Apple

We are currently working on a multi-AU project where the executable code of each AU is identical and the operation of each AU is controlled via data files. We can create the root project and then make 4 copies of the root, change the name of each AU bundle, info.plist parameters, and resource file parameters so that each AU is uniquely identified by the OS and initially loads and behaves as expected.

Now the problem is that the "root" AU is really a template that we don't want to be part of the listed AUs. If we take that component out of the plug-ins/components folder, each of the derived projects will instantiate but when we attempt to open the carbon view, an error (-3000) is thrown saying that the component isn't there. It appears that the executable code in each bundle is carrying a reference to its original file name and the loader is trying to access this file directly when it time to load and run the View code. If the "root" AU is returned to the Components folder, everything behaves as expected. The problem is that the root AU is generic and can't actually do anything so we would prefer that it didn't show up in the list.

I have spent most of today looking at compiler and linker settings trying to figure out a way to have the loader reference the executable file where the AU was originally started from but I can't find an option (@loader_path doesn't work). We intend to support OS 10.4 and 10.5. I'm hoping that this has an easy solution that we are unaware of. Thanks.

Michael Lambie

Sound Quest Inc.