## wxDynamicLibrary

wxDynamicLibrary is a class representing dynamically loadable library (Windows DLL, shared library under Unix etc.). Just create an object of this class to load a library and don't worry about unloading it -- it will be done in the objects destructor automatically.

Derived from

No base class.

Include files

<wx/dynlib.h>

(only available if `wxUSE_DYNLIB_CLASS` is set to 1)

Members

wxDynamicLibrary::wxDynamicLibrary
wxDynamicLibrary::CanonicalizeName
wxDynamicLibrary::CanonicalizePluginName
wxDynamicLibrary::Detach
wxDynamicLibrary::GetSymbol
wxDynamicLibrary::GetSymbolAorW
wxDynamicLibrary::GetProgramHandle
wxDynamicLibrary::HasSymbol
wxDynamicLibrary::IsLoaded
wxDynamicLibrary::ListLoaded
wxDynamicLibrary::Load
wxDynamicLibrary::Unload

### wxDynamicLibrary::wxDynamicLibrary

wxDynamicLibrary()

wxDynamicLibrary(const wxString& name, int flags = wxDL_DEFAULT)

Constructor. Second form calls Load.

### wxDynamicLibrary::CanonicalizeName

static wxString CanonicalizeName(const wxString& name, wxDynamicLibraryCategory cat = wxDL_LIBRARY)

Returns the platform-specific full name for the library called name. E.g. it adds a `".dll"` extension under Windows and `"lib"` prefix and `".so"`, `".sl"` or maybe `".dylib"` extension under Unix.

The possible values for cat are:

wxDL_LIBRARY | normal library
wxDL_MODULE | a loadable module or plugin

See also

CanonicalizePluginName

### wxDynamicLibrary::CanonicalizePluginName

static wxString CanonicalizePluginName(const wxString& name, wxPluginCategory cat = wxDL_PLUGIN_GUI)

This function does the same thing as CanonicalizeName but for wxWidgets plugins. The only difference is that compiler and version information are added to the name to ensure that the plugin which is going to be loaded will be compatible with the main program.

The possible values for cat are:

wxDL_PLUGIN_GUI | plugin which uses GUI classes (default)
wxDL_PLUGIN_BASE | plugin which only uses wxBase

### wxDynamicLibrary::Detach

wxDllType Detach()

Detaches this object from its library handle, i.e. the object will not unload the library any longer in its destructor but it is now the callers responsibility to do this using Unload.

### wxDynamicLibrary::GetSymbol

void * GetSymbol(const wxString& name) const

Returns pointer to symbol name in the library or NULL if the library contains no such symbol.

See also

wxDYNLIB_FUNCTION

### wxDynamicLibrary::GetSymbolAorW

void * GetSymbolAorW(const wxString& name) const

This function is available only under Windows as it is only useful when dynamically loading symbols from standard Windows DLLs. Such functions have either `'A'` (in ANSI build) or `'W'` (in Unicode, or wide character build) suffix if they take string parameters. Using this function you can use just the base name of the function and the correct suffix is appende automatically depending on the current build. Otherwise, this method is identical to GetSymbol.

### wxDynamicLibrary::GetProgramHandle

static wxDllType GetProgramHandle()

Return a valid handle for the main program itself or `NULL` if symbols from the main program can't be loaded on this platform.

### wxDynamicLibrary::HasSymbol

bool HasSymbol(const wxString& name) const

Returns `true` if the symbol with the given name is present in the dynamic library, `false` otherwise. Unlike GetSymbol, this function doesn't log an error message if the symbol is not found.

This function is new since wxWidgets version 2.5.4

### wxDynamicLibrary::IsLoaded

bool IsLoaded() const

Returns `true` if the library was successfully loaded, `false` otherwise.

### wxDynamicLibrary::ListLoaded

static wxDynamicLibraryDetailsArray ListLoaded()

This static method returns an array containing the details of all modules loaded into the address space of the current project, the array elements are object of `wxDynamicLibraryDetails` class. The array will be empty if an error occurred.

This method is currently implemented only under Win32 and Linux and is useful mostly for diagnostics purposes.

### wxDynamicLibrary::Load

bool Load(const wxString& name, int flags = wxDL_DEFAULT)

Loads DLL with the given name into memory. The flags argument can be a combination of the following bits:

wxDL_LAZY | equivalent of RTLD_LAZY under Unix, ignored elsewhere
wxDL_NOW | equivalent of RTLD_NOW under Unix, ignored elsewhere
wxDL_GLOBAL | equivalent of RTLD_GLOBAL under Unix, ignored elsewhere
wxDL_VERBATIM | don't try to append the appropriate extension to the library name (this is done by default).
wxDL_DEFAULT | default flags, same as wxDL_NOW currently

Returns `true` if the library was successfully loaded, `false` otherwise.

### wxDynamicLibrary::Unload

void Unload()

static void Unload(wxDllType handle)

Unloads the library from memory. wxDynamicLibrary object automatically calls this method from its destructor if it had been successfully loaded.

The second version is only used if you need to keep the library in memory during a longer period of time than the scope of the wxDynamicLibrary object. In this case you may call Detach and store the handle somewhere and call this static method later to unload it.