load-foreign-library (CFFI User Manual)

load-foreign-library

Syntax

Function: load-foreign-library library-designator ⇒ library

Arguments and Values

library-designator: A library designator.
library-designator: An instance of foreign-library.

Description

Load the library indicated by library-designator. A library designator is defined as follows:

If a symbol, is considered a name previously defined with define-foreign-library.
If a string or pathname, passed as a namestring directly to the implementation’s foreign library loader. If that fails, search the directories in *foreign-library-directories* with cl:probe-file; if found, the absolute path is passed to the implementation’s loader.
If a list, the meaning depends on (first library):

:framework

The second list element is taken to be a Darwin framework name, which is then searched in *darwin-framework-directories*, and loaded when found.

:or

Each remaining list element, itself a library designator, is loaded in order, until one succeeds.

:default

The name is transformed according to the platform’s naming convention to shared libraries, and the resultant string is loaded as a library designator. For example, on UNIX, the name is suffixed with .so.

If the library is already loaded it will be reloaded.

If the load fails, signal a load-foreign-library-error.

Please note: For system libraries, you should not need to specify the directory containing the library. Each operating system has its own idea of a default search path, and you should rely on it when it is reasonable.

Implementation-specific Notes

On ECL platforms where its dynamic FFI is not supported (ie. when :dffi is not present in *features*), cffi:load-foreign-library does not work and you must use ECL’s own ffi:load-foreign-library with a constant string argument.

Examples

See Loading foreign libraries.

load-foreign-library