Accessing singleton defined in shared library

Question

Let's imagine that I have following architecture:

Dodo singleton class in libdodo
Main program has linked libdodo and libponny; Main Program called Dodo::instance()
Ponny class from libponny created. It has headers for Dodo singleton

mainwindow.cpp

    #include "shared/dodo/dodo.h"
    // ...
    Dodo::instance()->setNumber(91);

And then, after this call, Ponny class (ponny.cpp) is created

ponny.cpp

    #include "shared/dodo/dodo.h"
    // ...
    bool is = (Dodo::instance()->number() == 91);
    // Will `is` be true?

So, can I do it in this way?

Is `bool is = (Dodo::instance()->number() == 91);` inside the constructor of a static object? — StoryTeller - Unslander Monica, Jan 30 '13 at 15:30

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:47

Since definitions of behaviour of your singleton are located within its library, it means that singleton instance will be unique and it will exist within the compilation unit where it was created.

Let's say that in libdodo there is Dodo.cpp, where you have:

static Dodo& Dodo::instance()
{
    static Dodo dodo;
    return dodo;
}

Note that local static variables are initialized the first time execution reaches their declaration, so in this case when Dodo::instance is called first time, so most likely you won't have any problems with lazy initialization of singleton like this.

The only fact that plays role here is thread safety, since there is a possible race condition when more threads call Dodo::instance() for the first time. For more information I recommend you to read:
this question: Singleton & Multi-threading
this article: C++ scoped static initialization is not thread-safe, on purpose!
and this question could help you as well: Thread safe lazy construction of a singleton in C++

Also note that in C++11 (§6.7.4), initialization of static variables is guaranteed to be threadsafe:

If control enters the declaration concurrently while the variable is being initialized, the concurrent execution shall wait for completion of the initialization.

which means that lazy initialization like this becomes kinda bulletproof ;)

So, if it's created with `static` for instance, I can access the same reference in another library. Will Dodo::instance() create another instance of the singleton? — Ian P Badtrousers, Jan 30 '13 at 15:41
@IllyaKovalevskyy: There will be only one and unique instance of your singleton and it will be the one constructed when `Dodo::instance()` is called for first time. — LihO, Jan 30 '13 at 16:46
@IanPBadtrousers I have faced this problem: on macOs and Win it creates multiple instances of a singleton as static linking prevents a singleton from getting the same address. — Mykola Tetiuk, Jul 12 '22 at 07:49

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 30 '13 at 16:11

A singleton instance is a global. Globals can be shared across DLL/Shared object boundaries, if that is really what you are asking.

You also need to understand the One Definition Rule, which guarantees that indeed there is only one definition of this class, and therefore any static members within the class have just one instance.

Accessing singleton defined in shared library

2 Answers2