r2pipe

The r2pipe APIs are based on a single r2 primitive found behind r_core_cmd_str() which is a function that accepts a string parameter describing the r2 command to run and returns a string with the result.

The decision behind this design comes from a series of benchmarks with different libffi implementations and resulted that using the native API is more complex and slower than just using raw command strings and parsing the output.

As long as the output can be tricky to parse, it's recommended to use the JSON output and deserializing them into native language objects which results much more handy than handling and maintaining internal data structures and pointers.

Also, memory management results into a much simpler thing because you only have to care about freeing the resulting string.

This directory contains different implementations of the r2pipe API for different languages which could handle different communication backends:

• Grab R2PIPE{_IN|_OUT} environment variables
• Spawn r2 -q0 and communicate with pipe(2)
• Plain TCP connection
• HTTP queries (connecting to a remote webserver)
• RAP protocol (r2 own's remote protocol)

Most of the language enable asyncronous capabilities in order to handle the result of the operation in a callback, allowing a single program to interact with multiple instances or connections to different r2 sessions at the same time.

• Syncronous
• Asyncronous

In addition, r2pipe scripts can be used to write plugins for radare2 or extend current functionalities:

• Assembler/Disassembler plugin for RAsm
• RIO plugin to abstract read/write/system operations
• Syscall handler for the ESIL emulator
• ...

The most popular implementations of r2pipe are:

• NodeJS / TypeScript
• Python
• Swift
• C/Nim/Vala/C++

But there is r2pipe for:

          pipe spawn async http tcp rap json plug lib buff
AWK         X     -     -    -    -   -    -    -   -   -
C           X     X     -    X    X   X    X    X   X   X
C++/Qt      X     X     -    -    -   -    X    -   X   -
C# / F#     X     X     X    X    -   -    -    -   X   -
Crystal     -     -     -    -    -   -    X    -   X   -
D           X     -     -    -    -   -    X    -   -   -
Erlang      X     X     -    -    -   -    -    -   -   -
Go          X     X     -    -    -   -    X    -   -   -
Haskell     X     X     -    X    -   -    X    -   -   -
Java/Groovy -     X     -    X    -   -    -    -   X   -
Lisp        -     X     -    -    -   -    X    -   -   -
NewLisp     X     X     -    X    -   -    X    -   X   -
Nim         -     -     -    X    -   -    X    -   X   -
NodeJS      X     X     X    X    X   -    X    X   -   X
Ocaml       -     X     -    -    -   -    X    -   -   -
Perl        X     X     -    X    X   -    X    -   -   -
PHP         -     X     -    -    -   -    -    -   -   -
Python      X     X     X    X    X   X    X    X   X   -
Ruby        X     X     -    -    -   -    X    -   -   -
Rust        X     X     -    X    X   -    X    -   -   -
Swift       X     X     X    X    -   -    X    -   X   -
PosixShell  X     X     -    X    -   -    X    -   -   -
Vala        X     X     X    -    -   -    -    -   -   -
V           X     X     -    -    -   -    -    X   -   -
Clojure     X     X     -    -    -   -    -    -   -   -

--pancake