How to use C++ in Go

Update: I've succeeded in linking a small test C++ class with Go

If you wrap you C++ code with a C interface you should be able to call your library with cgo (see the example of gmp in $GOROOT/misc/cgo/gmp).

I'm not sure if the idea of a class in C++ is really expressible in Go, as it doesn't have inheritance.

Here's an example:

I have a C++ class defined as:

// foo.hpp
class cxxFoo {
public:
  int a;
  cxxFoo(int _a):a(_a){};
  ~cxxFoo(){};
  void Bar();
};

// foo.cpp
#include <iostream>
#include "foo.hpp"
void
cxxFoo::Bar(void){
  std::cout<<this->a<<std::endl;
}

which I want to use in Go. I'll use the C interface

// foo.h
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
  typedef void* Foo;
  Foo FooInit(void);
  void FooFree(Foo);
  void FooBar(Foo);
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif

(I use a void* instead of a C struct so the compiler knows the size of Foo)

The implementation is:

//cfoo.cpp
#include "foo.hpp"
#include "foo.h"
Foo FooInit()
{
  cxxFoo * ret = new cxxFoo(1);
  return (void*)ret;
}
void FooFree(Foo f)
{
  cxxFoo * foo = (cxxFoo*)f;
  delete foo;
}
void FooBar(Foo f)
{
  cxxFoo * foo = (cxxFoo*)f;
  foo->Bar();
}

with all that done, the Go file is:

// foo.go
package foo
// #include "foo.h"
import "C"
import "unsafe"
type GoFoo struct {
     foo C.Foo;
}
func New()(GoFoo){
     var ret GoFoo;
     ret.foo = C.FooInit();
     return ret;
}
func (f GoFoo)Free(){
     C.FooFree(unsafe.Pointer(f.foo));
}
func (f GoFoo)Bar(){
     C.FooBar(unsafe.Pointer(f.foo));
}

The makefile I used to compile this was:

// makefile
TARG=foo
CGOFILES=foo.go
include $(GOROOT)/src/Make.$(GOARCH)
include $(GOROOT)/src/Make.pkg
foo.o:foo.cpp
    g++ $(_CGO_CFLAGS_$(GOARCH)) -fPIC -O2 -o $@ -c $(CGO_CFLAGS) $<
cfoo.o:cfoo.cpp
    g++ $(_CGO_CFLAGS_$(GOARCH)) -fPIC -O2 -o $@ -c $(CGO_CFLAGS) $<
CGO_LDFLAGS+=-lstdc++
$(elem)_foo.so: foo.cgo4.o foo.o cfoo.o
    gcc $(_CGO_CFLAGS_$(GOARCH)) $(_CGO_LDFLAGS_$(GOOS)) -o $@ $^ $(CGO_LDFLAGS)

Try testing it with:

// foo_test.go
package foo
import "testing"
func TestFoo(t *testing.T){
    foo := New();
    foo.Bar();
    foo.Free();
}

You'll need to install the shared library with make install, then run make test. Expected output is:

gotest
rm -f _test/foo.a _gotest_.6
6g -o _gotest_.6 foo.cgo1.go foo.cgo2.go foo_test.go
rm -f _test/foo.a
gopack grc _test/foo.a _gotest_.6  foo.cgo3.6
1
PASS

Seems that currently SWIG is best solution for this:

http://www.swig.org/Doc2.0/Go.html

It supports inheritance and even allows to subclass C++ class with Go struct so when overridden methods are called in C++ code, Go code is fired.

Section about C++ in Go FAQ is updated and now mentions SWIG and no longer says "because Go is garbage-collected it will be unwise to do so, at least naively".

You can't quite yet from what I read in the FAQ:

Do Go programs link with C/C++ programs?

There are two Go compiler implementations, gc (the 6g program and friends) and gccgo. Gc uses a different calling convention and linker and can therefore only be linked with C programs using the same convention. There is such a C compiler but no C++ compiler. Gccgo is a GCC front-end that can, with care, be linked with GCC-compiled C or C++ programs.

The cgo program provides the mechanism for a “foreign function interface” to allow safe calling of C libraries from Go code. SWIG extends this capability to C++ libraries.