[Mono-dev] [PATCH] Make mono_dl_register_library into a fallback

[Paolo Molaro]

On 07/01/10 Michael Hutchinson wrote:
> The mono_dl_register_library function can currently be used to
> register P/Invoke mappings for platforms that do not have a dynamic
> linker. The attached patch makes it also function as a fallback when
> the system's dynamic linker cannot resolve the library, so that it is
> always available to embedders.
> 
> I'll also need to restore mono/utils/mono-embed.h to the public
> headers in the autotools build (but this patch was created using MSVC
> on Windows).
> 
> OK to commit to trunk?

This interface is not suitable as a fallback mechanism, it would be too
cumbersome to use and it's probably not ideal even for its intended
purpose. What about a callback registration system instead?

It is more flexible as a fallback since it doesn't require to register
upfront all the possible names and load the all functions at startup.
It's likely better also for the original purpose when, for example,
even if dynamic linking is not possible it is possible to lookup a
symbol at runtime.
It opens up the possibility of also generating the code at runtime
(for redirecting some win32 p/invokes to winforms for example, or other
tricks).

Something along these lines:

typedef void* (*MonoDlFallbackLoad) (const char *name, int flags, char **err, void *user_data);
typedef void* (*MonoDlFallbackSymbol) (void *handle, const char *name, char **err, void *user_data);
typedef void* (*MonoDlFallbackClose) (void *handle, void *user_data);

void mono_dl_register_fallback (MonoDlFallbackLoad load_func, MonoDlFallbackSymbol symbol_func,
		MonoDlFallbackClose close_func, void *user_data);

The old interface could be easily implemented on top of this new one (though we
likely could drop it as well).

lupus

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
lupus at debian.org                                     debian/rules
lupus at ximian.com                             Monkeys do it better