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#GApplicationCommandLine represents a command-line invocation of an application. It is created by #GApplication and emitted in the #GApplication::command-line signal and virtual function.

The class contains the list of arguments that the program was invoked with. It is also possible to query if the commandline invocation was local (ie: the current process is running in direct response to the invocation) or remote (ie: some other process forwarded the commandline to this process).

The GApplicationCommandLine object can provide the argc and argv parameters for use with the #GOptionContext command-line parsing API, with the g_application_command_line_get_arguments() function. See [gapplication-example-cmdline3.c][gapplication-example-cmdline3] for an example.

The exit status of the originally-invoked process may be set and messages can be printed to stdout or stderr of that process. The lifecycle of the originally-invoked process is tied to the lifecycle of this object (ie: the process exits when the last reference is dropped).

The main use for #GApplicationCommandLine (and the #GApplication::command-line signal) is 'Emacs server' like use cases: You can set the EDITOR environment variable to have e.g. git use your favourite editor to edit commit messages, and if you already have an instance of the editor running, the editing will happen in the running instance, instead of opening a new one. An important aspect of this use case is that the process that gets started by git does not return until the editing is done.

Normally, the commandline is completely handled in the #GApplication::command-line handler. The launching instance exits once the signal handler in the primary instance has returned, and the return value of the signal handler becomes the exit status of the launching instance.

static int
command_line (GApplication *application,
GApplicationCommandLine *cmdline)
{
gchar **argv;
gint argc;
gint i;

argv = g_application_command_line_get_arguments (cmdline, &argc);

g_application_command_line_print (cmdline,
"This text is written back\n"
"to stdout of the caller\n");

for (i = 0; i < argc; i++)
g_print ("argument %d: %s\n", i, argv[i]);

g_strfreev (argv);

return 0;
}

The complete example can be found here: gapplication-example-cmdline.c

In more complicated cases, the handling of the commandline can be split between the launcher and the primary instance.

static gboolean
test_local_cmdline (GApplication *application,
gchar ***arguments,
gint *exit_status)
{
gint i, j;
gchar **argv;

argv = *arguments;

if (argv[0] == NULL)
{
*exit_status = 0;
return FALSE;
}

i = 1;
while (argv[i])
{
if (g_str_has_prefix (argv[i], "--local-"))
{
g_print ("handling argument %s locally\n", argv[i]);
g_free (argv[i]);
for (j = i; argv[j]; j++)
argv[j] = argv[j + 1];
}
else
{
g_print ("not handling argument %s locally\n", argv[i]);
i++;
}
}

*exit_status = 0;

return FALSE;
}

static void
test_application_class_init (TestApplicationClass *class)
{
G_APPLICATION_CLASS (class)->local_command_line = test_local_cmdline;

...
}

In this example of split commandline handling, options that start with --local- are handled locally, all other options are passed to the #GApplication::command-line handler which runs in the primary instance.

The complete example can be found here: gapplication-example-cmdline2.c

If handling the commandline requires a lot of work, it may be better to defer it.

static gboolean
my_cmdline_handler (gpointer data)
{
GApplicationCommandLine *cmdline = data;

// do the heavy lifting in an idle

g_application_command_line_set_exit_status (cmdline, 0);
g_object_unref (cmdline); // this releases the application

return G_SOURCE_REMOVE;
}

static int
command_line (GApplication *application,
GApplicationCommandLine *cmdline)
{
// keep the application running until we are done with this commandline
g_application_hold (application);

g_object_set_data_full (G_OBJECT (cmdline),
"application", application,
(GDestroyNotify)g_application_release);

g_object_ref (cmdline);
g_idle_add (my_cmdline_handler, cmdline);

return 0;
}

In this example the commandline is not completely handled before the #GApplication::command-line handler returns. Instead, we keep a reference to the #GApplicationCommandLine object and handle it later (in this example, in an idle). Note that it is necessary to hold the application until you are done with the commandline.

The complete example can be found here: gapplication-example-cmdline3.c

Hierarchy

Index

Constructors

Properties

arguments: GLib.Variant
g_type_instance: TypeInstance
is_remote: boolean
options: GLib.Variant
platform_data: GLib.Variant
name: string

Methods

  • Creates a binding between source_property on source and target_property on target.

