args

Usually the C level function that correspond to a Pike level method are invoked with the argument args. args is an integer that specifies how many 'arguments' the C level function should take. Note here that when speaking of 'arguments' in this context we do not mean the actual arguments of the C function, but the arguments of the Pike method that it implements. Each underlying C function has only one actual argument and that is the args parameter. The args top items on the stack then is the data that the C function has to fetch and use. In other words, what the args parameter actually does specify is with how many arguments the overlying Pike method was invoked. For the module programmer args is then number of items that his underlying C function has to remove from the stack.