Struct ApplicationCommandLine

pub struct ApplicationCommandLine { /* private fields */ }

GApplicationCommandLine represents a command-line invocation of an application.

It is created by Application and emitted in the 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 GLib::OptionContext command-line parsing API, with the ApplicationCommandLineExt::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.

For remote invocation, the originally-invoked process exits when ApplicationCommandLineExt::done() method is called. This method is also automatically called when the object is disposed.

The main use for GApplicationCommandLine (and the 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 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.

⚠️ The following code is in c ⚠️

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.

⚠️ The following code is in c ⚠️

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 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.

⚠️ The following code is in c ⚠️

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 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

Properties

arguments

The commandline that caused this command-line signal emission.

Writeable | Construct Only

is-remote

Whether this is a remote commandline.

Readable

options

The options sent along with the commandline.

Writeable | Construct Only

platform-data

Platform-specific data for the commandline.

Writeable | Construct Only

Implements

ApplicationCommandLineExt, [trait@glib::ObjectExt]

GLib type: GObject with reference counted clone semantics.

Implementations

impl ApplicationCommandLine

pub const NONE: Option<&'static ApplicationCommandLine> = None

Trait Implementations

impl Clone for ApplicationCommandLine

fn clone(&self) -> Self

Makes a clone of this shared reference.

This increments the strong reference count of the object. Dropping the object will decrement it again.

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Performs copy-assignment from source.

impl Debug for ApplicationCommandLine

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.

impl HasParamSpec for ApplicationCommandLine

type ParamSpec = ParamSpecObject

type SetValue = ApplicationCommandLine

Preferred value to be used as setter for the associated ParamSpec.

type BuilderFn = fn(_: &str) -> ParamSpecObjectBuilder<'_, ApplicationCommandLine>

fn param_spec_builder() -> Self::BuilderFn

impl Hash for ApplicationCommandLine

fn hash<H>(&self, state: &mut H)

where H: Hasher,

Hashes the memory address of this object.

fn hash_slice<H>(data: &[Self], state: &mut H)

where H: Hasher, Self: Sized,

Feeds a slice of this type into the given Hasher.

impl Ord for ApplicationCommandLine

fn cmp(&self, other: &Self) -> Ordering

Comparison for two GObjects.

Compares the memory addresses of the provided objects.

fn max(self, other: Self) -> Self

where Self: Sized,

Compares and returns the maximum of two values.

fn min(self, other: Self) -> Self

where Self: Sized,

Compares and returns the minimum of two values.

fn clamp(self, min: Self, max: Self) -> Self

where Self: Sized,

Restrict a value to a certain interval.

impl ParentClassIs for ApplicationCommandLine

type Parent = Object

impl<OT: ObjectType> PartialEq<OT> for ApplicationCommandLine

fn eq(&self, other: &OT) -> bool

Equality for two GObjects.

Two GObjects are equal if their memory addresses are equal.

fn ne(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests for !=. The default implementation is almost always sufficient, and should not be overridden without very good reason.

impl<OT: ObjectType> PartialOrd<OT> for ApplicationCommandLine

fn partial_cmp(&self, other: &OT) -> Option<Ordering>

Partial comparison for two GObjects.

Compares the memory addresses of the provided objects.

fn lt(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests less than (for self and other) and is used by the < operator.

fn le(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests less than or equal to (for self and other) and is used by the <= operator.

fn gt(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests greater than (for self and other) and is used by the > operator.

fn ge(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests greater than or equal to (for self and other) and is used by the >= operator.

impl StaticType for ApplicationCommandLine

fn static_type() -> Type

Returns the type identifier of Self.

impl Eq for ApplicationCommandLine