libvips

VIPS_INIT()

#define             VIPS_INIT( ARGV0 )

gtk-doc mistakenly tags this macro as deprecated for unknown reasons. It is *NOT* deprecated, please ignore the warning above.

VIPS_INIT() starts up the world of VIPS. You should call this on program startup before using any other VIPS operations. If you do not call VIPS_INIT(), VIPS will call it for you when you use your first VIPS operation, but it may not be able to get hold of ARGV0 and VIPS may therefore be unable to find its data files. It is much better to call this macro yourself.

ARGV0 is used to help discover message catalogues if libvips has been relocated. If you don't need a relocatable package, you can just pass "" and it'll be fine.

Additionally, VIPS_INIT() can be run from any thread, but it must not be called from more than one thread at the same time. This is much easier to guarantee if you call it yourself.

VIPS_INIT() is a macro, since it tries to check ABI compatibility between the caller and the library. You can also call vips_init(), the non-macro version, if macros are not available to you.

You may call VIPS_INIT() many times and vips_shutdown() many times, but you must not call VIPS_INIT() after vips_shutdown(). In other words, you cannot stop and restart vips.

Use the environment variable VIPS_MIN_STACK_SIZE to set the minimum stack size. For example, 2m for a minimum of two megabytes of stack. This can be important for systems like musl where the default stack is very small.

VIPS_INIT() does approximately the following:

Example:

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int main (int argc, char **argv)
{
  if (VIPS_INIT (argv[0]))
    vips_error_exit ("unable to start VIPS");

  vips_shutdown ();

  return 0;
}

See also: vips_shutdown(), vips_add_option_entries(), vips_version(), vips_guess_prefix(), vips_guess_libdir().

vips_init ()

int
vips_init (const char *argv0);

This function starts up libvips, see VIPS_INIT().

This function is for bindings which need to start up vips. C programs should use the VIPS_INIT() macro, which does some extra checks.

See also: VIPS_INIT().

vips_get_argv0 ()

const char *
vips_get_argv0 (void);

See also: VIPS_INIT().

vips_shutdown ()

void
vips_shutdown (void);

Call this to drop caches and close plugins. Run with "--vips-leak" to do a leak check too.

You may call VIPS_INIT() many times and vips_shutdown() many times, but you must not call VIPS_INIT() after vips_shutdown(). In other words, you cannot stop and restart vips.

vips_thread_shutdown ()

void
vips_thread_shutdown (void);

Free any thread-private data and flush any profiling information.

This function needs to be called when a thread that has been using vips exits. It is called for you by vips_shutdown() and for any threads created by vips_g_thread_new().

You will need to call it from threads created in other ways or there will be memory leaks. If you do not call it, vips will generate a warning message.

It may be called many times, and you can continue using vips after calling it. Calling it too often will reduce performance.

vips_add_option_entries ()

void
vips_add_option_entries (GOptionGroup *option_group);

Add the standard vips GOptionEntry to a GOptionGroup.

See also: g_option_group_new().

vips_leak_set ()

void
vips_leak_set (gboolean leak);

Turn on or off vips leak checking. See also --vips-leak and vips_add_option_entries().

You should call this very early in your program.

vips_version_string ()

const char *
vips_version_string (void);

Get the VIPS version as a static string, including a build date and time. Do not free.

vips_version ()

int
vips_version (int flag);

Get the major, minor or micro library version, with flag values 0, 1 and 2.

Get the ABI current, revision and age (as used by libtool) with flag values 3, 4, 5.

vips_guess_prefix ()

const char *
vips_guess_prefix (const char *argv0,
                   const char *env_name);

vips_guess_prefix() tries to guess the install directory. You should pass in the value of argv[0] (the name your program was run as) as a clue to help it out, plus the name of the environment variable you let the user override your package install area with (eg. "VIPSHOME").

On success, vips_guess_prefix() returns the prefix it discovered, and as a side effect, sets the environment variable (if it's not set).

Don't free the return string!

See also: vips_guess_libdir().

vips_guess_libdir ()

const char *
vips_guess_libdir (const char *argv0,
                   const char *env_name);

vips_guess_libdir() tries to guess the install directory (usually the configure libdir, or $prefix/lib). You should pass in the value of argv[0] (the name your program was run as) as a clue to help it out, plus the name of the environment variable you let the user override your package install area with (eg. "VIPSHOME").

On success, vips_guess_libdir() returns the libdir it discovered, and as a side effect, sets the prefix environment variable (if it's not set).

Don't free the return string!

See also: vips_guess_prefix().