Re: lt_dlopen with modules and no .la

[Bob Friesenhahn]

On Wed, 21 Dec 2005, Pierre Ossman wrote:

> When using ltdl on Windows to load plug-ins there is a problem with the name 
> mangling system. The info.name field is only set if libltdl finds a .la file. 
> Just the DLL won't do. The result is that symbols cannot be found becaus 
> libltdl looks for the plain name (without prefix).
>
> The problem should be the same on all systems, so I'm guessing this is 
> intended behaviour. So I'm wondering what's the rationale?

It is intended that modules be loaded by specifying the name or path 
to the module .la file.  The reason for this is that the conventions 
for naming libraries varies across systems and sometimes additional 
dependencies need to be additionally loaded by libltdl because the 
module DLL format does not support or adequately specify additional 
dependencies.  Windows in particular is a problem since several DLL 
naming conventions have been used and libraries come in two parts. 
So I suggest that the .la files be distributed along with the modules 
themselves and that the name/path of the .la file be specified to 
libltdl by the application.

Bob
======================================
Bob Friesenhahn
address@hidden, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/