syscall - How to use LPWSTR in Go? - windows

I'm trying to create a thin wrapper of Windows MMDevice API for Go, and I faced the problem about Windows data types for strings.
According to the documentation of IMMDevice::GetId method, it takes the parameter below:
HRESULT GetId(
[out] LPWSTR *ppstrId
);
And here is my Go code that corresponds to the method above. (github.com/moutend/ywca/immdevice_windows.go:13)
func getId(mmd *IMMDevice, strId *uint16) (err error) {
hr, _, _ := syscall.Syscall(
mmd.VTable().GetId,
2,
uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(mmd)),
uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(strId)),
0)
// ...
}
My understand is that the LPWSTR is the pointer to the array of uint16 values, but it causes invalid pointer error.
What type should I use in this case? Thanks.

It is a pointer to a pointer. The LPWSTR type is a wchar_t* and therefor the parameter in that method is a wchar_t**.
You are not passing in a string buffer for the method to fill. The method will allocate memory with CoTaskMemAlloc and return this memory address back to you after it has been filled. You are responsible for freeing this memory with CoTaskMemAlloc.

The first thing to do is read the documentation for the Windows function.
IMMDevice::GetId
method,
HRESULT GetId(
[out] LPWSTR *ppstrId
);
Parameters
ppstrId [out]
Pointer to a pointer variable into which the method writes the address
of a null-terminated, wide-character string containing the endpoint
device ID. The method allocates the storage for the string. The caller
is responsible for freeing the storage, when it is no longer needed,
by calling the CoTaskMemFree function. If the GetId call fails,
*ppstrId is NULL. For information about CoTaskMemFree, see the Windows SDK documentation.
Return value
If the method succeeds, it returns S_OK. If it fails, possible return
codes include, but are not limited to, the values shown in the
following table.
In particular, "ppstrId [out] Pointer to a pointer variable ..." You have strId *uint16 or *pstrId when I would expect you to have strId **uint16 or *ppstrId.

Related

E_INVALIDARG from (WIC) CoCreateInstance

In trying to create an IWIC Factory, the CoCreateInstance function is returning E_INVALIDARG (One or more arguments are invalid). I checked MSDN and I cannot see which of these arguments could be invalid.
IWICImagingFactory* iwicfactory = nullptr;
HRESULT IWFactHRes = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_WICImagingFactory,
NULL,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
IID_IWICImagingFactory,
(LPVOID*)iwicfactory
);
Am I missing something?
The final parameter to CoCreateInstance is the
address of pointer variable that receives the interface pointer requested in riid.
Your code currently passes the pointer variable, not the address of it. You have to change
(LPVOID*)iwicfactory
to
(LPVOID*)&iwicfactory
Additional notes:
It is a good idea to use the IID_PPV_ARGS macro, which ensures that IID and interface pointer are in sync as well as removing the need for a cast:
HRESULT IWFactHRes = CoCreateInstance(CLSID_WICImagingFactory,
NULL,
CLSCTX_INPROC_SERVER,
IID_PPV_ARGS(&iwicfactory)
);
COM needs to be initialized on the calling thread before the call to CoCreateInstance. Call either CoInitialize or CoInitializeEx to do so.

