Cleaning-up
Memory
To ensure the plug-in framework unloads the plug-in DLLs when they
are no longer required and releases associated memory, the clients should
follow an explicit memory cleanup procedure. The main purpose is to release
memory and close handles held on unused plug-in implementations and their
associated DLLs. The memory clean-up should be performed after all instantiated
interface objects have been deleted.
The plug-in framework client-side library implements a deferred
cleanup mechanism in the client process to handle destroyed plug-ins. Following
a call to
REComSession::DestroyedImplementation() in the
destructor, the plug-in’s reference count is decremented to zero and the client-side
library has a “last destroyed last plug-in” garbage pointer. The internal
framework memory associated with the garbage plug-in is released. The handles
on the DLL are closed at the beginning of the next call to
REComSession::DestroyedImplementation().
This chain of deferred cleanup in the client thread requires the final plug-in
in the garbage queue to be released. Hence there is a requirement for explicit
memory clean-up. The memory clean-up is performed by the clients of the plug-in
framework.
Note: The destructor of the interface implementation deletes the
instantiated objects obtained from an interface when they are no longer required
by calling the static function
REComSession::DestroyedImplementation().
inline CExampleInterfaceDefinition::~CExampleInterfaceDefinition()
{
REComSession::DestroyedImplementation(iDtor_ID_Key);
}
Call REComSession::FinalClose() before shut down
to ensure the plug-in framework executes the final cleanup steps.
Note: REComSession::FinalClose() should not be
called from a plug-in implementation class destructor, especially following
a REComSession::DestroyedImplementation(). There is a risk
that the plug-in's supporting DLL may immediately be unloaded by the Kernel
due to the closure of RLibrary handles. It can result in a KERN-EXEC if the
destructor call stack is still inside the DLL that is unloaded.
If the plug-in framework is used in a library, then REComSession::FinalClose() should
be invoked within the library's shutdown function. This makes the library's
use of plug-in framework transparent to the clients.
It is not an error if both the library and client call REComSession::FinalClose().