[fpc-pascal] loadlibrary() unsafe ?

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

fredvs wrote:

> - For [...], the eSpeak source produces a executable without static
> espeak-library nor static portaudio-library included in executable.
>   So both espeak-library and portaudio-library must be installed in library
> path of the system.
>   If libraries are not installed in library path of the system, a trick that
> works is:
> 
>   To do run the program => 
>   - first dynamic load portaudio with
> loadlibrary('/the_path_you_want/libportaudio.so').
>   - then dynamic load libespeak with
> loadlibrary('/the_path_you_want/libespeak.so').
>   - run the executable via TProcess (speak).
> 
> All is working like charms.
> 
> Now i heard that this trick is unsafe.
> 
> Why ?

I suspect that the point is that whatever reference counts that the OS 
maintains for the library will be decremented if the outer program 
terminates, at which point the demand-loaded code will be removed from 
memory.

Before trying anything like this, I suggest that it would be worth 
finding under what circumstances appropriate symlinks etc. are set up.

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

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