1 files changed, 86 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/include/git2/buffer.h b/include/git2/buffer.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..454a1faa5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/git2/buffer.h
@@ -0,0 +1,86 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) the libgit2 contributors. All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * This file is part of libgit2, distributed under the GNU GPL v2 with
+ * a Linking Exception. For full terms see the included COPYING file.
+ */
+#ifndef INCLUDE_git_buffer_h__
+#define INCLUDE_git_buffer_h__
+
+#include "common.h"
+
+/**
+ * @file git2/buffer.h
+ * @brief Buffer export structure
+ *
+ * @ingroup Git
+ * @{
+ */
+GIT_BEGIN_DECL
+
+/**
+ * A data buffer for exporting data from libgit2
+ *
+ * There are a number of places where libgit2 wants to return an allocated
+ * data buffer to the caller and have the caller take ownership of that
+ * allocated memory.  This can be awkward if the caller does not have easy
+ * access to the same allocation functions that libgit2 is using.  In those
+ * cases, libgit2 will instead fill in a `git_buffer` and the caller can
+ * use `git_buffer_free()` to release it when they are done.
+ *
+ * * `ptr` refers to the start of the allocated memory.
+ * * `size` contains the size of the data in `ptr` that is actually used.
+ * * `available` refers to the known total amount of allocated memory in
+ *   cases where it is larger than the `size` actually in use.
+ *
+ * In a few cases, for uniformity and simplicity, an API may populate a
+ * `git_buffer` with data that should *not* be freed (i.e. the lifetime of
+ * the data buffer is actually tied to another libgit2 object).  These
+ * cases will be clearly documented in the APIs that use the `git_buffer`.
+ * In those cases, the `available` field will be set to zero even though
+ * the `ptr` and `size` will be valid.
+ */
+typedef struct git_buffer {
+	char   *ptr;
+	size_t size;
+	size_t available;
+} git_buffer;
+
+/**
+ * Use to initialize buffer structure when git_buffer is on stack
+ */
+#define GIT_BUFFER_INIT { NULL, 0, 0 }
+
+/**
+ * Free the memory referred to by the git_buffer.
+ *
+ * Note that this does not free the `git_buffer` itself, just the memory
+ * pointed to by `buffer->ptr`.  If that memory was not allocated by
+ * libgit2 itself, be careful with using this function because it could
+ * cause problems.
+ *
+ * @param buffer The buffer with allocated memory
+ */
+GIT_EXTERN(void) git_buffer_free(git_buffer *buffer);
+
+/**
+ * Resize the buffer allocation to make more space.
+ *
+ * This will update `buffer->available` with the new size (which will be
+ * at least `want_size` and may be larger).  This may or may not change
+ * `buffer->ptr` depending on whether there is an existing allocation and
+ * whether that allocation can be increased in place.
+ *
+ * Currently, this will never shrink the buffer, only expand it.
+ *
+ * @param buffer The buffer to be resized; may or may not be allocated yet
+ * @param want_size The desired available size
+ * @return 0 on success, negative error code on allocation failure
+ */
+GIT_EXTERN(int) git_buffer_resize(git_buffer *buffer, size_t want_size);
+
+GIT_END_DECL
+
+/** @} */
+
+#endif