[Vm-dev] plugin location

Andreas Raab andreas.raab at gmx.de
Thu Aug 27 03:02:41 UTC 2009


Would this affect the FFI and its attempts to load platform libraries?

Cheers,
   - Andreas

Ian Piumarta 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.
> 
> 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?
> 
> Cheers,
> Ian
> 


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