MS_BIGENDIANHOST(3)

💖 MS_BIGENDIANHOST 💖

okay bestie, welcome to ms_bigendianhost, a page from the Library Functions Manual (section 3, library functions, iykyk). it's a tiny little function with one job and honestly? it ate. let's get into it 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

ms_bigendianhost — Determine host computer byte order

like. that's it. that's the whole gig. it tells you which way your computer reads its bytes 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <libmseed.h>

int  ms_bigendianhost ();

yes she takes zero arguments. no parameters, no drama, no notes. just vibes and a return value ✨

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so here's the tea, bestie: ms_bigendianhost is a run-time test of host computer byte order. run-time, meaning it checks while the program is actually running, not at compile time. she's live, she's on stage, she's checking in real time 🔥

and the function is making a whole assumption about the universe, which is that there are only two possible byte orders:

• Most Significant Byte First (MSBF), aka big-endian — the big byte goes first, main character energy, walks in the room first 👑
• Least Significant Byte First (LSBF), aka little-endian — the little byte goes first, sneaky, humble, still valid 🧚

and just so we're clear: no middle-endian schemes are accounted for. nope. not a one. if your machine is out here being weird and middle-endian, this function did not plan for you and honestly it never will 💀

one more thing bestie, don't get it twisted: binary quantities in SEED are commonly big-endian, but it is not necessarily so. "commonly" ≠ "always", okay? do not come for me with assumptions 🙈

⭐ RETURN VALUES ⭐

she gives you a whole number and it means exactly one of two things:

• returns 1 if the host is big-endian 🎀
• returns 0 if the host is little-endian 🦋

binary. one or zero. no in-between, no "it's complicated", no situationship 💅

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Chad Trabant IRIS Data Management Center

shoutout to Chad, thank you for your service 🫶

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

(no SEE ALSO section in this one bestie, this page keeps it short and iconic. periodt. ✨)

this was Libmseed API, dated 2004/11/22 — yeah she's vintage, she's a classic, she's been serving since 2004 and she still works 💖 if you made it this far, mwah, you're my favorite. go check your endianness, bestie 🌸🎀💅