[Vm-dev] plugin location

[Andrew Gaylard]

On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 4:16 AM, Ian Piumarta<piumarta at speakeasy.net> wrote:
>
> Does anyone use the plugin mechanism to load libraries that are not plugins
> on Unix?  Or to override just one or two of the installed ones from a user
> directory?
>
> I'm thinking of simplifying the search strategy (which is indeed broken
> w.r.t. overriding installed plugins as Subbu points out) along with all the
> junk related to probing for a zillion prefixes and suffixes.  Unlike
> libtool, CMake manages to build loadable modules with predictable 'lib*.so'
> names regardless of the platform.  That, combined with a launch script that
> can add a -plugins option to the VM args, suggests it ought to be possible
> to find the plugin precisely on the first attempt, without having to search
> at all.
>
> The advantage is vastly simpler logic that is completely predictable.

Agreed.

> The disadvantage is that it will not be possible to subvert the plugin
> mechanism to load system libraries, and it will not be possible to override
> the installed plugins with a single plugin built in a different directory.
>  Would either of these be a noticeable loss?

Nope.  Go for it!

- Andrew