FreeLibrary

A version of this page is also available for

Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R3

4/8/2010

This function decrements the reference count of the loaded DLL module.

When the reference count reaches zero, the module is unmapped from the address space of the calling process and the handle is no longer valid.

Syntax

BOOL FreeLibrary(
  HMODULE hLibModule
);

Parameters

• hLibModule
  [in] Handle to the loaded library module.

  The LoadLibrary, LoadLibraryEx, or GetModuleHandle function returns this handle.

Return Value

Nonzero indicates success. Zero indicates failure. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.

Remarks

Each process maintains a reference count for each loaded library module. This reference count is incremented each time LoadLibrary is called and is decremented each time FreeLibrary is called.

A DLL module loaded at process initialization due to load-time dynamic linking has a reference count of one. This count is incremented if the same module is loaded by a call to LoadLibrary.

Before unmapping a library module, the system enables the DLL to detach from the process by calling the DLL's DllMain function, if it has one, with the DLL_PROCESS_DETACH value. Doing so gives the DLL an opportunity to clean up resources allocated on behalf of the current process.

After the entry-point function returns, the library module is removed from the address space of the process.

It is not safe to call FreeLibrary from DllMain. For more information, see the Remarks section in DllMain.

Calling FreeLibrary does not affect other processes using the same library module.

Requirements

Header	winbase.h
Library	coredll.lib
Windows Embedded CE	Windows CE 1.0 and later
Windows Mobile	Windows Mobile Version 5.0 and later

See Also

Reference

DLL Functions
GetModuleHandle
DllMain
LoadLibrary
LoadLibraryEx