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NAME

       erl_ddll - Dynamic driver loader and linker.

DESCRIPTION

       This  module  provides  an interface for loading and unloading Erlang linked-in drivers in
       runtime.

   Note:
       This is a large reference document. For casual use of this module, and for most real world
       applications,  the  descriptions  of  functions  load/2 and unload/1 are enough to getting
       started.

       The driver is to be provided as a dynamically linked library  in  an  object  code  format
       specific  for  the platform in use, that is, .so files on most Unix systems and .ddl files
       on Windows. An Erlang linked-in driver must provide specific interfaces to  the  emulator,
       so  this  module  is  not  designed  for  loading  arbitrary  dynamic  libraries. For more
       information about Erlang drivers, see erts:erl_driver .

       When describing a set of functions (that  is,  a  module,  a  part  of  a  module,  or  an
       application),  executing  in  a  process and wanting to use a ddll-driver, we use the term
       user. A process can have many users (different modules needing the same driver)  and  many
       processes running the same code, making up many users of a driver.

       In  the  basic  scenario, each user loads the driver before starting to use it and unloads
       the driver when done. The reference counting keeps track of processes and  the  number  of
       loads  by  each process. This way the driver is only unloaded when no one wants it (it has
       no user). The driver also keeps track of ports that are opened to it. This  enables  delay
       of  unloading until all ports are closed, or killing of all ports that use the driver when
       it is unloaded.

       The interface supports two basic scenarios of loading and  unloading.  Each  scenario  can
       also  have the option of either killing ports when the driver is unloading, or waiting for
       the ports to close themselves. The scenarios are as follows:

         Load and Unload on a "When Needed Basis":
           This (most common) scenario simply supports that each user of the driver loads it when
           needed  and  unloads  it when no longer needed. The driver is always reference counted
           and as long as a process keeping the driver loaded  is  still  alive,  the  driver  is
           present in the system.

           Each  user of the driver use literally the same pathname for the driver when demanding
           load, but the users are not concerned with if the driver is already  loaded  from  the
           file system or if the object code must be loaded from file system.

           The following two pairs of functions support this scenario:

           load/2 and unload/1:
             When  using  the  load/unload  interfaces, the driver is not unloaded until the last
             port using the driver is closed. Function unload/1 can return  immediately,  as  the
             users  have no interest in when the unloading occurs. The driver is unloaded when no
             one needs it any longer.

             If a process having the driver loaded dies, it has the same effect as  if  unloading
             is done.

             When loading, function load/2 returns ok when any instance of the driver is present.
             Thus, if a driver is waiting to get unloaded (because  of  open  ports),  it  simply
             changes state to no longer need unloading.

           load_driver/2 and unload_driver/1:
             These  interfaces  are intended to be used when it is considered an error that ports
             are open to a driver that no user has loaded. The ports that are still open when the
             last  user  calls  unload_driver/1 or when the last process having the driver loaded
             dies, are killed with reason driver_unloaded.

             The  function  names  load_driver  and   unload_driver   are   kept   for   backward
             compatibility.

         Loading and Reloading for Code Replacement:
           This  scenario  can occur if the driver code needs replacement during operation of the
           Erlang emulator. Implementing driver code replacement is a little  more  tedious  than
           Beam  code  replacement,  as one driver cannot be loaded as both "old" and "new" code.
           All users of a driver must have it closed (no open ports) before the old code  can  be
           unloaded and the new code can be loaded.

           The  unloading/loading  is done as one atomic operation, blocking all processes in the
           system from using the driver in question while in progress.

           The preferred way to do driver code replacement is to  let  one  single  process  keep
           track  of  the driver. When the process starts, the driver is loaded. When replacement
           is required, the driver is reloaded. Unload is probably never done, or done  when  the
           process  exits.  If  more  than  one user has a driver loaded when code replacement is
           demanded, the replacement cannot occur until the last "other" user  has  unloaded  the
           driver.

           Demanding  reload  when  a reload is already in progress is always an error. Using the
           high-level functions, it is also an error to demand reloading when more than one  user
           has the driver loaded.

           To simplify driver replacement, avoid designing your system so that more than one user
           has the driver loaded.

           The two functions for reloading drivers are to be  used  together  with  corresponding
           load functions to support the two different behaviors concerning open ports:

           load/2 and reload/2:
             This pair of functions is used when reloading is to be done after the last open port
             to the driver is closed.

