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XSLoader

XSLoader(3)            Perl Programmers Reference Guide            XSLoader(3)



NAME
       XSLoader - Dynamically load C libraries into Perl code

SYNOPSIS
           package YourPackage;
           use XSLoader;

           XSLoader::load 'YourPackage', $YourPackage::VERSION;

DESCRIPTION
       This module defines a standard simplified interface to the dynamic
       linking mechanisms available on many platforms.  Its primary purpose is
       to implement cheap automatic dynamic loading of Perl modules.

       For more complicated interface see DynaLoader.  Many (most) features of
       DynaLoader are not implemented in XSLoader, like for example the
       dl_load_flags is not honored by XSLoader.

       Migration from "DynaLoader"

       A typical module using DynaLoader starts like this:

           package YourPackage;
           require DynaLoader;

           our @ISA = qw( OnePackage OtherPackage DynaLoader );
           our $VERSION = '0.01';
           bootstrap YourPackage $VERSION;

       Change this to

           package YourPackage;
           use XSLoader;

           our @ISA = qw( OnePackage OtherPackage );
           our $VERSION = '0.01';
           XSLoader::load 'YourPackage', $VERSION;

       In other words: replace "require DynaLoader" by "use XSLoader", remove
       "DynaLoader" from @ISA, change "bootstrap" by "XSLoader::load".  Do not
       forget to quote the name of your package on the "XSLoader::load" line,
       and add comma (",") before the arguments ($VERSION above).

       Of course, if @ISA contained only "DynaLoader", there is no need to
       have the @ISA assignment at all; moreover, if instead of "our" one uses
       backward-compatible

           use vars qw($VERSION @ISA);

       one can remove this reference to @ISA together with the @ISA assignment

       If no $VERSION was specified on the "bootstrap" line, the last line
       becomes

           XSLoader::load 'YourPackage';

       Backward compatible boilerplate

       If you want to have your cake and eat it too, you need a more compli-
       cated boilerplate.

           package YourPackage;
           use vars qw($VERSION @ISA);

           @ISA = qw( OnePackage OtherPackage );
           $VERSION = '0.01';
           eval {
              require XSLoader;
              XSLoader::load('YourPackage', $VERSION);
              1;
           } or do {
              require DynaLoader;
              push @ISA, 'DynaLoader';
              bootstrap YourPackage $VERSION;
           };

       The parentheses about XSLoader::load() arguments are needed since we
       replaced "use XSLoader" by "require", so the compiler does not know
       that a function XSLoader::load() is present.

       This boilerplate uses the low-overhead "XSLoader" if present; if used
       with an antic Perl which has no "XSLoader", it falls back to using
       "DynaLoader".

Order of initialization: early load()
       Skip this section if the XSUB functions are supposed to be called from
       other modules only; read it only if you call your XSUBs from the code
       in your module, or have a "BOOT:" section in your XS file (see "The
       BOOT: Keyword" in perlxs).  What is described here is equally applica-
       ble to DynaLoader interface.

       A sufficiently complicated module using XS would have both Perl code
       (defined in YourPackage.pm) and XS code (defined in YourPackage.xs).
       If this Perl code makes calls into this XS code, and/or this XS code
       makes calls to the Perl code, one should be careful with the order of
       initialization.

       The call to XSLoader::load() (or bootstrap()) has three side effects:

       o   if $VERSION was specified, a sanity check is done to insure that
           the versions of the .pm and the (compiled) .xs parts are compati-
           ble;

       o   The XSUBs are made accessible from Perl;

       o   If the "BOOT:" section was present in .xs file, the code there is
           called.

       Consequently, if the code in .pm file makes calls to these XSUBs, it is
       convenient to have XSUBs installed before the Perl code is defined; for
       example, this makes prototypes for XSUBs visible to this Perl code.
       Alternatively, if the "BOOT:" section makes calls to Perl functions (or
       uses Perl variables) defined in .pm file, they must be defined prior to
       the call to XSLoader::load() (or bootstrap()).

       The first situation being much more frequent, it makes sense to rewrite
       the boilerplate as

           package YourPackage;
           use XSLoader;
           use vars qw($VERSION @ISA);

           BEGIN {
              @ISA = qw( OnePackage OtherPackage );
              $VERSION = '0.01';

              # Put Perl code used in the BOOT: section here

              XSLoader::load 'YourPackage', $VERSION;
           }

           # Put Perl code making calls into XSUBs here

       The most hairy case

       If the interdependence of your "BOOT:" section and Perl code is more
       complicated than this (e.g., the "BOOT:" section makes calls to Perl
       functions which make calls to XSUBs with prototypes), get rid of the
       "BOOT:" section altogether.  Replace it with a function onBOOT(), and
       call it like this:

           package YourPackage;
           use XSLoader;
           use vars qw($VERSION @ISA);

           BEGIN {
              @ISA = qw( OnePackage OtherPackage );
              $VERSION = '0.01';
              XSLoader::load 'YourPackage', $VERSION;
           }

           # Put Perl code used in onBOOT() function here; calls to XSUBs are
           # prototype-checked.

           onBOOT;

           # Put Perl initialization code assuming that XS is initialized here

LIMITATIONS
       To reduce the overhead as much as possible, only one possible location
       is checked to find the extension DLL (this location is where "make
       install" would put the DLL).  If not found, the search for the DLL is
       transparently delegated to "DynaLoader", which looks for the DLL along
       the @INC list.

       In particular, this is applicable to the structure of @INC used for
       testing not-yet-installed extensions.  This means that the overhead of
       running uninstalled extension may be much more than running the same
       extension after "make install".

AUTHOR
       Ilya Zakharevich: extraction from DynaLoader.



perl v5.8.6                       2001-09-21                       XSLoader(3)