How can I add reflection to a C++ application?

Question

I\'d like to be able to introspect a C++ class for its name, contents (i.e. members and their types) etc. I\'m talking native C++ here, not managed C++, which has reflection

Answer 1

If you declare a pointer to a function like this:

int (*func)(int a, int b);

You can assign a place in memory to that function like this (requires libdl and dlopen)

#include 

int main(void)
{
    void *handle;
    char *func_name = "bla_bla_bla";
    handle = dlopen("foo.so", RTLD_LAZY);
    *(void **)(&func) = dlsym(handle, func_name);
    return func(1,2);
}

To load a local symbol using indirection, you can use dlopen on the calling binary (argv[0]).

The only requirement for this (other than dlopen(), libdl, and dlfcn.h) is knowing the arguments and type of the function.