P/Invoke

A collection of libraries intended to contain all P/Invoke method signatures for popular operating systems. Think of it as http://pinvoke.net, but proven to compile and work properly, and often with sample usage in the form of unit tests.

Each library is exposed as its own NuGet package, and may include .NET Portable libraries as applicable, exposing those APIs that are available only on Desktop, or Store, or both as appropriate.

Usage

Install the NuGet package(s) for the DLLs you want to P/Invoke into. For example, if you want to P/Invoke into Win32's BCrypt.dll, install this package:

Install-Package PInvoke.BCrypt

Then import the following namespaces, as demonstrated below (if using C# 6):

using PInvoke;
using static PInvoke.BCrypt; // Supported in C# 6 (VS2015) and later.

This will allow you to conveniently call these methods directly by method name:

var error = BCryptOpenAlgorithm(AlgorithmIdentifiers.BCRYPT_SHA256_ALGORITHM); // C# 6 syntax
var error = BCrypt.BCryptOpenAlgorithm(BCrypt.AlgorithmIdentifiers.BCRYPT_SHA256_ALGORITHM); // C# 5 syntax

Sometimes a PInvoke method may have multiple overloads. For example every method that accepts struct* parameters has an overload that accepts IntPtr in its place. In other cases there may be overloads that accept struct* and struct?. In some of these cases that can lead to compiler errors if you pass in null because both struct* and struct? overloads can match. To resolve the issue, add a cast to your null: (struct?)null to resolve the ambiguity.

Design goals

Provide a slightly higher than lowest level API for P/Invoke signatures. For example, instead of IntPtr parameters and uint flags, you'll see SafeHandle-derived types as parameters and flags enum types. API documentation will be provided via XML doc comments for easy reading with Intellisense, along with links to the describing pages on MSDN or elsewhere as applicable.

In some cases we offer several overloads of a given native method to offer native pointer and IntPtr access. We encourage folks to try writing C# unsafe code before using IntPtr because it (ironically) can often be easier to write correct and efficient code using native pointers than all the casting and Marshal call overhead that IntPtr requires. Note that when a method's only use of a native pointer is its return type, the IntPtr returning variant must be given a different method name by CLR overloading rules, so look for the same method but with an _IntPtr suffix.

Distribution

This library should be available on NuGet for easy consumption by your projects. You may also copy and paste the P/Invoke signatures you need directly into your projects if desired.

Packages:

Library	Package name	NuGet	Description
advapi32.dll	PInvoke.AdvApi32		Windows Advanced Services
bcrypt.dll	PInvoke.BCrypt		Windows Cryptography API: Next Generation
crypt32.dll	PInvoke.Crypt32		Windows Cryptography API
DwmApi.dll	PInvoke.DwmApi		Desktop Window Manager
gdi32.dll	PInvoke.Gdi32		Windows Graphics Device Interface
hid.dll	PInvoke.Hid		Windows Human Interface Devices
kernel32.dll	PInvoke.Kernel32		Windows Kernel API
mscoree.dll	PInvoke.MSCorEE		.NET Framework CLR host
msi.dll	PInvoke.Msi		Microsoft Installer
fusion.dll	PInvoke.Fusion		.NET Framework Fusion
ncrypt.dll	PInvoke.NCrypt		Windows Cryptography API: Next Generation
netapi32.dll	PInvoke.NetApi32		Network Management
ntdll.dll	PInvoke.NTDll		Windows NTDll
psapi.dll	PInvoke.Psapi		Windows Process Status API
setupapi.dll	PInvoke.SetupApi		Windows setup API
shell32.dll	PInvoke.Shell32		Windows Shell
SHCore.dll	PInvoke.SHCore		Windows Shell
user32.dll	PInvoke.User32		Windows User Interface
userenv.dll	PInvoke.Userenv		Windows User Environment
uxtheme.dll	PInvoke.UxTheme		Windows Visual Styles
WtsApi32.dll	PInvoke.WtsApi32		Windows Remote Desktop Services

Check out the P/Invoke coverage we have for each library.

Contribution

Please consider contributing more P/Invoke method signatures to this project. Once you contribute, you can immediately consume your additions without waiting for another public release of the library.