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VIPS operations read input images and write output images, performing some transformation on the pixels. When an operation writes to an image the action it takes depends upon the image type. For example, if the image is a file on disc then VIPS will start a data sink to stream pixels to the file, or if the image is a partial one then it will just attach start / generate / stop functions.
Like most threaded image processing systems, all VIPS operations have to be free of side-effects. In other words, operations cannot modify images, they can only create new images. This could result in a lot of copying if an operation is only making a small change to a large image so VIPS has a set of mechanisms to copy image areas by just adjusting pointers. Most of the time no actual copying is necessary and you can perform operations on large images at low cost.