debian man page for ieee1284_ref

IEEE1284_REF(3) 						     Functions							   IEEE1284_REF(3)

NAME
       ieee1284_ref, ieee1284_unref - modify a port's reference count

SYNOPSIS
       #include <ieee1284.h>

       int ieee1284_ref(struct parport *port);

       int ieee1284_unref(struct parport *port);

DESCRIPTION
       If you want to free the port list from ieee1284_find_ports but open one of the ports later on, you will need to prevent it from being
       destroyed in ieee1284_free_ports. Each port has a reference count, and you can use ieee1284_ref to increment it and ieee1284_unref to
       decrement it.

       If you use ieee1284_ref at any stage, you must later call ieee1284_unref to relinquish the extra reference. If you do not do this, the
       resources associated with the port will not be cleaned up.

       If you have not previously used ieee1284_ref on a port, you must not use ieee1284_unref on it.

RETURN VALUE
       These functions return the number of references held after the increment or decrement.

SEE ALSO
       ieee1284_open(3)

AUTHOR
       Tim Waugh <twaugh@redhat.com>
	   Author.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2001-2003 Tim Waugh

								    09/18/2007							   IEEE1284_REF(3)