ARCHIVE_READ_HEADER(3)

💖 ARCHIVE_READ_HEADER 💖

okay bestie, welcome to archive_read_next_header(3) — the libarchive page that's literally just two functions for reading streaming archives. no cap, this is the manual for the Streaming Archive Library (that's libarchive, and you link it with -larchive 🫶).

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <archive.h>

int
archive_read_next_header(struct archive *, struct archive_entry **);

int
archive_read_next_header2(struct archive *, struct archive_entry *);

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so there's these two functions and they're basically sisters, okay? let me introduce you 💅

• archive_read_next_header() — this one reads the header for the next entry and hands you back a pointer to a struct archive_entry. and the way it does that is so cute: it's a convenience wrapper around archive_read_next_header2(), and it reuses one internal struct archive_entry object for every single request. iconic behaviour honestly. 🎀
• archive_read_next_header2() — this one reads the header for the next entry too, but instead of handing you back a pointer, it populates the struct archive_entry that you provided. you brought your own entry, she fills it in. main character energy ✨

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👑 RETURN VALUES 👑

these functions are not shy, they will tell you exactly what happened:

• ARCHIVE_OK — slay, the operation succeeded 💖
• ARCHIVE_WARN — the operation succeeded BUT a non-critical error was encountered. so like, it worked, but she's a little messy 🙈
• ARCHIVE_EOF — end-of-archive was encountered. that's it, that's the whole archive, we're done here 🦋
• ARCHIVE_RETRY — the operation failed but can be retried. not over yet bestie, run it back 🔥
• ARCHIVE_FATAL — there was a fatal error and the archive should be closed immediately. no seriously. close it. right now. 😭💀

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🎀 ERRORS 🎀

want the juicy details? the detailed error codes and textual descriptions are available from the archive_errno() and archive_error_string() functions. go ask them, they'll spill everything ✨

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

the whole friend group, fr fr:

tar(1), archive_read(3), archive_read_data(3), archive_read_extract(3), archive_read_filter(3), archive_read_format(3), archive_read_open(3), archive_read_set_options(3), archive_util(3), libarchive(3), tar(5)

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and that's the page!! this one came from Debian, dated February 2, 2012 — vintage but still serving 💅 go read some headers bestie, you got this 🫶💖✨