loading multiple concurrent versions of a c++ library into a process

[Kenny Simpson <theonetruekenny at yahoo dot com>]

Not sure if this is the best forum for this question, but...

On Linux/x86 (RHEL5), I produce a versioned ELF C++ library using SONAME.  I have a user that loads in multiple versions of this library into the same process much in the way a java process uses a classloader to manage multiple concurrent versions of jars.

(don't ask why they insist on doing this- they like Frankenstein applications)

This seems likely to cause issues with symbol lookup resolving against library versions loaded earlier (violations of the ODR, etc..)

Unfortunately, the library has no real stable API, nor a defined namespace for all 'exported' symbols.

Is there a (simple?) way this can be made to work, or do I need to tell my user to stop doing that?

I've tried a few quick experiments with -Wl,--default-symver and this seems promising, but I'm wondering if there is some other, possibly c++-guts-related, subtle issue I could miss.

The other thought was to try to retro-fit a versioned namespace around the library - but this would be very very painful.

Any input much appreciated.

thanks,
-Kenny