reference
type: Specification
name: LV2 Reference
release:
  revision: 0.1
  created: 2011-07-22
maintainer: David Robillard
documentation: This extension defines a mechanism for working with generic/opaque dynamically allocated memory, called a "Blob", which is (unlike an Atom) not necessarily POD. Blobs are accessed via a Reference, which is a special case of Atom that always has type = 0, is not POD, and can only be copied using host provided functions. This allows plugins and hosts to work with data of any type at all.

Reference
type: Class
subclass of: Atom
documentation: Reference to a Blob. The actual contents of a Reference are opaque and host specific, and must not be copied, serialized, or otherwise interpreted by a plugin, except via functions provided by the host in LV2_Blob_Support. A Reference is a special case of Atom with type = 0. "Null" is the unique Atom with type = 0 and size = 0.

Blob support
type: Feature
documentation: Support for dynamically allocated blobs. If a host supports this feature, it MUST pass a LV2_Feature with URI http://lv2plug.in/ns/ext/atom#blobSupport and data pointing to a LV2_Blob_Support.

Blob
type: Class
documentation: Base class for all dynamically allocated blobs. An <a LV2_Blob is an opaque pointer to host data. The type and data of a blob can be accessed via host-provided functions in LV2_Blob_Support. The type of a blob can be any URI that describes a data format. Blobs are always allocated by the host, and unlike atoms are not necessarily POD. Blob data MUST NOT be used in any way by an implementation that does not understand that blob type (unlike Atoms, meaningful type-oblivious use of a Blob is impossible).