             As reload/2 waits for the reloading to occur, a  misbehaving  process  keeping  open
             ports  to  the  driver (or keeping the driver loaded) can cause infinite waiting for
             reload. Time-outs must be provided outside of the process demanding the reload or by
             using the low-level interface try_load/3 in combination with driver monitors.

           load_driver/2 and reload_driver/2:
             This  pair of functions are used when open ports to the driver are to be killed with
             reason driver_unloaded to allow for new driver code to get loaded.

             However, if another process has the driver  loaded,  calling  reload_driver  returns
             error  code  pending_process.  As  stated  earlier, the recommended design is to not
             allow other users than the "driver reloader" to demand  loading  of  the  driver  in
             question.

DATA TYPES

       driver() = iolist() | atom()

       path() = string() | atom()

EXPORTS

       demonitor(MonitorRef) -> ok

              Types:

                 MonitorRef = reference()

              Removes  a  driver  monitor in much the same way as erlang:demonitor/1 in ERTS does
              with process monitors. For  details  about  how  to  create  driver  monitors,  see
              monitor/2, try_load/3, and try_unload/2.

              The function throws a badarg exception if the parameter is not a reference().

       format_error(ErrorDesc) -> string()

              Types:

                 ErrorDesc = term()

              Takes  an  ErrorDesc  returned  by  load, unload, or reload functions and returns a
              string that describes the error or warning.

          Note:
              Because of peculiarities in the dynamic loading interfaces on different  platforms,
              the   returned  string  is  only  guaranteed  to  describe  the  correct  error  if
              format_error/1 is called in the same instance of the Erlang virtual machine as  the
              error appeared in (meaning the same operating system process).

       info() -> AllInfoList

              Types:

                 AllInfoList = [DriverInfo]
                 DriverInfo = {DriverName, InfoList}
                 DriverName = string()
                 InfoList = [InfoItem]
                 InfoItem = {Tag :: atom(), Value :: term()}

              Returns  a  list  of tuples {DriverName, InfoList}, where InfoList is the result of
              calling info/1 for that DriverName. Only dynamically linked-in drivers are included
              in the list.

       info(Name) -> InfoList

              Types:

                 Name = driver()
                 InfoList = [InfoItem, ...]
                 InfoItem = {Tag :: atom(), Value :: term()}

              Returns  a list of tuples {Tag, Value}, where Tag is the information item and Value
              is the result of calling info/2 with this driver name and this tag. The result is a
              tuple list containing all information available about a driver.

              The following tags appears in the list:

                * processes

                * driver_options

                * port_count

                * linked_in_driver

                * permanent

                * awaiting_load

                * awaiting_unload

              For a detailed description of each value, see info/2.

              The function throws a badarg exception if the driver is not present in the system.

       info(Name, Tag) -> Value

              Types:

                 Name = driver()
                 Tag =
                     processes | driver_options | port_count | linked_in_driver |
                     permanent | awaiting_load | awaiting_unload
                 Value = term()

              Returns  specific information about one aspect of a driver. Parameter Tag specifies
              which aspect to get information about. The return Value differs  between  different
              tags:

                processes:
                  Returns  all  processes  containing  users of the specific drivers as a list of
                  tuples {pid(),integer() >= 0}, where integer() denotes the number of  users  in
                  process pid().

                driver_options:
                  Returns a list of the driver options provided when loading, and any options set
                  by the driver during initialization. The only valid option is kill_ports.

                port_count:
                  Returns the number of ports (an integer() >= 0) using the driver.

                linked_in_driver:
                  Returns a boolean(), which is true if the driver is a statically linked-in one,
                  otherwise false.

                permanent:
                  Returns a boolean(), which is true if the driver has made itself permanent (and
                  is not a statically linked-in driver), otherwise false.

                awaiting_load:
                  Returns a list of all  processes  having  monitors  for  loading  active.  Each
                  process is returned as {pid(),integer() >= 0}, where integer() is the number of
                  monitors held by process pid().

                awaiting_unload:
                  Returns a list of all processes having  monitors  for  unloading  active.  Each
                  process is returned as {pid(),integer() >= 0}, where integer() is the number of
                  monitors held by process pid().

              If option linked_in_driver or permanent returns  true,  all  other  options  return
              linked_in_driver or permanent, respectively.

