1Perl 5 DynaLoader 2 3See DynaLoader.pm for detailed specification. 4 5This module is very similar to the other Perl 5 modules except that 6Configure selects which dl_*.xs file to use. 7 8After Configure has been run the Makefile.PL will generate a Makefile 9which will run xsubpp on a specific dl_*.xs file and write the output 10to DynaLoader.c 11 12After that the processing is the same as any other module. 13 14Note that, to be effective, the DynaLoader module must be _statically_ 15linked into perl! Configure should arrange this. 16 17This interface is based on the work and comments of (in no particular 18order): Larry Wall, Robert Sanders, Dean Roehrich, Jeff Okamoto, Anno 19Siegel, Thomas Neumann, Paul Marquess, Charles Bailey and others. 20 21The dl_*.xs files should either be named after the dynamic linking 22operating system interface used if that interface is available on more 23than one type of system, e.g.: 24 dlopen for dlopen()/dlsym() type functions (SunOS, BSD) 25or else the osname, e.g., hpux, next, vms etc. 26 27Both are determined by Configure and so only those specific names that 28Configure knows/uses will work. 29 30If porting the DynaLoader to a platform that has a core dynamic linking 31interface similar to an existing generic type, e.g., dlopen, 32please try to port the corresponding dl_*.xs file (using #ifdef's if 33required). 34 35Otherwise, or if that proves too messy, create a new dl_*.xs file named 36after your osname. Configure will give preference to a dl_$osname.xs 37file if one exists. 38 39The file dl_dlopen.xs is a reference implementation by Paul Marquess 40which is a good place to start if porting from scratch. The dlutils.c file 41holds some common definitions that are #included into the dl_*.xs files. 42 43After the initial implementation of a new DynaLoader dl_*.xs file you 44may need to edit or create ext/MODULE/MODULE.bs files (library bootstrap 45files) to reflect the needs of your platform and linking software. 46 47Refer to DynaLoader.pm, lib/ExtUtils/MakeMaker.pm and any existing 48ext/MODULE/MODULE.bs files for more information. 49 50Tim Bunce. 51August 1994 52