Ufdjrw

While in a C shared library, one can do the following to execute an initializer or finalizer when the C program that uses this shared library starts or finishes:

BOOL APIENTRY DllMain(HINSTANCE instance, DWORD reason, LPVOID reserved)

 if (reason == DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH)
 
 _initialize();
 
 else if (reason == DLL_PROCESS_DETACH)
 
 _finalize();
 
 return true;

This is not working if the same C program is using the static version of the C library instead.

Any idea how this can be fixed?

A static library "starts" and "finishes" when the program it is part of starts and finishes.

I put the words "starts" and "finishes" in quotes, because once the application is linked, there isn't really a static library as such in it. The functions that came from the static library are indistinguishable from the functions that came from the application.

So, if you have stuff that needs to be done before calling any function in a particular static library, you must create an initialisation function and call it explicitly from your code e.g. from your main() function. Similarly, if you have stuff that must be done after you have finished using the functions from the static library, you must create a cleanup function and call it explicitly from your code. This is actually fairly normal practice.

Consider also changing your DLL so that you have to do the initialisation explicitly in exactly the same way. This has a couple of advantages:

• You do not need to change your application code if you change the way the library is linked


• The things you can do in DLLMain are pretty restricted. Not even all the functions in the kernel DLL are safe to call. This does not apply to an explicit initialisation function called after the DLL has loaded.