C++11 Pointer (void**)&data

I'm still learning C++, and I'm doing some API work, but I'm, having trouble parsing this pointer arrangement.
void* data;
res = npt.receive(0x1007, params, 1, response, (void**)&data, size);
uint32_t* op = (uint32_t*)data;
uint32_t num = *op;
op++;
Can anyone explain what is going on with that void pointer? I see it being defined, it does something in the res line(maybe initialized?), then it's copied to an uint32 pointer, and dereferenced in num. Can anyone help me parse the (void**)&data declaration?
Pay attention when you use the void pointer:
The void type of pointer is a special type of pointer. In C++, void represents the absence of type. Therefore, void pointers are pointers that point to a value that has no type (and thus also an undetermined length and undetermined dereferencing properties).
This gives void pointers a great flexibility, by being able to point to any data type, from an integer value or a float to a string of characters. In exchange, they have a great limitation: the data pointed to by them cannot be directly dereferenced (which is logical, since we have no type to dereference to), and for that reason, any address in a void pointer needs to be transformed into some other pointer type that points to a concrete data type before being dereferenced.
From C++ reference
Firstly: What is npt?
Secondly: Guessing what npt could be some explanation:
// Declare a pointer to void named data
void* data;
// npt.receive takes as 5th parameter a pointer to pointer to void,
// which is why you provide the address of the void* using &data.
// The void ** appears to be unnecessary unless the data type of the
// param is not void **
// What is "npt"?
res = npt.receive(0x1007, params, 1, response, (void**)&data, size);
// ~.receive initialized data with contents.
// Now make the uint32_t data usable by casting void * to uint32_t*
uint32_t* op = (uint32_t*)data;
// Use the data by dereferencing it.
uint32_t num = *op;
// Pointer arithmetic: Move the pointer by sizeof(uint32_t).
// Did receive fill in an array?
op++;
Update
Signature of receive is:
<whatever return type> receive(uint16_t code, uint32_t* params, uint8_t nparam, Container& response, void** data, uint32_t& size)
So the data parameter is of type void** already so the explicit type cast to void** using (void**) is not necessary.
Considering the usage, the received data appears to be an array of uint32_t values IN THIS CASE!
Void as a type means no type and no type information regarding size and alignment is available, but is mandatory for lexical and syntactical consistency.
In conjunction with the *, it can be used as a pointer to data of unknown type and must be explicitly cast to another type (adds type information) before any use.
You usually have a void* or void** in an API, if you dont know the specific data type or only received plain byte data.
To understand this please read up C type erasure using void*
Please read up as basics before:
Dynamically allocated C arrays.
Pointers and Pointer Arithmetics.
From the code, ntp.receive tells you whether it receives anything successfully in the return code but it also needs to give you what it receives. It has a pointer that it wants to pass back, so you have to tell it where that pointer is so that it can fill it, hence (void **), a pointer to a pointer, being the address of your pointer, &data.
When you have received it, you know as the developer that what it points to is actually a uint_32 value so you copy the void pointer into one that points to a uint_32. In fact, this step is unnecessary since you could have cast the uint_32 pointer to void** in the above call but we'll let that slide.
Now that you have told the compiler that the pointer points to a 32 bit number, you can take the number on the other end of that pointer (*op) and store it in a local variable. Again, unnecessary, as *op could be used anywhere num is subsequently used.
Hope this helps.

LoadResource() returning hGlobal that I can't interrogate?

The following chunk of code results in err1 = 0 (success) and err2 = 6 (invalid handle).
HGLOBAL hGlobal = LoadResource(hInst, hrSrc);
INT err1 = GetLastError();
UINT gflags = GlobalFlags(hGlobal);
INT err2 = GetLastError();
gflags has a value of 0x8000 which means GMEM_INVALID_HANDLE. I know that the resource exists and if I lock the memory, I get the data in the resource.
My question is why do I get an invalid handle result? Is the memory returned by LoadResource() a 'special' HGLOBAL that is really not what it seems?
The value returned by LoadResource is not really an HGLOBAL.
From the LoadResource documentation:
The return type of LoadResource is HGLOBAL for backward compatibility, not because the function returns a handle to a global memory block. Do not pass this handle to the GlobalLock or GlobalFree function. To obtain a pointer to the first byte of the resource data, call the LockResource function; to obtain the size of the resource, call SizeofResource.
All you ever do with the value returned from LoadResource is pass it to LockResource and SizeofResource.
These functions are this way for reasons of backwards compatibility. Older versions of Windows did return real global memory blocks.

