[vlc-devel] libvlccore, name-clashes and problems with getopt

[Mathieu SCHROETER]

Hello,

I'm trying to use libvlc for a project, and there are several potential
clashes with libvlccore. The namespace uses in libvlc.so is fine, always
libvlc_. But libvlc.so is linked against libvlccore.so where the
namespaces are not consistent.


For example, many non-static functions use very common symbols:

$ nm -gC --defined-only /usr/local/lib/libvlccore.so.4.0.0
...
000000000008a540 T module_exists
000000000008a4c0 T module_find
000000000008ae50 T module_gettext
...
00000000000870a0 T msleep
0000000000087140 T mwait
...
000000000009fb60 T xml_Create
...
0000000000085320 T utf8_fprintf
...
etc,...



A second problem is the use of getopt in libvlccore.

$ nm -gC /usr/local/lib/libvlccore.so.4.0.0 | grep opt
                  U getopt_long@@GLIBC_2.2.5
                  U getsockopt@@GLIBC_2.2.5
                  U optarg@@GLIBC_2.2.5
                  U opterr@@GLIBC_2.2.5
                  U optind@@GLIBC_2.2.5
                  U optopt@@GLIBC_2.2.5
                  U setsockopt@@GLIBC_2.2.5

When using libvlc in a program with getopt.. It is necessary to be
sure that libvlc is initialized _only after_ the use of optind, etc,..
Otherwise, libvlccore changes the value of optind for example,..

I hope that this report will prevent other people to search why getopt
seems doing strange things after the init of libvlc (libvlc_new,
maybe other functions too). IMHO, getopt should never be used in a
library.. the global variables are very annoying..


Regards,
-- 
Mathieu SCHROETER