SDL_Init

Use this function to initialize the SDL library. This must be called before using any other SDL function.

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Syntax

int SDL_Init(Uint32 flags)

Function Parameters

Return Value

_{Returns 0 if successful, -1 otherwise.}

_{If this function fails you can usually get an error message through [[SDL_GetError]](), but not always.}

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Returns 0 on success or -1 on failure; call SDL_GetError() for more information.

Code Examples

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// Initializes the video subsystem
if (SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO) < 0) {
    fprintf(stderr, "Unable to init SDL: %s\n", SDL_GetError());
    exit(1);
}

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C

#include "SDL.h"

int main(int, char**)  {
    if (SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO|SDL_INIT_TIMER) != 0) {
        fprintf(stderr, 
                "\nUnable to initialize SDL:  %s\n", 
                SDL_GetError()
               );
        return 1;
    }
    atexit(SDL_Quit);
  
    /* ... */
  
    return 0;
}

C++

#include <exception>
#include <string>
#include "SDL.h"

class InitError: public std::exception {
    public:
        InitError();
        InitError(const std::string&);
        virtual ~InitError() throw();
        virtual const char* what() const throw();
    private:
        std::string msg;
};

InitError::InitError():
  exception(), msg(SDL_GetError()) {}
InitError::InitError(const std::string& m):
  exception(), msg(m) {}
InitError::~InitError() throw() {}
const char* InitError::what() const throw() {
    return msg.c_str();
}

class SDL {
    public:
        SDL(Uint32 flags = 0) throw(InitError);
        virtual ~SDL();
};

SDL::SDL(Uint32 flags) throw(InitError) {
    if (SDL_Init(flags) != 0)
        throw InitError();
}

SDL::~SDL() {
    SDL_Quit();
}

/* ... */

#include <iostream>

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    try {
        SDL sdl(SDL_INIT_VIDEO|SDL_INIT_TIMER);

        /* ... */

        return 0;
    }

    catch (const InitError& err) {
        std::cerr
            << "Error while initializing SDL:  " 
            << err.what() << std::endl;
    }
    
    return 1;
}

Remarks

The Event Handling, File I/O, and Threading subsystems are initialized by default. To initialize other subsystems ^{that you will be using in your application} you must specifically call them. You can call SDL_Init(0) or SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_NOPARACHUTE) to initialize SDL without initializing any subsystems.

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This function loads the SDL dynamically linked library and initializes the subsystems specified by flags (and those satisfying dependencies). Unless _the SDL_INIT_NOPARACHUTE _{flag is set} ^{is set in '''flags'''}, it will install cleanup signal handlers for some commonly ignored fatal signals (like SIGSEGV). green

Note that the event system is actually started by the video subsystem, so using SDL_INIT_EVENTTHREAD without SDL_INIT_VIDEO is pointless.

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_{Typical cause of this error} ^{The most common cause for error} is using a particular display without having _according ^{the corresponding} subsystem support^ed, such as missing ^a mouse driver when using ^{<<Color2(green,using what? SDL? A mouse?)>>} with ^a framebuffer green

device. In this case you can either compile SDL without ^a mouse device, or set ^the "SDL_NOMOUSE=1" environment variable before running your application.
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Related Functions

• SDL_InitSubSystem

• SDL_Quit

• SDL_WasInit

CategoryAPI, CategoryInit