SCION PAN Bindings for C, C++, and Python

Language bindings for the PAN (Path Aware Networking) library of the SCION Internet architecture project. The PAN library and other SCION demo applications (in Go) can be found in the scion-apps repository: https://github.com/netsec-ethz/scion-apps

More information on SCION: https://www.scion.org/

Requirements

Most of the open-source implementation of SCION is written in Go. The bindings in this repository use Cgo to export the Go functions to C. The exported C functions can then be called from the C++ and Python wrappers. Therefore you will need the Go compiler in addition to a C and C++ compiler. The Python bindings require an installation of Python 3.

Since PAN depends on quic-go and quic-go only supports a narrow range of Go versions with each release, your system-wide installation of Go might be too old or too new to compile PAN. The current release of pan-bindings has been tested with Go 1.22.8. If you have an unsupported version of Go installed, you can download a separate copy of Go and specify the absolute path the to go binary in the CMake cache variable GO_BINARY (defaults to go). Go itself can install additional version, e.g.:

go install golang.org/dl/go1.22.8@latest
# Go will usually install the new go binary in `~/go/bin/`. Add this directrory
# to PATH or use the full path for the next command.
go1.22.8 download
# Run cmake with -D GO_BINARY=$(which go1.22.8)

Building the C++ bindings requires standalone (non-boost) Asio. The C++ examples require ncurses on Linux.

Building

CMake is used as Makefile generator.

Linux

Release:

mkdir -p build/release
cmake -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -D BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON -B build/release
cmake --build build/release

Debug:

mkdir -p build/debug
cmake -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -D BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON -B build/debug
cmake --build build/debug

Installation (by default to /usr/local):

sudo cmake --install build/release
sudo ldconfig

This will install the following files:

${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/include/pan/pan.h
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/include/pan/pan_cdefs.h
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib/libpan.so.1.1.0
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib/libpan.so.1
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib/libpan.so
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib/libpancpp.so.1.1.0
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib/libpancpp.so.1
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/lib/libpancpp.so
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/include/pan/pan.hpp
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/include/pan/go_handle.hpp
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/bin/scion-echo
${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/bin/scion-echo-async

The debug versions of the libraries have a d suffix and can be installed in parallel to the release version.

Windows 10/11 (MSYS2 MinGW)

Install MSYS2 and Go. The following MSYS2 packets are required:

pacman -Sy
pacman -S \
  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc   \
  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-cmake \
  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-ninja \
  mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-asio

Open an MSYS2 UCRT64 environment and navigate to the project root (Windows drive letters are available as /c and so on).

mkdir build
cmake -D BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON -D GO_BINARY="$PROGRAMFILES/Go/bin/go.exe" -G 'Ninja Multi-Config' -B build
# Release:
cmake --build build --config Release
# Debug:
cmake --build build --config Debug

Headers and binaries can be installed as well:

cmake --install build --config Release --prefix /usr/local

Doxygen Documentation

You can generate API documentation in docs/gen by running doxygen in the project's root directory.

Using the Bindings

For C:

• Include pan/pan.h and link with -lpan.

For C++:

• Include pan/pan.hpp and link with -lpancpp.

For Python:

• Make sure Python can find the contents of the python directory, e.g., by adding it to PYTHONPATH and import the module (import pan)

Example Applications

The examples directory contains simple echo servers/clients demonstrating both blocking and non-blocking IO.

Usage example (assuming the tiny4.topo topology from the SCION repository):

# Server
export SCION_DAEMON_ADDRESS=127.0.0.19:30255
scion-echo --local 127.0.0.1:51000       # blocking
scion-echo-async --local 127.0.0.1:51000 # non-blocking
# Client
export SCION_DAEMON_ADDRESS=127.0.0.27:30255
scion-echo --remote 1-ff00:0:111,127.0.0.1:51000       # blocking
scion-echo-async --remote 1-ff00:0:111,127.0.0.1:51000 # non-blocking

Python version:

# Server
export PYTHONPATH=${PWD}/python:${PYTHONPATH}
export SCION_DAEMON_ADDRESS=127.0.0.19:30255
examples/python/echo.py --local 127.0.0.1:51000         # blocking
examples/python/echo.py --async --local 127.0.0.1:51000 # non-blocking
# Client
export PYTHONPATH=${PWD}/python:${PYTHONPATH}
export SCION_DAEMON_ADDRESS=127.0.0.27:30255
examples/python/echo.py --remote 1-ff00:0:111,127.0.0.1:51000         # blocking
examples/python/echo.py --async --remote 1-ff00:0:111,127.0.0.1:51000 # non-blocking