Dynamic Linking Example

Following example covers API like dladdr, dlclose, dlerror, dlopen, dlsym and flags like RTLD_LAZY, RTLD_NOW, RTLD_GLOBAL, `RTLD_LOCAL, RTLD_NODELETE, RTLD_NOLOAD, RTLD_NEXT, RTLD_DEFAULT, etc.

• At First Sight, This Might Look Lengthy & Alien, But If You Spend 5 Min, You Might Get What You Looking For.
• I Struggle With Finding Dynamic Linking Example On Net When I Came Across Dynamic Linking Related Development. So I Wrote One Helping Post.

flags.c

•  We will create binary flags out of flags.c & load both shared library libgetsum.so & `libsum.so` through dlopen with different configuration flags

/*
 * Test Procedure :
 *
 * i. Create "libsum.so" from sum.c (kept in same folder).
 * 
 * gcc -o libgetsum.so -shared -fPIC getsum.c -D_GNU_SOURCE
 *
 * ii. Create "libgetsum.so" from sum.c (kept in same folder).
 * 
 * gcc -o libsum.so -shared -fPIC sum.c -D_GNU_SOURCE
 *
 * iii. Create "flags" binary from flags.c file
 *
 * gcc -o flags flags.c -ldl -D_GNU_SOURCE
 *
 */

/*
 * Verification Method:
 *
 * [libsum.so]             : Loaded successfully
 * [dlsym()]               : Executed successfully
 * sum(0,0)                : 1
 * Error relocating /home/vishal/libgetsum.so: sum: symbol not found
 * [libsum.so]             : Closed successfully
 * [libsum.so]             : Loaded again successfully
 * [libgetsum.so]          : Loaded again successfully
 * [dlsym()]               : Executed successfully
 * getsum(4, 5)            : 11
 * [dlsym()]               : Executed successfully
 * func()                  : Executed Successfully From [libgetsum.so]
 * [dladdr()]              : Executed successfully
 * Function                : funcXYZ
 * Shared Lib              : /home/vishal/libgetsum.so
 *
 */

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 


/*Please Provide Absolute Path Of Both Libs */
#define LIB_1   "Absolute_path_to_libsum.so"
#define LIB_2   "Absolute_path_to_libgetsum.so"


int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    /*------------------- PASS 1 : Loading Shared Lib 1  -----------------*/
    void *lib1 = dlopen(LIB_1, RTLD_LAZY | RTLD_LOCAL | RTLD_NODELETE );
    if (!lib1) {
        dprintf(1, "[libsum.so]     : Error in finding the library : PASS 1\n");
        fputs(dlerror(), stderr);
        exit(1);
    }
    else{
        dprintf(1, "[libsum.so]     : Loaded successfully \n");
    }
    /*---------------------------------------------------------------------*/


    /*------------------ PASS 2 : Finding Symbol & Execute it--------------*/
    int (*sum)(int , int) = (int (*)(int , int))dlsym(lib1, "sum");
    char *error = dlerror();
    if (error != NULL)  {
        dprintf(1, "[dlsym()]       : Error : PASS 2\n");
        fputs(error, stderr);
        exit(1);
    }
    else{
        dprintf(1,"[dlsym()]        : Executed successfully\n");
        printf("sum(0,0)        : %d \n", (*sum)(0, 0));
    }
    /*---------------------------------------------------------------------*/



    /*------------------ PASS 3 : Loading Shared Lib 2  -------------------*/
    void *lib2 = dlopen(LIB_2, RTLD_NOW);
    if (!lib2) {
        fputs(dlerror(), stderr);
        if( dlclose(lib1) == 0 ){   /* Closing Shared Lib 1 */
            dprintf(1, "\n[libsum.so]       : Closed successfully \n");
        }
        else{
            dprintf(1, "\n[libsum.so]       : Error in closing : PASS 3 \n");
        }
    }
    else{
        dprintf(1, "[libgetsum.so]      : Loaded successfully \n");
    }
    /*---------------------------------------------------------------------*/


    /*----------------- PASS 4 : Loading Shared Lib 1 Again ---------------*/
    lib1 = dlopen(LIB_1, RTLD_NOW | RTLD_NOLOAD | RTLD_GLOBAL );
    if (!lib1) {
        dprintf(1, "[libsum.so]     : Error in finding the library : PASS 4\n");
        fputs(dlerror(), stderr);
        exit(1);
    }
    else{
        dprintf(1, "[libsum.so]     : Loaded again successfully \n");
    }
    /*---------------------------------------------------------------------*/


    /*----------------- PASS 5 : Loading Shared Lib 2 Again ---------------*/
    lib2 = dlopen(LIB_2, RTLD_NOW  | RTLD_GLOBAL );
    if (!lib2) {
        dprintf(1, "[libgetsum.so]      : Error in finding the library : PASS 5\n");
        fputs(dlerror(), stderr);
        exit(1);
    }
    else{
        dprintf(1, "[libgetsum.so]      : Loaded again successfully \n");
    }
    /*---------------------------------------------------------------------*/


    /*------------------ PASS 6 : Finding Symbol & Execute it--------------*/
    int (*getsum)(int , int) = (int (*)(int , int))dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, "getsum");
    error = dlerror();
    if (error != NULL)  {
        dprintf(1, "[dlsym()]       : Error : PASS 6\n");
        fputs(error, stderr);
        exit(1);
    }
    else{
        dprintf(1,"[dlsym()]        : Executed successfully\n");
        printf("getsum(4, 5)        : %d\n", (*getsum)(4, 5));
    }
    /*---------------------------------------------------------------------*/


    /*------------------ PASS 7 : Finding Symbol & Execute it--------------*/
    void (*func)(void) = (void (*)(void))dlsym( lib2, "funcXYZ");
    error = dlerror();
    if (error != NULL)  {
        dprintf(1, "[dlsym()]       : Error : PASS 7\n");
        fputs(error, stderr);
        exit(1);
    }
    else{
        dprintf(1,"[dlsym()]        : Executed successfully\n");
        printf("func()          : ");
        (*func)();
    }
    /*---------------------------------------------------------------------*/


    /*------------- PASS 8 : Resolving Function Name By Address -----------*/
    Dl_info  DlInfo;

    if( dladdr(func, &DlInfo) != 0 ){
        dprintf(1, "[dladdr()]      : Executed successfully  \n");
        dprintf(1, "Function        : %s  \n", DlInfo.dli_sname);
        dprintf(1, "Shared Lib      : %s  \n", DlInfo.dli_fname);
    }
    else{
        dprintf(1, "[dladdr()]              : Error : PASS 8\n");
        exit(1);
    }
    /*---------------------------------------------------------------------*/

    dlclose(lib1);
    dlclose(lib2);

    return 0;
}

sum.c

• We will generate  libsum.so out of this file & load  libsum.so from flags.c through dlopen

#include 
#include 

int sum(int a, int b)
{
        static int i=0;
        i++;
        return a + b + i;
}

void funcXYZ()
{
        static void (*fptr)(void) = NULL;

        /* Come here only first time */
        if (fptr == NULL) {
                fptr = (void (*)(void))dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "funcXYZ");
                if (fptr == NULL) {
                        printf("dlsym: %s\n", dlerror());
                        return ;
                }
        }

        (*fptr)();
}

getsum.c

• We will generate  libgetsum.so out of this file & load  libgetsum.so from flags.c through dlopen

#include

extern int sum(int,int);

int getsum(int a, int b)
{
        return sum(a,b);
}

void funcXYZ()
{
        printf("Executed Successfully From [libgetsum.so]\n");
}