I am trying to pass variables (real, integer and double precision etc) from a main program to a DLL and back. I am having some problem when passing variables with data type ‘real’. For example, a variable ‘X’ is defined as real (8) in the DLL project (x=3.0). This variable must go to the main program. ‘X’ is defined as a real(8) in the main program also. But when passing the variable, it is showing a different value for the variable ‘x’ (x= 5.307579804306449D-315) in the main program. I have kept the data type of X same in both the DLL and the main program. I am not able to figure out the issue in passing the variable.
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I have multiple boards which were having different screen sizes(4",7",12" etc...). I need this info at multiple places in the Linux Kernel during boot time. We can know the device screen size by reading values on two input lines. I don't want to read every time these lines whenever I want to know the device screen size. I want to read these lines once at the beginning(maybe in the board file) and store it in a global variable. Check this global variable value where ever I need the screen size. Can anyone suggest where I can declare this global variable or any better way for this?
So you've given some thought to your problem and you think a "global" variable in the Linux kernel is the fastest/best solution. Where a "global" variable is a variable that one module defines and initializes and other modules can also read and modify it. You can do that by exporting the symbol with the EXPORT_SYMBOL macro.
As an example, look at this file on lines 54 and 55 the symbol drm_debug is declared as an unsigned int and exported for other driver modules to use. The other modules need to be informed about that symbol's existance before they can use it. In this case, that happens in this header file on line 781. So when another file or module wants to use that symbol, that source file includes the header, and then it just uses the variable as if it were declared in that file. If you don't want to create a header file for your "personal" global variables, you can just add that "extern" as a 1-liner to your global scope declarations for that source code file, and it will have the same effect.
In addition to exporting variables, you can also export functions in the same fashion. If you grep for "EXPORT_SYMBOL" in your kernel most of the hits are going to be functions. When you pass around a variable there is the chance that one module might change it at an inopportune moment when another module might be reading it causing undesired outcomes. I like to think of the function as a "read only" version of a variable, so only one module can change it, but everyone else can see it. Having one module being "responsible" for reading and interpreting the GPIO and then sharing that information with other modules to me seems to fit better with the exported function than with the exported variable.
Lastly, whenever you start sharing symbols in the kernel, you should give thought to the name of the global variable you choose. For example, don't take something that's already taken or likely to be taken.
I am not sure if I am phrasing the question correctly, but basically I want to know how the call instruction is generated when calling an imported function from another library.
For example
GetModuleFileName(...)
is compiled to
call 0x4D0000
where 0x4D0000 is the address of the imported function which is dynamic.
How does windows set those calls and would it be possible to circumvent it and set a custom address instead.
The address used in the call statement isn't dynamic. It's a relative address that's fixed at link time like a call to any other function. That's because the call is actually to a stub, and the stub performs an indirect jump to the real function. The indirect jump uses a memory operand that refers to location in the import table. When the executable (or DLL) is loaded by Windows it updates the import table with addresses of all the functions the executable or DLL uses in any DLLs it's linked to.
So if an executable a call instruction like this:
call _GetModuleFileNameA#12
Then somewhere else in the same executable is astub like this:
_GetModuleFileNameA#12:
jmp [__imp__GetModuleFileNameA#12]
And somewhere in the import table there is a definition like this:
__imp__GetModuleFileNameA#12:
DD ?
Windows sets the value of __imp_GetModuleFileName#12 in the import table when the executable (or DLL) is loaded. There's not much you can do change this, though it's not too hard to change the value after the executable (or DLL) has been loaded. Note that the import table might be located in a read-only section, meaning you may need to change the virtual memory protections in order to do this.
In pascal, is there a way to make a function defined in main program and can be called by other units? I know the way to define a function in a unit can be called by the main program and other units. For some reason, I can only have two program files, one main program and one unit. One of the function cannot be defined in the unit. Thanks
No and yes. No it is not possible in Pascal, but many compilers ( Free Pascal, maybe also Delphi) this can be circumvented by using the support to call external (non Pascal) code.
This is done declaring the variable as external in the unit with a certain linker name, and adding this linker name to the procedure's declaration in the mainmodule. The code will only meet up at the linker, so you are responsible for making declarations match.
Free Pascal uses this technique e.g. to export certain OS dependent routines from the System unit without making them visible.
E.g. for Free Pascal:
declaration of function main program:
function Fpmkdir(path : pchar; mode: mode_t):cint; [public, alias : 'FPC_SYSC_MKDIR'];
begin
...
end;
declaration of the function in the unit:
Function FpMkdir (path : pChar; Mode: TMode):cInt; external name 'FPC_SYSC_MKDIR';
My main application statically links to a static library A with a function ABC and my dynamic library xyz.dylib also statically links to the same static library A which has the same function ABC. The function ABC uses a globally defined variable.
