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Link to a DLL

Syntax

dyn.load(libname)

Arguments

libname a character string giving the pathname to a DLL.

Value

This function is used for its side effect which links the specified shared library to the executing R image. Calls to .C and .Fortran can then be used to execute C functions or Fortran subroutines contained in the library.

The creation of shared libraries the runtime linking of them into executing programs is very platform dependent. In recent years there has been some simplification in the process because the C subroutine call dlopen has become the standard for doing this under Unix. dyn.load uses the dlopen mechanism and should work on all platforms which support it.

Note

The original code for loading DLLs in UNIX was provided by Heiner Schwarte. The compatibility code for HP-UX was provided by Luke Tierney.

See Also

.C, .Fortran.