              The  function  throws a badarg exception if the driver is not present in the system
              or if the tag is not supported.

       load(Path, Name) -> ok | {error, ErrorDesc}

              Types:

                 Path = path()
                 Name = driver()
                 ErrorDesc = term()

              Loads and links the dynamic driver Name. Path is  a  file  path  to  the  directory
              containing the driver. Name must be a shareable object/dynamic library. Two drivers
              with different Path parameters cannot be loaded under the  same  name.  Name  is  a
              string or atom containing at least one character.

              The  Name  specified  is  to correspond to the filename of the dynamically loadable
              object file residing in the directory specified as Path, but without the  extension
              (that  is, .so). The driver name provided in the driver initialization routine must
              correspond with the  filename,  in  much  the  same  way  as  Erlang  module  names
              correspond to the names of the .beam files.

              If  the  driver was previously unloaded, but is still present because of open ports
              to it, a call to load/2 stops the unloading and keeps the driver (as long  as  Path
              is  the  same),  and  ok  is  returned.  If  you  really want the object code to be
              reloaded, use reload/2 or the low-level interface try_load/3 instead. See also  the
              description of different scenarios for loading/unloading in the introduction.

              If more than one process tries to load an already loaded driver with the same Path,
              or if the same process tries to load it many times, the function  returns  ok.  The
              emulator  keeps  track  of  the  load/2  calls,  so  that a corresponding number of
              unload/2 calls must be done from the same process before the driver gets  unloaded.
              It  is  therefore  safe  for an application to load a driver that is shared between
              processes or applications when needed. It can safely be  unloaded  without  causing
              trouble for other parts of the system.

              It  is  not  allowed to load multiple drivers with the same name but with different
              Path parameters.

          Note:
              Path is interpreted literally, so that all loaders of the same driver must  specify
              the  same  literal  Path  string,  although  different paths can point out the same
              directory in the file system (because of use of relative paths and links).

              On  success,  the  function  returns  ok.  On  failure,   the   return   value   is
              {error,ErrorDesc},  where  ErrorDesc  is an opaque term to be translated into human
              readable form by function format_error/1.

              For more control over the error handling, use the try_load/3 interface instead.

              The function throws a badarg exception if  the  parameters  are  not  specified  as
              described here.

       load_driver(Path, Name) -> ok | {error, ErrorDesc}

              Types:

                 Path = path()
                 Name = driver()
                 ErrorDesc = term()

              Works  essentially  as  load/2,  but loads the driver with other options. All ports
              using the driver are killed with reason driver_unloaded when the driver  is  to  be
              unloaded.

              The  number  of  loads  and  unloads  by different users influences the loading and
              unloading of a driver file. The port killing therefore only occurs  when  the  last
              user unloads the driver, or when the last process having loaded the driver exits.

              This  interface  (or  at  least  the  name  of  the functions) is kept for backward
              compatibility. Using try_load/3 with {driver_options,[kill_ports]}  in  the  option
              list gives the same effect regarding the port killing.

              The  function  throws  a  badarg  exception  if the parameters are not specified as
              described here.

       loaded_drivers() -> {ok, Drivers}

              Types:

                 Drivers = [Driver]
                 Driver = string()

              Returns a list of all  the  available  drivers,  both  (statically)  linked-in  and
              dynamically loaded ones.

              The  driver names are returned as a list of strings rather than a list of atoms for
              historical reasons.

              For more information about drivers, see info.

       monitor(Tag, Item) -> MonitorRef

              Types:

                 Tag = driver
                 Item = {Name, When}
                 Name = driver()
                 When = loaded | unloaded | unloaded_only
                 MonitorRef = reference()

              Creates a driver monitor and works in many ways as erlang:monitor/2 in  ERTS,  does
              for  processes.  When  a  driver  changes  state,  the monitor results in a monitor
              message that is sent to the calling process. MonitorRef returned by  this  function
              is included in the message sent.

              As  with  process  monitors,  each  driver  monitor  set  only generates one single
              message. The monitor is "destroyed" after the message is sent, so it  is  then  not
              needed to call demonitor/1.

              MonitorRef can also be used in subsequent calls to demonitor/1 to remove a monitor.

              The function accepts the following parameters:

                Tag:
                  The  monitor  tag is always driver, as this function can only be used to create
                  driver monitors. In the future, driver monitors will be integrated with process
                  monitors, why this parameter has to be specified for consistence.

