GAPPLICATION() GAPPLICATION()
NAME
gapplication - D-Bus application launcher
SYNOPSIS
gapplication help [COMMAND]
gapplication version
gapplication list-apps
gapplication launch <APP-ID>
gapplication launch <APP-ID> [FILE…]
gapplication list-actions <APP-ID>
gapplication action <APP-ID> <ACTION> [PARAMETER]
DESCRIPTION
gapplication is a commandline implementation of the client-side of the
org.freedesktop.Application interface as specified by the freedesk-
top.org Desktop Entry Specification.
gapplication can be used to start applications that have DBusActivatable
set to true in their .desktop files and can be used to send messages to
already-running instances of other applications.
It is possible for applications to refer to gapplication in the Exec
line of their .desktop file to maintain backwards compatibility with im-
plementations that do not directly support DBusActivatable.
gapplication ships as part of GLib.
COMMANDS
help [COMMAND]
Displays a short synopsis of the available commands or provides de-
tailed help on a specific command.
version
Prints the GLib version whence gapplication came.
list-apps
Prints a list of all application IDs that are known to support D-Bus
activation. This list is generated by scanning .desktop files as per
the current XDG_DATA_DIRS.
launch <APP-ID> [FILE…]
Launches an application.
The first parameter is the application ID in the familiar ‘reverse
DNS’ style (e.g. org.gnome.app) without the .desktop suffix.
Optionally, if additional parameters are given, they are treated as
the names of files to open and may be filenames or URIs. If no files
are given then the application is simply activated.
list-actions <APP-ID>
List the actions declared in the application’s .desktop file. The
parameter is the application ID, as above.
action <APP-ID> <ACTION> [PARAMETER]
Invokes the named action (in the same way as would occur when acti-
vating an action specified in the .desktop file).
The application ID (as above) is the first parameter. The action
name follows.
Optionally, following the action name can be one parameter, in GVari-
ant format, given as a single argument. Make sure to use sufficient
quoting.
EXAMPLES
From the commandline
Launching an application:
gapplication launch org.example.fooview
Opening a file with an application:
gapplication launch org.example.fooview ~/file.foo
Opening many files with an application:
gapplication launch org.example.fooview ~/foos/*.foo
Invoking an action on an application:
gapplication action org.example.fooview create
Invoking an action on an application, with an action:
gapplication action org.example.fooview show-item '"item_id_828739"'
From the Exec lines of a .desktop file
The commandline interface of gapplication was designed so that it could
be used directly from the Exec line of a .desktop file.
You might want to do this to allow for backwards compatibility with im-
plementations of the specification that do not understand how to do
D-Bus activation, without having to install a separate utility program.
Consider the following example:
[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.1
Type=Application
Name=Foo Viewer
DBusActivatable=true
MimeType=image/x-foo;
Exec=gapplication launch org.example.fooview %F
Actions=gallery;create;
[Desktop Action gallery]
Name=Browse Gallery
Exec=gapplication action org.example.fooview gallery
[Desktop Action create]
Name=Create a new Foo!
Exec=gapplication action org.example.fooview create
From a script
If installing an application that supports D-Bus activation you may
still want to put a file in /usr/bin so that your program can be started
from a terminal.
It is possible for this file to be a shell script. The script can han-
dle arguments such as --help and --version directly. It can also parse
other command line arguments and convert them to uses of gapplication to
activate the application, open files, or invoke actions.
Here is a simplified example, as may be installed in /usr/bin/fooview:
#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in
--help)
echo "see ‘man fooview’ for more information"
;;
--version)
echo "fooview 1.2"
;;
--gallery)
gapplication action org.example.fooview gallery
;;
--create)
gapplication action org.example.fooview create
;;
-*)
echo "unrecognized commandline argument"
exit 1
;;
*)
gapplication launch org.example.fooview "$@"
;;
esac
SEE ALSO
Desktop Entry Specification <https://specifications.freedesk-
top.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/> ,
<gdbus(1)> ,
<xdg-open(1)> ,
<desktop-file-validate(1)>
GAPPLICATION()
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