    Whenever the source_property is changed the target_property is updated using the same value. For instance:

      g_object_bind_property (action, "active", widget, "sensitive", 0);
    

    Will result in the "sensitive" property of the widget #GObject instance to be updated with the same value of the "active" property of the action #GObject instance.

    If flags contains %G_BINDING_BIDIRECTIONAL then the binding will be mutual: if target_property on target changes then the source_property on source will be updated as well.

    The binding will automatically be removed when either the source or the target instances are finalized. To remove the binding without affecting the source and the target you can just call g_object_unref() on the returned #GBinding instance.

    Removing the binding by calling g_object_unref() on it must only be done if the binding, source and target are only used from a single thread and it is clear that both source and target outlive the binding. Especially it is not safe to rely on this if the binding, source or target can be finalized from different threads. Keep another reference to the binding and use g_binding_unbind() instead to be on the safe side.

    A #GObject can have multiple bindings.

    Parameters

    • source_property: string

      the property on source to bind

    • target: GObject.Object

      the target #GObject

    • target_property: string

      the property on target to bind

    • flags: BindingFlags

      flags to pass to #GBinding

    Returns Binding

  • Creates a binding between source_property on source and target_property on target, allowing you to set the transformation functions to be used by the binding.

    This function is the language bindings friendly version of g_object_bind_property_full(), using #GClosures instead of function pointers.

    Parameters

    • source_property: string

      the property on source to bind

    • target: GObject.Object

      the target #GObject

    • target_property: string

      the property on target to bind

    • flags: BindingFlags

      flags to pass to #GBinding

    • transform_to: TClosure<any, any>

      a #GClosure wrapping the transformation function from the source to the target, or %NULL to use the default

    • transform_from: TClosure<any, any>

      a #GClosure wrapping the transformation function from the target to the source, or %NULL to use the default

    Returns Binding

  • create_file_for_arg(arg: string): Gio.File
  • Creates a #GFile corresponding to a filename that was given as part of the invocation of cmdline.

    This differs from g_file_new_for_commandline_arg() in that it resolves relative pathnames using the current working directory of the invoking process rather than the local process.

    Parameters

    • arg: string

      an argument from cmdline

    Returns Gio.File

  • disconnect(id: number): void
  • emit(sigName: "notify::arguments", ...args: any[]): void
  • emit(sigName: "notify::is-remote", ...args: any[]): void
  • emit(sigName: "notify::options", ...args: any[]): void
  • emit(sigName: "notify::platform-data", ...args: any[]): void
  • emit(sigName: string, ...args: any[]): void
  • force_floating(): void
  • This function is intended for #GObject implementations to re-enforce a [floating][floating-ref] object reference. Doing this is seldom required: all #GInitiallyUnowneds are created with a floating reference which usually just needs to be sunken by calling g_object_ref_sink().

    Returns void

  • freeze_notify(): void
  • Increases the freeze count on object. If the freeze count is non-zero, the emission of "notify" signals on object is stopped. The signals are queued until the freeze count is decreased to zero. Duplicate notifications are squashed so that at most one #GObject::notify signal is emitted for each property modified while the object is frozen.

    This is necessary for accessors that modify multiple properties to prevent premature notification while the object is still being modified.

    Returns void

  • get_arguments(): string[]
  • Gets the list of arguments that was passed on the command line.

    The strings in the array may contain non-UTF-8 data on UNIX (such as filenames or arguments given in the system locale) but are always in UTF-8 on Windows.

    If you wish to use the return value with #GOptionContext, you must use g_option_context_parse_strv().

    The return value is %NULL-terminated and should be freed using g_strfreev().

    Returns string[]

  • get_cwd(): string
  • Gets the working directory of the command line invocation. The string may contain non-utf8 data.

    It is possible that the remote application did not send a working directory, so this may be %NULL.

    The return value should not be modified or freed and is valid for as long as cmdline exists.

    Returns string

  • get_data(key?: string): object
  • Gets a named field from the objects table of associations (see g_object_set_data()).

    Parameters

    • Optional key: string

      name of the key for that association

    Returns object

  • get_environ(): string[]
  • Gets the contents of the 'environ' variable of the command line invocation, as would be returned by g_get_environ(), ie as a %NULL-terminated list of strings in the form 'NAME=VALUE'. The strings may contain non-utf8 data.

