Memory-managed wrapper type.

Type class for types which can be safely cast to Application, for instance with toApplication.

Cast to Application, for types for which this is known to be safe. For general casts, use castTo.

A convenience alias for Nothing :: Maybe Application.

Activates the application.

In essence, this results in the Application::activate signal being emitted in the primary instance.

The application must be registered before calling this function.

Since: 2.28

Add an option to be handled by application.

Calling this function is the equivalent of calling applicationAddMainOptionEntries with a single OptionEntry that has its arg_data member set to Nothing.

The parsed arguments will be packed into a VariantDict which is passed to Application::handle-local-options. If ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine is set, then it will also be sent to the primary instance. See applicationAddMainOptionEntries for more details.

See OptionEntry for more documentation of the arguments.

Since: 2.42

Adds main option entries to be handled by application.

This function is comparable to optionContextAddMainEntries.

After the commandline arguments are parsed, the Application::handle-local-options signal will be emitted. At this point, the application can inspect the values pointed to by argData in the given GOptionEntrys.

Unlike OptionContext, Application supports giving a Nothing argData for a non-callback OptionEntry. This results in the argument in question being packed into a VariantDict which is also passed to Application::handle-local-options, where it can be inspected and modified. If ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine is set, then the resulting dictionary is sent to the primary instance, where applicationCommandLineGetOptionsDict will return it. This "packing" is done according to the type of the argument -- booleans for normal flags, strings for strings, bytestrings for filenames, etc. The packing only occurs if the flag is given (ie: we do not pack a "false" GVariant in the case that a flag is missing).

In general, it is recommended that all commandline arguments are parsed locally. The options dictionary should then be used to transmit the result of the parsing to the primary instance, where g_variant_dict_lookup() can be used. For local options, it is possible to either use argData in the usual way, or to consult (and potentially remove) the option from the options dictionary.

This function is new in GLib 2.40. Before then, the only real choice was to send all of the commandline arguments (options and all) to the primary instance for handling. Application ignored them completely on the local side. Calling this function "opts in" to the new behaviour, and in particular, means that unrecognised options will be treated as errors. Unrecognised options have never been ignored when ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine is unset.

If Application::handle-local-options needs to see the list of filenames, then the use of OPTION_REMAINING is recommended. If argData is Nothing then OPTION_REMAINING can be used as a key into the options dictionary. If you do use OPTION_REMAINING then you need to handle these arguments for yourself because once they are consumed, they will no longer be visible to the default handling (which treats them as filenames to be opened).

It is important to use the proper GVariant format when retrieving the options with g_variant_dict_lookup():

• for OptionArgNone, use b
• for OptionArgString, use &s
• for OptionArgInt, use i
• for OptionArgInt64, use x
• for OptionArgDouble, use d
• for OptionArgFilename, use ^ay
• for OptionArgStringArray, use &as
• for OptionArgFilenameArray, use ^aay

Since: 2.40

Adds a OptionGroup to the commandline handling of application.

This function is comparable to optionContextAddGroup.

Unlike applicationAddMainOptionEntries, this function does not deal with Nothing argData and never transmits options to the primary instance.

The reason for that is because, by the time the options arrive at the primary instance, it is typically too late to do anything with them. Taking the GTK option group as an example: GTK will already have been initialised by the time the Application::command-line handler runs. In the case that this is not the first-running instance of the application, the existing instance may already have been running for a very long time.

This means that the options from OptionGroup are only really usable in the case that the instance of the application being run is the first instance. Passing options like --display= or --gdk-debug= on future runs will have no effect on the existing primary instance.

Calling this function will cause the options in the supplied option group to be parsed, but it does not cause you to be "opted in" to the new functionality whereby unrecognised options are rejected even if ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine was given.

Since: 2.40

Marks application as busy (see applicationMarkBusy) while property on object is True.

The binding holds a reference to application while it is active, but not to object. Instead, the binding is destroyed when object is finalized.

Since: 2.44

Gets the unique identifier for application.

Since: 2.28

Gets the DBusConnection being used by the application, or Nothing.

If Application is using its D-Bus backend then this function will return the DBusConnection being used for uniqueness and communication with the desktop environment and other instances of the application.

If Application is not using D-Bus then this function will return Nothing. This includes the situation where the D-Bus backend would normally be in use but we were unable to connect to the bus.