                Item:
                  Parameter  Item  specifies  which driver to monitor (the driver name) and which
                  state change to monitor. The parameter is a tuple  of  arity  two  whose  first
                  element is the driver name and second element is one of the following:

                  loaded:
                    Notifies  when  the driver is reloaded (or loaded if loading is underway). It
                    only makes sense to monitor drivers that are in the process of  being  loaded
                    or  reloaded. A future driver name for loading cannot be monitored. That only
                    results in a  DOWN  message  sent  immediately.  Monitoring  for  loading  is
                    therefore  most  useful  when  triggered  by  function  try_load/3, where the
                    monitor is created because the driver is in such a pending state.

                    Setting a driver monitor for loading eventually leads to one of the following
                    messages being sent:

                    {'UP', reference(), driver, Name, loaded}:
                      This message is sent either immediately if the driver is already loaded and
                      no reloading is pending, or when reloading  is  executed  if  reloading  is
                      pending.

                      The  user  is  expected  to know if reloading is demanded before creating a
                      monitor for loading.

                    {'UP', reference(), driver, Name, permanent}:
                      This message is sent if reloading was expected, but the (old)  driver  made
                      itself  permanent  before  reloading.  It  is  also  sent if the driver was
                      permanent or statically linked-in when trying to create the monitor.

                    {'DOWN', reference(), driver, Name, load_cancelled}:
                      This message arrives if reloading was underway,  but  the  requesting  user
                      cancelled it by dying or calling try_unload/2 (or unload/1/unload_driver/1)
                      again before it was reloaded.

                    {'DOWN', reference(), driver, Name, {load_failure, Failure}}:
                      This message arrives if reloading was underway but  the  loading  for  some
                      reason  failed.  The Failure term is one of the errors that can be returned
                      from try_load/3. The  error  term  can  be  passed  to  format_error/1  for
                      translation  into  human readable form. Notice that the translation must be
                      done in the same running Erlang virtual machine as the error  was  detected
                      in.

                  unloaded:
                    Monitors  when  a  driver gets unloaded. If one monitors a driver that is not
                    present in the system, one immediately gets  notified  that  the  driver  got
                    unloaded. There is no guarantee that the driver was ever loaded.

                    A  driver  monitor  for  unload  eventually  results  in one of the following
                    messages being sent:

                    {'DOWN', reference(), driver, Name, unloaded}:
                      The monitored driver instance is now unloaded.  As  the  unload  can  be  a
                      result  of  a  reload/2 request, the driver can once again have been loaded
                      when this message arrives.

                    {'UP', reference(), driver, Name, unload_cancelled}:
                      This message is sent if unloading was expected, but while  the  driver  was
                      waiting for all ports to get closed, a new user of the driver appeared, and
                      the unloading was cancelled.

                      This message appears if {ok, pending_driver} was returned from try_unload/2
                      for  the last user of the driver, and then {ok, already_loaded} is returned
                      from a call to try_load/3.

                      If one really wants to monitor when the driver gets unloaded, this  message
                      distorts  the  picture, because no unloading was done. Option unloaded_only
                      creates a monitor similar to an unloaded monitor, but never results in this
                      message.

                    {'UP', reference(), driver, Name, permanent}:
                      This  message is sent if unloading was expected, but the driver made itself
                      permanent before unloading.  It  is  also  sent  if  trying  to  monitor  a
                      permanent or statically linked-in driver.

                  unloaded_only:
                    A monitor created as unloaded_only behaves exactly as one created as unloaded
                    except that the {'UP', reference(), driver, Name,  unload_cancelled}  message
                    is  never sent, but the monitor instead persists until the driver really gets
                    unloaded.

              The function throws a badarg exception if  the  parameters  are  not  specified  as
              described here.

       reload(Path, Name) -> ok | {error, ErrorDesc}

              Types:

                 Path = path()
                 Name = driver()
                 ErrorDesc = pending_process | OpaqueError
                 OpaqueError = term()

              Reloads  the driver named Name from a possibly different Path than previously used.
              This function is used in the code change scenario described in the introduction.

              If  there  are  other  users  of  this  driver,  the   function   returns   {error,
              pending_process},  but  if  there are no other users, the function call hangs until
              all open ports are closed.

          Note:
              Avoid mixing multiple users with driver reload requests.

              To avoid hanging on open ports, use function try_load/3 instead.

              The Name and Path parameters have exactly the same  meaning  as  when  calling  the
              plain function load/2.