WSASend : Send int or struct

I would like to use MS function to send data.
I didnt find examples where they send other type of data other than const char * .
I tried to send a int, or other, but I failed.
WSASend() and send() both function only take a Char* parameters.
How should i proceed ?
Thanks
Its just a pointer to a buffer, this buffer may contains anything you want.
This char pointer is actually an address to a bytes array, this function requires a length parameter too.
An integer is a 2/4 (short/long) bytes value,
Then if you want to send an integer variable (for example) you have to pass its address, and its length.
WSASend and send are simple functions that send a memory block.
I assume you are talking about C, you have to understand that C's char variables are bytes - 8 bits block, char variables contain any value between 0 and 255.
A pointer to a char var is an address to a byte (which maybe the first cell of a bytes array).
I think thats what confuses you.
I hope you understand.
The const char* parameter indicates that the function is taking a pointer to bytes. Witch really seems to be the result of the original socket api designers being pedantic - C has a generic type to handle any kind of pointer without explicit casts: void*.
You could make a convenience wrapper for send like this - which would allow you to send any (contiguous) thing you can make a pointer to:
int MySend(SOCKET s, const void* buf, int len,int flags)
{
return send(s,(const char*)buf,len,flags);
}
Using void* in place of char* actually makes the api safer, as it can now detect when you do something stupid:
int x=0x1234;
send(s,(const char*)x,sizeof(x),0); // looks right, but is wrong.
mysend(s,x,sizeof(x),0); // this version correctly fails
mysend(s,&x,sizeof(x),0); // correct - pass a pointer to the buffer to send.
WSASend is a bit more tricky to make a convenience wapper for as you have to pass it an array of structs that contain the char*'s - but again its a case of defining an equivalent struct with const void*'s in place of the const char*'s and then casting the data structures to the WSA types in the convenience wrapper. Get it right once, and the rest of the program becomes much easier to determine correct as you don't need casts everywhere hiding potential bugs.

IDebugSymbols::GetNameByOffset and overloaded functions

I'm using IDebugSymbols::GetNameByOffset and I'm finding that I get the same symbol name for different functions that overload the same name.
E.g. The code I'm looking up the symbols for might be as follows:
void SomeFunction(int) {..}
void SomeFunction(float) {..}
At runtime, when I have an address of an instruction from each of these functions I'd like to use GetNameByOffset and tell the two apart somehow. I've experimented with calling SetSymbolOptions toggling the SYMOPT_UNDNAME and SYMOPT_NO_CPP flags as documented here, but this didn't work.
Does anyone know how to tell these to symbols apart in the debugger engine universe?
Edit: Please see me comment on the accepted answer for a minor amendment to the proposed solution.
Quote from dbgeng.h:
// A symbol name may not be unique, particularly
// when overloaded functions exist which all
// have the same name. If GetOffsetByName
// finds multiple matches for the name it
// can return any one of them. In that
// case it will return S_FALSE to indicate
// that ambiguity was arbitrarily resolved.
// A caller can then use SearchSymbols to
// find all of the matches if it wishes to
// perform different disambiguation.
STDMETHOD(GetOffsetByName)(
THIS_
__in PCSTR Symbol,
__out PULONG64 Offset
) PURE;
So, I would get the name with IDebugSymbols::GetNameByOffset() (it comes back like "module!name" I believe), make sure it is an overload (if you're not sure) using IDebugSymbols::GetOffsetByName() (which is supposed to return S_FALSE for multiple overloads), and look up all possibilities with this name using StartSymbolMatch()/EndSymbolMatch(). Not a one liner though (and not really helpful for that matter...)
Another option would be to go with
HRESULT
IDebugSymbols3::GetFunctionEntryByOffset(
IN ULONG64 Offset,
IN ULONG Flags,
OUT OPTIONAL PVOID Buffer,
IN ULONG BufferSize,
OUT OPTIONAL PULONG BufferNeeded
);
// It can be used to retrieve FPO data on a particular function:
FPO_DATA fpo;
HRESULT hres=m_Symbols3->GetFunctionEntryByOffset(
addr, // Offset
0, // Flags
&fpo, // Buffer
sizeof(fpo), // BufferSize
0 // BufferNeeded
));
and then use fpo.cdwParams for basic parameter size discrimination (cdwParams=size of parameters)

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