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<concept id="GUID-9D278187-8B5E-581D-9869-EE8861048F93" xml:lang="en"><title>Dynamic
Link Libraries</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>
<section id="GUID-5B4A95B4-FE2E-4541-B185-1B4590DE5974"><title>Introduction</title> <p>A
Dynamic Link Library (DLL) contains an executable code that can be shared
by many processes in a system at any one time. A program can link against
a DLL at compile time, meaning that the linker will match the DLL's symbols
(such as function names and variables) with references from the program and
ascertain the address within the DLL of the functions or variables. </p> <p>Alternatively
a program can dynamically load a DLL into memory during execution, locate
the address of a symbol, use it and then unload the DLL. Traditionally and
for greater memory efficiency, Symbian platform links by ordinal, whereas
Unix-like operating systems link by name. The following sections provide example
code to illustrate how the DLL loader works with each operating system. </p><p>The
Symbian platform v9.3 kernel supports all functionalities of P.I.P.S. libraries
- referred to as "P.I.P.S.- ready". Pre v9.3 the kernel only supports the
Symbian platform- standard ordinal lookup in DLLs; it does not support symbolic
lookup. Thus the function <codeph>dlsym()</codeph> cannot be used with a symbolic
name. To overcome this restriction, pass the function's ordinal number as
symbol parameter refer the library's list of exports (the DEF file) for the
function's ordinal number. For example, instead of: <codeph>dlsym(&amp;handle,
"foo")</codeph> use <codeph>dlsym (&amp;handle, "3")</codeph> where the function <codeph>foo()</codeph> has
ordinal 3.</p> </section>
<section id="GUID-CCE3F3DC-307A-41F2-BAB4-523834C12E93"><title>Using shared
libraries in a Unix-like environment</title><p>The following code shows how
a shared library is dynamically loaded and used in a Unix-like environment
using the <codeph>dl</codeph> interface.</p><codeblock xml:space="preserve">int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  //Handle
  void* dll_handle;

  //Function prototype
  void (*printSum)(int a, int b);

  //Error message
  const char* errorMsg;
 
  //Filename of dll to load 
  char dllFileName[] = "/root/PortDoc/Example6/dll/shareddll";

  //Load the dll
  dll_handle = dlopen(dllFileName, RTLD_LAZY);
  if (!dll_handle)
  {
     fprintf(stderr, "Error during load of library: %s\n", dlerror()); 
     return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }

  //Find the symbol
  printSum = dlsym(dll_handle, "printSum");   

  //Get the error message 
  errorMsg = dlerror();
  if (errorMsg)
  {
     fprintf(stderr, "Error during symbol lookup: %s\n", errorMsg);
     return EXIT_FAILURE;
  } 

  //Now call the function
  printSum(4, 6);

  //Dispose of the DLL
  dlclose(dll_handle);

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
</codeblock><p>As an example, the <codeph>shareddll</codeph> might have a
function such as:</p><codeblock xml:space="preserve">void printSum(int a, int b)
    {
    printf("Result is : %d\n", a + b);
    }</codeblock></section>
<section id="GUID-7C649A95-3F73-454B-AAD4-80889D6B34E3"><title>DLLs on Symbian
platform(prior to v9.3)</title><p>Symbian platform programs uses the function
or variable's ordinal position within a DLL to link with DLLs. For example,
implementing a shared DLL on Symbian platform could look like this:</p><codeblock xml:space="preserve">EXPORT_C void printSum(int a, int b)
    {
    printf("Result is : %d\n", a + b);
    }</codeblock><p>Compiling this will generate a <filepath>.def</filepath> file,
which contains the ordinals of each symbol in the DLL. For instance:</p><codeblock xml:space="preserve">EXPORTS
    printSum @ 1 NONAME</codeblock><p>Here, the <filepath>.def</filepath> shows
that the ordinal for the <codeph>printSum()</codeph> function is 1. </p><p>The
following code shows how the <codeph>main()</codeph> function is changed in
P.I.P.S.. </p><codeblock xml:space="preserve">int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  //Handle
  void* dll_handle;

  //Function prototype
  void (*printSum)(int a, int b);

  //Error message
  const char* errorMsg;
 
  //Filename of dll to load 
  char dllFileName[] = "/root/PortDoc/Example6/dll/shareddll";

  //Load the dll
  dll_handle = dlopen(dllFileName, RTLD_LAZY);
  if (!dll_handle)
  {
     fprintf(stderr, "Error during load of library: %s\n", dlerror()); 
     return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }

  //Find the symbol, using the ordinal
  printSum = dlsym(dll_handle, "1");   