              On  success,  the  function  returns ok. On failure, the function returns an opaque
              error, except the pending_process error described earlier. The opaque errors are to
              be translated into human readable form by function format_error/1.

              For more control over the error handling, use the try_load/3 interface instead.

              The  function  throws  a  badarg  exception  if the parameters are not specified as
              described here.

       reload_driver(Path, Name) -> ok | {error, ErrorDesc}

              Types:

                 Path = path()
                 Name = driver()
                 ErrorDesc = pending_process | OpaqueError
                 OpaqueError = term()

              Works exactly as reload/2, but for drivers loaded with the load_driver/2 interface.

              As this interface implies that ports are killed when the last user disappears,  the
              function does not hang waiting for ports to get closed.

              For  more  details,  see  scenarios  in  this  module  description and the function
              description for reload/2.

              The function throws a badarg exception if  the  parameters  are  not  specified  as
              described here.

       try_load(Path, Name, OptionList) ->
                   {ok, Status} |
                   {ok, PendingStatus, Ref} |
                   {error, ErrorDesc}

              Types:

                 Path = path()
                 Name = driver()
                 OptionList = [Option]
                 Option =
                     {driver_options, DriverOptionList} |
                     {monitor, MonitorOption} |
                     {reload, ReloadOption}
                 DriverOptionList = [DriverOption]
                 DriverOption = kill_ports
                 MonitorOption = ReloadOption = pending_driver | pending
                 Status = loaded | already_loaded | PendingStatus
                 PendingStatus = pending_driver | pending_process
                 Ref = reference()
                 ErrorDesc = ErrorAtom | OpaqueError
                 ErrorAtom =
                     linked_in_driver | inconsistent | permanent |
                     not_loaded_by_this_process | not_loaded | pending_reload |
                     pending_process
                 OpaqueError = term()

              Provides  more  control  than the load/2/reload/2 and load_driver/2/reload_driver/2
              interfaces. It never waits for  completion  of  other  operations  related  to  the
              driver, but immediately returns the status of the driver as one of the following:

                {ok, loaded}:
                  The driver was loaded and is immediately usable.

                {ok, already_loaded}:
                  The driver was already loaded by another process or is in use by a living port,
                  or both. The load by you  is  registered  and  a  corresponding  try_unload  is
                  expected sometime in the future.

                {ok, pending_driver}or {ok, pending_driver, reference()}:
                  The  load  request is registered, but the loading is delayed because an earlier
                  instance of the driver is still waiting to get unloaded (open  ports  use  it).
                  Still,  unload is expected when you are done with the driver. This return value
                  mostly occurs when  options  {reload,pending_driver}  or  {reload,pending}  are
                  used,  but  can  occur  when another user is unloading a driver in parallel and
                  driver option kill_ports is set. In other words, this return value always needs
                  to be handled.

                {ok, pending_process}or {ok, pending_process, reference()}:
                  The  load  request is registered, but the loading is delayed because an earlier
                  instance of the driver is still waiting to get unloaded by  another  user  (not
                  only  by  a  port, in which case {ok,pending_driver} would have been returned).
                  Still, unload is expected when you are done with the driver. This return  value
                  only occurs when option {reload,pending} is used.

              When  the  function  returns {ok, pending_driver} or {ok, pending_process}, one can
              get information about when the driver is actually loaded by using option  {monitor,
              MonitorOption}.

              When  monitoring  is  requested,  and  a corresponding {ok, pending_driver} or {ok,
              pending_process} would be returned, the  function  instead  returns  a  tuple  {ok,
              PendingStatus, reference()} and the process then gets a monitor message later, when
              the driver gets loaded. The monitor message to expect is described in the  function
              description of monitor/2.

          Note:
              In  case of loading, monitoring can not only get triggered by using option {reload,
              ReloadOption}, but also in special cases where the load error is  transient.  Thus,
              {monitor,   pending_driver}   is   to  be  used  under  basically  all  real  world
              circumstances.

              The function accepts the following parameters:

                Path:
                  The file system path to the directory where the driver object file is  located.
                  The filename of the object file (minus extension) must correspond to the driver
                  name (used in parameter Name) and the driver must identify itself with the same
                  name.  Path  can  be provided as an iolist(), meaning it can be a list of other
                  iolist()s, characters (8-bit integers), or binaries, all to be flattened into a
                  sequence of characters.

