vkAllocateCommandBuffers(3)

# vkAllocateCommandBuffers(3) Manual Page

## Name

vkAllocateCommandBuffers - Allocate command buffers from an existing command pool

Loading… please wait.

## C Specification

To allocate command buffers, call:

    // Provided by VK_VERSION_1_0
    VkResult vkAllocateCommandBuffers(
        VkDevice                                    device,
        const VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo*          pAllocateInfo,
        VkCommandBuffer*                            pCommandBuffers);

## Parameters

- `device` is the logical device that owns the command pool.

- `pAllocateInfo` is a pointer to a VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo structure describing parameters of the allocation.

- `pCommandBuffers` is a pointer to an array of VkCommandBuffer handles in which the resulting command buffer objects are returned. The array must be at least the length specified by the `commandBufferCount` member of `pAllocateInfo`. Each allocated command buffer begins in the initial state.

## Description

`vkAllocateCommandBuffers` can be used to allocate multiple command buffers. If the allocation of any of those command buffers fails, the implementation must free all successfully allocated command buffer objects from this command, set all entries of the `pCommandBuffers` array to `NULL` and return the error.

Note | Filling `pCommandBuffers` with `NULL` values on failure is an exception to the default error behavior that output parameters will have undefined contents.

When command buffers are first allocated, they are in the initial state.

Valid Usage (Implicit)

- VUID-vkAllocateCommandBuffers-device-parameter
  `device` must be a valid VkDevice handle

- VUID-vkAllocateCommandBuffers-pAllocateInfo-parameter
  `pAllocateInfo` must be a valid pointer to a valid VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo structure

- VUID-vkAllocateCommandBuffers-pCommandBuffers-parameter
  `pCommandBuffers` must be a valid pointer to an array of `pAllocateInfo->commandBufferCount` VkCommandBuffer handles

- VUID-vkAllocateCommandBuffers-pAllocateInfo::commandBufferCount-arraylength
  `pAllocateInfo->commandBufferCount` must be greater than `0`

Host Synchronization

- Host access to `pAllocateInfo->commandPool` must be externally synchronized

Return Codes

On success, this command returns

  - `VK_SUCCESS`

On failure, this command returns

  - `VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_HOST_MEMORY`

  - `VK_ERROR_OUT_OF_DEVICE_MEMORY`

## See Also

VK_VERSION_1_0, VkCommandBuffer, VkCommandBufferAllocateInfo, VkDevice

## Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification

This page is extracted from the Vulkan Specification. Fixes and changes should be made to the Specification, not directly.

## Copyright

Copyright 2014-2025 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0