DLCLOSE(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 						DLCLOSE(3)

NAME

     dlclose -- close a dynamic library or bundle

SYNOPSIS

     #include <dlfcn.h>

     int
     dlclose(void* handle);

DESCRIPTION

     dlclose() releases a reference to the dynamic library or bundle referenced by handle.  If the reference count drops to 0, the bundle is
     removed from the address space, and handle is rendered invalid.  Just before removing a dynamic library or bundle in this way, any termina-
     tion routines in it are called.  handle is the value returned by a previous call to dlopen.

     Prior to Mac OS X 10.5, only bundles could be unloaded.  Starting in Mac OS X 10.5, dynamic libraries may also be unloaded.  There are a cou-
     ple of cases in which a dynamic library will never be unloaded: 1) the main executable links against it, 2) An API that does not supoort
     unloading (e.g. NSAddImage()) was used to load it or some other dynnamic library that depends on it, 3) the dynamic library is in dyld's
     shared cache.

RETURN VALUES

     If dlclose() is successful, it returns a value of 0.  Otherwise it returns -1, and sets an error string that can be retrived with dlerror().

SEE ALSO

     dlopen(3) dlsym(3) dlerror(3) dyld(3) ld(1) cc(1)

								    Nov 6, 2006