                  The  (possibly  flattened)  Path  parameter  must  be consistent throughout the
                  system. A driver is to, by all users, be loaded using the  same  literal  Path.
                  The  exception  is  when  reloading  is  requested,  in  which case Path can be
                  specified differently. Notice that all users trying to load  the  driver  later
                  need  to use the new Path if Path is changed using a reload option. This is yet
                  another reason to have only one loader of a driver one wants to  upgrade  in  a
                  running system.

                Name:
                  This  parameter  is  the  name  of the driver to be used in subsequent calls to
                  function erlang:open_port in ERTS. The name can be specified as an iolist()  or
                  an  atom().  The  name  specified  when loading is used to find the object file
                  (with the help of Path and the system-implied extension suffix, that is,  .so).
                  The  name  by  which  the driver identifies itself must also be consistent with
                  this Name parameter, much as the module name of a Beam file much corresponds to
                  its filename.

                OptionList:
                  Some options can be specified to control the loading operation. The options are
                  specified as a list of two-tuples. The tuples have  the  following  values  and
                  meanings:

                  {driver_options, DriverOptionList}:
                    This  is to provide options that changes its general behavior and "sticks" to
                    the driver throughout its lifespan.

                    The driver options for a specified driver name need always to be  consistent,
                    even when the driver is reloaded, meaning that they are as much a part of the
                    driver as the name.

                    The only allowed driver option is kill_ports,  which  means  that  all  ports
                    opened  to  the  driver  are  killed with exit reason driver_unloaded when no
                    process any longer has the driver loaded. This situation arises  either  when
                    the  last user calls try_unload/2, or when the last process having loaded the
                    driver exits.

                  {monitor, MonitorOption}:
                    A MonitorOption tells try_load/3 to trigger a driver  monitor  under  certain
                    conditions. When the monitor is triggered, the function returns a three-tuple
                    {ok, PendingStatus, reference()}, where reference() is the monitor  reference
                    for the driver monitor.

                    Only one MonitorOption can be specified. It is one of the following:

                    * The  atom  pending,  which means that a monitor is to be created whenever a
                      load operation is delayed,

                    * The atom pending_driver,  in  which  a  monitor  is  created  whenever  the
                      operation is delayed because of open ports to an otherwise unused driver.

                    Option  pending_driver  is of little use, but is present for completeness, as
                    it is well defined which reload options that can give rise to  which  delays.
                    However,  it  can  be  a  good  idea  to  use  the  same MonitorOption as the
                    ReloadOption, if present.

                    If reloading is not requested, it can  still  be  useful  to  specify  option
                    monitor,  as forced unloads (driver option kill_ports or option kill_ports to
                    try_unload/2) trigger a  transient  state  where  driver  loading  cannot  be
                    performed  until  all  closing  ports are closed. Thus, as try_unload can, in
                    almost all situations, return {ok, pending_driver}, always specify  at  least
                    {monitor,  pending_driver}  in  production  code  (see the monitor discussion
                    earlier).

                  {reload, ReloadOption}:
                    This option is used to reload a driver  from  disk,  most  often  in  a  code
                    upgrade  scenario.  Having  a  reload option also implies that parameter Path
                    does not need to be consistent with earlier loads of the driver.

                    To reload a driver, the process must have loaded the driver before, that  is,
                    there must be an active user of the driver in the process.

                    The reload option can be either of the following:

                    pending:
                      With  the  atom  pending,  reloading  is  requested  for  any driver and is
                      effectuated when all ports opened to the  driver  are  closed.  The  driver
                      replacement  in this case takes place regardless if there are still pending
                      users having the driver loaded.

                      The option also triggers port-killing (if driver option kill_ports is used)
                      although  there  are  pending  users,  making  it  usable for forced driver
                      replacement, but laying  much  responsibility  on  the  driver  users.  The
                      pending  option  is  seldom  used  as one does not want other users to have
                      loaded the driver when code change is underway.

                    pending_driver:
                      This option is more useful. Here, reloading is queued if the driver is  not
                      loaded  by  any other users, but the driver has opened ports, in which case
                      {ok, pending_driver} is returned (a monitor option is recommended).

                    If the driver is unloaded (not present in the system), error code  not_loaded
                    is  returned.  Option reload is intended for when the user has already loaded
                    the driver in advance.

              The function can return numerous errors, some can only be returned given a  certain
              combination of options.