  //Get the error message 
  errorMsg = dlerror();
  if (errorMsg)
  {
     fprintf(stderr, "Error during symbol lookup: %s\n", errorMsg);
     return EXIT_FAILURE;
  } 

  //Now call the function
  printSum(4, 6);

  //Dispose of the DLL
  dlclose(dll_handle);

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
</codeblock><p>Note that for the Symbian library loader, the mode parameter
for the <xref href="GUID-51FB35C0-CFC2-357A-8ACA-FE7480C53AD3.dita"><apiname>dlopen()</apiname></xref> function is irrelevant and the library
will be loaded immediately. So although <codeph>RTLD_LAZY</codeph> is the
mode parameter in the example, it will behave just as <codeph>RTLD_NOW</codeph>.
Also note that there is no facility to call any library constructor and destructor
functions using <codeph>__attribute((constructor))</codeph> or <codeph>__attribute((destructor))</codeph>. </p></section>
<section id="GUID-DEF804DF-CECC-4739-9ACD-24F46A945F6E"><title>DLLs on Symbian
platform (v9.3 onwards)</title><p>P.I.P.S. provides APIs from libdl to support
dynamic lookup by name, which is used in Unix-like platforms, instead of the
native Symbian platform lookup by ordinal mechanism. Lookup by name is possible
thanks to the new libdl, which in turn uses the existing <ph>RLibrary</ph> functions
to load and unload DLLs. </p><p>A symbol name lookup version of the dlsym()
function is provided, similar to UNIX®, which does not need any special treatment
(the example shown in the <b>Using Shared libraries in a Unix-like environment</b> section
will suffice). However, it is still necessary to generate the <filepath>.def</filepath> file
for the DLL. The following sections provides a brief summary of the functionality
provided by <codeph>libdl</codeph>. </p><p>The <codeph>libdl</codeph> APIs,
which support dynamic lookup by name, are described in the following table:</p><table id="GUID-71331BB8-6E91-4239-9183-F4B51A383F06">
<tgroup cols="2"><colspec colname="col1"/><colspec colname="col2"/>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><p><b>libdl API</b></p></entry>
<entry><p><b>Description</b></p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><codeph>void *dlopen (const char *path, int mode) </codeph></entry>
<entry><p>Call <xref href="GUID-51FB35C0-CFC2-357A-8ACA-FE7480C53AD3.dita"><apiname>dlopen()</apiname></xref> to gain access to symbols of any
shared library or DLL. If <xref href="GUID-51FB35C0-CFC2-357A-8ACA-FE7480C53AD3.dita"><apiname>dlopen()</apiname></xref> fails for any reason,
it will return a NULL. The default search path for the library can be provided
in the environment variable <codeph>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</codeph>. </p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><codeph>void *dlsym(void *handle, const char *symbol)</codeph></entry>
<entry><p>The <xref href="GUID-6B94A42A-888B-3761-84DA-4FADC6D3B126.dita"><apiname>dlsym()</apiname></xref> function returns the address binding
of the symbol described in the null-terminated character string 'symbol',
as it occurs in the shared object identified by 'handle'. </p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><codeph>int dlclose(void *handle)</codeph></entry>
<entry><p>Call <xref href="GUID-F74DC7CB-1E3F-368E-99A7-DD4B38FF7EF0.dita"><apiname>dlclose()</apiname></xref> with a valid dlopen-ed handle
to remove it from the cache list maintained by <xref href="GUID-51FB35C0-CFC2-357A-8ACA-FE7480C53AD3.dita"><apiname>dlopen()</apiname></xref>.
If it fails, dlclose() will return -1; otherwise, it will return 0. </p></entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><codeph>char *dlerror(void)</codeph></entry>
<entry><p>Call <xref href="GUID-F5B2CFAB-99F5-3A24-8F6C-ECAA61922FB0.dita"><apiname>dlerror()</apiname></xref> to obtain the most recent error
that occurred due to any of the dl routines, that is, <xref href="GUID-51FB35C0-CFC2-357A-8ACA-FE7480C53AD3.dita"><apiname>dlopen()</apiname></xref>, <xref href="GUID-6B94A42A-888B-3761-84DA-4FADC6D3B126.dita"><apiname>dlsym()</apiname></xref>,
or <xref href="GUID-F74DC7CB-1E3F-368E-99A7-DD4B38FF7EF0.dita"><apiname>dlclose()</apiname></xref>. </p></entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table><p/></section>
</conbody><related-links>
<link href="GUID-6590B534-D976-5305-BE95-48DD05120DFB.dita#GUID-6590B534-D976-5305-BE95-48DD05120DFB/GUID-3CA8FF29-79B4-5D43-8A23-EDB136BF7A8F">
<linktext>One Definition Rule - warning</linktext></link>
</related-links></concept>