Now when the main application Loads xyz.dylib using dlopen on runtime. The initializer gets called where i have called ABC function. This function ABC and uses the global variable from main application address space.
On Osx, functions which are inline the dylib linker will use the first one that is used. So for example, if an inline function is used in your main executable first, and then used in the loaded dylib, it will use the one in the main executable.
This is normally fine, unless your inline makes reference to a global symbol, in which case you are now be using one if your globals for both the dylib, and your executable.
Again this is usually fine, since the same version is used consistently.
The problem happens when you have 2 inline functions that reference a global that is in both executable and dylib, and one function gets used first in the executable, and another one used first in the dylib. Then you have a mismatched pair. For example:
class MagicAlloc
{
void* Alloc() { return gAlloc.get(); }
void Free( void* v ) { gAlloc.free( v ); }
static RealAllocator gAlloc;
};
Suppose you call MagicAlloc::Alloc in the executable, then call it in the dylib, now for all allocations in both you will use the gAlloc in the executable. Then the first call to MagicAlloc::Free happens in the dylib. Then you will try to free something allocated in the binary on the globals from the dylib.
There are two solutions:
Don't use inlines to reference globals/statics. Move the global structure, and the function definitions into the same translation unit ( object file ). Mark the globals "static" so they aren't even visible outside the TLU. Now your functions will be resolved statically in the link step, and bound to the right global.
Hide all the symbols in the executable except the plugin api. Link as normal, but when linking the binary itself pass the following to the linker:
-Wl,-exported_symbols_list,export_file
Where export file is a list of link symbols that should be exported. E.g. you will need to at least have "_main" in that file. Now when your dylib runs it won't be able to dynamically link to the wrong inlines, because they won't be in the dynamic symbol table. The second solution is also more secure, since a malicious plugin won't be able to access globals as easily.
When compiling fortran code into object files: how does the compiler determine the symbol names?
when I use the intrinsic function "getarg" the compiler converts it into a symbol called "_getarg#12"
I looked in the external libraries and found that the symbol name inside is called "_getarg#16" what is the significance of the "#[number]" at the end of "getarg" ?
_name#length is highly Windows-specific name mangling applied to the name of routines that obey the stdcall (or __stdcall by the name of the keyword used in C) calling convention, a variant of the Pascal calling convention. This is the calling convention used by all Win32 API functions and if you look at the export tables of DLLs like KERNEL32.DLL and USER32.DLL you'd see that all symbols are named like this.
The _...#length decoration gives the number of bytes occupied by the routine arguments. This is necessary since in the stdcall calling conventions it is the callee who cleans up the arguments from the stack and not the caller as is the case with the C calling convention. When the compiler generates a call to func with two 4-byte arguments, it puts a reference to _func#8 in the object code. If the real func happens to have different number or size of arguments, its decorated name would be something different, e.g. _func#12 and hence a link error would occur. This is very useful with dynamic libraries (DLLs). Imagine that a DLL was replaced with another version where func takes one additional argument. If it wasn't for the name mangling (the technical term for prepending _ and adding #length to the symbol name), the program would still call into func with the wrong arguments and then func would increment the stack pointer with more bytes than was the size of the passed argument list, thus breaking the caller. With name mangling in place the loader would not launch the executable at all since it would not be able to resolve the reference to _func#8.
In your case it looks like the external library is not really intended to be used with this compiler or you are missing some pragma or compiler option. The getarg intrinsic takes two arguments - one integer and one assumed-sized character array (string). Some compilers pass the character array size as an additional argument. With 32-bit code this would result in 2 pointers and 1 integer being passed, totalling in 12 bytes of arguments, hence the _getarg#12. The _getarg#16 could be, for example, 64-bit routine with strings being passed by some kind of descriptor.
As IanH reminded me in his comment, another reason for this naming discrepancy could be that you are calling getarg with fewer arguments than expected. Fortran has this peculiar feature of "prototypeless" routine calls - Fortran compilers can generate calls to routines without actually knowing their signature, unlike in C/C++ where an explicit signature has to be supplied in the form of a function prototype. This is possible since in Fortran all arguments are passed by reference and pointers are always the same size, no matter the actual type they point to. In this particular case the stdcall name mangling plays the role of a very crude argument checking mechanism. If it wasn't for the mangling (e.g. on Linux with GNU Fortran where such decorations are not employed or if the default calling convention was cdecl) one could call a routine with different number of arguments than expected and the linker would happily link the object code into an executable that would then most likely crash at run time.
This is totally implementation dependent. You did not say, which compiler do you use. The (nonstandard) intrinsic can exist in more versions for different integer or character kinds. There can also be more versions of the runtime libraries for more computer architectures (e.g. 32 bit and 64 bit).