A `GdkPixbufModule` contains the necessary functions to load and save images in a certain file format.
If `GdkPixbuf` has been compiled with `GModule` support, it can be extended by modules which can load (and perhaps also save) new image and animation formats.
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(unichar2) Implementing modules
The `GdkPixbuf` interfaces needed for implementing modules are contained in `gdk-pixbuf-io.h` (and `gdk-pixbuf-animation.h` if the module supports animations). They are not covered by the same stability guarantees as the regular GdkPixbuf API. To underline this fact, they are protected by the `GDK_PIXBUF_ENABLE_BACKEND` pre-processor symbol.
Each loadable module must contain a `GdkPixbufModuleFillVtableFunc` function named `fill_vtable`, which will get called when the module is loaded and must set the function pointers of the `GdkPixbufModule`.
In order to make format-checking work before actually loading the modules (which may require calling `dlopen` to load image libraries), modules export their signatures (and other information) via the `fill_info` function. An external utility, `gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders`, uses this to create a text file containing a list of all available loaders and their signatures. This file is then read at runtime by `GdkPixbuf` to obtain the list of available loaders and their signatures.
Modules may only implement a subset of the functionality available via `GdkPixbufModule`. If a particular functionality is not implemented, the `fill_vtable` function will simply not set the corresponding function pointers of the `GdkPixbufModule` structure. If a module supports incremental loading (i.e. provides `begin_load`, `stop_load` and `load_increment`), it doesn't have to implement `load`, since `GdkPixbuf` can supply a generic `load` implementation wrapping the incremental loading.
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(unichar2) Installing modules
Installing a module is a two-step process:
- copy the module file(s) to the loader directory (normally `$libdir/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/$version/loaders`, unless overridden by the environment variable `GDK_PIXBUF_MODULEDIR`) - call `gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders` to update the module file (normally `$libdir/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/$version/loaders.cache`, unless overridden by the environment variable `GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE`)