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Re: Dynamic library loading inner workings


On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 1:43 PM, Andreas Fink
<andreas.fink85@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I've been reading a bit the last days about this topic (really interesting, as I must admit).
>
> My problem looks like this:
> Abstractly seen I have two types of libraries. Libraries of type A are called libA, libB, libC. Libraries of type B are called libX, libY, libZ. Libraries of type A are quite stable and good to ship. Libraries of type B are very unstable and in development. However libraries of type B link against libraries of type A, and libraries of type B are implemented as plugins (so they are loaded via dlopen in my program).
> libX links against libA, libB
> libY links against libB, libC
> libZ links against libA, libC
>
> Loading all three of them (in the order libX, libY and then libZ) makes it impossible to only unload libX (since libA and libB have a dependency on libX because of relocation). So I would need to unload all libX, libY, and libZ to be able to reload a recompiled libX.

The shared library X can only be unloaded if there are no relocations
against it, but those types of relocations are very rare. Show me
proof that libA and libB actually have a relocation against libX? What
relocation is it?

The problem you are describing exists, but it would be a fundamental
design flaw in your plugin system to have libA and libB reference
something in libX. After all a relocation is a references from one
location to another. The only way that would exist is if libA or libB
touched global data in libX or called libX functions (and not via a
callback function pointer).

The question you should be asking yourself is "Why does libA and libB
reference something in libX and how do I fix that?"

It is possibly a flaw in your plugin system to have this dependency.

> Anyway it does not seem that my problem can be solved with the current linker. I have another question to the order libraries are loaded.
> If I dlopen(libX) and look at the order in which symbols are tried to be resolved I see that symbols in libX are first looked at before libA and libB. Thus when relocation of libA happens a symbol is found in libX (which would also exist in libA, but the one in libX is used and hence the relocation dependency of libA to libX occurs).

OK.

> So my new question:
> Why is the linker not putting dependent libraries before the loaded library, i.e. the current situation looks like this:
> dlopen(libX) --> symbol resolution in this order:
> (... some libraries loaded at program startup)
> libX
> libA
> libB

That's because you loaded libX first, and given ELF symbol resolution
rules it is allowed to override libA functions.

Change the libX function names so they don't override libA functions.

> my preferred solution:
> (... some libraries loaded at startup)
> libA
> libB
> libX
>
> Then the relocation dependency of libA on libX would not occur since all symbols in libA can be resolved with symbols in libraries prior to libA or libA itself.

Then dlopen libA first, *or* build libA such that those symbols are
always resolved within libA.

> To summarize my whole point:
> I understand now, why libQtGui cannot be unloaded, but I don't understand why symbol resolution happens in a (for me) quite unnatural order... My natural order for symbol resolution on dlopen(libX) would be: Libraries loaded at program startup --> dependent libraries of libX (libA, libB) --> libX itself

That's not a natural order for ELF symbol resolution rules. Those
rules require that code loaded first can override weak symbols in code
that is loaded later. This allows user code to override some symbols
in shared libraries to implement custom functions that do
user-specific things e.g. override malloc in  libc.

Cheers,
Carlos.


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