glGetString

glGetString: return a string describing the current GL connection.

C Specification | Parameters | Description | Notes | Errors

C Specification

constGLubyte *glGetString(
    GLenum	 name)

Parameters

name: Specifies a symbolic constant, one of GL_VENDOR, GL_RENDERER, GL_VERSION, or GL_EXTENSIONS.

Description

glGetString returns a pointer to a static string describing some aspect of the current GL connection. name can be one of the following:

GL_VENDOR: Returns the company responsible for this GL implementation. This name does not change from release to release.
GL_RENDERER: Returns the name of the renderer. This name is typically specific to a particular configuration of a hardware platform. It does not change from release to release.
GL_VERSION: Returns a version or release number.
GL_EXTENSIONS: Returns a space-separated list of supported extensions to GL.

Because the GL does not include queries for the performance characteristics of an implementation, some applications are written to recognize known platforms and modify their GL usage based on known performance characteristics of these platforms. Strings GL_VENDOR and GL_RENDERER together uniquely specify a platform. They do not change from release to release and should be used by platform-recognition algorithms.

Some applications want to make use of features that are not part of the standard GL. These features may be implemented as extensions to the standard GL. The GL_EXTENSIONS string is a space-separated list of supported GL extensions. (Extension names never contain a space character.)

The GL_VERSION string begins with a version number. The version number uses one of these forms:

major_number

.

minor_number

major_number

.

minor_number

.

release_number

Vendor-specific information may follow the version number. Its format depends on the implementation, but a space always separates the version number and the vendor-specific information.

All strings are null-terminated.

Notes

If an error is generated, glGetString returns 0.

The client and server may support different versions or extensions. glGetString always returns a compatible version number or list of extensions. The release number always describes the server.

Errors

GL_INVALID_ENUM is generated if name is not an accepted value.
GL_INVALID_OPERATION is generated if glGetString is executed between the execution of glBegin and the corresponding execution of glEnd.