[xorg-bugzilla-noise] [Bug 400] New: The dlopen() loader fails due to circular dependancies between modules.

[bugzilla-daemon at pdx.freedesktop.org]

http://pdx.freedesktop.org/cgi-bin/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=400

           Summary: The dlopen() loader fails due to circular dependancies
                    between modules.
           Product: xorg
           Version: CVS_head
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P4
         Component: Server/general
        AssignedTo: xorg-bugzilla-noise at freedesktop.org
        ReportedBy: mharris at www.linux.org.uk


This is a master tracking bug to track all issues related to circular
dependancies between modules causing the dlopen() based loader to fail
to get a running X server, when the server is compiled with:

#define MakeDllModules YES


My understanding of this issue, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, is
that the Dll loader has never been used by default in any official XFree86
release, and has only been used specifically by developers when trying to
bootstrap a new architecture to work with the server prior to the ELF loader
being enhanced to properly support the new architecture.

To my knowledge, at present, the DLL loader is not an officially supported
module loading mechanism, and is not used on any platform/architecture
combination by default, which is why it is broken currently.

There are several people who would like to use this loader, and to see it
become the default module loading mechanism in the future, as that would
make debugging easier, and would eliminate all of the complexities of the
ELF loader, such as problems with NX stack/heap.

Nobody to my knowledge has expressed interest in officially owning and
fixing this problem yet, however it is useful to have a master tracker for
the issue, so that each bug that gets filed can be flagged as blocking this
master bug.

Having said that, someone who is interested in seeing this actually work,
or who has a requirement that it work is most likely going to have to
stand up and volunteer to investigate the issues and fix them and submit
patches for review.

Also note, that the dlopen() loader is not portable to all architectures
supported by the X server, and so it may need to be handled specially
for each architecture that differs.



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