Library Loading

FFI loads the target shared library at runtime. The library_names, library_versions, and library_search_path configuration options specify where to find the library.

Library Names

library_names specifies the base names of the shared library. The loader turns each base name into one or more search names and passes them to ffi_lib:

The unversioned libproj entry is always included as a fallback.

Library Versions

C shared libraries use version suffixes that vary by platform and change across releases. library_versions lets you list known version suffixes so FFI can find whichever version is installed.

For example, the PROJ coordinate transformation library has used these version suffixes across releases:

library_names:
  - proj
library_versions:
  - "25"    # PROJ 9.2
  - "22"    # PROJ 8.x
  - "19"    # PROJ 7.x
  - "17"    # PROJ 6.1, 6.2
  - "15"    # PROJ 6.0

This generates search names like libproj.so.25, libproj.so.22, etc. on Linux, libproj.25 on macOS, libproj-25 on MinGW, and proj_25 on MSVC. The loader sorts the version suffixes in descending order before emitting them, so newer versions are tried first.

If library_versions is omitted, only the unversioned name is searched. This works on most systems where the package manager creates an unversioned symlink (e.g., libproj.so → libproj.so.25).

Library Search Path

If the library is installed outside standard operating system search paths, use library_search_path:

library_names:
  - proj
library_search_path: PROJ_LIB_PATH

This generates loader code that checks ENV["PROJ_LIB_PATH"] at runtime and prepends that directory to every generated search name before falling back to the default search list.