Crate glib

Rust GLib and GObject bindings

Rust bindings and wrappers for GLib, part of gtk-rs-core.

GLib 2.48 is the lowest supported version for the underlying library.

This library contains bindings to GLib and GObject types and APIs as well as common building blocks used in both handmade and machine generated bindings to GTK and other GLib-based libraries.

It is the foundation for higher level libraries with uniform Rusty (safe and strongly typed) APIs. It avoids exposing GLib-specific data types where possible and is not meant to provide comprehensive GLib bindings, which would often amount to duplicating the Rust Standard Library or other utility crates.

Minimum supported Rust version

Currently, the minimum supported Rust version is 1.56.0.

Dynamic typing

Most types in the GLib family have Type identifiers. Their corresponding Rust types implement the StaticType trait.

A dynamically typed Value can carry values of any StaticType. Variants can carry values of StaticVariantType.

Errors

Errors are represented by Error, which can carry values from various error domains such as FileError.

Objects

Each class and interface has a corresponding smart pointer struct representing an instance of that type (e.g. Object for GObject or gtk::Widget for GtkWidget). They are reference counted and feature interior mutability similarly to Rust’s Rc<RefCell<T>> idiom. Consequently, cloning objects is cheap and their methods never require mutable borrows. Two smart pointers are equal if they point to the same object.

The root of the object hierarchy is Object. Inheritance and subtyping is denoted with the IsA marker trait. The Cast trait enables upcasting and downcasting.

Interfaces and non-leaf classes also have corresponding traits (e.g. ObjectExt or gtk::WidgetExt), which are blanketly implemented for all their subtypes.

You can create new subclasses of Object or other object types. Look at the module’s documentation for further details and a code example.

Under the hood

GLib-based libraries largely operate on pointers to various boxed or reference counted structures so the bindings have to implement corresponding smart pointers (wrappers), which encapsulate resource management and safety checks. Such wrappers are defined via the wrapper macro, which uses abstractions defined in the wrapper, boxed, shared and object modules.

The translate module defines and partly implements conversions between high level Rust types (including the aforementioned wrappers) and their FFI counterparts.

Documentation

• Rust API - Stable
• Rust API - Development
• C API
• GTK Installation instructions

Using

We recommend using crates from crates.io, as demonstrated here.

If you want to track the bleeding edge, use the git dependency instead:

[dependencies]
glib = { git = "https://github.com/gtk-rs/gtk-rs-core.git", package = "glib" }

Avoid mixing versioned and git crates like this:

# This will not compile
[dependencies]
glib = "0.13"
glib = { git = "https://github.com/gtk-rs/gtk-rs-core.git", package = "glib" }

License

glib is available under the MIT License, please refer to it.

Re-exports

• pub use ffi;
• pub use gobject_ffi;
• pub use self::closure::Closure;
• pub use self::closure::RustClosure;
• pub use self::error::BoolError;
• pub use self::error::Error;
• pub use self::object::Cast;
• pub use self::object::Class;
• pub use self::object::InitiallyUnowned;
• pub use self::object::Interface;
• pub use self::object::IsA;
• pub use self::object::Object;
• pub use self::object::ObjectExt;
• pub use self::object::ObjectType;
• pub use self::object::SendWeakRef;
• pub use self::object::WeakRef;
• pub use self::signal::signal_handler_block;
• pub use self::signal::signal_handler_disconnect;
• pub use self::signal::signal_handler_unblock;
• pub use self::signal::signal_stop_emission_by_name;
• pub use self::signal::SignalHandlerId;
• pub use self::types::ILong;
• pub use self::types::Pointer;
• pub use self::types::StaticType;
• pub use self::types::StaticTypeExt;
• pub use self::types::Type;
• pub use self::types::ULong;
• pub use self::value::BoxedValue;
• pub use self::value::SendValue;
• pub use self::value::ToSendValue;
• pub use self::value::ToValue;
• pub use self::value::Value;
• pub use self::variant::FixedSizeVariantArray;
• pub use self::variant::FixedSizeVariantType;
• pub use self::variant::FromVariant;
• pub use self::variant::StaticVariantType;
• pub use self::variant::ToVariant;
• pub use self::variant::Variant;
• pub use collections::List;
• pub use collections::PtrSlice;
• pub use collections::SList;
• pub use collections::Slice;
• pub use self::send_unique::SendUnique;
• pub use self::send_unique::SendUniqueCell;
• pub use self::char::*;
• pub use self::source::*;