This function must not be called before the application has been registered. See applicationGetIsRegistered.

Since: 2.34

Gets the D-Bus object path being used by the application, or Nothing.

If Application is using its D-Bus backend then this function will return the D-Bus object path that Application is using. If the application is the primary instance then there is an object published at this path. If the application is not the primary instance then the result of this function is undefined.

If Application is not using D-Bus then this function will return Nothing. This includes the situation where the D-Bus backend would normally be in use but we were unable to connect to the bus.

This function must not be called before the application has been registered. See applicationGetIsRegistered.

Since: 2.34

Returns the default Application instance for this process.

Normally there is only one Application per process and it becomes the default when it is created. You can exercise more control over this by using applicationSetDefault.

If there is no default application then Nothing is returned.

Since: 2.32

Gets the flags for application.

See ApplicationFlags.

Since: 2.28

Gets the current inactivity timeout for the application.

This is the amount of time (in milliseconds) after the last call to applicationRelease before the application stops running.

Since: 2.28

Gets the application's current busy state, as set through applicationMarkBusy or applicationBindBusyProperty.

Since: 2.44

Checks if application is registered.

An application is registered if applicationRegister has been successfully called.

Since: 2.28

Checks if application is remote.

If application is remote then it means that another instance of application already exists (the 'primary' instance). Calls to perform actions on application will result in the actions being performed by the primary instance.

The value of this property cannot be accessed before applicationRegister has been called. See applicationGetIsRegistered.

Since: 2.28

Gets the resource base path of application.

See applicationSetResourceBasePath for more information.

Since: 2.42

Increases the use count of application.

Use this function to indicate that the application has a reason to continue to run. For example, applicationHold is called by GTK+ when a toplevel window is on the screen.

To cancel the hold, call applicationRelease.

Checks if applicationId is a valid application identifier.

A valid ID is required for calls to applicationNew and applicationSetApplicationId.

Application identifiers follow the same format as D-Bus well-known bus names. For convenience, the restrictions on application identifiers are reproduced here:

• Application identifiers are composed of 1 or more elements separated by a period (.) character. All elements must contain at least one character.
• Each element must only contain the ASCII characters [A-Z][a-z][0-9]_-, with - discouraged in new application identifiers. Each element must not begin with a digit.
• Application identifiers must contain at least one . (period) character (and thus at least two elements).
• Application identifiers must not begin with a . (period) character.
• Application identifiers must not exceed 255 characters.

Note that the hyphen (-) character is allowed in application identifiers, but is problematic or not allowed in various specifications and APIs that refer to D-Bus, such as Flatpak application IDs, the `DBusActivatable` interface in the Desktop Entry Specification, and the convention that an application's "main" interface and object path resemble its application identifier and bus name. To avoid situations that require special-case handling, it is recommended that new application identifiers consistently replace hyphens with underscores.

Like D-Bus interface names, application identifiers should start with the reversed DNS domain name of the author of the interface (in lower-case), and it is conventional for the rest of the application identifier to consist of words run together, with initial capital letters.

As with D-Bus interface names, if the author's DNS domain name contains hyphen/minus characters they should be replaced by underscores, and if it contains leading digits they should be escaped by prepending an underscore. For example, if the owner of 7-zip.org used an application identifier for an archiving application, it might be named org._7_zip.Archiver.

Increases the busy count of application.

Use this function to indicate that the application is busy, for instance while a long running operation is pending.

The busy state will be exposed to other processes, so a session shell will use that information to indicate the state to the user (e.g. with a spinner).

To cancel the busy indication, use applicationUnmarkBusy.

Since: 2.38

Creates a new Application instance.

If non-Nothing, the application id must be valid. See applicationIdIsValid.

If no application ID is given then some features of Application (most notably application uniqueness) will be disabled.

Opens the given files.

In essence, this results in the Application::open signal being emitted in the primary instance.

nFiles must be greater than zero.

hint is simply passed through to the ::open signal. It is intended to be used by applications that have multiple modes for opening files (eg: "view" vs "edit", etc). Unless you have a need for this functionality, you should use "".

The application must be registered before calling this function and it must have the ApplicationFlagsHandlesOpen flag set.

Since: 2.28

Immediately quits the application.

