TIFFOPENOPTIONS(3tiff)

💅 TIFFOPENOPTIONS(3tiff) — LibTIFF, but make it a group chat 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the TIFFOPENOPTIONS(3tiff) page 💖 this is the LibTIFF manual for the cute little options struct that lets you set internal stuff when opening TIFFs. no cap, it's giving “small but mighty.”

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🌸 NAME 🌸

TIFFOpenOptions — a structure that can be passed to the TIFFOpen"Ext" functions to define internal settings. literally that's the whole vibe.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <tiffio.h>

typedef TIFFOpenOptions TIFFOpenOptions

TIFFOpenOptions *TIFFOpenOptionsAlloc(void)

void TIFFOpenOptionsFree(TIFFOpenOptions*)

void TIFFOpenOptionsSetMaxSingleMemAlloc(TIFFOpenOptions *opts, tmsize_t
max_single_mem_alloc)

void TIFFOpenOptionsSetErrorHandlerExtR(TIFFOpenOptions *opts,
TIFFErrorHandlerExtR handler, void *errorhandler_user_data)

void TIFFOpenOptionsSetWarningHandlerExtR(TIFFOpenOptions *opts,
TIFFErrorHandlerExtR handler, void *warnhandler_user_data)

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

TIFFOpenOptions is an opaque structure, which means you don't peek inside it, bestie — you just pass it to the TIFFOpen"Ext" functions to define some libtiff internal settings. The settings are the maximum single memory allocation limit and per-TIFF handle (re-entrant) error handler and warning handler functions. For those handler a pointer to a custom defined data structure user_data can be given along. 🫶

Here's the function-by-function tea:

• TIFFOpenOptionsAlloc() — allocates memory for the TIFFOpenOptions opaque structure and returns a TIFFOpenOptions pointer. iconic behavior.
• TIFFOpenOptionsFree() — releases the allocated memory for TIFFOpenOptions. You can release that allocated memory straight after successful execution of the related TIFFOpen"Ext" functions like TIFFOpenExt(). so yes, you can free it right after the open succeeds, no stress.
• TIFFOpenOptionsSetMaxSingleMemAlloc() — sets parameter for the maximum single memory limit in bytes that libtiff internal memory allocation functions are allowed to request per call.

NOTE: However, the libtiff external functions _TIFFmalloc() and _TIFFrealloc() do not apply this internal memory allocation limit set by TIFFOpenOptionsSetMaxSingleMemAlloc()! 💀 so do not assume this limit covers those external functions.

• TIFFOpenOptionsSetErrorHandlerExtR() — sets the function pointer to an application-specific and per-TIFF handle (re-entrant) error handler. Furthermore, a pointer to a custom defined data structure errorhandler_user_data can be passed. This error handler is invoked through TIFFErrorExtR() and the errorhandler_user_data pointer is given along. The errorhandler_user_data argument may be NULL. 💜
• TIFFOpenOptionsSetWarningHandlerExtR() — works like TIFFOpenOptionsSetErrorHandlerExtR() but for the warning handler, which is invoked through TIFFWarningExtR(). same energy, warning edition. ✨

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🎀 EXAMPLE 🎀

okay so here's the whole little example, bestie — copy it exactly and you're slaying:

#include "tiffio.h"

typedef struct MyErrorHandlerUserDataStruct
{
    /* ... any user data structure ... */
} MyErrorHandlerUserDataStruct;

static int myErrorHandler(TIFF *tiff, void *user_data, const char *module,
                          const char *fmt, va_list ap)
{
    MyErrorHandlerUserDataStruct *errorhandler_user_data =
        (MyErrorHandlerUserDataStruct *)user_data;
    /*... code of myErrorHandler ...*/
    return 1;
}

main()
{
    tmsize_t limit = (256 * 1024 * 1024);
    MyErrorHandlerUserDataStruct user_data = { /* ... any data ... */};

    TIFFOpenOptions *opts = TIFFOpenOptionsAlloc();
    TIFFOpenOptionsSetMaxSingleMemAlloc(opts, limit);
    TIFFOpenOptionsSetErrorHandlerExtR(opts, myErrorHandler, &user_data);
    TIFF *tif = TIFFOpenExt("foo.tif", "r", opts);
    TIFFOpenOptionsFree(opts);
    /* ... go on here ... */

    TIFFClose(tif);
}

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🚨 NOTE 🚨

This functionality was introduced with libtiff 4.5. 💅 so if you're on something older, it's not giving what you need.

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• libtiff (3tiff)
• TIFFOpen (3tiff)
• TIFFError (3tiff)
• TIFFWarning (3tiff)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

LibTIFF contributors — absolute icons, fr fr. 👑

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💜 COPYRIGHT 💜

1988-2026, LibTIFF contributors

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later, bestie — this page is from LibTIFF version 4.6, dated Jul 20, 2026. mwah 💖🎀