unloading imported modules

[Andrew MacIntyre]

On 20 Jul 2002, [iso-8859-1] François Pinard wrote:

> So, when the reference count of a module drops to 0, and I get that this
> is possible, then the module is unloaded.  Isn't it?  Also, I wonder if
> a module coming from an `.so' file be effectively reloaded.  And then, if
> the previous copy (the memory area in which the `.so' is paged) gets freed?

AFAIK, dynamicly loaded extension modules (*.so, *.DLL) can't be
satisfactorily unloaded or reloaded.  While it might be possible in
theory, in practice there are all sorts of platform specific gotchas which
thwart attempts to implement this.

--
Andrew I MacIntyre                     "These thoughts are mine alone..."
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