              Some  errors  are  opaque  and  can only be interpreted by passing them to function
              format_error/1, but some can be interpreted directly:

                {error,linked_in_driver}:
                  The driver with the specified name is an Erlang  statically  linked-in  driver,
                  which cannot be manipulated with this API.

                {error,inconsistent}:
                  The driver is already loaded with other DriverOptionList or a different literal
                  Path argument.

                  This can occur even if  a  reload  option  is  specified,  if  DriverOptionList
                  differs from the current.

                {error, permanent}:
                  The  driver  has  requested  itself  to  be permanent, making it behave like an
                  Erlang linked-in driver and can no longer be manipulated with this API.

                {error, pending_process}:
                  The driver is loaded by other users when option  {reload,  pending_driver}  was
                  specified.

                {error, pending_reload}:
                  Driver  reload  is  already  requested  by  another  user  when option {reload,
                  ReloadOption} was specified.

                {error, not_loaded_by_this_process}:
                  Appears when option reload is specified. The driver  Name  is  present  in  the
                  system, but there is no user of it in this process.

                {error, not_loaded}:
                  Appears  when option reload is specified. The driver Name is not in the system.
                  Only drivers loaded by this process can be reloaded.

              All other error codes are to be translated by function format_error/1. Notice  that
              calls  to  format_error  are  to be performed from the same running instance of the
              Erlang virtual machine as the error is detected  in,  because  of  system-dependent
              behavior concerning error values.

              If the arguments or options are malformed, the function throws a badarg exception.

       try_unload(Name, OptionList) ->
                     {ok, Status} |
                     {ok, PendingStatus, Ref} |
                     {error, ErrorAtom}

              Types:

                 Name = driver()
                 OptionList = [Option]
                 Option = {monitor, MonitorOption} | kill_ports
                 MonitorOption = pending_driver | pending
                 Status = unloaded | PendingStatus
                 PendingStatus = pending_driver | pending_process
                 Ref = reference()
                 ErrorAtom =
                     linked_in_driver | not_loaded | not_loaded_by_this_process |
                     permanent

              This  is  the  low-level  function  to  unload (or decrement reference counts of) a
              driver. It can be used to force port killing, in much the same way  as  the  driver
              option  kill_ports  implicitly  does. Also, it can trigger a monitor either because
              other users still have the driver loaded or because open ports use the driver.

              Unloading can be described as  the  process  of  telling  the  emulator  that  this
              particular  part  of  the  code  in this particular process (that is, this user) no
              longer needs the driver. That can, if there are no other users,  trigger  unloading
              of  the  driver,  in  which case the driver name disappears from the system and (if
              possible) the memory occupied by the driver executable code is reclaimed.

              If the driver has option kill_ports set, or if kill_ports is specified as an option
              to  this function, all pending ports using this driver are killed when unloading is
              done by the last user. If no port-killing is involved and there are open ports, the
              unloading  is  delayed  until  no more open ports use the driver. If, in this case,
              another user (or even this user) loads  the  driver  again  before  the  driver  is
              unloaded, the unloading never takes place.

              To  allow  the  user  to  request  unloading  to wait for actual unloading, monitor
              triggers can be specified in much the same way as when loading. However,  as  users
              of  this  function  seldom  are  interested in more than decrementing the reference
              counts, monitoring is seldom needed.

          Note:
              If option kill_ports is used, monitor trigging is crucial, as  the  ports  are  not
              guaranteed  to  be  killed  until  the  driver is unloaded. Thus, a monitor must be
              triggered for at least the pending_driver case.

              The possible monitor messages to expect are the same as when using option  unloaded
              to function monitor/2.

              The function returns one of the following statuses upon success:

                {ok, unloaded}:
                  The  driver  was immediately unloaded, meaning that the driver name is now free
                  to use by other drivers and, if  the  underlying  OS  permits  it,  the  memory
                  occupied by the driver object code is now reclaimed.

                  The  driver  can  only be unloaded when there are no open ports using it and no
                  more users require it to be loaded.

                {ok, pending_driver}or {ok, pending_driver, reference()}:
                  Indicates that this call removed the last user from the driver, but  there  are
                  still  open  ports  using  it.  When all ports are closed and no new users have
                  arrived, the driver is reloaded and the name and memory reclaimed.

                  This return value is valid even if option kill_ports was used, as killing ports
                  can  be a process that does not complete immediately. However, the condition is
                  in that case transient. Monitors are always useful to detect when the driver is
                  really unloaded.

