.\"

.\" Copyright 1998 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

.\" Copyright (C) 2004-2009 by Daniel Stenberg

.\"

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.\" M.I.T. makes no representations about the suitability of

.\" this software for any purpose.  It is provided "as is"

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.TH ARES_LIBRARY_CLEANUP 3 "19 May 2009"

.SH NAME

ares_library_cleanup \- c-ares library deinitialization

.SH SYNOPSIS

.nf

#include <ares.h>

void ares_library_cleanup(void)

.fi

.SH DESCRIPTION

.PP

The

.B ares_library_cleanup

function uninitializes the c-ares library, freeing all resources

previously acquired by \fIares_library_init(3)\fP when the library

was initialized, provided there was only one single previous call to

\fIares_library_init(3)\fP. If there was more than one previous call to

\fIares_library_init(3)\fP, this function uninitializes the c-ares

library only if it is the call matching the call to

\fIares_library_init(3)\fP which initialized the library

(usually the very first call to \fIares_library_init(3)\fP).

Other calls to \fIares_library_cleanup(3)\fP have no effect other than

decrementing an internal counter.

.PP

This function must be called when the program using c-ares will

no longer need any c-ares function. Once the program has called

\fIares_library_cleanup(3)\fP sufficiently often such that the

library is uninitialised, it shall not make any further call to any

c-ares function.

.PP

This function does not cancel any pending c-ares lookups or requests

previously done. Program  must use \fIares_cancel(3)\fP for this purpose.

.PP

.B This function is not thread safe.

You have to call it once the program is about to terminate, but this call must

be done once the program has terminated every single thread that it could have

initiated. This is required to avoid potential race conditions in library

deinitialization, and also due to the fact that \fIares_library_cleanup(3)\fP

might call functions from other libraries that are thread unsafe, and could

conflict with any other thread that is already using these other libraries.

.PP

Win32/64 application DLLs shall not call \fIares_library_cleanup(3)\fP from

the DllMain function. Doing so will produce deadlocks and other problems.

.SH AVAILABILITY

This function was first introduced in c-ares version 1.7.0 along with the

definition of preprocessor symbol \fICARES_HAVE_ARES_LIBRARY_CLEANUP\fP as an

indication of the availability of this function. Reference counting in

\fIares_library_init()\fP and \fIares_library_cleanup()\fP, which requires

calls to the former function to match calls to the latter, is present since

c-ares version 1.10.0.

Earlier versions would deinitialize the library on the first call

to \fIares_library_cleanup()\fP.

.PP

Since the introduction of this function, it is absolutely mandatory to call it

for any Win32/64 program using c-ares.

.PP

Non-Win32/64 systems can still use c-ares version 1.7.0 without calling

\fIares_library_cleanup(3)\fP due to the fact that \fIcurrently\fP it is nearly

a do-nothing function on non-Win32/64 platforms.

.SH SEE ALSO

.BR ares_library_init(3),

.BR ares_cancel(3)

.SH AUTHOR

Yang Tse

.PP

Copyright 1998 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

.br

Copyright (C) 2004-2009 by Daniel Stenberg.