LIBMAP.CONF(5)

NAME
libmap.conf - configuration file for dynamic object dependency mapping

DESCRIPTION
The libmap functionality of ld-elf.so.1(1) allows dynamic object dependencies to be mapped to arbitrary names.

The configuration file consists of two whitespace separated columns; the left hand side containing the mapping candidate and the right hand side containing the mapping. Dependencies are matched against candidates and replaced with the mappings.

Two special directives are available:

include file
    Parse the contents of file before continuing with the current file.

includedir dir
    Parse the contents of every file in dir that ends in .conf before continuing with the current file.

Any file or directory encountered while processing include or includedir directives will be parsed exactly once, even if it is encountered multiple times.

Constrained mappings may be specified by enclosing the name of the executable or library in brackets. All mappings following a constraint will only be evaluated for that constraint. Constraints can be one of three types:

Exact
    The constraint is matched literally so that only an executable with an identical fully qualified pathname will match the constraint. This means that the executable /usr/bin/foo will not match a constraint for /usr/bin/./foo and vice-versa. This is the default constraint type.

Basename
    A constraint with no path is matched against the basename of the executable. foo will match /bin/foo, /usr/local/sbin/foo, or any other executable named foo, no matter what its path is.

Directory
    A constraint with a trailing slash is prefix-matched against the full pathname of the executable. /usr/bin/ will match any executable with a path starting with /usr/bin.

Note that the executable path matched against is the path parameter in an exec*() function call. The Directory or Exact constraints can only match when the executable is called with a full pathname. Most programs executed from a shell are run without a full path, via exec*p(), so the Basename constraint type is the most useful.

WARNING! Constrained mappings must never appear first in the configuration file. While there is a way to specify the “default” constraint, its use is not recommended.

The most common use at the date of writing is for allowing multiple POSIX threading libraries to be used on a system without relinking or changing symlinks.

On 64-bit architectures that provide 32-bit runtime support, the libmap mechanism is available for 32-bit binaries too. The mappings has to be written into separate configuration file /etc/libmap32.conf. Currently only supported on amd64.

This mechanism has also been used to create shims to allow Linux shared libraries to be dynamically loaded into FreeBSD binaries. In this case, an Exact constraint is used for the Linux shared library, mapping libraries it depends on to a wrapper. The wrapper then defines any needed symbols for the Linux shared library and relies on its libraries not being mapped to provide actual implementations. It appears that only libraries loaded via dlopen(3) will work correctly. The symbol version information in shared libraries is checked at link time, but at run time the version information is currently ignored.

FILES
/etc/libmap.conf
    The libmap configuration file.
/etc/libmap32.conf
    The libmap configuration file for 32-bit binaries on 64-bit system.

EXAMPLES

    # /etc/libmap.conf
    #
    # candidate		mapping
    #
    libc_r.so.6		libpthread.so.2	# Everything that uses 'libc_r'
    libc_r.so		libpthread.so	# now uses 'libpthread'
    [/tmp/mplayer]		# Test version of mplayer uses libc_r
    libpthread.so.2		libc_r.so.6
    libpthread.so		libc_r.so
    [/usr/local/jdk1.4.1/]	# All Java 1.4.1 programs use libthr
    			# This works because "javavms" executes
    			# programs with the full pathname
    libpthread.so.2		libthr.so.2
    libpthread.so		libthr.so
    # Glue for Linux-only EPSON printer .so to be loaded into cups, etc.
    [/usr/local/lib/pips/libsc80c.so]
    libc.so.6		pluginwrapper/pips.so
    libdl.so.2		pluginwrapper/pips.so

SEE ALSO
ldd(1), rtld(1)

HISTORY
The libmap.conf manual page and libmap functionality first appeared in FreeBSD 5.1.

AUTHORS
This manual page was written by Matthew N. Dodd <winter@jurai.net>.