In the preceding example, we used glCreateShaderProgramv to create each single-stage program. However, you can also use the more familiar glCreateProgram to do the same thing. In fact, if you want to create a program with more than one stage (say, a vertex shader and a geometry shader), you need to use glCreateProgram. However, since we want to use it with shader pipelines, it is important to use glProgramParameteri to designate it as a separable program. Here's an example of creating a single stage program using glCreateProgram, assuming that vertShader is the name of a previously-compiled vertex shader object:

GLuint program = glCreateProgram();
glProgramParameteri(program, GL_PROGRAM_SEPARABLE, GL_TRUE);

glAttachShader(program, vertShader);

glLinkProgram(program);
// Check for errors...

You could attach more than one shader before linking.

Program pipelines make it easy to mix and match shader stages, while maintaining uniform state. However, the added complexity may not be worth it for many situations. If your shaders are complex, with lots of uniform states, and you need to switch portions of the pipeline often, it might be a good alternative.