RE: Symbols in executable available to dynamic stuff

["Andrej Borsenkow" <borsenkow.msk@sni.de>]

The problem is, that loadable modules needs access to symbols from "main"
zsh. Hash tables, parameter functions etc On some systems (notably SVR4),
symbols from a.out are *not* accessible to outside world. In this case, ZSH
is built as dynamic sjared library with stub a.out, which is just linked
against libzsh.so and calls ZSH entry point there.

/andrej

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Geoff Wing [mailto:gcw@pobox.com]
> Sent: Saturday, November 14, 1998 10:18 AM
> To: Zsh Hackers
> Subject: Symbols in executable available to dynamic stuff
>
>
> Heyla,
> can I cause some more trouble yet? :-)
>
> Way, way back in Zefram's patch 3038 came aczsh.m4 and this gem:
> zsh_SYS_DYNAMIC_EXECSYMS:
>     Check whether symbols in the executable are available to dynamically
>     loaded libraries.
> (And BTW, the description's wrong: it checks dynamically loaded objects,
> which are not necessarily libraries)
>
> If yes, then we don't build a dynamic zsh.  What's the danger here?  If
> you control your executable, library and $MODULEPATH then why does it
> matter if objects you load can run subroutines from outside their object
> space?  Or is it more specific than that?  Obviously, routines in
> dynamically loaded modules (eg. genprompts() in zle module) need
> to be able
> to run routines in other modules or libraries (eg. countprompt() in zsh
> library) so there is some big thing here I'm missing perhaps?
>
> Anyone care to enlighten me, please?
> --
> Geoff Wing   <gcw@pobox.com>            Mobile : 0412 162 441
> Work URL: http://www.primenet.com.au/   Ego URL: http://pobox.com/~gcw/
>
>