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author | Fred Drake <fdrake@acm.org> | 1999-07-01 20:40:21 (GMT) |
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committer | Fred Drake <fdrake@acm.org> | 1999-07-01 20:40:21 (GMT) |
commit | 4c8d83f311396e49bf0857c7f068ebb40c918751 (patch) | |
tree | ee286df6977ef8945f0631bf2f590eccd5708d04 /Doc/lib/libdl.tex | |
parent | 44a7a7c5d0ddda96fbf2efb9c22fe1858a0b5849 (diff) | |
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Documentation for dl module from Moshe.
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/lib/libdl.tex')
-rw-r--r-- | Doc/lib/libdl.tex | 99 |
1 files changed, 99 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libdl.tex b/Doc/lib/libdl.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..31a3793 --- /dev/null +++ b/Doc/lib/libdl.tex @@ -0,0 +1,99 @@ +\section{\module{dl} --- + Call C functions in shared objects} +\declaremodule{extension}{dl} + \platform{Unix} %?????????? Anyone???????????? +\sectionauthor{Moshe Zadka}{mzadka@geocities.com} +\modulesynopsis{Call C functions in shared objects.} + +The \module{dl} module defines an interface to the +\cfunction{dlopen()} function, which is the most common interface on +\UNIX{} platforms for handling dynamically linked libraries. It allows +the program to call arbitary functions in such a library. + +\strong{Note:} This module will not work unless +\begin{verbatim} +sizeof(int) == sizeof(long) == sizeof(char *) +\end{verbatim} +If this is not the case, \exception{SystemError} will be raised on +import. + +The \module{dl} module defines the following function: + +\begin{funcdesc}{open}{name\optional{, mode\code{ = RTLD_LAZY}}} +Open a shared object file, and return a handle. Mode +signifies late binding (\constant{RTLD_LAZY}) or immediate binding +(\constant{RTLD_NOW}). Default is \constant{RTLD_LAZY}. Note that some +sytems do not support \constant{RTLD_NOW}. + +Return value is a \pytype{dlobject}. +\end{funcdesc} + +The \module{dl} module defines the following constants: + +\begin{datadesc}{RTLD_LAZY} +Useful as an argument to \function{open()}. +\end{datadesc} + +\begin{datadesc}{RTLD_NOW} +Useful as an argument to \function{open()}. Note that on systems +which do not support immediate binding, this constant will not appear +in the module. For maximum portability, use \function{hasattr()} to +determine if the system supports immediate binding. +\end{datadesc} + +The \module{dl} module defines the following exception: + +\begin{excdesc}{error} +Exception raised when an error has occured inside the dynamic loading +and linking routines. +\end{excdesc} + +Example: + +\begin{verbatim} +>>> import dl, time +>>> a=dl.open('/lib/libc.so.6') +>>> a.call('time'), time.time() +(929723914, 929723914.498) +\end{verbatim} + +This example was tried on a Debian GNU/Linux system, and is a good +example of the fact that using this module is usually a bad alternative. + +\subsection{Dl Objects \label{dl-objects}} + +Dl objects, as returned by \function{open()} above, have the +following methods: + +\begin{methoddesc}{close}{} +Free all resources, except the memory. +\end{methoddesc} + +\begin{methoddesc}{sym}{name} +Return the pointer for the function named \var{name}, as a number, if +it exists in the referenced shared object, otherwise \code{None}. This +is useful in code like: + +\begin{verbatim} +>>> if a.sym('time'): +... a.call('time') +... else: +... time.time() +\end{verbatim} + +(Note that this function will return a non-zero number, as zero is the +\NULL{} pointer) +\end{methoddesc} + +\begin{methoddesc}{call}{name\optional{, arg1\optional{, arg2\ldots}}} +Call the function named \var{name} in the referenced shared object. +The arguments must be either Python integers, which will be +passed as is, Python strings, to which a pointer will be passed, +or \code{None}, which will be passed as \NULL{}. Note that +strings should only be passed to functions as \ctype{const char*}, as +Python will not like its string mutated. + +There must be at most 10 arguments, and arguments not given will be +treated as \code{None}. The function's return value must be a C +\ctype{long}, which is a Python integer. +\end{methoddesc} |