{
[...]
char* szResult;
[...]
resultsForCS = szResult;
DoWork();
[...]
return Success;
error:
return Failure;
} /* End of ProcessResult */
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) char* GetResults()
{
return resultsForCS;
}
extern "C"
{
typedef void (*callback_function)();
callback_function gCBF;
__declspec(dllexport) void WrapperCallback(callback_function callback) {
gCBF = callback;
}
static void DoWork() {
gCBF();
}
}
extern "C" __declspec(dllexport) void StartRecognition()
{
char* argv[] = { "path", "params" };
entryPoint(2, argv);
}
C# part
class Program
{
[DllImport("NMSPRecognitionLib.dll", EntryPoint = "GetResults")]
[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPStr)]
public static extern string GetResultsExt();
public delegate void message_callback_delegate();
[DllImport("NMSPRecognitionLib.dll", EntryPoint = "WrapperCallback")]
public static extern void WrapperCallbackExt(message_callback_delegate callback);
[DllImport("NMSPRecognitionLib.dll", EntryPoint = "StartRecognition")]
public static extern void StartRecognitionExt();
static void Main(string[] args)
{
WrapperCallbackExt(
delegate()
{
Console.WriteLine(GetResultsExt());
}
);
StartRecognitionExt();
Console.WriteLine("\nPress any key to finish... ");
var nothing = Console.ReadLine();
}
}
I understand that the problem comes because I am using a pointer to store the results (char *), but I actually don't know how to do this in another way. The szResults type is char * too and I can't change this !
Yes, the return type is the problem. The pinvoke marshaller must do something to release the memory that was allocated for the string. The contract is that memory allocations that need to be released by the caller must be allocated from the COM heap. CoTaskMemAlloc() in native code, also exposed in .NET as Marshal.AllocCoTaskMem().
This rarely comes to a good end, most native code allocates with malloc() or ::operator new, allocating from a heap that's created by the C runtime library. The wrong heap. So inevitably the CoTaskMemFree() call will fail. Ignored silently in Windows XP and earlier, a kaboom on Vista and up.
You must stop the pinvoke marshaller from trying to release the memory. Do so by declaring the return value as IntPtr. And use Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi() to recover the string.
You still have a Big Problem, the kind of problem that bedevils any native code that tries to use this function as well. You still have a string buffer that needs to be released. You cannot do that from C#, you can't pinvoke the correct version of free() or ::operator delete. A memory leak is inevitable. The only thing you can hope for is that the native code takes care of it, somehow. If it doesn't then you must use C++/CLI to interop with it. With the additional requirement that the native code needs to be rebuilt with the same compiler so that it uses the same shared CRT. Code that's difficult to use correctly from native code is also hard to pinvoke. That's a design flaw, always allow the caller to pass a buffer to be filled in so there's never a question who owns the memory.
Looking at:
at Microsoft.Win32.Win32Native.CoTaskMemFree(IntPtr ptr)
at System.StubHelpers.CSTRMarshaler.ClearNative(IntPtr pNative)
at NMSPRecognitionWrapper.Program.GetResultsExt()
I can see that your callback is called, but the runtime tries to free some memory. I think it assumes your pointer would be to com memory. Try converting the string yourself, it is easy!
[DllImport("NMSPRecognitionLib.dll", EntryPoint = "GetResults")]
public static extern IntPtr GetResultsExt();
[...]
string result = Marshal.PtrToStringAnsi(GetResultsExt())
No 100% guarantee, but worth a try.
I have found that it is usually easier to write a wrapper in C++/CLI around the C++ native code. A C++/CLI class can directly call and use native C++, but is accessible from C# (and any .Net language). In my experience, using DLLImport as you do leads to hard to debug and find errors.
I have written a dll in C#, offering a class for use. The dll is called by a C program that I have written. (It’s a plugin to some program. I have to write the plugin’s code in C, but I want to use the functionality of .NET, therefore the dll).
In the dll, I want to open up a stream and do other stuff that should be persistent between two calls to the dll. That is represented in the following code by the private member Connector.
namespace myCSharpDll
{
// the c++ program calls this methods
public interface IAccess
{
double Initialize();
double Timestep(double time, double[] values);
...
}
// E is the beginning of another program my dll should connect to, therefore the names
public class EAccess : IAccess
{
// EConnector is another class I defined in the same dll
private EConnector Connector;
public double InitializeE()
{
Connector = new EPConnector();
}
public double Timestep(double time, double[] values)
{
return Connector.Connect();
}
When I make a call to InitializeE() and later one to Timestep() the Connector oject points to NULL.