Modules

• boxed
  IMPL Boxed wrapper implementation.
• boxed_inline
  IMPL BoxedInline wrapper implementation.
• char
• clone
• closure
• collections
• error
  Error binding and helper trait.
• object
  IMPL Object wrapper implementation and Object binding.
• prelude
  Traits and essential types intended for blanket imports.
• send_unique
• shared
  IMPL Shared (reference counted) wrapper implementation.
• signal
  IMPL Low level signal support.
• source
• subclass
  Module containing infrastructure for subclassing GObjects and registering boxed types.
• thread_guard
• translate
  Translation between GLib/GLib-based FFI types and their Rust counterparts.
• types
  Runtime type information.
• value
  Value binding and helper traits.
• variant
  Variant binding and helper traits.
• wrapper
  IMPL The wrapper! macro and miscellaneous wrapper traits.

Macros

• bool_error
  Generic error used for functions that fail without any further information
• clone
  Macro for passing variables as strong or weak references into a closure.
• closure
  Macro for creating a Closure object. This is a wrapper around Closure::new that automatically type checks its arguments at run-time.
• closure_local
  The same as closure! but uses Closure::new_local as a constructor. This is useful for closures which can’t be sent across threads. See the documentation of closure! for details.
• debuglog_macros
  A macro which behaves exactly as log::debug! except that it sets the current log target to the contents of a G_LOG_DOMAIN constant (and fails to build if not defined).
• errorlog_macros
  A macro which behaves exactly as log::error! except that it sets the current log target to the contents of a G_LOG_DOMAIN constant (and fails to build if not defined).
• g_critical
  Macro used to log using GLib logging system. It uses g_log.
• g_debug
  Macro used to log using GLib logging system. It uses g_log.
• g_error
  Macro used to log using GLib logging system. It uses g_log.
• g_info
  Macro used to log using GLib logging system. It uses g_log.
• g_log
  Macro used to log using GLib logging system. It uses g_log.
• g_message
  Macro used to log using GLib logging system. It uses g_log.
• g_print
  Macro used to print messages. It uses g_print.
• g_printerr
  Macro used to print error messages. It uses g_printerr.
• g_warning
  Macro used to log using GLib logging system. It uses g_log.
• glib_boxed_inline_wrapper
  Wrapper implementations for BoxedInline types. See wrapper!.
• glib_boxed_wrapper
  Wrapper implementations for Boxed types. See wrapper!.
• glib_object_wrapper
  ObjectType implementations for Object types. See wrapper!.
• glib_shared_wrapper
  Wrapper implementations for shared types. See wrapper!.
• gstr
  Converts a static string literal into a static nul-terminated string.
• infolog_macros
  A macro which behaves exactly as log::info! except that it sets the current log target to the contents of a G_LOG_DOMAIN constant (and fails to build if not defined).
• log_structured
  Macro used to log using GLib structured logging system.
• result_from_gboolean
• tracelog_macros
  A macro which behaves exactly as log::trace! except that it sets the current log target to the contents of a G_LOG_DOMAIN constant (and fails to build if not defined).
• warnlog_macros
  A macro which behaves exactly as log::warn! except that it sets the current log target to the contents of a G_LOG_DOMAIN constant (and fails to build if not defined).
• wrapper
  Defines a wrapper type and implements the appropriate traits.

