gl_generator

Code generators for creating bindings to the Khronos OpenGL APIs.

Usage

If you need a specific version of OpenGL, or you need a different API (OpenGL ES, EGL, WGL, GLX), or if you need certain extensions, you should use the gl_generator crate.

See gfx_gl for an example of using a custom OpenGL loader for a project.

Add this to your Cargo.toml:

[build-dependencies]
gl_generator = "0.14.0"

Under the [package] section, add:

build = "build.rs"

Create a build.rs to pull your specific version/API:

extern crate gl_generator;

use gl_generator::{Api, Fallbacks, GlobalGenerator, Profile, Registry};
use std::env;
use std::fs::File;
use std::path::Path;

fn main() {
    let dest = env::var("OUT_DIR").unwrap();
    let mut file = File::create(&Path::new(&dest).join("bindings.rs")).unwrap();

    Registry::new(Api::Gl, (4, 6), Profile::Core, Fallbacks::All, [])
        .write_bindings(GlobalGenerator, &mut file)
        .unwrap();
}

Then use it like this:

mod gl {
    include!(concat!(env!("OUT_DIR"), "/bindings.rs"));
}

/// Simple loading example
fn main() {
    let window = ...;

    // Assuming `window` is a glfw::Window, made current
    gl::load_with(|s| window.get_proc_address(s) as *const _);
}

The build.rs file will generate all the OpenGL functions in a file named, bindings.rs plus all enumerations, and all types in the types submodule.

Generator types

Global generator

The global generator is the one used by default by the gl crate. See the README for more details.

Struct generator

The struct generator is a cleaner alternative to the global generator.

The main difference is that you must call gl::Gl::load_with instead of gl::load_with, and this functions returns a struct of type Gl. The OpenGL functions are not static functions but member functions in this Gl struct. This is important when the GL functions are associated with the current context, as is true on Windows.

The enumerations and types are still static and available in a similar way as in the global generator.

Static generator

The static generator generates plain old bindings. You don't need to load the functions.

This generator should only be used only if the platform you are compiling for is guaranteed to support the requested API. Otherwise you will get a compilation error. For example, you can use it for WGL and OpenGL 1.1 on Windows or GLX and OpenGL 1.3 on Linux, because Windows and Linux are guaranteed to provide implementations for these APIs.

You will need to manually provide the linkage. For example to use WGL or OpenGL 1.1 on Windows, you will need to add #[link="OpenGL32.lib"] extern {} somewhere in your code.

Custom Generators

The gl_generator can be extended with custom generators. This is a niche feature useful only in very rare cases. To create a custom generator, implement the gl_generator::Generator trait. See the source of the gl_generator::generators module for examples.

Various utility functions are provided in the generators module, but the api is unstable, so it has been placed behind a feature flag. In access these functions, you will need to add the "unstable_generator_utils" feature to your Cargo.toml:

[build-dependencies.gl_generator]
version = "0.14.0"
features = ["unstable_generator_utils"]

Extra features

The global and struct generators will attempt to use fallbacks functions when they are available. For example, if glGenFramebuffers cannot be loaded it will also attempt to load glGenFramebuffersEXT as a fallback.