find_allegro_resource(3)

🎀 NAME 🎀

find_allegro_resource — bestie, it goes hunting for a support file in, like, so many places. Part of the Allegro game programming library, iykyk. 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <allegro.h>

int find_allegro_resource(char *dest, const char *resource, const char *ext,
                          const char *datafile, const char *objectname,
                          const char *envvar, const char *subdir, int size);

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay so picture this: you need a support file. Something like allegro.cfg or language.dat. You hand this function a resource string that describes what you're looking for, plus a lil pile of extra optional deets — the default extension, which datafile to peek inside, what the datafile object name is probably gonna be, any special environment variable worth checking, and any subdirectory you want checked on top of the default spot — and it goes and looks in a hell of a lot of different places :-). No cap, it's thorough.

For any parameter you're not using? Just pass NULL. She'll skip it. 🫶

Heads up bestie: go check the documentation chapter that's specific to your platform, because it'll tell you about additional paths this function might search that aren't listed here. Every platform's got its own vibe.

Also!! Do not forget about set_allegro_resource_path() if you wanna extend the searches. That's your glow-up tool for making the hunt go further. 🌸

Example moment, because seeing it hits different:

char path[256];
int ret;
ret = find_allegro_resource(path, "scores.cfg", NULL, NULL,
                            NULL, NULL, NULL, sizeof(path));
if (ret == 0) {
   /* Found system wide scores file. */
} else {
   /* No previous scores, create our own file. */
}

Look at that. Clean. The NULLs are just the params we're not using, and she's out here finding (or not finding) our scores.cfg like the icon she is. ⭐

🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

Returns zero on success, and — the moment we love — it stores a full path to the file (at most size bytes, don't get greedy) into the dest buffer. Slay. 👑

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• set_allegro_resource_path(3)

Allegro manual, version 4.4.3 — okay that's the whole page bestie, go forth and find your files fr fr 💜🦋✨