xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/dlopen.3 (revision 25bb73e063c17cd9048cf60100dbc0ac5177e94a)

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.\" @(#) dlopen.3 1.6 90/01/31 SMI
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd September 24, 1989
.Os FreeBSD
.Dt DLOPEN 3
.Sh NAME
.Nm dlopen, dlsym, dlerror, dlclose
.Nd programmatic interface to the dynamic linker
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <dlfcn.h>
.Ft void *
.Fn dlopen "const char *path" "int mode"
.Ft void *
.Fn dlsym "void *handle" "const char *symbol"
.Ft const char *
.Fn dlerror "void"
.Ft int
.Fn dlclose "void *handle"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
These functions provide a simple programmatic interface to the services of the
dynamic linker.
Operations are provided to add new shared objects to a
program's address space, to obtain the address bindings of symbols
defined by such
objects, and to remove such objects when their use is no longer required.
.Pp
.Fn dlopen
provides access to the shared object in
.Fa path ,
returning a descriptor that can be used for later
references to the object in calls to
.Fn dlsym
and
.Fn dlclose .
If
.Fa path
was not in the address space prior to the call to
.Fn dlopen ,
it is placed in the address space.
When an object is first loaded into the address space in this way, its
function
.Fn _init ,
if any, is called by the dynamic linker.
If
.Fa path
has already been placed in the address space in a previous call to
.Fn dlopen ,
it is not added a second time, although a reference count of
.Fn dlopen
operations on
.Fa path
is maintained.
A null pointer supplied for
.Fa path
is interpreted as a reference to the main
executable of the process.
.Fa mode
controls the way in which external function references from the
loaded object are bound to their referents.
It must contain one of the following values:
.Bl -tag -width RTLD_LAZYX
.It Dv RTLD_LAZY
Each external function reference is resolved when the function is first
called.
.It Dv RTLD_NOW
All external function references are bound immediately by
.Fn dlopen .
.El
.Pp
.Dv RTLD_LAZY
is normally preferred, for reasons of efficiency.
However,
.Dv RTLD_NOW
is useful to ensure that any undefined symbols are discovered during the
call to
.Fn dlopen .
If
.Fn dlopen
fails, it returns a null pointer, and sets an error condition which may
be interrogated with
.Fn dlerror .
.Pp
.Fn dlsym
returns the address binding of the symbol described in the null-terminated
character string
.Fa symbol ,
as it occurs in the shared object identified by
.Fa handle .
The symbols exported by objects added to the address space by
.Fn dlopen
can be accessed only through calls to
.Fn dlsym .
Such symbols do not supersede any definition of those symbols already present
in the address space when the object is loaded, nor are they available to
satisfy normal dynamic linking references.
A null pointer supplied as the value of
.Fa handle
is interpreted as a reference to the executable from which the call to
.Fn dlsym
is being made.  Thus a shared object can reference its own symbols.
.Fn dlsym
returns a null pointer if the symbol cannot be found, and sets an error
condition which may be queried with
.Fn dlerror .
.Pp
If
.Fn dlsym
is called with the special
.Fa handle
.Dv RTLD_NEXT ,
then the search for the symbol is limited to the shared objects
which were loaded after the one issuing the call to
.Fn dlsym .
Thus, if the function is called from the main program, all
the shared libraries are searched.
If it is called from a shared library, all subsequent shared
libraries are searched.
.Dv RTLD_NEXT
is useful for implementing wrappers around library functions.
For example, a wrapper function
.Fn getpid
could access the
.Dq real
.Fn getpid
with
.Li dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, \&"getpid\&") .
.Pp
.Fn dlerror
returns a null-terminated character string describing the last error that
occurred during a call to
.Fn dlopen ,
.Fn dlsym ,
or
.Fn dlclose .
If no such error has occurred,
.Fn dlerror
returns a null pointer.
At each call to
.Fn dlerror ,
the error indication is reset.  Thus in the case of two calls
to
.Fn dlerror ,
where the second call follows the first immediately, the second call
will always return a null pointer.
.Pp
.Fn dlclose
deletes a reference to the shared object referenced by
.Fa handle .
If the reference count drops to 0, the object is removed from the
address space, and
.Fa handle
is rendered invalid.
Just before removing a shared object in this way, the dynamic linker
calls the object's
.Fn _fini
function, if such a function is defined by the object.
If
.Fn dlclose
is successful, it returns a value of 0.
Otherwise it returns -1, and sets an error condition that can be
interrogated with
.Fn dlerror .
.Pp
The object-intrinsic functions
.Fn _init
and
.Fn _fini
are called with no arguments, and are not expected to return values.
.Sh NOTES
ELF executables need to be linked
using the
.Fl export-dynamic
option to
.Xr ld 1
for symbols defined in the executable to become visible to
.Fn dlsym .
.Pp
In previous implementations, it was necessary to prepend an underscore
to all external symbols in order to gain symbol
compatibility with object code compiled from the C language.  This is
still the case when using the (obsolete)
.Fl aout
option to the C language compiler.
.Sh ERRORS
.Fn dlopen
and
.Fn dlsym
return the null pointer in the event of errors.
.Fn dlclose
returns 0 on success, or -1 if an error occurred.
Whenever an error has been detected, a message detailing it can be
retrieved via a call to
.Fn dlerror .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ld 1 ,
.Xr rtld 1 ,
.Xr link 5