ABIspecific

ABIspecific is a term used in software engineering to denote artifacts, code, or behavior that are tightly tied to a particular Application Binary Interface (ABI). Artifacts labeled ABIspecific rely on the concrete layout and conventions defined by that ABI, as opposed to portable, ABI-agnostic interfaces. This specificity affects binary compatibility, portability, and maintainability, since different ABIs may specify distinct calling conventions, data type sizes, alignment rules, name mangling, and endianness.

Common ABIspecific characteristics include function calling conventions (how arguments are passed and who cleans up the stack), data structure layout, structure padding, and type sizes; binary-encoded data or libraries that assume a particular endianness; and dynamic linking behavior such as symbol versioning and relocation. As a result, ABIspecific code must be built for the target platform's ABI and may require separate builds for different architectures, even if the source code is identical.

Managing ABI specificity involves practices such as maintaining per-ABI build configurations, isolating ABI-dependent code behind portable interfaces, and providing wrappers or adapters. Compiler and toolchain options can select the desired ABI, for example, compiler flags on certain architectures and platform SDKs that document the supported ABIs (for example, Windows x86/x64 versus Unix-like System V ABIs).

ABIspecific considerations are especially important in low-level libraries, operating system components, embedded systems, and cross-compiled software. When ABI drift occurs or multiple ABIs are in use, projects may publish per-ABI binaries or utilize compatibility shims to preserve interoperability.