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Re: The future C++ template model in gcc?
> Someone else mentined to me that we may use a special ELF section to
> implement `expport'. I don't like the setuid idea either. I don't
> know what the exact sementics of export are. I doubt we have to change
> an existing libray if we resolve everything at the compile time.
What is it that you don't like about using a special ELF section?
As for the problem to solve:
Assume you have a package A, with header files and implementation
files; the implementation files contain the exported templates. When
producing a "binary" package, you get a shared library. To use this
library in an application B, you normally need the header files and
the shared library. Now, with exported templates, you also need the
code of the templates in the implementation files.
How would you make the template definitions available to the
compilation of B? The proposal is to put the template definitions, or
atleast a reference to them, into the shared library. Thus, on linking
B, the prelinker can figure out the missing template instantiations,
and look into the shared library to instantiate them.
Regards,
Martin