←back to thread

Why did dlclose not unload the library? (2023)

(kishoreganesh.com)
39 points mattrighetti | 1 comments | 27 Aug 25 00:45 UTC | HN request time: 0.21s | source
Show context
sgbeal ◴[30 Aug 25 13:34 UTC] No.45074556[source]▶
There is no safe, reliable, cross-environment way to deal with closing a DLL. A DLL initialization function can allocate arbitrary resources, some of which may be in use by clients of the DLL when it is closed.

The only safe, consistent, reliable approach is not to close DLLs.

replies(6): >>45074649 #>>45074720 #>>45075478 #>>45075558 #>>45075726 #>>45080214 #
1. AndrewStephens ◴[30 Aug 25 13:54 UTC] No.45074720[source]▶
This is the way.

As this article details, there are so many circumstances that preclude DLLs being unloaded completely that I was surprised that their design actually worked at all. So many language constructs do not play nicely with the idea that code and static data can just disappear at runtime.