GLXIMPORTCONTEXTEXT(3gl)

✨ GLXIMPORTCONTEXTEXT ✨

okay bestie, pull up a chair, because we're talking about glXImportContextEXT from the 3G manual — the one and only way to yoink another process's indirect rendering context into your own little world. no cap. 🫶

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💖 NAME 💖

glXImportContextEXT — import another process's indirect rendering context. yes, like borrowing your friend's notes but for GLX. iconic behavior honestly.

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🎀 C SPECIFICATION 🎀

GLXContext glXImportContextEXT( Display *dpy,
                                GLXContextID contextID )

delim $$

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🌸 PARAMETERS 🌸

• dpy — Specifies the connection to the X server. it's your link to the server, your little telephone line, your main character connection 💅
• contextID — Specifies a GLX rendering context. this is the XID of the context you're trying to bring into your life.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here's the tea: glXImportContextEXT creates a GLXContext given the XID of an existing GLXContext. that's it, that's the whole flex. you can use it in place of glXCreateContext when you wanna share another process's indirect rendering context. sharing is caring, periodt. ✨

but listen. only the server-side context information can be shared between X clients. client-side state — think pixel storage modes — cannot be shared. nope. not happening. so because of that, glXImportContextEXT has to allocate memory to store client-side information itself. and that memory? it gets freed by calling glXFreeContextEXT. don't forget that part, i'm begging you 😭

lowkey important: this call does not create a new XID. it merely makes an existing object available to the importing client (Display *). Like any XID, it goes away when the creating client drops its connection, or when the ID is explicitly deleted. Note that this is when the XID goes away. The object goes away when the XID goes away AND the context is not current to any thread. two conditions, bestie. both of them.

and here's a lil plot twist 🙈 — if contextID refers to a direct rendering context, then no error is generated, but glXImportContextEXT returns NULL. just quietly hands you nothing. rude but true.

also, glXImportContextEXT is part of the EXT_import_context extension, not part of the core GLX command set. so if you're checking whether you even have it: if GLX_EXT_import_context is included in the string returned by glXQueryExtensionsString, when called with argument GLX_EXTENSIONS, then extension EXT_import_context is supported. go check, i'll wait. 👑

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💀 ERRORS 💀

• GLXBadContext is generated if contextID does not refer to a valid context. so like… make sure it's valid. please. 🥺

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• glXCreateContext
• glXQueryVersion
• glXQueryExtensionsString
• glXGetContextIDEXT
• glXFreeContextEXT

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and that's the whole page, angel 💜 this was GLXIMPORTCONTEXTEXT from the 3G manual — that footer line at the bottom said GLXIMPORTCONTEXTEXT() and nothing else, so consider this your official sign-off: go import responsibly, free your contexts, and stan indirect rendering. bye bestie!! 🎀✨🦋