Description

glCreateProgram creates an empty program object and returns a non-zero value by which it can be referenced. A program object is an object to which shader objects can be attached. This provides a mechanism to specify the shader objects that will be linked to create a program. It also provides a means for checking the compatibility of the shaders that will be used to create a program (for instance, checking the compatibility between a vertex shader and a fragment shader). When no longer needed as part of a program object, shader objects can be detached.

One or more executables are created in a program object by successfully attaching shader objects to it with glAttachShader, successfully compiling the shader objects with glCompileShader, and successfully linking the program object with glLinkProgram. These executables are made part of current state when glUseProgram is called. Program objects can be deleted by calling glDeleteProgram. The memory associated with the program object will be deleted when it is no longer part of current rendering state for any context.

Notes

Like texture objects, the name space for program objects may be shared across a set of contexts, as long as the server sides of the contexts share the same address space. If the name space is shared across contexts, any attached objects and the data associated with those attached objects are shared as well.

Applications are responsible for providing the synchronization across API calls when objects are accessed from different execution threads.

Errors

This function returns 0 if an error occurs creating the program object.

Associated Gets

glGet with the argument GL_CURRENT_PROGRAM

glGetActiveAttrib with a valid program object and the index of an active attribute variable

glGetActiveUniform with a valid program object and the index of an active uniform variable

glGetAttachedShaders with a valid program object

glGetAttribLocation with a valid program object and the name of an attribute variable

glGetProgramiv with a valid program object and the parameter to be queried

glGetProgramInfoLog with a valid program object

glGetUniform with a valid program object and the location of a uniform variable

glGetUniformLocation with a valid program object and the name of a uniform variable

glIsProgram

Examples

GLuint vshader = glCreateShader(GL_VERTEX_SHADER);
glShaderSource(vshader, 1, &vertex_shader_source, NULL); // vertex_shader_source is a GLchar* containing glsl shader source code
glCompileShader(vshader);

GLint vertex_compiled;
glGetShaderiv(vshader, GL_COMPILE_STATUS, &vertex_compiled);
if (vertex_compiled != GL_TRUE)
{
    GLsizei log_length = 0;
    GLchar message[1024];
    glGetShaderInfoLog(vshader, 1024, &log_length, message);
    // Write the error to a log
}

GLuint fshader = glCreateShader(GL_FRAGMENT_SHADER);
glShaderSource(fshader, 1, &fragment_shader_source, NULL); // fragment_shader_source is a GLchar* containing glsl shader source code
glCompileShader(fshader);

GLint fragment_compiled;
glGetShaderiv(fshader, GL_COMPILE_STATUS, &fragment_compiled);
if (fragment_compiled != GL_TRUE)
{
    GLsizei log_length = 0;
    GLchar message[1024];
    glGetShaderInfoLog(fshader, 1024, &log_length, message);
    // Write the error to a log
}

GLuint program = glCreateProgram();

// This step is unnecessary if you use the location specifier in your shader
// e.g. layout (location = 0) in vec3 position;
glBindAttribLocation(program, 0, "position"); // The index passed into glBindAttribLocation is
glBindAttribLocation(program, 1, "texcoord"); // used by glEnableVertexAttribArray. "position"
glBindAttribLocation(program, 2, "normal");   // "texcoord" "normal" and "color" are the names of the
glBindAttribLocation(program, 3, "color");    // respective inputs in your fragment shader.

glAttachShader(program, vshader);
glAttachShader(program, fshader);
glLinkProgram(program);

GLint program_linked;
glGetProgramiv(program, GL_LINK_STATUS, &program_linked);
if (program_linked != GL_TRUE)
{
    GLsizei log_length = 0;
    GLchar message[1024];
    glGetProgramInfoLog(program, 1024, &log_length, message);
    // Write the error to a log
}

Tutorials

open.gl - Geometry Shaders
open.gl - Transform Feedback

See Also

glAttachShader, glBindAttribLocation, glCreateShader, glDeleteProgram, glDetachShader, glLinkProgram, glUniform, glUseProgram, glValidateProgram