Structs

• Binding
  Binding is the representation of a binding between a property on a Object instance (or source) and another property on another Object instance (or target).
• BindingFlags
  Flags to be passed to [ObjectExtManual::bind_property()][crate::prelude::ObjectExtManual::bind_property()] or [ObjectExtManual::bind_property_full()][crate::prelude::ObjectExtManual::bind_property_full()].
• BindingGroupv2_72
  The BindingGroup can be used to bind multiple properties from an object collectively.
• BindingGroupBuilderv2_72
  Builder for binding group bindings.
• BoxedAnyObject
  This is a subclass of glib::object::Object capable of storing any Rust type. It let’s you insert a Rust type anywhere a glib::object::Object is needed. The inserted value can then be borrowed as a Rust type, by using the various provided methods.
• ByteArray
• Bytes
  A shared immutable byte slice (the equivalent of Rc<[u8]>).
• Checksum
• CollationKey
  A CollationKey allows ordering strings using the linguistically correct rules for the current locale.
• Date
• DateTime
• EnumClass
  Representation of an enum for dynamically, at runtime, querying the values of the enum and using them.
• EnumValue
  Representation of a single enum value of an EnumClass.
• FileSetContentsFlagsv2_66
• FilenameCollationKey
  A FilenameCollationKey allows ordering file names using the linguistically correct rules for the current locale. Compared to CollationKey, filename collation keys take into consideration dots and other characters commonly found in file names.
• FlagsBuilder
  Builder for conveniently setting/unsetting flags and returning a Value.
• FlagsClass
  Representation of a flags for dynamically, at runtime, querying the values of the enum and using them
• FlagsValue
  Representation of a single flags value of a FlagsClass.
• FormatSizeFlags
• GStr
  Representaion of a borrowed GString.
• GString
  A type representing an owned, C-compatible, nul-terminated UTF-8 string.
• GStringBuilder
  A mutable text buffer that grows automatically.
• GlibLogger
  An implementation of a log compatible logger which logs over glib logging facilities.
• IOCondition
• KeyFile
• KeyFileFlags
• LogFieldv2_50
  Structure representing a single field in a structured log entry.
• LogHandlerId
• LogLevelFlags
• LogLevels
• MainContext
• MainContextAcquireGuard
• MainContextFlagsv2_72
• MainLoop
• OptionFlags
• ParamFlags
  Through the ParamFlags flag values, certain aspects of parameters can be configured.
• ParamSpec
  ParamSpec is an object structure that encapsulates the metadata required to specify parameters, such as e.g. Object properties.
• ParamSpecBoolean
• ParamSpecBooleanBuilder
• ParamSpecBoxed
• ParamSpecBoxedBuilder
• ParamSpecChar
• ParamSpecCharBuilder
• ParamSpecDouble
• ParamSpecDoubleBuilder
• ParamSpecEnum
• ParamSpecEnumBuilder
• ParamSpecFlags
• ParamSpecFlagsBuilder
• ParamSpecFloat
• ParamSpecFloatBuilder
• ParamSpecGType
• ParamSpecGTypeBuilder
• ParamSpecInt
• ParamSpecInt64
• ParamSpecInt64Builder
• ParamSpecIntBuilder
• ParamSpecLong
• ParamSpecLongBuilder
• ParamSpecObject
• ParamSpecObjectBuilder
• ParamSpecOverride
• ParamSpecOverrideBuilder
• ParamSpecParam
• ParamSpecParamBuilder
• ParamSpecPointer
• ParamSpecPointerBuilder
• ParamSpecString
• ParamSpecStringBuilder
• ParamSpecUChar
• ParamSpecUCharBuilder
• ParamSpecUInt
• ParamSpecUInt64
• ParamSpecUInt64Builder
• ParamSpecUIntBuilder
• ParamSpecULong
• ParamSpecULongBuilder
• ParamSpecUnichar
• ParamSpecUnicharBuilder
• ParamSpecValueArray
• ParamSpecValueArrayBuilder
• ParamSpecVariant
• ParamSpecVariantBuilder
• Quark
• Receiver
  A Receiver that can be attached to a main context to receive items from its corresponding Sender or SyncSender.
• Sender
  A Sender that can be used to send items to the corresponding main context receiver.
• SignalFlags
  The signal flags are used to specify a signal’s behaviour.
• Source
• SourceFuture
  Represents a Future around a glib::Source. The future will be resolved once the source has provided a value
• SourceStream
  Represents a Stream around a glib::Source. The stream will be provide all values that are provided by the source
• SpawnFlags
• SyncSender
  A SyncSender that can be used to send items to the corresponding main context receiver.
• ThreadPool
  The ThreadPool struct represents a thread pool. It has three public read-only members, but the underlying struct is bigger, so you must not copy this struct.
• TimeSpan
  A value representing an interval of time, in microseconds.
• TimeZone
  TimeZone is an opaque structure whose members cannot be accessed directly.
• Uriv2_66
  The Uri type and related functions can be used to parse URIs into their components, and build valid URIs from individual components.
• UriFlagsv2_66
  Flags that describe a URI.
• UriHideFlagsv2_66
  Flags describing what parts of the URI to hide in Uri::to_string_partial(). Note that PASSWORD and AUTH_PARAMS will only work if the Uri was parsed with the corresponding flags.
• UriParamsFlagsv2_66
  Flags modifying the way parameters are handled by g_uri_parse_params() and GUriParamsIter.
• ValueArray
• VariantDict
  VariantDict is a mutable key/value store where the keys are always strings and the values are Variants.
• VariantIter
  Iterator over items in a variant.
• VariantStrIter
  Iterator over items in a variant of type as.
• VariantTy
  Describes Variant types.
• VariantTyIterator
  An iterator over the individual components of a tuple VariantTy.
• VariantType
  Describes Variant types.

