microsoft/CsWin32 v0.3.236

v0.3.236

Repository: microsoft/CsWin32

Tag: v0.3.236

Published: 2025-10-30T17:02:55Z

Prerelease: no

Release notes: NOTE: This changes the signature of methods with optional parameters. This change is also documented at https://microsoft.github.io/CsWin32/docs/getting-started.html:

Optional out/ref parameters

Some parameters in win32 are [optional, out] or [optional, in, out]. C# does not have an idiomatic way to represent this concept, so for any method that has such parameters, CsWin32 will generate two versions: one with all ref or out parameters included, and one with all such parameters omitted. For example:

// Omitting the optional parameter:
IsTextUnicode(buffer);

// Passing ref for optional parameter:
IS_TEXT_UNICODE_RESULT result = default;
IsTextUnicode(buffer, ref result);

Working with Span-typed and MemorySize-d parameters

In the Win32 APIs there are many functions where one parameter is a buffer (void* or byte*) and another parameter is the size of that buffer. When generating for a target framework that supports Spans, there will be overloads of these functions that take a Span which represents both of these parameters, since a Span refers to a chunk of memory and a length. For example, an API like IsTextUnicode has a void* parameter whose length is described by the iSize parameter in the native signature. The CsWin32 projection of this method will be:

BOOL IsTextUnicode(ReadOnlySpan lpv, ref IS_TEXT_UNICODE_RESULT lpiResult)

Instead of passing the buffer and length separately, in this projection you pass just one parameter. Span is a flexible type with many things that can be converted to it safely. You will also see Span parameters for things that may look like a struct but are variable sized. For example, InitializeAcl looks like it returns an ACL struct but the parameter is annotated with a [MemorySize] attribute in the metadata, indicating it is variable-sized based on another parameter. Thus, the cswin32 projection of this method will project this parameter as a Span since the size of the parameter is variable:

// The cswin32 signature:
static BOOL InitializeAcl(Span pAcl, ACE_REVISION dwAclRevision) { ... }

And you would call this by creating a buffer to receive the ACL. Then, after the call you can reinterpret the buffer as an ACL:

// Make a buffer
Span buffer = new byte[CalculateAclSize(...)];
InitializeAcl(buffer, ACE_REVISION.ACL_REVISION);

// The beginning of the buffer is an ACL, so cast it to a ref:
ref ACL acl = ref MemoryMarshal.AsRef(buffer);

// Or treat it as a Span:
Span aclSpan = MemoryMarshal.Cast(buffer);

CsWin32 will also generate a struct-typed parameter for convenience but this overload will pass sizeof(T) for the length parameter to the underlying Win32 API, so this only makes sense in some overloads such as SHGetFileInfo where the parameter has an annotation indicating it's variable-sized, but the size is only ever sizeof(SHFILEINFOW):

// Span overload:
static nuint SHGetFileInfo(string pszPath, FILE_FLAGS_AND_ATTRIBUTES dwFileAttributes, Span psfi, SHGFI_FLAGS uFlags)
// ref SHGETFILEINFOW overload:
static nuint SHGetFileInfo(string pszPath, FILE_FLAGS_AND_ATTRIBUTES dwFileAttributes, ref SHFILEINFOW psfi, SHGFI_FLAGS uFlags)

Changes:

• #1511: Improve projection of MemorySize-d and optional ref/out parameters