SDL_CreateProcess(3)

💖 SDL_CreateProcess(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the SDL3 FUNCTIONS corner of the manual, where today we're spawning a whole new process like it's nothing. this is SDL_CreateProcess, and yes it's exactly as iconic as it sounds 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

SDL_CreateProcess — Create a new process.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <SDL3/SDL_process.h>

SDL_Process * SDL_CreateProcess(const char * const *args, bool pipe_stdio);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like, the path to the executable you wanna run? that goes in args[0]. then args[1..N] are the extra arguments that get passed on the command line of the new process, and — this is the important part, don't forget it — the argument list has to be terminated with a NULL. no cap. like this:

const char *args[] = { "myprogram", "argument", NULL };

now, setting pipe_stdio to true? that's literally equivalent to setting SDL_PROP_PROCESS_CREATE_STDIN_NUMBER and SDL_PROP_PROCESS_CREATE_STDOUT_NUMBER to SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_APP, and it's what lets you use SDL_ReadProcess() or SDL_GetProcessInput() and SDL_GetProcessOutput(). the way that just works 💅

if you want the full tea, go read SDL_CreateProcessWithProperties() — it has more details.

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🎀 FUNCTION PARAMETERS 🎀

• args — the path and arguments for the new process.
• pipe_stdio — true to create pipes to the process's standard input and from the process's standard output; false for the process to have no input and inherit the application's standard output.

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👑 RETURN VALUE 👑

Returns the newly created and running process, or NULL if the process couldn't be created. so if you get NULL, it's giving "couldn't make it happen" 😭

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🔥 THREAD SAFETY 🔥

It is safe to call this function from any thread. go off, multithreaded queen ✨

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🌈 AVAILABILITY 🌈

This function is available since SDL 3.2.0.

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• SDL_CreateProcessWithProperties(3)
• SDL_GetProcessProperties(3)
• SDL_ReadProcess(3)
• SDL_GetProcessInput(3)
• SDL_GetProcessOutput(3)
• SDL_KillProcess(3)
• SDL_WaitProcess(3)
• SDL_DestroyProcess(3)

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and that's the whole page, bestie, you ate that 🍓 this little love letter came to you from Simple Directmedia Layer, running the SDL 3.4.18 era, and it's the SDL_CreateProcess(3) page. mwah 💖