Ipcez 0.1.0

ipcez C# bindings

.NET 8 library that calls the ipcez C FFI via P/Invoke.

Recommendation: Use Ipcez.Connect(addr) for most cases: pass one endpoint string and set target / os in the environment for local, or use a ws:// / wss:// URL for remote. No need to pass target/os or pick address format yourself.

Requirements

• .NET 8 SDK
• Built ipcez_ffi native library (see below)

When a connection or I/O error occurs, the core library logs a message to stderr (e.g. ipcez: error: ...).

Build the native library

From the repository root:

cargo build -p ipcez-ffi --release

On Windows the library is target/release/ipcez_ffi.dll. The C# project has a post-build step that copies it from target\release (or target\debug when building in Debug) into the output directory, so building the C# project after building the Rust crate will place the DLL next to your assembly.

If the copy fails (e.g. path differs), set the output of ipcez-ffi to this repo’s target/release and ensure that directory is on the process path when running your app, or copy ipcez_ffi.dll manually into the application output directory.

Project layout

• Ipcez/ — main project.
  • Native.cs — P/Invoke declarations.
  • Ipcez.cs — static API: Connect(addr).
  • IpcezSocket.cs — socket wrapper with Read, Write, Close, IDisposable.

How to use

1. Local: Set env target=local and os=windows (or os=linux). Pass the endpoint: pipe name (e.g. "mypipe") on Windows, or socket path (e.g. "/tmp/ipcez.sock") on Linux. The library adds \\.\pipe\ on Windows if needed.
2. Remote: Pass a WebSocket URL: "ws://host:port/path" or "wss://...". Env is ignored for URLs.

Use Ipcez.Connect(addr) for this behavior.

API

• Ipcez.Connect(string addr) -> IpcezSocket — Connect with one endpoint string; uses env for local, or ws/wss URL for remote.
• IpcezSocket.Read(byte[] buffer) -> int — Read into buffer; returns bytes read.
• IpcezSocket.Write(byte[] buffer) -> int — Write; returns bytes written.
• IpcezSocket.Close() — Close the socket. Implements IDisposable for using support.

Minimal example (recommended: simple connect)

using System.Text;
using Ipcez;

// Set env: target=local, os=windows (or linux). For remote, use a ws:// or wss:// URL.
using var socket = Ipcez.Connect("mypipe");  // or "ws://localhost:8080/" for remote
socket.Write(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("hello"));
var buf = new byte[256];
int n = socket.Read(buf);

The C# wrapper exposes only single-endpoint connect. For explicit target/os you would need the Rust API or an extended FFI.

Linux / macOS

The csproj copy step currently targets the Windows DLL. For Linux/macOS, build the FFI and copy libipcez_ffi.so or libipcez_ffi.dylib into the application output and ensure it is loadable (e.g. LD_LIBRARY_PATH or same directory as the app). P/Invoke in Native.cs may need a DllImport name per platform if the file names differ.