DLOPEN

NAME

SYNOPSIS

void *dlopen(const char *filename, int flag);

char *dlerror(void);

void *dlsym(void *handle, const char *symbol);

int dlclose(void *handle);

Link with -ldl.  

DESCRIPTION

dlerror()

dlopen()

o

(ELF only) If the executable file for the calling program contains a DT_RPATH tag, and does not contain a DT_RUNPATH tag, then the directories listed in the DT_RPATH tag are searched.

o

If, at the time that the program was started, the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH was defined to contain a colon-separated list of directories, then these are searched. (As a security measure this variable is ignored for set-user-ID and set-group-ID programs.)

o

(ELF only) If the executable file for the calling program contains a DT_RUNPATH tag, then the directories listed in that tag are searched.

o

The cache file /etc/ld.so.cache (maintained by ldconfig(8)) is checked to see whether it contains an entry for filename.

o

The directories /lib and /usr/lib are searched (in that order).

If the library has dependencies on other shared libraries, then these are also automatically loaded by the dynamic linker using the same rules. (This process may occur recursively, if those libraries in turn have dependencies, and so on.)

One of the following two values must be included in flag:

RTLD_LAZY

Perform lazy binding. Only resolve symbols as the code that references them is executed. If the symbol is never referenced, then it is never resolved. (Lazy binding is only performed for function references; references to variables are always immediately bound when the library is loaded.)

RTLD_NOW

If this value is specified, or the environment variable LD_BIND_NOW is set to a non-empty string, all undefined symbols in the library are resolved before dlopen() returns. If this cannot be done, an error is returned.

Zero of more of the following values may also be ORed in flag:

RTLD_GLOBAL

The symbols defined by this library will be made available for symbol resolution of subsequently loaded libraries.

RTLD_LOCAL

This is the converse of RTLD_GLOBAL, and the default if neither flag is specified. Symbols defined in this library are not made available to resolve references in subsequently loaded libraries.

RTLD_NODELETE (since glibc 2.2)

Do not unload the library during dlclose(). Consequently, the library's static variables are not reinitialized if the library is reloaded with dlopen() at a later time. This flag is not specified in POSIX.1-2001.

RTLD_NOLOAD (since glibc 2.2)

Don't load the library. This can be used to test if the library is already resident (dlopen() returns NULL if it is not, or the library's handle if it is resident). This flag can also be used to promote the flags on a library that is already loaded. For example, a library that was previously loaded with RTLD_LOCAL can be re-opened with RTLD_NOLOAD | RTLD_GLOBAL. This flag is not specified in POSIX.1-2001.

RTLD_DEEPBIND (since glibc 2.3.4)

Place the lookup scope of the symbols in this library ahead of the global scope. This means that a self-contained library will use its own symbols in preference to global symbols with the same name contained in libraries that have already been loaded. This flag is not specified in POSIX.1-2001.

If filename is a NULL pointer, then the returned handle is for the main program. When given to dlsym(), this handle causes a search for a symbol in the main program, followed by all shared libraries loaded at program startup, and then all shared libraries loaded by dlopen() with the flag RTLD_GLOBAL.

External references in the library are resolved using the libraries in that library's dependency list and any other libraries previously opened with the RTLD_GLOBAL flag. If the executable was linked with the flag "-rdynamic" (or, synonymously, "--export-dynamic"), then the global symbols in the executable will also be used to resolve references in a dynamically loaded library.

If the same library is loaded again with dlopen(), the same file handle is returned. The dl library maintains reference counts for library handles, so a dynamic library is not deallocated until dlclose() has been called on it as many times as dlopen() has succeeded on it. The _init() routine, if present, is only called once. But a subsequent call with RTLD_NOW may force symbol resolution for a library earlier loaded with RTLD_LAZY.

If dlopen() fails for any reason, it returns NULL.  

dlsym()

There are two special pseudo-handles, RTLD_DEFAULT and RTLD_NEXT. The former will find the first occurrence of the desired symbol using the default library search order. The latter will find the next occurrence of a function in the search order after the current library. This allows one to provide a wrapper around a function in another shared library.  

dlclose()

The function dlclose() returns 0 on success, and non-zero on error.  

The obsolete symbols _init() and _fini()

Using these routines, or the gcc -nostartfiles or -nostdlib options, is not recommended. Their use may result in undesired behavior, since the constructor/destructor routines will not be executed (unless special measures are taken).

Instead, libraries should export routines using the __attribute__((constructor)) and __attribute__((destructor)) function attributes. See the gcc info pages for information on these. Constructor routines are executed before dlopen() returns, and destructor routines are executed before dlclose() returns.  

Glibc extensions: dladdr() and dlvsym()

#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <dlfcn.h>

int dladdr(void *addr, Dl_info *info);

void *dlvsym(void *handle, char *symbol, char *version);

The function dladdr() takes a function pointer and tries to resolve name and file where it is located. Information is stored in the Dl_info structure:

typedef struct {
    const char *dli_fname;  /* Pathname of shared object that
                               contains address */
    void       *dli_fbase;  /* Address at which shared object
                               is loaded */
    const char *dli_sname;  /* Name of nearest symbol with address
                               lower than addr */
    void       *dli_saddr;  /* Exact address of symbol named
                               in dli_sname */
} Dl_info;

If no symbol matching addr could be found, then dli_sname and dli_saddr are set to NULL.

dladdr() returns 0 on error, and non-zero on success.

The function dlvsym(), provided by glibc since version 2.1, does the same as dlsym() but takes a version string as an additional argument.  

CONFORMING TO

NOTES

Since glibc 2.2.3, atexit(3) can be used to register an exit handler that is automatically called when a library is unloaded.  

History

BUGS

The problem is that the function pointer will still be resolved at compile time, but merely point to the plt (Procedure Linkage Table) section of the original object (which dispatches the call after asking the dynamic linker to resolve the symbol). To work around this, you can try to compile the code to be position-independent: then, the compiler cannot prepare the pointer at compile time anymore and today's gcc(1) will generate code that just loads the final symbol address from the got (Global Offset Table) at run time before passing it to dladdr().  

EXAMPLE

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <dlfcn.h>

int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    void *handle;
    double (*cosine)(double);
    char *error;

    handle = dlopen("libm.so", RTLD_LAZY);
    if (!handle) {
        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", dlerror());
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    dlerror();    /* Clear any existing error */

    /* Writing: cosine = (double (*)(double)) dlsym(handle, "cos");
       would seem more natural, but the C99 standard leaves
       casting from "void *" to a function pointer undefined.
       The assignment used below is the POSIX.1-2003 (Technical
       Corrigendum 1) workaround; see the Rationale for the
       POSIX specification of dlsym(). */

    *(void **) (&cosine) = dlsym(handle, "cos");

    if ((error = dlerror()) != NULL)  {
        fprintf(stderr, "%s\n", error);
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    printf("%f\n", (*cosine)(2.0));
    dlclose(handle);
    exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

If this program were in a file named "foo.c", you would build the program with the following command:

    gcc -rdynamic -o foo foo.c -ldl

Libraries exporting _init() and _fini() will want to be compiled as follows, using bar.c as the example name:

    gcc -shared -nostartfiles -o bar bar.c  

SEE ALSO

COLOPHON