GLint internalFormat,
GLsizei width,
GLsizei height,
GLenum format,
GLenum type,
const void *data )
A return value of zero indicates success, otherwise a GLU error code is returned (see gluErrorString).
Initially, the width and height of data are checked to see if they are a power of 2. If not, a copy of data (not data), is scaled up or down to the nearest power of 2. This copy will be used for subsequent mipmapping operations described below. (If width or height is exactly between powers of 2, then the copy of data will scale upwards.) For example, if width is 57 and height is 23 then a copy of data will scale up to 64 in width and down to 16 in depth, before mipmapping takes place.
Then, proxy textures (see glTexImage2D) are used to determine if the implementation can fit the requested texture. If not, both dimensions are continually halved until it fits. (If the OpenGL version is ≤ 1.0, both maximum texture dimensions are clamped to the value returned by glGetIntegerv with the argument GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE.)
Next, a series of mipmap levels is built by decimating a copy of data in half along both dimensions until size $1 ~times~ 1$ is reached. At each level, each texel in the halved mipmap level is an average of the corresponding four texels in the larger mipmap level. (In the case of rectangular images, the decimation will ultimately reach an $N ~times~ 1$ or $1 ~times~ N$ configuration. Here, two texels are averaged instead.)
glTexImage2D is called to load each of these mipmap levels. Level 0 is a copy of data. The highest level is ${log sub 2} ( max ("width","height"))$. For example, if width is 64 and height is 16 and the implementation can store a texture of this size, the following mipmap levels are built: $64 ~times~ 16$, $32 ~times~ 8$, $16 ~times~ 4$, $8 ~times~ 2$, $4 ~times~ 1$, $2 ~times~ 1$ and $1 ~times~ 1$. These correspond to levels 0 through 6, respectively.
See the glTexImage1D reference page for a description of the acceptable values for format parameter. See the glDrawPixels reference page for a description of the acceptable values for type parameter.
Note that there is no direct way of querying the maximum level. This can be derived indirectly via glGetTexLevelParameter. First, query for the width and height actually used at level 0. (The width and height may not be equal to width and height respectively since proxy textures might have scaled them to fit the implementation.) Then the maximum level can be derived from the formula ${log sub 2}( max (width,height))$.
GLU_INVALID_ENUM is returned if internalFormat, format, or type is not legal.
GLU_INVALID_OPERATION is returned if type is GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE_3_3_2 or GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE_2_3_3_REV and format is not GL_RGB.
GLU_INVALID_OPERATION is returned if type is GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_6_5 or GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_6_5_REV and format is not GL_RGB.
GLU_INVALID_OPERATION is returned if type is GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT_4_4_4_4 or GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT_4_4_4_4_REV and format is neither GL_RGBA nor GL_BGRA.
GLU_INVALID_OPERATION is returned if type is GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT_5_5_5_1 or GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT_1_5_5_5_REV and format is neither GL_RGBA nor GL_BGRA.
GLU_INVALID_OPERATION is returned if type is GL_UNSIGNED_INT_8_8_8_8 or GL_UNSIGNED_INT_8_8_8_8_REV and format is neither GL_RGBA nor GL_BGRA.
GLU_INVALID_OPERATION is returned if type is GL_UNSIGNED_INT_10_10_10_2 or GL_UNSIGNED_INT_2_10_10_10_REV and format is neither GL_RGBA nor GL_BGRA.