To initialize your iffhandle to point to your custom stream and stream handler, you must open your stream and place a pointer to the stream in your IFFHandle's iff_stream field. this pointer could be the return from fopen(), or an exec device i/o request, or any other type of pointer which will provide your custom stream handler with a way to manage your stream. For example: iff->iff_Stream = (ULONG) fopen("foo"); Next, you must install your custom handler for this stream, and also tell IFFParse the seek capabilities of your stream. To install your custom stream handler, you must first set up a hook structure (<utility/hooks.h>) to point to your stream handling function. Then use initiff() to install your stream handler and also tell IFFParse the seek capabilities of your stream. There is "some assembly required". Release 2 hook function calling conventions specify a register interface. For an IFFParse custom stream hook, at entry, A0 contains a pointer to the hook, A2 is a pointer to your iffhandle, and a1 is a pointer to a command packet, which tells you what to do. A6 contains a pointer to IFFParseBase. You may trash A0, A1, D0, and D1. All other registers must be preserved. You return your error code in D0. A return of 0 indicates success. A non-zero return indicates an error. If your compiler supports registered function parameters, you may use a registerized C function entry as the h_entry hook entry point: /* mystreamhandler - SAS C custom stream handler with */ /* registerized arguments */ static LONG __saveds __asm mystreamhandler ( register __a0 struct Hook *hook, register __a2 struct IFFHandle *iff, register __a1 struct IFFStreamCmd *actionpkt ) { /* * Code to handle the stream commands - see end this section * for a complete example custom stream handler function. * */ } /* Initialization of Hook structure for registerized */ /* handler function */ struct Hook mystreamhook { { NULL }, (ULONG (*)()) mystreamhandler, /* h_Entry, registerized function entry */ NULL, NULL }; /* Open custom stream and InitIFF to custom stream handler */ if ( iff->iff_Stream = (ULONG) myopen("foo") ) { InitIFF (iff, IFFF_FSEEK | IFFF_RSEEK, &mystreamhook); } Alternately, you could initialize your hook structure's h_entry to point to a standard assembler stub which would push the register arguments on the stack and then call a standard args C function. In this case, you must store the address of your C function in the h_subentry field of the Hook structure so the assembler stub can find and call your C entry point. A sample assembler hook entry stub follows. This would be assembled as hookentry.o and linked with your C code. * HookEntry.asm for SAS C INCLUDE "exec/types.i" INCLUDE "utility/hooks.i" XDEF _HookEntry section code _HookEntry: move.l a6,-(sp) move.l a1,-(sp) ; push message packet pointer move.l a2,-(sp) ; push object pointer move.l a0,-(sp) ; push hook pointer move.l h_SubEntry(a0),a0 ; fetch C entry point ... jsr (a0) ; ... and call it lea 12(sp),sp ; fix stack move.l (sp)+,a6 rts end When using an assembler HookEntry stub, your C program's custom stream handler interface would be initialized as follows: extern LONG HookEntry(); /* The assembler entry */ /* mystreamhandler - a standard args C function custom stream handler*/ static LONG mystreamhandler ( struct Hook *hook, struct IFFHandle *iff, struct IFFStreamCmd *actionpkt ) { /* Code to handle the stream commands - see end of this section * for a complete example custom stream handler function. */ } /* Initialization of Hook for asm HookEntry and std args C function */ struct Hook mystreamhook { { NULL }, (ULONG (*)()) HookEntry, /* h_Entry, assembler stub entry */ (ULONG (*)()) mystreamhandler, /* h_SubEntry, std args function entry */ NULL }; /* Open custom stream and InitIFF to custom stream handler */ if ( iff->iff_Stream = (ULONG) myopen("foo") ) { InitIFF (iff, IFFF_FSEEK | IFFF_RSEEK, &mystreamhook); }