Upon return to the mainloop, applicationRun will return, calling only the 'shutdown' function before doing so.

The hold count is ignored. Take care if your code has called applicationHold on the application and is therefore still expecting it to exist. (Note that you may have called applicationHold indirectly, for example through gtk_application_add_window().)

The result of calling applicationRun again after it returns is unspecified.

Since: 2.32

Attempts registration of the application.

This is the point at which the application discovers if it is the primary instance or merely acting as a remote for an already-existing primary instance. This is implemented by attempting to acquire the application identifier as a unique bus name on the session bus using GDBus.

If there is no application ID or if ApplicationFlagsNonUnique was given, then this process will always become the primary instance.

Due to the internal architecture of GDBus, method calls can be dispatched at any time (even if a main loop is not running). For this reason, you must ensure that any object paths that you wish to register are registered before calling this function.

If the application has already been registered then True is returned with no work performed.

The Application::startup signal is emitted if registration succeeds and application is the primary instance (including the non-unique case).

In the event of an error (such as cancellable being cancelled, or a failure to connect to the session bus), False is returned and error is set appropriately.

Note: the return value of this function is not an indicator that this instance is or is not the primary instance of the application. See applicationGetIsRemote for that.

Since: 2.28

Decrease the use count of application.

When the use count reaches zero, the application will stop running.

Never call this function except to cancel the effect of a previous call to applicationHold.

Runs the application.

This function is intended to be run from main() and its return value is intended to be returned by main(). Although you are expected to pass the argc, argv parameters from main() to this function, it is possible to pass Nothing if argv is not available or commandline handling is not required. Note that on Windows, argc and argv are ignored, and g_win32_get_command_line() is called internally (for proper support of Unicode commandline arguments).

Application will attempt to parse the commandline arguments. You can add commandline flags to the list of recognised options by way of applicationAddMainOptionEntries. After this, the Application::handle-local-options signal is emitted, from which the application can inspect the values of its GOptionEntrys.

Application::handle-local-options is a good place to handle options such as --version, where an immediate reply from the local process is desired (instead of communicating with an already-running instance). A Application::handle-local-options handler can stop further processing by returning a non-negative value, which then becomes the exit status of the process.

What happens next depends on the flags: if ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine was specified then the remaining commandline arguments are sent to the primary instance, where a Application::command-line signal is emitted. Otherwise, the remaining commandline arguments are assumed to be a list of files. If there are no files listed, the application is activated via the Application::activate signal. If there are one or more files, and ApplicationFlagsHandlesOpen was specified then the files are opened via the Application::open signal.

If you are interested in doing more complicated local handling of the commandline then you should implement your own Application subclass and override local_command_line(). In this case, you most likely want to return True from your local_command_line() implementation to suppress the default handling. See [gapplication-example-cmdline2.c][gapplication-example-cmdline2] for an example.

If, after the above is done, the use count of the application is zero then the exit status is returned immediately. If the use count is non-zero then the default main context is iterated until the use count falls to zero, at which point 0 is returned.

If the ApplicationFlagsIsService flag is set, then the service will run for as much as 10 seconds with a use count of zero while waiting for the message that caused the activation to arrive. After that, if the use count falls to zero the application will exit immediately, except in the case that applicationSetInactivityTimeout is in use.

This function sets the prgname (setPrgname), if not already set, to the basename of argv[0].

Much like mainLoopRun, this function will acquire the main context for the duration that the application is running.

Since 2.40, applications that are not explicitly flagged as services or launchers (ie: neither ApplicationFlagsIsService or ApplicationFlagsIsLauncher are given as flags) will check (from the default handler for local_command_line) if "--gapplication-service" was given in the command line. If this flag is present then normal commandline processing is interrupted and the ApplicationFlagsIsService flag is set. This provides a "compromise" solution whereby running an application directly from the commandline will invoke it in the normal way (which can be useful for debugging) while still allowing applications to be D-Bus activated in service mode. The D-Bus service file should invoke the executable with "--gapplication-service" as the sole commandline argument. This approach is suitable for use by most graphical applications but should not be used from applications like editors that need precise control over when processes invoked via the commandline will exit and what their exit status will be.

Since: 2.28

Sends a notification on behalf of application to the desktop shell. There is no guarantee that the notification is displayed immediately, or even at all.

