[ros-users] [ros-pkg] #4887: Extend pluginlib with more info and explicit unloading

[Dirk Thomas]

> #4887: Extend pluginlib with more info and explicit unloading
>
> Comment(by sglaser):
>
>   In this patch, the unloadLibrary calls will silently eat errors.  There
>   should be a ROS_WARN if the library is not currently loaded, and a
>   ROS_ERROR if poco fails to unload the library.
>
>   The ROS_ERROR is extremely important, because the library cannot be
>   unloaded if any classes from it are still in use.  Without the error, the
>   unload may fail, and the user may not realize that the newest version of
>   his code is not loaded.

Indeed the current implementation of just doing nothing is not good enough.
I see the following cases:

* calling "unloadLibraryForClass" with an unavailable class:
   I would propose to throw an exception (introduce LibraryUnloadException) which would be similar to what happens for "loadLibraryForClass".
   Rational: this is definitely wrong usage of pluginlib as the developer could verify the availability of the class before.

* calling "unloadLibraryForClass" for a not loaded class (counter doesn't exist or is zero):
   I would propose to also throw a LibraryUnloadException.
   Rational: this is also wrong usage of pluginlib as it does not follow the convention for one unload call for each previous call of load.

Would you agree to implement it that way?


Now we get to the nasty cases:

* calling "unloadLibraryForClass" for a class which is loaded multiple times (counter > 1):
* calling "unloadLibraryForClass" for a class which is loaded only once (counter == 1):
   The developer might want to distinguish both cases as in the first case reloading the library will NOT load the newest version of the code.
   I would propose to use the return value for this: false in the first case, true for the second.

BUT the developer can never be 100% sure about this.
Consider the following scenario with two libraries A and B:
- load A
- load B (which might unintentionally bind to symbols from A)
- unload A
Even after calling "dlclose" (which happens inside of Poco when unloading A) the library A will stay in memory due to the symbols still in use.
Loading A again will therefore NOT load the newest version of the code.

I don't think there is anything we can do about it.
The developer of the libraries must assure that this cross-library binding to symbols does not happen.
(E.g. by stripping all non-Poco symbols from the library - I will add an example for this stripping to the ROS GUI rep soon)

First, did I get it right?
(This is all written from what I remember from several tests half a year ago)
Do you think this return value would be a reasonable solution?

Dirk

PS: Another aspect to mention: unloading the library while e.g. instances of classes are still in use will very likely result in a segfault.
As far as I know there is no way to "detect" this beforehand, so ROS_ERROR is not an option in this case either.