[fpc-pascal] How can a project determine if it's using cmem?

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
> Tomas Hajny wrote:
>> On Wed, July 4, 2012 11:32, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
>>> When building a shared library, I'm putting a (function that returns a)
>>> magic number into both the library and the calling program. This returns
>>> an integer, and allows the program and library to check their exposed
>>> APIs without risk.
>>>
>>> How can code in the library test whether it is using cmem, so that it
>>> can tell the caller that it's safe to call functions that move strings
>>> and objects around? It's obviously trivial to rely on a compile-time
>>> conditional, but can this be done in a way that doesn't rely on this?
>>
>> First of all, you can easily check whether the default memory manager is
>> used by calling IsMemoryManagerSet. Obviously, this doesn't tell whether
>> the custom memory manager is cmem or something else (e.g. TraceManager
>> from HeapTrace). However, you could possibly try to check the distance
>> between the individual MemoryManager methods retrieved using
>> GetMemoryManager - while that is not bulletproof by any means, it 
>> provides
>> at least some indication.
>>
>> Finally, if there are certain major changes to features provided by
>> individual memory managers (like some operation being safe or not), 
>> adding
>> some TMemoryManager method allowing to provide this information may be 
>> the
>> best solution for the future.
> 
> Thanks Tomas (and Ludo). Under the circumstances I think 
> IsMemoryManagerSet is probably an adequate solution, since the real risk 
> is that somebody messes about with the start of the main unit (or with 
> the project settings) without appreciating that the cmem import is 
> crucial to operation elsewhere in the program (or, analogously, that a 
> shared library will crash when some functions are called).
> 
> Having something- e.g. an exported string- in cmem would be a partial 
> solution, but would have to be checked in the main unit. With any 
> solution, I think that testing that cmem was the first import could be a 
> challenge.

I've added a feature request as 
http://mantis.freepascal.org/view.php?id=22386 but am being told "First 
of all, you are wrong in thinking that using Cmem is a prerequisite to 
being able to use longstrings etc. as parameters and results..."

Obviously I accept that there might be other suitable memory managers, 
but cmem is the one normally referred to. Far be it from me to argue 
with those more experienced than I, but the suggestion I'm trying to 
make is that it would be desirable if each module (i.e. every shared 
library plus the main program) could confirm that it's in a state where 
it can share e.g. longstrings, objects etc. with others. In common 
usage, that implies that cmem is not only imported, but is imported /first/.

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]