Re: Feature request: Globalize symbol

[James E Wilson <wilson at specifixinc dot com>]

Fredrik Hugosson wrote:
> My proposal is the following new options:
> -fglobalize-symbol=SYMBOLNAME
> -fglobalize-symbols=FILENAME
> -fglobalize-all-symbols

It is unlikely someone will volunteer to implement a feature that only 
you need.

Globalizing a symbol in a shared library is potentially unsafe, and that 
may resulting in linker conflicts, or it may result in a shared library 
variable being overriden by a variable in another module causing silent 
changes in behaviour.

Another way to attack this problem would be to add accessor functions to 
the shared libraries.  Presumably you only need to be able to read/write 
the variables, so an accessor function would solve this problem without 
compiler changes.  So if you have a variable
  static int slib_var;
Add functions
  int __unittest_read_slib_var (void) { return slib_var;}
  void __unittest_set_slib_var (int value) { slib_var = value; }
to the shared library when you compile it.
--
Jim Wilson, GNU Tools Support, http://www.SpecifixInc.com