Enums

• ChecksumType
• DateMonth
• DateWeekday
• FileError
• GlibLoggerDomain
  Enumeration of the possible domain handling behaviours for a GlibLogger.
• GlibLoggerFormat
  Enumeration of the possible formatting behaviours for a GlibLogger.
• KeyFileError
• LogLevel
• LogWriterOutputv2_50
• OptionArg
• SeekType
• TimeType
  Disambiguates a given time in two ways.
• UnicodeScript
  The UnicodeScript enumeration identifies different writing systems. The values correspond to the names as defined in the Unicode standard. The enumeration has been added in GLib 2.14, and is interchangeable with PangoScript.
• UriErrorv2_66
  Error codes returned by Uri methods.
• UserDirectory
  These are logical ids for special directories which are defined depending on the platform used. You should use user_special_dir() to retrieve the full path associated to the logical id.
• VariantClass
  The range of possible top-level types of Variant instances.

Constants

• CLONE_MACRO_LOG_DOMAIN
  This is the log domain used by the clone! macro. If you want to use a custom logger (it prints to stdout by default), you can set your own logger using the corresponding log functions.

Statics

• CSET_A_2_Z
• CSET_DIGITS
• CSET_a_2_z
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_GROUP
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_ACTIONS
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_CATEGORIES
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_COMMENT
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_DBUS_ACTIVATABLE
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_EXEC
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_GENERIC_NAME
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_HIDDEN
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_ICON
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_MIME_TYPE
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_NAME
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_NOT_SHOW_IN
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_NO_DISPLAY
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_ONLY_SHOW_IN
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_PATH
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_STARTUP_NOTIFY
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_STARTUP_WM_CLASS
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_TERMINAL
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_TRY_EXEC
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_TYPE
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_URL
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_KEY_VERSION
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_TYPE_APPLICATION
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_TYPE_DIRECTORY
• KEY_FILE_DESKTOP_TYPE_LINK
• OPTION_REMAINING
• STR_DELIMITERS
• TEST_OPTION_ISOLATE_DIRSv2_60
• URI_RESERVED_CHARS_GENERIC_DELIMITERS
• URI_RESERVED_CHARS_SUBCOMPONENT_DELIMITERS
• g_param_spec_types

