SDL_ProcessIO(3type)

💖 SDL_ProcessIO 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the SDL3 DATATYPES corner of the man pages 🌸 this one's called SDL_ProcessIO, and it's literally the glow-up guide for where your process's standard I/O goes when you spin one up. no cap.

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✨ NAME ✨

SDL_ProcessIO — a whole description of where standard I/O should be directed when creating a process. that's it, that's the vibe 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <SDL3/SDL_process.h>

typedef enum SDL_ProcessIO
{
    SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_INHERITED,    /**< The I/O stream is inherited from the application. */
    SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_NULL,         /**< The I/O stream is ignored. */
    SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_APP,          /**< The I/O stream is connected to a new SDL_IOStream that the application can read or write */
    SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_REDIRECT      /**< The I/O stream is redirected to an existing SDL_IOStream. */
} SDL_ProcessIO;

look at her. four little enum girlies, each one with main character energy 👑

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🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

so here's the tea, one stream at a time ☕

• SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_INHERITED — the I/O stream goes to the exact same place as the application's own I/O stream. sharing is caring fr fr. this is the default for standard output and standard error 💅
• SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_NULL — the stream gets yeeted into the void 🕳️ it's connected to NUL: on Windows and /dev/null on POSIX systems. this is the default for standard input. stream said "not me participating" 💀
• SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_APP — the stream is connected to a brand new SDL_IOStream that your application can actually get its hands on 🙌 and each one has its own lil home:
  • standard input shows up as SDL_PROP_PROCESS_STDIN_POINTER, and it lets you use SDL_GetProcessInput()
  • standard output shows up as SDL_PROP_PROCESS_STDOUT_POINTER, and it lets you use SDL_ReadProcess() and SDL_GetProcessOutput()
  • standard error shows up as SDL_PROP_PROCESS_STDERR_POINTER
  • all three of those live in the properties for the created process 🫶
• SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_REDIRECT — the stream gets connected to an existing SDL_IOStream that your application provides. here's how each one gets handed over, all in the creation properties:
  • standard input is provided using SDL_PROP_PROCESS_CREATE_STDIN_POINTER
  • standard output is provided using SDL_PROP_PROCESS_CREATE_STDOUT_POINTER
  • standard error is provided using SDL_PROP_PROCESS_CREATE_STDERR_POINTER

⚠️ bestie listen. those existing streams should be closed by the application once the new process is created. don't just leave them hanging, that's messy 😭

and one more tiny-but-huge detail for the redirect girlies:

🎀 in order to use an SDL_IOStream with SDL_PROCESS_STDIO_REDIRECT, it must have SDL_PROP_IOSTREAM_WINDOWS_HANDLE_POINTER or SDL_PROP_IOSTREAM_FILE_DESCRIPTOR_NUMBER set. good news tho — this is true for streams representing files and process I/O, so you're probably already slaying ✨

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👑 AVAILABILITY 👑

this enum has been available since SDL 3.2.0. she's not new new, but she ate and left no crumbs 🍓

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

go read these next, they're all in the group chat together:

• SDL_CreateProcessWithProperties(3)
• SDL_GetProcessProperties(3)
• SDL_ReadProcess(3)
• SDL_GetProcessInput(3)
• SDL_GetProcessOutput(3)

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okay that's the whole page, you're basically a process I/O expert now 🧚✨ this lil cutie came to you courtesy of Simple Directmedia Layer, version SDL 3.4.18 💖 thanks for reading bestie, go forth and spawn responsibly 🫶