[PVFS2-developers] Patch : Dynamic loading of BMI library

[Pete Wyckoff]

dbeilloi at mc.com wrote on Fri, 18 Mar 2005 10:34 -0500:
> In attachment is a new patch to support BMI dynamic shared library,
> Based on your previous input.
> 
> This options is off by default, and can be enabled at configure time with
> --enable-dynamic-bmilib, 
> 
> When enabled ALLOW_DYNAMIC_BMILLIB is defined in CFLAGS and activate the
> Small part of code for this features, and binary are link with -ldl.
> 
> When not no change are made compared to the current way it works.
> 
> Concerning scripts, pvfs2-genconfig is updated to check in the case where 
> the choosen protocol is not tcp, gm or ib if a shared library is available
> for the required protocol (base on its name libbmi_<protocol>) to do this 
> pvfs2-genconfig call a simple program responsible for checking the existence
> Of such library and its symbols.

Where is the rest of the patch that generates libbmi_tcp.so et al., with
their "method_interface" symbols too?  And makefile/configure glop to
generate and install them.

I don't understand the need to change pvfs2-genconfig.  Are you
imagining a situation where an out-of-tree BMI device will be used
with a stock pvfs2-genconfig?  Otherwise why not just modify genconfig
so it understands about your new BMI device and ship your out-of-tree
device with the patch?

The dynamic loading part in bmi.c is sane.  I would prefer if you
would just rip out the code in BMI_addr_lookup below the comment
"if not found, try to bring it up now" and just always call into
activate_method().  That function can stay like you have it:
    1. check the active methods
    2. check the known (static) but inactive methods
    3. try the dynamic loader
Can you clean up our old code like that?

		-- Pete