[Development] OS X plugin naming bug

[Hanspeter Niederstrasser]

On Fri, November 14, 2014 1:01 pm, Thiago Macieira wrote:
> On Friday 14 November 2014 12:43:40 Hanspeter Niederstrasser wrote:
>> On Fri, November 14, 2014 9:58 am, Thiago Macieira wrote:
>> > 2) User applications have plugins of their own
>>
>> I don't think this would impact an end user app with its own plugins
>> that
>> also uses Qt5 plugins. The application would have been compiled with the
>> paths for dlopen to search for its own plugins. And the Qt5 libraries
>> will
>> be compiled with their own paths for dlopen to search in. Nothing has
>> linked to the Qt plugins, so there's no issue when the Qt plugin file
>> names change (as opposed to changing the install_name and filename for a
>> dylib, which would be a problem) between Qt releases if this bug is
>> fixed.
>
> I don't understand your answer.
>
> You're saying that nothing has linked to the Qt plugins. Well, of course.
> By
> definition, a plugin is something you don't link to.

Right. I guess I was just restating the obvious difference to dylibs,
where file name (technically the install_name) continuity is important and
is hardcoded into the application that links to that library.

> Yet that has nothing to do with either problem I listed. In specific for
> user
> plugins, if the file name were to change, the application code may fail to
> find it.

I don't think this would happen.  dlopen searches paths for a compatible
file.  It doesn't search for a specific file name.

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man3/dlopen.3.html

Hanspeter

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