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capstone ★ 9103 1741 APPLICATION

Capstone is a multi-architecture disassembly engine written in C, derived from LLVM's MC disassembler. It supports over 20 architectures including x86, ARM, AArch64, MIPS, PowerPC, RISC-V, and more. The core library provides a stable C API (cs_open, cs_disasm, cs_option, etc.) and includes per-architecture backends with mapping, disassembler, and instruction printer modules. The architecture is modular: each architecture has a Module.c that registers callbacks into a common cs_struct. The primary data flow is: user provides raw bytes and arch/mode, the engine selects the appropriate disassembler, decodes instructions into MCInst, then prints via instruction printer, optionally filling cs_detail with operand/register/group information. The repository also includes a CLI tool (cstool), extensive test suites (MC regression tests, cstest YAML-based detail tests), fuzzing harnesses, and an automated LLVM sync pipeline (auto-sync) that translates LLVM C++ disassembler code to C using tree-sitter patches. The codebase is well-structured with clean abstractions for operand models (MCInst/MCOperand), string output (SStream), and architecture-specific mapping. The auto-sync tooling is a notable engineering achievement, enabling systematic translation of LLVM backend code to C. Language bindings for Python, Java, OCaml, and others demonstrate the library's embeddability. The test infrastructure is comprehensive, covering both basic disassembly and detailed operand/register analysis. External dependencies are minimal for the core library (pure C), but the auto-sync tooling depends on Python, tree-sitter, clang-format, and lit. Overall, Capstone is a mature, actively maintained disassembly framework with high craftsmanship and reusable components.

RATING: 9.2/10 MAINT: active DRIFT: low
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