install_allegro(3)

💖 install_allegro — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, this is the install_allegro page from the Allegro manual — yes, that Allegro, the game programming library, she's an icon, she's been around, and she's about to hold your whole app together. let's get into it 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

install_allegro — Initialise the Allegro library. that's it, that's the whole job, and she does it so well 💅

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <allegro.h>

int install_allegro(int system_id, int *errno_ptr, int (*atexit_ptr)());

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

So basically: this function initialises the Allegro library. periodt. But listen — you must call either this one or allegro_init() before you do literally anything else, with one tiny exception: the Unicode routines are fine to use first. that's the loophole, use it wisely 🧚

And if you're feeling spicy and want a text mode that isn't UTF-8? you can set that with set_uformat() before you call this. 🌸

The other functions that are allowed to be called before this one will be explicitly marked in the documentation, like set_config_file(). so if it's not marked, don't do it, bestie, don't be that girl 😭

---

🦋 the system ID codes 🦋

The available system ID codes vary from one platform to another, but you will almost always want to pass SYSTEM_AUTODETECT. she just figures it out for you, main character energy fr fr ✨

Alternatively, there's SYSTEM_NONE, which installs a stripped down version of Allegro that won't even try to touch your hardware or do anything platform specific. and honestly? sometimes that's exactly the vibe. this is useful when you only want to manipulate memory bitmaps — think the text mode datafile tools, or the Windows GDI interfacing functions. no hardware, no drama, no cap 💀

---

🎀 the errno_ptr and atexit_ptr parameters 🎀

These two should point to the errno variable and the atexit function from your libc. and the reason is lowkey interesting: when Allegro is linked as a DLL, it doesn't have direct access to your local libc data. so you gotta hand it the keys yourself, iykyk 🔑

atexit_ptr may be NULL, in which case it is your responsibility to call allegro_exit() manually. no one else is gonna do it for you, babe 🙈

Example:

install_allegro(SYSTEM_AUTODETECT, &errno, atexit);

look at that. gorgeous. slay. 🫶

---

✨ RETURN VALUE ✨

This function returns zero on success and non-zero on failure (e.g. no system driver could be used). so like, check it, bestie, don't just assume it ate 💅

Note: in previous versions of Allegro this function would abort on error. so if you're reading old code or old docs and wondering why nothing checks the return value… that's why. different era, different rules. ⭐

---

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

• allegro_init(3)
• allegro_exit(3)
• set_uformat(3)
• set_config_file(3)

---

and that's the whole page, no crumbs left 🌈 thanks for reading my little manual-page TED talk, go forth and initialise responsibly 👑

Allegro — version 4.4.3 — install_allegro(3) — mwah, bye bestie 💖✨🎀