Native FFI Tutorials

These tutorials show how to use CSharpDB from non-.NET languages via the NativeAOT shared library (CSharpDB.Native). The native library exposes a C-compatible API that any language with FFI support can call.

Prerequisites

  1. Build the native library (requires .NET 10 SDK + C++ toolchain): 
    # Windows
dotnet publish src/CSharpDB.Native/CSharpDB.Native.csproj -c Release -r win-x64

# Linux
dotnet publish src/CSharpDB.Native/CSharpDB.Native.csproj -c Release -r linux-x64

# macOS
dotnet publish src/CSharpDB.Native/CSharpDB.Native.csproj -c Release -r osx-arm64
  2. The published library will be at: 
    src/CSharpDB.Native/bin/Release/net10.0/<rid>/publish/CSharpDB.Native.{dll,so,dylib}

Tutorials

Language Tutorial Dependencies
Python Built-in ctypes wrapper None (uses built-in ctypes)
JavaScript / Node.js koffi-based ESM wrapper koffi (npm package)

Architecture

Your App (Python / Node.js / Go / Rust / ...)
    |
    | FFI call (ctypes / koffi / cgo / extern "C")
    v
CSharpDB.Native.dll (.so / .dylib)   <-- NativeAOT compiled, no .NET runtime
    |
    | Direct function calls
    v
CSharpDB Engine (embedded in the native binary)
    |
    v
Database file on disk (*.db)

Each tutorial includes:

  • A reusable wrapper module that loads the native library and provides an idiomatic API
  • Runnable examples covering CRUD operations, transactions, and queries
  • A README with setup and usage instructions