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LibPARI.jl

A Julia wrapper for the PARI/GP number-theory library.

LibPARI embeds the PARI/GP C library in a Julia process and exposes it to Julia code in two complementary ways:

  • Generated bindings — nearly 1200 PARI functions, generated directly from PARI's own machine-readable function database (pari.desc), reachable through the LibPARI.PARI submodule. See API reference.
  • A hand-written core — a Gen value type wrapping every PARI object, idiomatic numeric operators, type conversions to and from Julia numbers, a GP expression evaluator, and safe library lifecycle and error handling.

What LibPARI gives you

  • Gen is a PariObject, not a Julia Number. One wrapper type covers every PARI object — matrices, strings and closures included — so LibPARI declares the arithmetic explicitly rather than claiming a Number supertype: build a Gen from Julia integers, floats and rationals and use +, -, *, /, ^, and == directly, with a Julia number on either side.
  • Exact arithmetic of arbitrary size. PARI's bignum integers, rationals, and reals, with conversions back to Julia's BigInt and fixed-width integer types.
  • The whole of GP, one string away. gp_eval evaluates any GP-language expression — the escape hatch for functions the generated bindings do not cover.
  • A safe C boundary. Every PARI error becomes a catchable PariError; a PARI longjmp never unwinds past Julia. PARI's transient stack is kept leak-free, and each Gen frees its own storage.
  • Parallel and thread-safe. Each Julia OS thread gets its own PARI context, so concurrent calls into the PARI library run in parallel on multiple cores — and a PARI error raised on any thread, even simultaneously from many, is caught safely as a PariError.
  • Type-stable and precompiled — built to SciML inference standards, with a precompilation workload for a fast first call.

Status

LibPARI is at version 0.18.0. The hand-written core (lifecycle, Gen, error handling, conversions, the numeric API, precision, containers, display, the pari entry point and the GP evaluator) and the generated binding layer are complete; the library is platform-correct, parallel, and thread-safe.

0.18.0 narrows the optional Symbolics.jl bridge to Symbolics 7, and 0.17.0 before it carried breaking changes to the display contract and the generated bindings — see the changelog before upgrading. The API is still being reshaped and the package stays in 0.x; ROADMAP.md Part II tracks what remains.

Both LibPARI and PARI_jll are registered in the Julia General registry — a plain Pkg.add("LibPARI") installs everything on Linux, macOS, and Windows. See Getting started for the install command.

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