What do I have to do that when I call Timestep() from my C code, that I can access the before created instance of Connector?
I probably search in the wrong direction at all. Any tips are appreciated.
If I am not wrong you want to maintain a single object throughout the use of dll in c. If that is the case try something similar to singleton pattern.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singleton_pattern
What singleton emphazises is you create only single object for a class and use it to perform all the work you need. Basically you might need a function that does something like this,
public class EAccess : IAccess
{
private static EConnector Connector
public EConnector getConnector(){
if(Connector == null){
Connector = new EConnector();
}
return Connector;
}
public double Timestep(double time, double[] values)
{
return getConnector().Connect();
}
};
Even though this is not the traditional way of doing things using singleton but I think it still does the work. I may be wrong. Please correct me if I have misunderstood something.
Thanks SLaks for asking for my C/C++ code. That is where the problem was located. It was simpler than I thought. I found the mistake while putting together the code to show you.
I know that C and C++ is not the same, the plugin structure is just a little weird. Most of the code was generated by a wizard. I just had to fill in my code. It's a cpp file, but the code seems to be C. Well, I think that is off topic.
Here it is, I extraced the most important lines.
// the dll is connected via COM, using the type library file that regasm generated
#import "[path]\myCSharpDll.tlb" raw_interfaces_only
using namespace myCSharpDll;
static void OnActivate (IfmDocument, Widget);
//off topic: this are the weird lines the wizard put in my way
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C"
#endif /* __cplusplus */
// when the plugin is called by the host program, this function is called
static void OnActivate (IfmDocument pDoc, Widget button)
{
InitializeIntermediate(pDoc);
Timestep1(...);
}
static void InitializeIntermediate(IfmDocument pDoc)
{
// Initialize COM.
HRESULT hr = CoInitialize(NULL);
IEPAccessPtr pIEPAccess(__uuidof(EPAccess));
double result = -1;
pIEPAccess->InitializeEP (&result);
...
}
static void Timestep1(...)
{
IEPAccessPtr pIEPAccess(__uuidof(EPAccess));
double result = -1.1;
pIEPAccess->Timestep (...);
...
// now I get a wrong result back here, because this call leads to nowhere as
// the connector object in the dll is void
}
I realized that I am requesting a second instance with that line
IEPAccessPtr pIEPAccess(__uuidof(EPAccess));
So I changed that pointer to one single instance and everything is fine. Thanks for your comments!
I am calling an function from a DLL which is loaded run-time (Using LoadLibrary()).
This DLL is written in C++ and my code is in C#.
API requires Structure Pointer. I am passing "ref" instead of Pointer.
While doing this, I getting "AccessViolationException". After 3 days of Googling, I think the problem could be solved by Pinning the Structure so that GC won't disturb it.
(See: Passing struct by reference causing AccessViolationException)
My question is Can I pin a structure without using any Pointers? Because I don't want to pass a pointer to function.
Code is as follows:
public class TestClass
{
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential,CharSet=CharSet.Ansi)]
public struct MsgFormat
{
public Int32 MsgID;
public Int32 RxID;
[MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.ByValArray,SizeConst=13)]
public Char[] MsgData;
}
unsafe public delegate Int32 ReadMessage(Int32 ConnectID,ref MsgFormat Message);
ReadMessage fp_ReadMessage;
void Connection()
{
IntPtr pDLLHandle;
pDLLHandle=LoadLibrary(Connect.dll); // Load Required DLL
IntPtr fPtr= GetProcAddress(pDLLHandle,"ReadMessage");
fp_ReadMessage=(ReadMessage)Marshal.GetDelegateForFunctionPointer(fPtr,typeof(ReadMessage)); // Get Function Pointer for API
}
void Read()
{
MsgFormat Rx_Msg=new MsgFormat();
Int32 nReturnValue;
Int32 nConnectID=0; // Value is assigned for Testing the Function
/* Also Tried:
Rx_Msg.MsgData=new Char[13]; */
nReturnValue= fp_ReadMessage(nConnectID,ref Rx_Msg); // "ReadMessage" will return info in Rx_Msg;
/* Call to fp_ReadMessage gives me "AccessViolationException". I have tried making that Ref to IntPtr even Passed IntPtr.Zero Still I am getting the error */
}
}
}
Regards,
Swanand!
I don't think pinning will help you here. The CLR will ensure that any parameters you pass to an interop call don't move in memory until the call returns.
So the only situation when you need to do some manual pinning is if the function you call stores the pointer and writes to it later.
To know why you get an access violation, we need more information about the native function you're calling (like the function signature).