docs: reword sentence that my brain can't parse
[mesa.git] / docs / egl.html
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10 <div class="header">
11 <h1>The Mesa 3D Graphics Library</h1>
12 </div>
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15 <div class="content">
16
17 <h1>Mesa EGL</h1>
18
19 <p>The current version of EGL in Mesa implements EGL 1.4. More information
20 about EGL can be found at
21 <a href="https://www.khronos.org/egl/">
22 https://www.khronos.org/egl/</a>.</p>
23
24 <p>The Mesa's implementation of EGL uses a driver architecture. The main
25 library (<code>libEGL</code>) is window system neutral. It provides the EGL
26 API entry points and helper functions for use by the drivers. Drivers are
27 dynamically loaded by the main library and most of the EGL API calls are
28 directly dispatched to the drivers.</p>
29
30 <p>The driver in use decides the window system to support.</p>
31
32 <h2>Build EGL</h2>
33
34 <ol>
35 <li>
36 <p>Run <code>configure</code> with the desired client APIs and enable
37 the driver for your hardware. For example</p>
38
39 <pre>
40 $ ./configure --enable-gles1 --enable-gles2 \
41 --with-dri-drivers=... \
42 --with-gallium-drivers=...
43 </pre>
44
45 <p>The main library and OpenGL is enabled by default. The first two options
46 above enables <a href="opengles.html">OpenGL ES 1.x and 2.x</a>. The last two
47 options enables the listed classic and and Gallium drivers respectively.</p>
48
49 </li>
50
51 <li>Build and install Mesa as usual.</li>
52 </ol>
53
54 <p>In the given example, it will build and install <code>libEGL</code>,
55 <code>libGL</code>, <code>libGLESv1_CM</code>, <code>libGLESv2</code>, and one
56 or more EGL drivers.</p>
57
58 <h3>Configure Options</h3>
59
60 <p>There are several options that control the build of EGL at configuration
61 time</p>
62
63 <dl>
64 <dt><code>--enable-egl</code></dt>
65 <dd>
66
67 <p>By default, EGL is enabled. When disabled, the main library and the drivers
68 will not be built.</p>
69
70 </dd>
71
72 <dt><code>--with-egl-driver-dir</code></dt>
73 <dd>
74
75 <p>The directory EGL drivers should be installed to. If not specified, EGL
76 drivers will be installed to <code>${libdir}/egl</code>.</p>
77
78 </dd>
79
80 <dt><code>--with-egl-platforms</code></dt>
81 <dd>
82
83 <p>List the platforms (window systems) to support. Its argument is a comma
84 separated string such as <code>--with-egl-platforms=x11,drm</code>. It decides
85 the platforms a driver may support. The first listed platform is also used by
86 the main library to decide the native platform: this defines EGL native
87 types such as <code>EGLNativeDisplayType</code> or
88 <code>EGLNativeWindowType</code>.</p>
89
90 <p>The available platforms are <code>x11</code>, <code>drm</code>,
91 <code>wayland</code>, <code>surfaceless</code>, <code>android</code>,
92 and <code>haiku</code>.
93 The <code>android</code> platform can either be built as a system
94 component, part of AOSP, using <code>Android.mk</code> files, or
95 cross-compiled using appropriate <code>configure</code> options.
96 The <code>haiku</code> platform can only be built with SCons.
97 Unless for special needs, the build system should
98 select the right platforms automatically.</p>
99
100 </dd>
101
102 <dt><code>--enable-gles1</code></dt>
103 <dt><code>--enable-gles2</code></dt>
104 <dd>
105
106 <p>These options enable OpenGL ES support in OpenGL. The result is one big
107 internal library that supports multiple APIs.</p>
108
109 </dd>
110
111 <dt><code>--enable-shared-glapi</code></dt>
112 <dd>
113
114 <p>By default, <code>libGL</code> has its own copy of <code>libglapi</code>.
115 This options makes <code>libGL</code> use the shared <code>libglapi</code>. This
116 is required if applications mix OpenGL and OpenGL ES.</p>
117
118 </dd>
119
120 </dl>
121
122 <h2>Use EGL</h2>
123
124 <h3>Demos</h3>
125
126 <p>There are demos for the client APIs supported by EGL. They can be found in
127 mesa/demos repository.</p>
128
129 <h3>Environment Variables</h3>
130
131 <p>There are several environment variables that control the behavior of EGL at
132 runtime</p>
133
134 <dl>
135 <dt><code>EGL_DRIVERS_PATH</code></dt>
136 <dd>
137
138 <p>By default, the main library will look for drivers in the directory where
139 the drivers are installed to. This variable specifies a list of
140 colon-separated directories where the main library will look for drivers, in
141 addition to the default directory. This variable is ignored for setuid/setgid
142 binaries.</p>
143
144 <p>This variable is usually set to test an uninstalled build. For example, one
145 may set</p>
146
147 <pre>
148 $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$mesa/lib
149 $ export EGL_DRIVERS_PATH=$mesa/lib/egl
150 </pre>
151
152 <p>to test a build without installation</p>
153
154 </dd>
155
156 <dt><code>EGL_DRIVER</code></dt>
157 <dd>
158
159 <p>This variable specifies a full path to or the name of an EGL driver. It
160 forces the specified EGL driver to be loaded. It comes in handy when one wants
161 to test a specific driver. This variable is ignored for setuid/setgid
162 binaries.</p>
163
164 </dd>
165
166 <dt><code>EGL_PLATFORM</code></dt>
167 <dd>
168
169 <p>This variable specifies the native platform. The valid values are the same
170 as those for <code>--with-egl-platforms</code>. When the variable is not set,
171 the main library uses the first platform listed in
172 <code>--with-egl-platforms</code> as the native platform.</p>
173
174 <p>Extensions like <code>EGL_MESA_drm_display</code> define new functions to
175 create displays for non-native platforms. These extensions are usually used by
176 applications that support non-native platforms. Setting this variable is
177 probably required only for some of the demos found in mesa/demo repository.</p>
178
179 </dd>
180
181 <dt><code>EGL_LOG_LEVEL</code></dt>
182 <dd>
183
184 <p>This changes the log level of the main library and the drivers. The valid
185 values are: <code>debug</code>, <code>info</code>, <code>warning</code>, and
186 <code>fatal</code>.</p>
187
188 </dd>
189 </dl>
190
191 <h2>EGL Drivers</h2>
192
193 <dl>
194 <dt><code>egl_dri2</code></dt>
195 <dd>
196
197 <p>This driver supports both <code>x11</code> and <code>drm</code> platforms.
