Klaim - Joël Lamotte wrote:
I might have misunderstood what Peter suggested: I thought he suggested that get_symbol<> would return a smart pointer (not shared_ptr) that would _internally_ contain a shared_ptr to the plugin and the access to the data.
No, get_symbol returns a 'real' shared_ptr in my suggestion. shared_ptr<library> p = load_library( "mylib.so" ); shared_ptr<void()> p2 = get_symbol<void()>( p, "myfunction" ); (*p2)(); // calls myfunction() in mylib.so By creating p2 using the aliasing constructor of shared_ptr, you can have p2 and p share ownership of the loaded library. template<class Y> shared_ptr(const shared_ptr<Y>& r, T *p) noexcept; Effects: Constructs a shared_ptr instance that stores p and shares ownership with r. Postconditions: get() == p && use_count() == r.use_count() [ Note: To avoid the possibility of a dangling pointer, the user of this constructor must ensure that p remains valid at least until the ownership group of r is destroyed. —end note ]