enum GAppInfoCreateFlags

typedef enum {
  G_APP_INFO_CREATE_NONE                           = 0,         /*< nick=none >*/
  G_APP_INFO_CREATE_NEEDS_TERMINAL                 = (1 << 0),  /*< nick=needs-terminal >*/
  G_APP_INFO_CREATE_SUPPORTS_URIS                  = (1 << 1),  /*< nick=supports-uris >*/
  G_APP_INFO_CREATE_SUPPORTS_STARTUP_NOTIFICATION  = (1 << 2)   /*< nick=supports-startup-notification >*/
} GAppInfoCreateFlags;

Flags used when creating a GAppInfo.

GAppInfo

typedef struct _GAppInfo GAppInfo;

Information about an installed application and methods to launch it (with file arguments).

GAppInfoIface

typedef struct {
  GTypeInterface g_iface;

  /* Virtual Table */

  GAppInfo *   (* dup)                          (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  gboolean     (* equal)                        (GAppInfo           *appinfo1,
                                                 GAppInfo           *appinfo2);
  const char * (* get_id)                       (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  const char * (* get_name)                     (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  const char * (* get_description)              (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  const char * (* get_executable)               (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  GIcon *      (* get_icon)                     (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  gboolean     (* launch)                       (GAppInfo           *appinfo,
                                                 GList              *filenames,
                                                 GAppLaunchContext  *launch_context,
                                                 GError            **error);
  gboolean     (* supports_uris)                (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  gboolean     (* supports_files)               (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  gboolean     (* launch_uris)                  (GAppInfo           *appinfo,
                                                 GList              *uris,
                                                 GAppLaunchContext  *launch_context,
                                                 GError            **error);
  gboolean     (* should_show)                  (GAppInfo           *appinfo);

  /* For changing associations */
  gboolean     (* set_as_default_for_type)      (GAppInfo           *appinfo,
                                                 const char         *content_type,
                                                 GError            **error);
  gboolean     (* set_as_default_for_extension) (GAppInfo           *appinfo,
                                                 const char         *extension,
                                                 GError            **error);
  gboolean     (* add_supports_type)            (GAppInfo           *appinfo,
                                                 const char         *content_type,
                                                 GError            **error);
  gboolean     (* can_remove_supports_type)     (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  gboolean     (* remove_supports_type)         (GAppInfo           *appinfo,
                                                 const char         *content_type,
                                                 GError            **error);
  gboolean     (* can_delete)                   (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  gboolean     (* do_delete)                    (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  const char * (* get_commandline)              (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
  const char * (* get_display_name)             (GAppInfo           *appinfo);
} GAppInfoIface;

Application Information interface, for operating system portability.

GAppLaunchContext

typedef struct _GAppLaunchContext GAppLaunchContext;

Integrating the launch with the launching application. This is used to handle for instance startup notification and launching the new application on the same screen as the launching window.

g_app_info_create_from_commandline ()

GAppInfo *          g_app_info_create_from_commandline  (const char *commandline,
                                                         const char *application_name,
                                                         GAppInfoCreateFlags flags,
                                                         GError **error);

Creates a new GAppInfo from the given information.

g_app_info_dup ()

GAppInfo *          g_app_info_dup                      (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Creates a duplicate of a GAppInfo.

g_app_info_equal ()

gboolean            g_app_info_equal                    (GAppInfo *appinfo1,
                                                         GAppInfo *appinfo2);

Checks if two GAppInfos are equal.

g_app_info_get_id ()

const char *        g_app_info_get_id                   (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Gets the ID of an application. An id is a string that identifies the application. The exact format of the id is platform dependent. For instance, on Unix this is the desktop file id from the xdg menu specification.

Note that the returned ID may be NULL, depending on how the appinfo has been constructed.

g_app_info_get_name ()

const char *        g_app_info_get_name                 (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Gets the installed name of the application.

g_app_info_get_display_name ()

const char *        g_app_info_get_display_name         (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Gets the display name of the application. The display name is often more descriptive to the user than the name itself.

Since 2.24

g_app_info_get_description ()

const char *        g_app_info_get_description          (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Gets a human-readable description of an installed application.

g_app_info_get_executable ()

const char *        g_app_info_get_executable           (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Gets the executable's name for the installed application.

g_app_info_get_commandline ()

const char *        g_app_info_get_commandline          (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Gets the commandline with which the application will be started.

Since 2.20

g_app_info_get_icon ()

GIcon *             g_app_info_get_icon                 (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Gets the icon for the application.

g_app_info_launch ()

gboolean            g_app_info_launch                   (GAppInfo *appinfo,
                                                         GList *files,
                                                         GAppLaunchContext *launch_context,
                                                         GError **error);

Launches the application. Passes files to the launched application as arguments, using the optional launch_context to get information about the details of the launcher (like what screen it is on). On error, error will be set accordingly.

To launch the application without arguments pass a NULL files list.

Note that even if the launch is successful the application launched can fail to start if it runs into problems during startup. There is no way to detect this.

Some URIs can be changed when passed through a GFile (for instance unsupported uris with strange formats like mailto:), so if you have a textual uri you want to pass in as argument, consider using g_app_info_launch_uris() instead.