    The remote application usually does not send an environment. Use %G_APPLICATION_SEND_ENVIRONMENT to affect that. Even with this flag set it is possible that the environment is still not available (due to invocation messages from other applications).

    The return value should not be modified or freed and is valid for as long as cmdline exists.

    See g_application_command_line_getenv() if you are only interested in the value of a single environment variable.

    Returns string[]

  • get_exit_status(): number
  • Gets the exit status of cmdline. See g_application_command_line_set_exit_status() for more information.

    Returns number

  • get_is_remote(): boolean
  • Gets the options there were passed to g_application_command_line().

    If you did not override local_command_line() then these are the same options that were parsed according to the #GOptionEntrys added to the application with g_application_add_main_option_entries() and possibly modified from your GApplication::handle-local-options handler.

    If no options were sent then an empty dictionary is returned so that you don't need to check for %NULL.

    Returns VariantDict

  • Gets the platform data associated with the invocation of cmdline.

    This is a #GVariant dictionary containing information about the context in which the invocation occurred. It typically contains information like the current working directory and the startup notification ID.

    For local invocation, it will be %NULL.

    Returns GLib.Variant

  • get_property(property_name?: string, value?: any): void
  • Gets a property of an object.

    The value can be:

    • an empty #GValue initialized by %G_VALUE_INIT, which will be automatically initialized with the expected type of the property (since GLib 2.60)
    • a #GValue initialized with the expected type of the property
    • a #GValue initialized with a type to which the expected type of the property can be transformed

    In general, a copy is made of the property contents and the caller is responsible for freeing the memory by calling g_value_unset().

    Note that g_object_get_property() is really intended for language bindings, g_object_get() is much more convenient for C programming.

    Parameters

    • Optional property_name: string

      the name of the property to get

    • Optional value: any

      return location for the property value

    Returns void

  • get_qdata(quark: number): object
  • Gets the stdin of the invoking process.

    The #GInputStream can be used to read data passed to the standard input of the invoking process. This doesn't work on all platforms. Presently, it is only available on UNIX when using a D-Bus daemon capable of passing file descriptors. If stdin is not available then %NULL will be returned. In the future, support may be expanded to other platforms.

    You must only call this function once per commandline invocation.

    Returns Gio.InputStream

  • getenv(name: string): string
  • Gets the value of a particular environment variable of the command line invocation, as would be returned by g_getenv(). The strings may contain non-utf8 data.

    The remote application usually does not send an environment. Use %G_APPLICATION_SEND_ENVIRONMENT to affect that. Even with this flag set it is possible that the environment is still not available (due to invocation messages from other applications).

    The return value should not be modified or freed and is valid for as long as cmdline exists.

    Parameters

    • name: string

      the environment variable to get

    Returns string

  • getv(names: string[], values: any[]): void
  • Gets n_properties properties for an object. Obtained properties will be set to values. All properties must be valid. Warnings will be emitted and undefined behaviour may result if invalid properties are passed in.

    Parameters

    • names: string[]

      the names of each property to get

    • values: any[]

      the values of each property to get

    Returns void

  • is_floating(): boolean
  • notify(property_name: string): void
  • Emits a "notify" signal for the property property_name on object.

    When possible, eg. when signaling a property change from within the class that registered the property, you should use g_object_notify_by_pspec() instead.

    Note that emission of the notify signal may be blocked with g_object_freeze_notify(). In this case, the signal emissions are queued and will be emitted (in reverse order) when g_object_thaw_notify() is called.

    Parameters

    • property_name: string

      the name of a property installed on the class of object.

    Returns void

  • Emits a "notify" signal for the property specified by pspec on object.

    This function omits the property name lookup, hence it is faster than g_object_notify().

    One way to avoid using g_object_notify() from within the class that registered the properties, and using g_object_notify_by_pspec() instead, is to store the GParamSpec used with g_object_class_install_property() inside a static array, e.g.:

      enum
    {
    PROP_0,
    PROP_FOO,
    PROP_LAST
    };

    static GParamSpec *properties[PROP_LAST];

    static void
    my_object_class_init (MyObjectClass *klass)
    {
    properties[PROP_FOO] = g_param_spec_int ("foo", "Foo", "The foo",
    0, 100,
    50,
    G_PARAM_READWRITE);
    g_object_class_install_property (gobject_class,
    PROP_FOO,
    properties[PROP_FOO]);
    }

    and then notify a change on the "foo" property with:

      g_object_notify_by_pspec (self, properties[PROP_FOO]);
    

    Parameters

    • pspec: ParamSpec

      the #GParamSpec of a property installed on the class of object.

