Load a shared library at runtime and find its symbols. More...

#include "nilorea/n_common.h"

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Macros
#define	N_MODULE_ERROR_MAX 512
	longest error text kept by n_module_error(), terminator included

Functions
int	n_module_close (N_MODULE **module)
	Close a library and free its handle.
const char *	n_module_error (void)
	What the system said about this thread's last failed call.
const char *	n_module_extension (void)
	The file extension shared libraries have on this platform.
N_MODULE *	n_module_open (const char *path)
	Open a shared library.
void *	n_module_symbol (N_MODULE module, const char name)
	Find a symbol in an opened library.

Detailed Description

Load a shared library at runtime and find its symbols.

A plugin host, or a program that uses a driver only when one is installed, opens a library by path or name, looks up entry points by name, and closes it. POSIX does that with dlopen/dlsym/dlclose, Windows with LoadLibrary/GetProcAddress/FreeLibrary; this module is the one place that knows which, so a caller has no platform branch of its own.

Failure to open is not logged above LOG_DEBUG: a program probing for an optional library tries several names and expects most to be absent. What the system said about the last failure is kept per thread and returned by n_module_error().

On Linux with a glibc older than 2.34 the program must link -ldl; the library's Makefile adds it.

Author: Castagnier Mickael

Version: 1.0

Date: 24/09/2026

Definition in file n_module.h.

Macros

Functions

Detailed Description