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/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com)
**
** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$
** No Commercial Usage
** This file contains pre-release code and may not be distributed.
** You may use this file in accordance with the terms and conditions
** contained in the either Technology Preview License Agreement or the
** Beta Release License Agreement.
**
** GNU Lesser General Public License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Lesser
** General Public License version 2.1 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.LGPL included in the
** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to
** ensure the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 requirements
** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html.
**
** In addition, as a special exception, Nokia gives you certain
** additional rights. These rights are described in the Nokia Qt LGPL
** Exception version 1.0, included in the file LGPL_EXCEPTION.txt in this
** package.
**
** GNU General Public License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU
** General Public License version 3.0 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.GPL included in the
** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to
** ensure the GNU General Public License version 3.0 requirements will be
** met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
**
** If you are unsure which license is appropriate for your use, please
** contact the sales department at http://qt.nokia.com/contact.
** $QT_END_LICENSE$
**
****************************************************************************/
/*!
\page sharedlibrary.html
\title Creating Shared Libraries
\ingroup best-practices
The following sections list certain things that should be taken into
account when creating shared libraries.
\section1 Using Symbols from Shared Libraries
Symbols - functions, variables or classes - contained in shared libraries
intended to be used by \e{clients}, such as applications or other
libraries, must be marked in a special way. These symbols are called
\e{public symbols} that are \e{exported} or made publicly visible.
The remaining symbols should not be visible from the outside. On most
platforms, compilers will hide them by default. On some platforms, a
special compiler option is required to hide these symbols.
When compiling a shared library, it must be marked for \e{export}. To use
the shared library from a client, some platforms may require a special
\e{import} declaration as well.
Depending on your target platform, Qt provides special macros that contain
the necessary definitions:
\list
\o \c{Q_DECL_EXPORT} must be added to the declarations of symbols used
when compiling a shared library.
\o \c{Q_DECL_IMPORT} must be added to the declarations of symbols used
when compiling a client that uses the shared library.
\endlist
Now, we need to ensure that the right macro is invoked -- whether we
compile a share library itself, or just the client using the shared
library.
Typically, this can be solved by adding a special header.
Let us assume we want to create a shared library called \e{mysharedlib}.
A special header for this library, \c{mysharedlib_global.h}, looks like
this:
\code
#include <QtCore/QtGlobal>
#if defined(MYSHAREDLIB_LIBRARY)
# define MYSHAREDLIB_EXPORT Q_DECL_EXPORT
#else
# define MYSHAREDLIB_EXPORT Q_DECL_IMPORT
#endif
\endcode
In the \c{.pro} file of the shared library, we add:
\code
DEFINES += MYSHAREDLIB_LIBRARY
\endcode
In each header of the library, we specify the following:
\code
#include "mysharedlib_global.h"
MYSHAREDLIB_EXPORT void foo();
class MYSHAREDLIB_EXPORT MyClass...
\endcode
This ensures that the right macro is seen by both library and clients. We
also use this technique in Qt's sources.
\section1 Header File Considerations
Typically, clients will include only the public header files of shared
libraries. These libraries might be installed in a different location, when
deployed. Therefore, it is important to exclude other internal header files
that were used when building the shared library.
For example, the library might provide a class that wraps a hardware device
and contains a handle to that device, provided by some 3rd-party library:
\code
#include <footronics/device.h>
class MyDevice {
private:
FOOTRONICS_DEVICE_HANDLE handle;
};
\endcode
A similar situation arises with forms created by Qt Designer when using
aggregation or multiple inheritance:
\code
#include "ui_widget.h"
class MyWidget : public QWidget {
private:
Ui::MyWidget m_ui;
};
\endcode
When deploying the library, there should be no dependency to the internal
headers \c{footronics/device.h} or \c{ui_widget.h}.
This can be avoided by making use of the \e{Pointer to implementation}
idiom described in various C++ programming books. For classes with
\e{value semantics}, consider using QSharedDataPointer.
\section1 Binary compatibility
For clients loading a shared library, to work correctly, the memory
layout of the classes being used must match exactly the memory layout of
the library version that was used to compile the client. In other words,
the library found by the client at runtime must be \e{binary compatible}
with the version used at compile time.
This is usually not a problem if the client is a self-contained software
package that ships all the libraries it needs.
However, if the client application relies on a shared library that belongs
to a different installation package or to the operating system, then we
need to think of a versioning scheme for shared libraries and decide at
which level \e{Binary compatibility} is to be maintained. For example, Qt
libraries of the same \e{major version number} are guaranteed to be binary
compatible.
Maintaining \e{Binary compatibility} places some restrictions on the changes
you can make to the classes. A good explanation can be found at
\l{http://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Binary_Compatibility_Issues_With_C++}
{KDE - Policies/Binary Compatibility Issues With C++}. These issues should
be considered right from the start of library design.
We recommend that the principle of \e{Information hiding} and the
\e{Pointer to implementation} technique be used wherever possible.
*/
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