    Returns void

  • Increases the reference count of object.

    Since GLib 2.56, if GLIB_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED is 2.56 or greater, the type of object will be propagated to the return type (using the GCC typeof() extension), so any casting the caller needs to do on the return type must be explicit.

    Returns GObject.Object

  • Increase the reference count of object, and possibly remove the [floating][floating-ref] reference, if object has a floating reference.

    In other words, if the object is floating, then this call "assumes ownership" of the floating reference, converting it to a normal reference by clearing the floating flag while leaving the reference count unchanged. If the object is not floating, then this call adds a new normal reference increasing the reference count by one.

    Since GLib 2.56, the type of object will be propagated to the return type under the same conditions as for g_object_ref().

    Returns GObject.Object

  • run_dispose(): void
  • Releases all references to other objects. This can be used to break reference cycles.

    This function should only be called from object system implementations.

    Returns void

  • set_data(key: string, data?: object): void
  • Each object carries around a table of associations from strings to pointers. This function lets you set an association.

    If the object already had an association with that name, the old association will be destroyed.

    Internally, the key is converted to a #GQuark using g_quark_from_string(). This means a copy of key is kept permanently (even after object has been finalized) — so it is recommended to only use a small, bounded set of values for key in your program, to avoid the #GQuark storage growing unbounded.

    Parameters

    • key: string

      name of the key

    • Optional data: object

      data to associate with that key

    Returns void

  • set_exit_status(exit_status: number): void
  • Sets the exit status that will be used when the invoking process exits.

    The return value of the #GApplication::command-line signal is passed to this function when the handler returns. This is the usual way of setting the exit status.

    In the event that you want the remote invocation to continue running and want to decide on the exit status in the future, you can use this call. For the case of a remote invocation, the remote process will typically exit when the last reference is dropped on cmdline. The exit status of the remote process will be equal to the last value that was set with this function.

    In the case that the commandline invocation is local, the situation is slightly more complicated. If the commandline invocation results in the mainloop running (ie: because the use-count of the application increased to a non-zero value) then the application is considered to have been 'successful' in a certain sense, and the exit status is always zero. If the application use count is zero, though, the exit status of the local #GApplicationCommandLine is used.

    Parameters

    • exit_status: number

      the exit status

    Returns void

  • set_property(property_name: string, value?: any): void
  • steal_data(key?: string): object
  • Remove a specified datum from the object's data associations, without invoking the association's destroy handler.

    Parameters

    • Optional key: string

      name of the key

    Returns object

  • steal_qdata(quark: number): object
  • This function gets back user data pointers stored via g_object_set_qdata() and removes the data from object without invoking its destroy() function (if any was set). Usually, calling this function is only required to update user data pointers with a destroy notifier, for example:

    void
    object_add_to_user_list (GObject *object,
    const gchar *new_string)
    {
    // the quark, naming the object data
    GQuark quark_string_list = g_quark_from_static_string ("my-string-list");
    // retrieve the old string list
    GList *list = g_object_steal_qdata (object, quark_string_list);

    // prepend new string
    list = g_list_prepend (list, g_strdup (new_string));
    // this changed 'list', so we need to set it again
    g_object_set_qdata_full (object, quark_string_list, list, free_string_list);
    }
    static void
    free_string_list (gpointer data)
    {
    GList *node, *list = data;

    for (node = list; node; node = node->next)
    g_free (node->data);
    g_list_free (list);
    }

    Using g_object_get_qdata() in the above example, instead of g_object_steal_qdata() would have left the destroy function set, and thus the partial string list would have been freed upon g_object_set_qdata_full().

    Parameters

    • quark: number

      A #GQuark, naming the user data pointer

    Returns object

  • thaw_notify(): void
  • Reverts the effect of a previous call to g_object_freeze_notify(). The freeze count is decreased on object and when it reaches zero, queued "notify" signals are emitted.

    Duplicate notifications for each property are squashed so that at most one #GObject::notify signal is emitted for each property, in the reverse order in which they have been queued.

