The dlclose function deallocates the address space allocated by the Compaq C RTL for the handle. There is no way on OpenVMS systems to unload a shareable image dynamically loaded by the LIB$FIND_IMAGE_SYMBOL routine, which is the routine called by the dlsym function. In other words, there is no way on OpenVMS systems to release the address space occupied by the shareable image brought into memory by dlsym.