Glossary
ABI
Application Binary Interface — the low-level contract covering calling conventions, data layout, and system call mechanics between compiled components.
An ABI (Application Binary Interface) is the binary-level contract that allows separately compiled code to interoperate. It encompasses the calling convention, data type sizes and alignment, struct layout rules, name mangling schemes, and how system calls are invoked. While an API is a source-level contract, the ABI is what actually matters at the machine level. When reversing shared libraries or OS interfaces, understanding the target ABI (e.g., System V AMD64, Windows x64, ARM AAPCS) is prerequisite to correctly interpreting function arguments and return values.