    It is an error to call this function when the freeze count is zero.

    Returns void

  • unref(): void
  • Decreases the reference count of object. When its reference count drops to 0, the object is finalized (i.e. its memory is freed).

    If the pointer to the #GObject may be reused in future (for example, if it is an instance variable of another object), it is recommended to clear the pointer to %NULL rather than retain a dangling pointer to a potentially invalid #GObject instance. Use g_clear_object() for this.

    Returns void

  • vfunc_constructed(): void
  • vfunc_dispatch_properties_changed(n_pspecs: number, pspecs: ParamSpec): void
  • vfunc_dispose(): void
  • vfunc_finalize(): void
  • vfunc_get_property(property_id: number, value?: any, pspec?: ParamSpec): void
  • Gets the stdin of the invoking process.

    The #GInputStream can be used to read data passed to the standard input of the invoking process. This doesn't work on all platforms. Presently, it is only available on UNIX when using a D-Bus daemon capable of passing file descriptors. If stdin is not available then %NULL will be returned. In the future, support may be expanded to other platforms.

    You must only call this function once per commandline invocation.

    virtual

    Returns Gio.InputStream

  • Emits a "notify" signal for the property property_name on object.

    When possible, eg. when signaling a property change from within the class that registered the property, you should use g_object_notify_by_pspec() instead.

    Note that emission of the notify signal may be blocked with g_object_freeze_notify(). In this case, the signal emissions are queued and will be emitted (in reverse order) when g_object_thaw_notify() is called.

    virtual

    Parameters

    Returns void

  • vfunc_print_literal(message: string): void
  • vfunc_printerr_literal(message: string): void
  • vfunc_set_property(property_id: number, value?: any, pspec?: ParamSpec): void
  • watch_closure(closure: TClosure<any, any>): void
  • This function essentially limits the life time of the closure to the life time of the object. That is, when the object is finalized, the closure is invalidated by calling g_closure_invalidate() on it, in order to prevent invocations of the closure with a finalized (nonexisting) object. Also, g_object_ref() and g_object_unref() are added as marshal guards to the closure, to ensure that an extra reference count is held on object during invocation of the closure. Usually, this function will be called on closures that use this object as closure data.

    Parameters

    • closure: TClosure<any, any>

      #GClosure to watch

    Returns void

  • compat_control(what: number, data: object): number
  • Find the #GParamSpec with the given name for an interface. Generally, the interface vtable passed in as g_iface will be the default vtable from g_type_default_interface_ref(), or, if you know the interface has already been loaded, g_type_default_interface_peek().

    Parameters

    • g_iface: TypeInterface

      any interface vtable for the interface, or the default vtable for the interface

    • property_name: string

      name of a property to look up.

    Returns ParamSpec

  • Add a property to an interface; this is only useful for interfaces that are added to GObject-derived types. Adding a property to an interface forces all objects classes with that interface to have a compatible property. The compatible property could be a newly created #GParamSpec, but normally g_object_class_override_property() will be used so that the object class only needs to provide an implementation and inherits the property description, default value, bounds, and so forth from the interface property.

    This function is meant to be called from the interface's default vtable initialization function (the class_init member of #GTypeInfo.) It must not be called after after class_init has been called for any object types implementing this interface.

    If pspec is a floating reference, it will be consumed.

    Parameters

    • g_iface: TypeInterface

      any interface vtable for the interface, or the default vtable for the interface.

    • pspec: ParamSpec

      the #GParamSpec for the new property

    Returns void

  • Lists the properties of an interface.Generally, the interface vtable passed in as g_iface will be the default vtable from g_type_default_interface_ref(), or, if you know the interface has already been loaded, g_type_default_interface_peek().

    Parameters

    • g_iface: TypeInterface

      any interface vtable for the interface, or the default vtable for the interface

    Returns ParamSpec[]

  • Creates a new instance of a #GObject subtype and sets its properties.

    Construction parameters (see %G_PARAM_CONSTRUCT, %G_PARAM_CONSTRUCT_ONLY) which are not explicitly specified are set to their default values.

    Parameters

    • object_type: GType<unknown>

      the type id of the #GObject subtype to instantiate

    • parameters: GObject.Parameter[]

      an array of #GParameter

    Returns GObject.Object

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