Need to logout on Update

[Genes MailLists]

On 07/26/2011 12:48 PM, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> On Tue, 2011-07-26 at 12:44 +0200, Kevin Kofler wrote:
>> Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>>> That could happen but it would depend on how the library is loaded. I'm
>>> not sufficiently au fait with the details of Linux dynamic library
>>> management to have a well-founded opinion, but AFAIK the loader normally
>>> checks that all libraries exist before allowing the process to execute.
>>
>> That's only true if the library is linked directly, not if dlopen is used. 
>> Plugins are loaded through dlopen.
> 
> Good point.
> 
> poc
> 
> _______________________________________________



  Only up to a point - this is a possible explanation but not a valid
reason.

  Usually,  calls to dlopen use some kind of version indicator to ensure
compatibility before blindly executing code which may not be compatible
- this allows graceful 'please logout to pick up new libraries'
notification to the user (or whatever).

  dlopen() needs some protection - if its not doing this, I'd claim its
still a bug (badly written).

  The GUI needs to be graceful and not just 'hang' coz an update took
place.

   One could even keep both (or more) sets of libraries in place until
the next reboot/KDE restart or whatever - so that things could just keep
working.

   Crashing is never excusable ... and certainly using dlopen() poorly
is not a good excuse - its merely an explanation of the bug.