Re: How are proxy-stub dlls freed?
It's really a problem with your build environment. Proxy/stub
DLLs are not different from any other COM in-proc servers.
They are unloaded when the process terminates. They are not
linked to the process neither statically, nor dynamically, they
are loaded dynamically, but never unloaded. Well, CoUninitialize
unloads all COM in-proc servers (DLLs), but the catch is that
has to be the last CoUninitialize for the process. It's reasonable
to assume your IDE needs COM for its own purposes after all...
There's also the CoFreeUnusedLibraries API function. This _may_
unload unused COM servers according to the specification, but
it's not deterministic, and according to the last reports I've seen
it's implemented as a no-op in both Win2K and WinXP...
I'd advise you to invest some time to figure out how to run your
code in a separate process in PowerBuilder... RunDll32.exe
may be of some help.
--
=====================================
Alexander Nickolov
Microsoft MVP [VC], MCSD
email: agnickolov@mvps.org
MVP VC FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/vcfaq
=====================================
"eran" <kalevet@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1156251502.444510.139520@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
Our main app is written in Powerbuilder. I'm working on a client dll
the PB app uses. The client uses several DCOM proxy-stub dlls to
connect to remote servers.
When running an app from the PB IDE, it runs in the same process as the
IDE (unlike VC). When the app loads my dll, the ps dlls are also
loaded. When the app terminates, my dll is unloaded, but the ps dlls
are still in memory. If I then would like to update a ps dll, I have to
exit the PB IDE so that the dlls are freed - which might be a bit
annoying...
On a compiled app I'd never notice that, because when it ends the
process ends as well. However, as I've mentioned in the IDE the process
is still alive. It seems as if my dll, which loads the ps dlls, does
not unload them when it is unloaded, and since the process is still
alive they are still loaded. The app never accesses the ps dlls
directly, only via my dll. I don't know if COM ps's are statically or
dynamically linked to the using executable (here - my dll), but
shouldn't whoever loaded them also unload them? Is it safe for me to
explicitly unload those dlls from within my dll, even though I did not
explicitly load them?
Thanks,
Eran