Mechanism to circumvent restrictions of pre-written code components

• US 20060080683A1
• Filed: 10/12/2004
• Published: 04/13/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Picsel International Limited
• Original Assignee: Picsel International Limited
• Inventors: Anwar, Majid, Gardiner, Paul
• Application Number:
  US10/964,272
• Publication Number:
  US 20060080683A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/332
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading

Abstract

A platform independent binary object (PIBO) operable on disparate computing environments that have a selected hardware architecture without requiring rebuilding or reloading is provided. The PIBO can be parsed to generate source-code stub file. The PIBO can be loaded and linked with a cooperating computing application by an exemplary linker/loader employing the stub file. Also, the PIBO can be used in various contexts, including but not limited to, as a mechanism for dynamically linking shared objects on platforms that do not offer such native facility; in utilizing pre-written code components on platforms that otherwise would be incompatible due to a violation of platform constraints within particular code; as a mechanism for loading non object-oriented code that circumvents restrictions of multiple execution instances and repeat execution inherent in the code; and as mechanism that allows for the use of a binary object to add on functionality on a closed platform.

Claims

1. A system for dynamic linking of a code component containing code that violates a programming restriction of a computing environment with a binary executable program operable on the computing environment comprising:

a dynamic library (DL) for use by the binary executable program; and

a source-code based stub file, compiled into the binary executable program to provide the binary executable program to have access to the DL.

2. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein said programming restriction comprises any of a restriction on the use of global variables, a restriction on the use of writeable static variables, and a restriction on the static initialization of pointer variables.

3. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein the DL comprises any of a linked library and a platform independent code library.

4. The system as recited in claim 3 wherein the DL comprises a object file having a selected structure.

5. The system as recited in claim 4 wherein the DL selected structure comprises any of the executable and linking format (ELF) and the portable executable (PE) format.

6. The system as recited in claim 4 further comprising a parser operating on the DL to generate the stub file.

7. The system as recited in claim 6 further comprising an operating system executing on a computing environment.

8. The system as recited in claim 7 wherein a cooperating computing application, the source code for the stub file, and source code for a dynamic linker/loader are compiled for the computing environment.

9. The system as recited in claim 8 wherein the cooperating computing application, the source code for the stub file, and the source code for a dynamic linker/loader are compiled for the operating system executing on the computing environment.

10. The system as recited in claim 9 further comprising a dynamic linker/loader operating on the DL to load the DL onto the computing environment during the loading of the binary executable program containing a cooperating computing application.

11. The system as recited in claim 10 wherein the dynamic linker/loader operates on the DL to link the DL with the cooperating computing application during the loading of the binary executable program.

12. The system as recited in claim 10 or 11 wherein the dynamic linker/loader handles symbol resolution and relocation to bind the cooperating computing application and the DL.

13. The system as recited in claim 12 wherein a library source code is compiled to generate the DL, comprising any of binary code and data.

14. The system as recited in claim 12 wherein dynamic linker/loader allocates a memory block on the computing environment during the execution of the cooperating computing application in which the DL is loaded.

15. The system as recited in claim 14 wherein the dynamic linker/loader operates to confine the scope of the global or writeable static variables defined in the DL to the memory block occupied by the DL

16. The system as recited in claim 14 wherein the relocation of the variables of the DL for use by the cooperating computing application is handled by the dynamic linker/loader.

17. A method to dynamically link a library having code components containing code that violates a programming restriction of a computing environment with a binary executable program operable on the computing environment comprising:

providing a library having selected code components; and

providing a stub file, created as a source code file, allowing the binary executable program to have access to the library.

18. The method as recited in claim 17 further comprising a program restriction comprising any of a restriction on the use of global variables, a restriction on the use of writeable static variables, and a restriction on static initialization of pointer variables.

19. The method as recited in claim 17 further comprising generating the library as an object file having a selected structure.

20. The method as recited in claim 19 further comprising selecting the object file as a file comprising any of the executable and linking format (ELF) and portable executable (PE) file structures.

21. The method as recited in claim 20 further comprising generating the library for a selected computing environment.

22. The method as recited in claim 21 further comprising parsing the library object file to generate the stub file.

23. The method as recited in claim 22 further comprising providing a dynamic linker/loader for compiling with a cooperating computing application executable on the computing environment.

24. The method as recited in claim 23 further comprising loading the library object file for use by the binary executable program on the computing environment by the dynamic linker/loader.

25. The method as recited in claim 24 further comprising linking the library with the cooperating computing application for execution on the computing environment at the run time of the computing application by the dynamic linker/loader.

26. The method as recited in claim 25 further comprising handling resolution and relocation of library symbols by the dynamic linker/loader.

27. The method as recited in claim 26 further comprising allocating a block of memory on the computing environment by the dynamic linker/loader.

28. The method as recited in claim 27 further comprising loading the library object file into the allocated memory block by the dynamic linker/loader.

29. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions to instruct a computer to perform a method comprising:

providing a platform independent library (PIL) having selected code components; and

providing a stub file, created as a source code file, allowing a binary executable program to have access to the PIL.

30. A computer readable medium having computer readable instructions to instruct a computing environment having a programming restriction to dynamically link a binary object having code which violates the restriction, comprising:

generating a dynamic library (DL) having a object file with a selected structure comprising any of executable and linking format (ELF) and portable executable (PE) file structure;

parsing the DL to generate a stub file generated as source code; and

compiling the stub file stub file with a cooperating computing application and linking the DL by a dynamic loader/linker for execution on the computing environment.

31. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 30 further comprising compiling the source code for the stub file, source code for the dynamic loader/linker, and source code for the cooperating computing application for the computing environment.

32. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 31 wherein the dynamic linker/loader allocates a memory block on the computing environment and loads the DL into the allocated memory block.

33. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 32 wherein the dynamic linker/loader operates to perform symbol resolution and look up for DL symbols during run-time of a cooperating computing application cooperating with the DL.

34. The computer readable medium as recited in claim 33 wherein the dynamic linker/loader operates to confine the scope of the global or writeable static variables defined in the DL to the allocated memory block occupied by the DL.

35. A method to link a dynamically link a library containing code that violates a programming restriction of a computing environment comprising:

providing a library source code;

compiling the library source code to generate a code library (CL) comprising an object file having a selected format;

parsing the CL to generate a source code based stub file that cooperates with the CL;

loading the CL in memory of the computing environment;

linking the CL to resolve and relocate CL symbols for use by a cooperating computing application executable on the computing environment.

36. The method as recited in claim 35 further comprising generating the stub file as a source code file that is compiled with a cooperating computing application and source code for a dynamic linker/loader to create a binary program executable on the computing environment.

37. The method as recited in claim 36 further comprising selecting an object file format comprising any of the ELF and PE file formats.

38. A method to distribute a library update containing code that violates a programming restriction of a computing environment comprising:

creating a dynamic library (DL) operable with a source-code based stub file and wherein the DL is dynamically linked with a cooperating computing application prior to the execution of the cooperating computing application on the computing environment; and

communicating the DL to the computing environment over a communications network.

39. The method as recited in claim 38 further comprising providing a loader/linker operable with the cooperating computing application to relocate the variables of the DL for use by the cooperating computing application.