al_install_system(3)

💖 al_install_system(3) 💖

okay bestie, this one is from the Library Functions Manual, and it’s literally the “turn Allegro on” function. main character energy for your whole Allegro app, no cap ✨

---

✨ NAME ✨

al_install_system — Allegro 5 API

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <allegro5/allegro.h>

bool al_install_system(int version, int (*atexit_ptr)(void (*)(void)))

---

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Initialize the Allegro system. No other Allegro functions can be called before this — with one or two exceptions, iykyk. So yeah, this is the vibe check your Allegro app has to pass first 💅

The version field should always be set to ALLEGRO_VERSION_INT. Always, bestie. That’s the assignment.

If atexit_ptr is non-NULL, and if it hasn’t been done already, al_uninstall_system(3) will be registered as an atexit function. Cute cleanup behavior, honestly 🎀

It returns true if Allegro was successfully initialized by this function call (or already was initialized previously), and false if Allegro cannot be used. A common reason for this function to fail is when the version of Allegro you compiled your game against is not compatible with the version of the shared libraries that were found on the system. So if it’s giving failure energy, check that version matchup first 👀

The version compatibility check works like this. Let A = xa.ya.za.* be the version of Allegro you compiled with, and B = xb.yb.zb.* be the version of Allegro found in the system shared library.

If you defined ALLEGRO_UNSTABLE before including Allegro headers, then version A is compatible with B only if xa.ya.za = xb.yb.zb. Otherwise, A is compatible with B only if xa.ya = xb.yb.

🚨 this is the whole compatibility tea: unstable mode wants the full xa.ya.za to match xb.yb.zb; normal mode only needs xa.ya to match xb.yb. Don’t mix it up, bestie.

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• al_init(3)

---

okay that’s the page! source/version: Allegro reference manual; date: the footer here doesn’t list one — it just repeats al_install_system(3) — so I’m not gonna invent a date, periodt 💜🫶