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create_datafile_index(3) Allegro manual create_datafile_index(3)
NAME
create_datafile_index - Creates an index for a datafile. Allegro game
programming library.
SYNOPSIS
#include <allegro.h>
DATAFILE_INDEX *create_datafile_index(const char *filename);
DESCRIPTION
Creates an index for a datafile, to speed up loading single objects out
of it. This is mostly useful for big datafiles, which you don't want to
load as a whole. The index will store the offset of all objects inside
the datafile, and then you can load it quickly with
"load_datafile_object_indexed" later. Use destroy_datafile_index to
free the memory used by it again.
Note: If the datafile uses global compression, there is no performance
gain from using an index, because seeking to the offset still requires
to uncompress the whole datafile up to that offset. Example:
DATAFILE_INDEX *index = create_datafile_index("huge.dat");
DATAFILE *object = load_datafile_object_indexed(index, 1234);
...
unload_datafile_object(object);
destroy_datafile_index(index);
RETURN VALUE
A pointer value which you can pass to load_datafile_object_indexed.
SEE ALSO
destroy_datafile_index(3), load_datafile_object_indexed(3)
Allegro version 4.4.2 create_datafile_index(3)