Notifications may persist after the application exits. It will be D-Bus-activated when the notification or one of its actions is activated.

Modifying notification after this call has no effect. However, the object can be reused for a later call to this function.

id may be any string that uniquely identifies the event for the application. It does not need to be in any special format. For example, "new-message" might be appropriate for a notification about new messages.

If a previous notification was sent with the same id, it will be replaced with notification and shown again as if it was a new notification. This works even for notifications sent from a previous execution of the application, as long as id is the same string.

id may be Nothing, but it is impossible to replace or withdraw notifications without an id.

If notification is no longer relevant, it can be withdrawn with applicationWithdrawNotification.

Since: 2.40

This used to be how actions were associated with a Application. Now there is ActionMap for that.

Since: 2.28

Sets the unique identifier for application.

The application id can only be modified if application has not yet been registered.

If non-Nothing, the application id must be valid. See applicationIdIsValid.

Since: 2.28

Sets or unsets the default application for the process, as returned by applicationGetDefault.

This function does not take its own reference on application. If application is destroyed then the default application will revert back to Nothing.

Since: 2.32

Sets the flags for application.

The flags can only be modified if application has not yet been registered.

See ApplicationFlags.

Since: 2.28

Sets the current inactivity timeout for the application.

This is the amount of time (in milliseconds) after the last call to applicationRelease before the application stops running.

This call has no side effects of its own. The value set here is only used for next time applicationRelease drops the use count to zero. Any timeouts currently in progress are not impacted.

Since: 2.28

Adds a description to the application option context.

See optionContextSetDescription for more information.

Since: 2.56

Sets the parameter string to be used by the commandline handling of application.

This function registers the argument to be passed to g_option_context_new() when the internal OptionContext of application is created.

See g_option_context_new() for more information about parameterString.

Since: 2.56

Adds a summary to the application option context.

See optionContextSetSummary for more information.

Since: 2.56

Sets (or unsets) the base resource path of application.

The path is used to automatically load various [application resources][gresource] such as menu layouts and action descriptions. The various types of resources will be found at fixed names relative to the given base path.

By default, the resource base path is determined from the application ID by prefixing '/' and replacing each '.' with '/'. This is done at the time that the Application object is constructed. Changes to the application ID after that point will not have an impact on the resource base path.

As an example, if the application has an ID of "org.example.app" then the default resource base path will be "/org/example/app". If this is a GtkApplication (and you have not manually changed the path) then Gtk will then search for the menus of the application at "/org/example/app/gtk/menus.ui".

See Resource for more information about adding resources to your application.

You can disable automatic resource loading functionality by setting the path to Nothing.

Changing the resource base path once the application is running is not recommended. The point at which the resource path is consulted for forming paths for various purposes is unspecified. When writing a sub-class of Application you should either set the Application:resource-base-path property at construction time, or call this function during the instance initialization. Alternatively, you can call this function in the ApplicationClass.startup virtual function, before chaining up to the parent implementation.

Since: 2.42

Destroys a binding between property and the busy state of application that was previously created with applicationBindBusyProperty.

Since: 2.44

Decreases the busy count of application.

When the busy count reaches zero, the new state will be propagated to other processes.

This function must only be called to cancel the effect of a previous call to applicationMarkBusy.

Since: 2.38

Withdraws a notification that was sent with applicationSendNotification.

This call does nothing if a notification with id doesn't exist or the notification was never sent.

This function works even for notifications sent in previous executions of this application, as long id is the same as it was for the sent notification.

Note that notifications are dismissed when the user clicks on one of the buttons in a notification or triggers its default action, so there is no need to explicitly withdraw the notification in that case.

Since: 2.40

Set the value of the “action-group” property to Nothing. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

clear #actionGroup

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “action-group” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

Set the value of the “action-group” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #actionGroup := value ]

Set the value of the “application-id” property to Nothing. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

clear #applicationId

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “application-id” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

Get the value of the “application-id” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #applicationId

Set the value of the “application-id” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #applicationId := value ]

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “flags” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

Get the value of the “flags” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #flags

Set the value of the “flags” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #flags := value ]

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “inactivity-timeout” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

Get the value of the “inactivity-timeout” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #inactivityTimeout

Set the value of the “inactivity-timeout” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #inactivityTimeout := value ]

Get the value of the “is-busy” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #isBusy

Get the value of the “is-registered” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #isRegistered

Get the value of the “is-remote” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #isRemote

Set the value of the “resource-base-path” property to Nothing. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

clear #resourceBasePath

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “resource-base-path” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

Get the value of the “resource-base-path” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #resourceBasePath

Set the value of the “resource-base-path” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #resourceBasePath := value ]

The ::activate signal is emitted on the primary instance when an activation occurs. See applicationActivate.

