ZIP_SOURCE_BUFFER(3)

💖 ZIP_SOURCE_BUFFER 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the zip_source_buffer(3) page — yes it's a manual page from the Library Functions Manual, and yes it's about turning a plain old buffer into a zip data source. it's giving "lowkey magic" and i'm obsessed. let's get into it 🫶

---

✨ NAME ✨

zip_source_buffer, zip_source_buffer_create — create zip data source from buffer

like. that's it. that's the whole vibe. one job. iconic. 💅

---

🌸 LIBRARY 🌸

libzip (-lzip)

you already know, link it and go 🦋

---

⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

#include <zip.h>

zip_source_t *
zip_source_buffer(zip_t *archive, const void *data, zip_uint64_t len,
    int freep);

zip_source_t *
zip_source_buffer_create(const void *data, zip_uint64_t len, int freep,
    zip_error_t *error);

look at these two. siblings. twinsies. one takes an archive, one takes an error. that's the only difference and honestly? slay. 💜

---

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so here's the tea, bestie. both zip_source_buffer() and zip_source_buffer_create() do the exact same thing: they create a zip source out of the buffer data, which is len bytes big. that's it. a whole zip source, born from a buffer. main character energy fr fr ✨

now. the freep situation. if freep is non-zero, the buffer gets freed for you when it's no longer needed. cute, right? BUT — and this is important — data has to stay valid for the entire lifetime of the source you just created. the whole time. no take-backs. so don't be out here passing a stack buffer that's about to evaporate 💀

and the big news: the source you get back? you can use it to open a zip archive from. that's literally the point. zip_open_from_source() said hi 🫶

---

🔥 RETURN VALUES 🔥

on success, you get the created source back. yes, the actual source. hand it to you like a little gift 🎁

otherwise — and we hate to see it — NULL comes back, and the error code inside archive or error is set to tell you what went wrong. so like, always check. don't ignore the NULL. that's a red flag in a situationship AND in C. 🚩

---

💀 ERRORS 💀

both zip_source_buffer() and zip_source_buffer_create() fail if:

• [ZIP_ER_INVAL] — len is greater than zero and data is NULL. bestie you said there was data. there was no data. 😭
• [ZIP_ER_MEMORY] — required memory could not be allocated. the machine said no. it happens to the best of us. 🙈

---

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

go read these next, i promise they're worth it:

• libzip(3)
• zip_file_add(3)
• zip_file_replace(3)
• zip_open_from_source(3)
• zip_source(5)

---

👑 HISTORY 👑

zip_source_buffer() and zip_source_buffer_create() were added in libzip 1.0. so they've been around. they're not new here. they're veterans and they ate. ⭐

---

🧚 AUTHORS 🧚

the legends themselves: Dieter Baron <dillo@nih.at> and Thomas Klausner <wiz@gatalith.at>. we stan. 🫶

---

also quick note: this page comes from the Debian crowd, dated December 18, 2017, and it lives at ZIP_SOURCE_BUFFER(3) in the Library Functions Manual. so if you ever need to find it again, you know exactly where to look 💖

okay that's the whole page, bestie. go forth and buffer responsibly. mwah 💅✨🌸