                {ok, pending_process}or {ok, pending_process, reference()}:
                  The unload request is registered, but other users still hold the driver. Notice
                  that the term pending_process can refer to the running process;  there  can  be
                  more than one user in the same process.

                  This  is  a normal, healthy, return value if the call was just placed to inform
                  the emulator that you have no further use of the driver. It is the most  common
                  return value in the most common scenario described in the introduction.

              The function accepts the following parameters:

                Name:
                  Name  is the name of the driver to be unloaded. The name can be specified as an
                  iolist() or as an atom().

                OptionList:
                  Argument OptionList can be used to specify certain behavior regarding ports and
                  triggering monitors under certain conditions:

                  kill_ports:
                    Forces  killing  of  all  ports  opened  using  this driver, with exit reason
                    driver_unloaded, if you are the last user of the driver.

                    If other users have the driver loaded, this option has no effect.

                    To get the consistent behavior of killing ports when the last  user  unloads,
                    use driver option kill_ports when loading the driver instead.

                  {monitor, MonitorOption}:
                    Creates a driver monitor if the condition specified in MonitorOption is true.
                    The valid options are:

                    pending_driver:
                      Creates a driver monitor if the return value is to be {ok, pending_driver}.

                    pending:
                      Creates a monitor if the return  value  is  {ok,  pending_driver}  or  {ok,
                      pending_process}.

                    The  pending_driver  MonitorOption is by far the most useful. It must be used
                    to ensure that the driver really is unloaded and the  ports  closed  whenever
                    option  kill_ports  is  used,  or the driver can have been loaded with driver
                    option kill_ports.

                    Using the monitor triggers in the call to try_unload ensures that the monitor
                    is added before the unloading is executed, meaning that the monitor is always
                    properly triggered, which is not the case if monitor/2 is called separately.

              The function can return the following error  conditions,  all  well  specified  (no
              opaque values):

                {error, linked_in_driver}:
                  You  were  trying to unload an Erlang statically linked-in driver, which cannot
                  be manipulated with this interface (and cannot be unloaded at all).

                {error, not_loaded}:
                  The driver Name is not present in the system.

                {error, not_loaded_by_this_process}:
                  The driver Name is present in the system, but there is no user of  it  in  this
                  process.

                  As  a  special  case,  drivers can be unloaded from processes that have done no
                  corresponding call to try_load/3 if, and only if, there are  no  users  of  the
                  driver at all, which can occur if the process containing the last user dies.

                {error, permanent}:
                  The  driver  has  made  itself  permanent,  in  which  case it can no longer be
                  manipulated by this interface (much like a statically linked-in driver).

              The function throws a badarg exception if  the  parameters  are  not  specified  as
              described here.

       unload(Name) -> ok | {error, ErrorDesc}

              Types:

                 Name = driver()
                 ErrorDesc = term()

              Unloads,  or at least dereferences the driver named Name. If the caller is the last
              user of the driver, and no  more  open  ports  use  the  driver,  the  driver  gets
              unloaded.  Otherwise,  unloading is delayed until all ports are closed and no users
              remain.

              If there are other users of the driver, the  reference  counts  of  the  driver  is
              merely  decreased, so that the caller is no longer considered a user of the driver.
              For use scenarios, see the description in the beginning of this module.

              The ErrorDesc returned is an opaque value to  be  passed  further  on  to  function
              format_error/1.   For  more  control  over  the  operation,  use  the  try_unload/2
              interface.

              The function throws a badarg exception if  the  parameters  are  not  specified  as
              described here.

       unload_driver(Name) -> ok | {error, ErrorDesc}

              Types:

                 Name = driver()
                 ErrorDesc = term()

              Unloads,  or at least dereferences the driver named Name. If the caller is the last
              user of the driver, all remaining open ports  using  the  driver  are  killed  with
              reason driver_unloaded and the driver eventually gets unloaded.

              If  there  are  other  users  of  the driver, the reference counts of the driver is
              merely decreased, so that the caller is  no  longer  considered  a  user.  For  use
              scenarios, see the description in the beginning of this module.

              The  ErrorDesc  returned  is  an  opaque  value to be passed further on to function
              format_error/1.  For  more  control  over  the  operation,  use  the   try_unload/2
              interface.

              The  function  throws  a  badarg  exception  if the parameters are not specified as
              described here.

SEE ALSO

       erts:erl_driver(5), erts:driver_entry(5)