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

Connect a signal handler for the “activate” signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #activate callback

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationActivateCallback.

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationActivateCallback.

Connect a signal handler for the “activate” signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #activate callback

Wrap a ApplicationActivateCallback into a C_ApplicationActivateCallback.

The ::command-line signal is emitted on the primary instance when a commandline is not handled locally. See applicationRun and the ApplicationCommandLine documentation for more information.

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

Connect a signal handler for the “command-line” signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #commandLine callback

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback.

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationCommandLineCallback.

Connect a signal handler for the “command-line” signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #commandLine callback

Wrap a ApplicationCommandLineCallback into a C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback.

The ::handle-local-options signal is emitted on the local instance after the parsing of the commandline options has occurred.

You can add options to be recognised during commandline option parsing using applicationAddMainOptionEntries and applicationAddOptionGroup.

Signal handlers can inspect options (along with values pointed to from the argData of an installed GOptionEntrys) in order to decide to perform certain actions, including direct local handling (which may be useful for options like --version).

In the event that the application is marked ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine the "normal processing" will send the options dictionary to the primary instance where it can be read with applicationCommandLineGetOptionsDict. The signal handler can modify the dictionary before returning, and the modified dictionary will be sent.

In the event that ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine is not set, "normal processing" will treat the remaining uncollected command line arguments as filenames or URIs. If there are no arguments, the application is activated by applicationActivate. One or more arguments results in a call to applicationOpen.

If you want to handle the local commandline arguments for yourself by converting them to calls to applicationOpen or actionGroupActivateAction then you must be sure to register the application first. You should probably not call applicationActivate for yourself, however: just return -1 and allow the default handler to do it for you. This will ensure that the --gapplication-service switch works properly (i.e. no activation in that case).

Note that this signal is emitted from the default implementation of local_command_line(). If you override that function and don't chain up then this signal will never be emitted.

You can override local_command_line() if you need more powerful capabilities than what is provided here, but this should not normally be required.

Since: 2.40

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

Connect a signal handler for the “handle-local-options” signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #handleLocalOptions callback

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback.

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback.

Connect a signal handler for the “handle-local-options” signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #handleLocalOptions callback

Wrap a ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback into a C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback.

The ::name-lost signal is emitted only on the registered primary instance when a new instance has taken over. This can only happen if the application is using the ApplicationFlagsAllowReplacement flag.

The default handler for this signal calls applicationQuit.

Since: 2.60

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

Connect a signal handler for the “name-lost” signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #nameLost callback

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationNameLostCallback.

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationNameLostCallback.

Connect a signal handler for the “name-lost” signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #nameLost callback

Wrap a ApplicationNameLostCallback into a C_ApplicationNameLostCallback.

The ::open signal is emitted on the primary instance when there are files to open. See applicationOpen for more information.

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

Connect a signal handler for the “open” signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #open callback

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationOpenCallback.

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationOpenCallback.

Connect a signal handler for the “open” signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #open callback

Wrap a ApplicationOpenCallback into a C_ApplicationOpenCallback.

The ::shutdown signal is emitted only on the registered primary instance immediately after the main loop terminates.

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

Connect a signal handler for the “shutdown” signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #shutdown callback

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationShutdownCallback.

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationShutdownCallback.

Connect a signal handler for the “shutdown” signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #shutdown callback

Wrap a ApplicationShutdownCallback into a C_ApplicationShutdownCallback.

The ::startup signal is emitted on the primary instance immediately after registration. See applicationRegister.

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

Connect a signal handler for the “startup” signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #startup callback

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationStartupCallback.

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationStartupCallback.

Connect a signal handler for the “startup” signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #startup callback

Wrap a ApplicationStartupCallback into a C_ApplicationStartupCallback.