SDL_GetUserFolder(3)

💖 SDL_GetUserFolder(3) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the SDL3 FUNCTIONS corner of the manual, where today's main character is SDL_GetUserFolder 🫶

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✨ NAME ✨

SDL_GetUserFolder — finds the most suitable user folder for a specific purpose. no cap, that's literally the whole job 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <SDL3/SDL_filesystem.h>

const char * SDL_GetUserFolder(SDL_Folder folder);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like, most OSes out here are giving us certain standard folders for certain purposes — think storing pictures, music or videos for a certain user. this function hands you the path for a whole bunch of those special locations. iconic behaviour honestly 🌈

but listen, this one is specifically for user folders — the kind that are meant for the user to actually access and manage themselves. if you're looking for application-specific folders, the ones meant to hold data for the application to manage, then go check out SDL_GetBasePath() and SDL_GetPrefPath() instead. different vibe, different purpose, iykyk ✨

the returned path is guaranteed to end with a path separator ('\\' on Windows, '/' on most other platforms). yes queen, it always closes with the separator 🎀

and if NULL comes back? that's your cue that something went wrong, and you can grab the error with SDL_GetError(). 😭

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🎀 FUNCTION PARAMETERS 🎀

• folder — the type of folder to find. that's the one and only thing you're passing in, bestie.

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💜 RETURN VALUE 💜

it returns either a null-terminated C string containing the full path to the folder, or NULL if an error happened. so like... either you get the path or you get nothing and you go check SDL_GetError(). that's the whole deal 🫶

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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. so if you're on anything older, sorry babe, no folder for you 🙈

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💀 tiny reminder: if you get NULL back, do not just start using it. call SDL_GetError() and read the tea before you do anything else.

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and that's the page, bestie!! brought to you by the fine folks at Simple Directmedia Layer, running the SDL 3.4.18 era of life 💖 this whole thing is SDL_GetUserFolder(3) and it ate, no crumbs, periodt ✨🎀