C++ Shared Object Plugin

A template for loading objects of type T from a dynamically loaded library. The shared object, or plugin, must have entry and exit functions designated extern "C" which manage the construction and destruction of T.

For an advanced usage example have a look at G4Plugin. And for a more descriptive statment on what this is all about, have a look at the wiki page: https://github.com/christopherpoole/cppplugin/wiki/Plugins-in-CPP:-Dynamically-Linking-Shared-Objects

Author: Christopher M Poole

Email: mail@christopherpoole.net

Basic Example Usage

Target Object:

class Thing;

User Plugin:

extern "C" Thing* load() {
    Thing * thing = new Thing();
    return thing;
}

extern "C" void unload(Thing * thing) {
    delete thing;
}

Application:

Plugin<Thing> * plugin = new Plugin<Thing>("./shared.so",
                                           "load", "unload");
Thing * thing = plugin->Load();

/** use thing **/

plugin->UnLoad();