@c -*-texinfo-*-
@c This is part of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.
-@c Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001,
-@c 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
+@c Copyright (C) 1990-1995, 1998-1999, 2001-2011
@c Free Software Foundation, Inc.
@c See the file elisp.texi for copying conditions.
@setfilename ../../info/os
* X11 Keysyms:: Operating on key symbols for X Windows.
* Batch Mode:: Running Emacs without terminal interaction.
* Session Management:: Saving and restoring state with X Session Management.
+* Dynamic Libraries:: On-demand loading of support libraries.
@end menu
@node Starting Up
This variable is a normal hook; once @code{save-buffers-kill-emacs} is
finished with all file saving and confirmation, it calls
@code{kill-emacs} which runs the functions in this hook.
-@code{kill-emacs} does not run this hook in batch mode.
@code{kill-emacs} may be invoked directly (that is not via
@code{save-buffers-kill-emacs}) if the terminal is disconnected, or in
@end group
@end example
-@ignore
- arch-tag: 8378814a-30d7-467c-9615-74a80b9988a7
-@end ignore
+@node Dynamic Libraries
+@section Dynamically Loaded Libraries
+@cindex dynamic libraries
+
+ A @dfn{dynamically loaded library} is a library that is loaded on
+demand, when its facilities are first needed. Emacs supports such
+on-demand loading of support libraries for some of its features.
+
+@defvar dynamic-library-alist
+This is an alist of dynamic libraries and external library files
+implementing them.
+
+Each element is a list of the form
+@w{@code{(@var{library} @var{files}@dots{})}}, where the @code{car} is
+a symbol representing a supported external library, and the rest are
+strings giving alternate filenames for that library.
+
+Emacs tries to load the library from the files in the order they
+appear in the list; if none is found, the running session of Emacs
+won't have access to that library, and the features that depend on the
+library will be unavailable.
+
+Image support on some platforms uses this facility. Here's an example
+of setting this variable for supporting images on MS-Windows:
+
+@lisp
+(setq dynamic-library-alist
+ '((xpm "libxpm.dll" "xpm4.dll" "libXpm-nox4.dll")
+ (png "libpng12d.dll" "libpng12.dll" "libpng.dll"
+ "libpng13d.dll" "libpng13.dll")
+ (jpeg "jpeg62.dll" "libjpeg.dll" "jpeg-62.dll" "jpeg.dll")
+ (tiff "libtiff3.dll" "libtiff.dll")
+ (gif "giflib4.dll" "libungif4.dll" "libungif.dll")
+ (svg "librsvg-2-2.dll")
+ (gdk-pixbuf "libgdk_pixbuf-2.0-0.dll")
+ (glib "libglib-2.0-0.dll")
+ (gobject "libgobject-2.0-0.dll")))
+@end lisp
+
+Note that image types @code{pbm} and @code{xbm} do not need entries in
+this variable because they do not depend on external libraries and are
+always available in Emacs.
+
+Also note that this variable is not meant to be a generic facility for
+accessing external libraries; only those already known by Emacs can
+be loaded through it.
+
+This variable is ignored if the given @var{library} is statically
+linked into Emacs.
+@end defvar