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Porting guide for IDA 7.4 turning off IDA 6.x API backwards-compatibility by default

Intended audience: IDAPython developers

The problem

IDA 7.4 turns off IDA 6.x API backwards-compatibility by default.

Although there is a trivial way of turning 6.x backwards-compatibility back on, this should be considered a temporary measure, until the code is ported to the newer APIs (that have started shipping with IDA 7.0, back in 2017.)

Supporting IDA 7.x

Note that the new APIs have been baked in IDAPython since IDA 7.0, meaning that by porting existing IDAPython code according to this guide, you will not just support IDA 7.4: the ported code will also work in IDA 7.3, 7.2, 7.1 and 7.0.

This is a complementary guide

A shipped at the time, which covers a great deal of the changes and is enough to port C/C++ code.

Alas, we now see that it is insufficient when it comes to accompanying developers in the task of porting their IDAPython code to the newer APIs, simply because IDAPython has some specific concepts & constructs, that require special attention.

That being said, this very guide should be considered as a complement to the original guide, and not as a replacement.

The guide

Note: that all qualified names below use their originating IDAPython module’s name (e.g., ida_kernwin) instead of the ‘umbrella’ idaapi module.

The following types have been moved/renamed:

Before

After

Notes

| if the chooser is CH_MULTI, it should return Choose.ALL_CHANGED as part of the returned list, if a refresh is desired | | ida_bytes.data_type_t.__init__ | ida_bytes.data_type_t.__init__ | arguments must be passed sequentially, not by keyword | | ida_idp.IDP_Hooks.auto_queue_empty | ida_idp.IDP_Hooks.ev_auto_queue_empty | | | ida_kernwin.AST_ENABLE_FOR_FORM | ida_kernwin.AST_ENABLE_FOR_WIDGET | | | ida_kernwin.AST_DISABLE_FOR_FORM | ida_kernwin.AST_DISABLE_FOR_WIDGET | | | ida_kernwin.CB_CLOSE_IDB

idc.py

The following table concerns the idc.py module, where a lot of the compatibility layer was removed.

Note:

when the before and after have no parentheses, it means they take the exact same parameters.
when the before and after have parentheses, it means they take somewhat different parameters, and thus one has to be careful when porting

Before

After

Notes

Porting guide for IDA 7.4 turning off IDA 6.x API backwards-compatibility by default

Intended audience: IDAPython developers

The problem

IDA 7.4 turns off IDA 6.x API backwards-compatibility by default.

Supporting IDA 7.x

This is a complementary guide

A shipped at the time, which covers a great deal of the changes and is enough to port C/C++ code.

That being said, this very guide should be considered as a complement to the original guide, and not as a replacement.

The guide

Note: that all qualified names below use their originating IDAPython module’s name (e.g., ida_kernwin) instead of the ‘umbrella’ idaapi module.

The following types have been moved/renamed:

Before

After

Notes

idc.py

The following table concerns the idc.py module, where a lot of the compatibility layer was removed.

Note:

when the before and after have no parentheses, it means they take the exact same parameters.
when the before and after have parentheses, it means they take somewhat different parameters, and thus one has to be careful when porting

Before

After

Notes

Porting guide for IDA 7.4 turning off IDA 6.x API backwards-compatibility by default

hashtagThe problem

hashtagSupporting IDA 7.x

hashtagThis is a complementary guide

hashtagThe guide

hashtagidc.py

Porting guide for IDA 7.4 turning off IDA 6.x API backwards-compatibility by default

hashtagThe problem

hashtagSupporting IDA 7.x

hashtagThis is a complementary guide

hashtagThe guide

hashtagidc.py

The problem

Supporting IDA 7.x

This is a complementary guide

The guide

idc.py

The problem

Supporting IDA 7.x

This is a complementary guide

The guide

idc.py