Traits

• ParamSpecType

Functions

• access
• application_name
• base64_decode
• base64_encode
• charset
  Obtain the character set for the current locale.
• check_version
• child_watch_future
  Create a Future that will resolve once the child process with the given pid exits
• child_watch_future_with_priority
  Create a Future that will resolve once the child process with the given pid exits
• codeset
• compute_checksum_for_bytes
• compute_checksum_for_data
• compute_hmac_for_bytesv2_50
• compute_hmac_for_data
• console_charsetv2_62
• current_dir
• dcgettext
• dgettext
• dngettext
• dpgettext
• dpgettext2
• environ
• environ_getenv
• file_get_contents
• file_open_tmp
• file_set_contents
• file_set_contents_fullv2_66
• filename_display_basename
• filename_display_name
• filename_from_uri
• filename_to_uri
• find_program_in_path
• format_size
• format_size_full
• getenv
• home_dir
• host_name
• hostname_is_ascii_encoded
• hostname_is_ip_address
• hostname_is_non_ascii
• hostname_to_ascii
• hostname_to_unicode
• interval_stream
  Create a Stream that will provide a value every given number of milliseconds.
• interval_stream_seconds
  Create a Stream that will provide a value every given number of seconds.
• interval_stream_seconds_with_priority
  Create a Stream that will provide a value every given number of seconds.
• interval_stream_with_priority
  Create a Stream that will provide a value every given number of milliseconds.
• is_canonical_pspec_name
• language_names
• language_names_with_categoryv2_58
• listenv
• locale_variants
• log_default_handler
• log_remove_handler
• log_set_always_fatal
• log_set_default_handler
  To set back the default print handler, use the log_unset_default_handler function.
• log_set_fatal_mask
• log_set_handler
• log_set_writer_funcv2_50
• log_structured_arrayv2_50
• log_unset_default_handler
  To set the default print handler, use the log_set_default_handler function.
• log_variantv2_50
• log_writer_defaultv2_50
• log_writer_default_set_use_stderr^⚠v2_68
  Sets whether GLib log functions output to stderr or stdout.
• log_writer_default_would_dropv2_68
• log_writer_format_fieldsv2_50
• log_writer_is_journaldUnix and v2_50
• log_writer_journaldv2_50
• log_writer_standard_streamsv2_50
• log_writer_supports_colorUnix and v2_50
• main_current_source
• main_depth
• markup_escape_text
• mkdir_with_parents
• mkdtemp
• mkdtemp_full
• mkstemp
• mkstemp_full
• monotonic_time
• num_processors
• on_error_query
• on_error_stack_trace
• os_infov2_64
• prgname
• program_name
  Same as get_prgname().
• random_double
• random_double_range
• random_int
• random_int_range
• random_set_seed
• real_name
• real_time
• reload_user_special_dirs_cache
• rust_log_handler
  Provides a glib log handler which routes all logging messages to the log crate.
• set_application_name
• set_prgname
• set_print_handler
  To set back the default print handler, use the unset_print_handler function.
• set_printerr_handler
  To set back the default print handler, use the unset_printerr_handler function.
• set_program_name
  Same as set_prgname().
• setenv
• shell_parse_argv
  Parses a command line into an argument vector, in much the same way the shell would, but without many of the expansions the shell would perform (variable expansion, globs, operators, filename expansion, etc. are not supported).
• shell_quote
  Quotes a string so that the shell (/bin/sh) will interpret the quoted string to mean unquoted_string.
• shell_unquote
  Unquotes a string as the shell (/bin/sh) would.
• spaced_primes_closest
  Gets the smallest prime number from a built-in array of primes which is larger than num. This is used within GLib to calculate the optimum size of a GHashTable.
• spawn_async
  Executes a child program asynchronously.
• spawn_async_with_fdsv2_58 and non-Windows
• spawn_async_with_pipesNon-Windows
• spawn_check_exit_status
• spawn_check_wait_statusv2_70
• spawn_command_line_asyncUnix
• system_config_dirs
• system_data_dirs
• timeout_future
  Create a Future that will resolve after the given number of milliseconds.
• timeout_future_seconds
  Create a Future that will resolve after the given number of seconds.
• timeout_future_seconds_with_priority
  Create a Future that will resolve after the given number of seconds.
• timeout_future_with_priority
  Create a Future that will resolve after the given number of milliseconds.
• tmp_dir
• unicode_script_from_iso15924
• unicode_script_to_iso15924
• unix_open_pipe
• unix_signal_futureUnix
  Create a Future that will resolve once the given UNIX signal is raised
• unix_signal_future_with_priorityUnix
  Create a Future that will resolve once the given UNIX signal is raised
• unix_signal_streamUnix
  Create a Stream that will provide a value whenever the given UNIX signal is raised
• unix_signal_stream_with_priorityUnix
  Create a Stream that will provide a value whenever the given UNIX signal is raised
• unlink
• unset_print_handler
  To set the default print handler, use the set_print_handler function.
• unset_printerr_handler
  To set the default print handler, use the set_printerr_handler function.
• unsetenv
• uri_escape_string
• uri_parse_scheme
• uri_unescape_segment
• uri_unescape_string
• user_cache_dir
• user_config_dir
• user_data_dir
• user_name
• user_runtime_dir
• user_special_dir
• user_state_dirv2_72
• usleep
• uuid_string_is_validv2_52
• uuid_string_randomv2_52

Type Definitions

• DateDay
• DateYear
• Time

Attribute Macros

• flags
  Attribute macro for defining flags using the bitflags crate. This macro will also define a GFlags::type_ function and the glib::Value traits.
• object_interface
  Macro for boilerplate of ObjectInterface implementations.
• object_subclass
  Macro for boilerplate of ObjectSubclass implementations.

Derive Macros

• Boxed
  Derive macro for defining a BoxedType::type_ function and the glib::Value traits.
• Downgrade
  Macro for deriving implementations of glib::clone::Downgrade and glib::clone::Upgrade traits and a weak type.
• Enum
  Derive macro for register a rust enum in the glib type system and derive the the [glib::Value] traits.
• ErrorDomain
  Derive macro for defining a GLib error domain and its associated ErrorDomain trait.
• SharedBoxed
  Derive macro for defining a SharedType::get_type function and the glib::Value traits.
• Variant
  Derive macro for serializing/deserializing custom structs as glib::Variants.