198 It functions as a DRI driver loader. For <code>x11</code> support, it talks to
199 the X server directly using (XCB-)DRI2 protocol.</p>
200
201 <p>This driver can share DRI drivers with <code>libGL</code>.</p>
202
203 </dd>
204
205 <h2>Packaging</h2>
206
207 <p>The ABI between the main library and its drivers are not stable. Nor is
208 there a plan to stabilize it at the moment.</p>
209
210 <h2>Developers</h2>
211
212 <p>The sources of the main library and drivers can be found at
213 <code>src/egl/</code>.</p>
214
215 <h3>Lifetime of Display Resources</h3>
216
217 <p>Contexts and surfaces are examples of display resources. They might live
218 longer than the display that creates them.</p>
219
220 <p>In EGL, when a display is terminated through <code>eglTerminate</code>, all
221 display resources should be destroyed. Similarly, when a thread is released
222 through <code>eglReleaseThread</code>, all current display resources should be
223 released. Another way to destroy or release resources is through functions
224 such as <code>eglDestroySurface</code> or <code>eglMakeCurrent</code>.</p>
225
226 <p>When a resource that is current to some thread is destroyed, the resource
227 should not be destroyed immediately. EGL requires the resource to live until
228 it is no longer current. A driver usually calls
229 <code>eglIs&lt;Resource&gt;Bound</code> to check if a resource is bound
230 (current) to any thread in the destroy callbacks. If it is still bound, the
231 resource is not destroyed.</p>
232
233 <p>The main library will mark destroyed current resources as unlinked. In a
234 driver's <code>MakeCurrent</code> callback,
235 <code>eglIs&lt;Resource&gt;Linked</code> can then be called to check if a newly
236 released resource is linked to a display. If it is not, the last reference to
237 the resource is removed and the driver should destroy the resource. But it
238 should be careful here because <code>MakeCurrent</code> might be called with an
239 uninitialized display.</p>
240
241 <p>This is the only mechanism provided by the main library to help manage the
242 resources. The drivers are responsible to the correct behavior as defined by
243 EGL.</p>
244
245 <h3><code>EGL_RENDER_BUFFER</code></h3>
246
247 <p>In EGL, the color buffer a context should try to render to is decided by the
248 binding surface. It should try to render to the front buffer if the binding
249 surface has <code>EGL_RENDER_BUFFER</code> set to
250 <code>EGL_SINGLE_BUFFER</code>; If the same context is later bound to a
251 surface with <code>EGL_RENDER_BUFFER</code> set to
252 <code>EGL_BACK_BUFFER</code>, the context should try to render to the back
253 buffer. However, the context is allowed to make the final decision as to which
254 color buffer it wants to or is able to render to.</p>
255
256 <p>For pbuffer surfaces, the render buffer is always
257 <code>EGL_BACK_BUFFER</code>. And for pixmap surfaces, the render buffer is
258 always <code>EGL_SINGLE_BUFFER</code>. Unlike window surfaces, EGL spec
259 requires their <code>EGL_RENDER_BUFFER</code> values to be honored. As a
260 result, a driver should never set <code>EGL_PIXMAP_BIT</code> or
261 <code>EGL_PBUFFER_BIT</code> bits of a config if the contexts created with the
262 config won't be able to honor the <code>EGL_RENDER_BUFFER</code> of pixmap or
263 pbuffer surfaces.</p>
264
265 <p>It should also be noted that pixmap and pbuffer surfaces are assumed to be
266 single-buffered, in that <code>eglSwapBuffers</code> has no effect on them. It
267 is desirable that a driver allocates a private color buffer for each pbuffer
268 surface created. If the window system the driver supports has native pbuffers,
269 or if the native pixmaps have more than one color buffers, the driver should
270 carefully attach the native color buffers to the EGL surfaces, re-route them if
271 required.</p>
272
273 <p>There is no defined behavior as to, for example, how
274 <code>glDrawBuffer</code> interacts with <code>EGL_RENDER_BUFFER</code>. Right
275 now, it is desired that the draw buffer in a client API be fixed for pixmap and
276 pbuffer surfaces. Therefore, the driver is responsible to guarantee that the
277 client API renders to the specified render buffer for pixmap and pbuffer
278 surfaces.</p>
279
280 <h3><code>EGLDisplay</code> Mutex</h3>
281
282 The <code>EGLDisplay</code> will be locked before calling any of the dispatch
283 functions (well, except for GetProcAddress which does not take an
284 <code>EGLDisplay</code>). This guarantees that the same dispatch function will
285 not be called with the sample display at the same time. If a driver has access
286 to an <code>EGLDisplay</code> without going through the EGL APIs, the driver
287 should as well lock the display before using it.
288
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