On UNIX, this function sets the <envvar>GIO_LAUNCHED_DESKTOP_FILE</envvar> environment variable with the path of the launched desktop file and <envvar>GIO_LAUNCHED_DESKTOP_FILE_PID</envvar> to the process id of the launched process. This can be used to ignore <envvar>GIO_LAUNCHED_DESKTOP_FILE</envvar>, should it be inherited by further processes. The <envvar>DISPLAY</envvar> and <envvar>DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID</envvar> environment variables are also set, based on information provided in launch_context.

g_app_info_supports_files ()

gboolean            g_app_info_supports_files           (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Checks if the application accepts files as arguments.

g_app_info_supports_uris ()

gboolean            g_app_info_supports_uris            (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Checks if the application supports reading files and directories from URIs.

g_app_info_launch_uris ()

gboolean            g_app_info_launch_uris              (GAppInfo *appinfo,
                                                         GList *uris,
                                                         GAppLaunchContext *launch_context,
                                                         GError **error);

Launches the application. Passes uris to the launched application as arguments, using the optional launch_context to get information about the details of the launcher (like what screen it is on). On error, error will be set accordingly.

To lauch the application without arguments pass a NULL uris list.

Note that even if the launch is successful the application launched can fail to start if it runs into problems during startup. There is no way to detect this.

g_app_info_should_show ()

gboolean            g_app_info_should_show              (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Checks if the application info should be shown in menus that list available applications.

g_app_info_can_delete ()

gboolean            g_app_info_can_delete               (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Obtains the information whether the GAppInfo can be deleted. See g_app_info_delete().

Since 2.20

g_app_info_delete ()

gboolean            g_app_info_delete                   (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Tries to delete a GAppInfo.

On some platforms, there may be a difference between user-defined GAppInfos which can be deleted, and system-wide ones which cannot. See g_app_info_can_delete().

Since 2.20

g_app_info_reset_type_associations ()

void                g_app_info_reset_type_associations  (const char *content_type);

Removes all changes to the type associations done by g_app_info_set_as_default_for_type(), g_app_info_set_as_default_for_extension(), g_app_info_add_supports_type() or g_app_info_remove_supports_type().

Since 2.20

g_app_info_set_as_default_for_type ()

gboolean            g_app_info_set_as_default_for_type  (GAppInfo *appinfo,
                                                         const char *content_type,
                                                         GError **error);

Sets the application as the default handler for a given type.

g_app_info_set_as_default_for_extension ()

gboolean            g_app_info_set_as_default_for_extension
                                                        (GAppInfo *appinfo,
                                                         const char *extension,
                                                         GError **error);

Sets the application as the default handler for the given file extension.

g_app_info_add_supports_type ()

gboolean            g_app_info_add_supports_type        (GAppInfo *appinfo,
                                                         const char *content_type,
                                                         GError **error);

Adds a content type to the application information to indicate the application is capable of opening files with the given content type.

g_app_info_can_remove_supports_type ()

gboolean            g_app_info_can_remove_supports_type (GAppInfo *appinfo);

Checks if a supported content type can be removed from an application.

g_app_info_remove_supports_type ()

gboolean            g_app_info_remove_supports_type     (GAppInfo *appinfo,
                                                         const char *content_type,
                                                         GError **error);

Removes a supported type from an application, if possible.

g_app_info_get_all ()

GList *             g_app_info_get_all                  (void);

Gets a list of all of the applications currently registered on this system.

For desktop files, this includes applications that have NoDisplay=true set or are excluded from display by means of OnlyShowIn or NotShowIn. See g_app_info_should_show(). The returned list does not include applications which have the Hidden key set.

g_app_info_get_all_for_type ()

GList *             g_app_info_get_all_for_type         (const char *content_type);

Gets a list of all GAppInfos for a given content type.

g_app_info_get_default_for_type ()

GAppInfo *          g_app_info_get_default_for_type     (const char *content_type,
                                                         gboolean must_support_uris);

Gets the GAppInfo that corresponds to a given content type.

g_app_info_get_default_for_uri_scheme ()

GAppInfo *          g_app_info_get_default_for_uri_scheme
                                                        (const char *uri_scheme);

Gets the default application for launching applications using this URI scheme. A URI scheme is the initial part of the URI, up to but not including the ':', e.g. "http", "ftp" or "sip".

g_app_info_launch_default_for_uri ()

gboolean            g_app_info_launch_default_for_uri   (const char *uri,
                                                         GAppLaunchContext *launch_context,
                                                         GError **error);

Utility function that launches the default application registered to handle the specified uri. Synchronous I/O is done on the uri to detect the type of the file if required.

g_app_launch_context_get_display ()

char *              g_app_launch_context_get_display    (GAppLaunchContext *context,
                                                         GAppInfo *info,
                                                         GList *files);

Gets the display string for the context. This is used to ensure new applications are started on the same display as the launching application, by setting the <envvar>DISPLAY</envvar> environment variable.

g_app_launch_context_get_startup_notify_id ()

char *              g_app_launch_context_get_startup_notify_id
                                                        (GAppLaunchContext *context,
                                                         GAppInfo *info,
                                                         GList *files);

Initiates startup notification for the application and returns the <envvar>DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID</envvar> for the launched operation, if supported.

Startup notification IDs are defined in the FreeDesktop.Org Startup Notifications standard.

g_app_launch_context_launch_failed ()

void                g_app_launch_context_launch_failed  (GAppLaunchContext *context,
                                                         const char *startup_notify_id);

Called when an application has failed to launch, so that it can cancel the application startup notification started in g_app_launch_context_get_startup_notify_id().

g_app_launch_context_new ()

GAppLaunchContext * g_app_launch_context_new            (void);

Creates a new application launch context. This is not normally used, instead you instantiate a subclass of this, such as GdkAppLaunchContext.