path: root/docs/reference/gtk/running.sgml

<refentry id="gtk-running" revision="10 Jan 2002">
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>Running GTK+ Applications</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>3</manvolnum>
<refmiscinfo>GTK Library</refmiscinfo>
</refmeta>

<refnamediv>
<refname>Running GTK+ Applications</refname>
<refpurpose>
How to run and debug your GTK+ application
</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

<refsect1>
<title>Running and debugging GTK+ Applications</title>

<refsect2>
<title>Common commandline options</title>

<para>
All GTK+ applications support a number of standard commandline
options. These are removed from <literal>argv</literal> by <link
linkend="gtk-init">gtk_init()</link>. Modules may parse and remove
further options.
</para>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--gtk-module <replaceable>module</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
A list of modules to load in addition to those specified in the 
<envar>GTK_MODULES</envar> environment variable.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--g-fatal-warnings</systemitem></title>

<para>
Make GTK+ abort on all warnings. This is useful to stop on the first
warning in a debugger, if your application is printing multiple
warnings.  It's almost always best to start debugging with the first
warning that occurs.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--gtk-debug <replaceable>options</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
A list of <link linkend="GTK-Debug-Options">debug options</link> 
to turn on in addition to those specified in the <envar>GTK_DEBUG</envar> 
environment variable. 
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<option>--enable-debug=yes</option>.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--gtk-no-debug <replaceable>options</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
A list of <link linkend="GTK-Debug-Options">debug options</link> 
to turn off.
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<option>--enable-debug=yes</option>.
</para>
</formalpara>

<para>
The following options are really used by GDK, not by GTK+, but we
list them here for completeness nevertheless.
</para>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--class <replaceable>class</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
Sets the program class; see gdk_set_program_class(). 
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--name <replaceable>name</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
Sets the program name.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--gdk-debug <replaceable>options</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
A list of <link linkend="GDK-Debug-Options">debug options</link> 
to turn on in addition to those 
specified in the <envar>GDK_DEBUG</envar> environment variable. 
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<option>--enable-debug=yes</option>.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--gdk-no-debug <replaceable>options</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
A list of <link linkend="GDK-Debug-Options">debug options</link> 
to turn off.
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<option>--enable-debug=yes</option>.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--display <replaceable>display</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
The name of the X display to open instead of the one specified
in the <envar>DISPLAY</envar> environment variable. 
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<option>--gdk-target=x11</option>.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--screen <replaceable>screen_number</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
  The number of the screen within the default display. This overrides
  any screen number specified in the display name specified by
  by he <systemitem>--display</systemitem> command line option or
  the <envar>DISPLAY</envar> environment variable. If this screen
  cannot be opened, then GTK+ will fall back to the screen
  specified in the display name. This option is not useful
  interactively; the intended purposes is that when a program
  registers its command line with a <firstterm>session
  manager</firstterm> for later restarting, it can save the
  screen it is on, without having to worry if it might be
  restarted on a different display.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--sync</systemitem></title>

<para>
Makes all X requests synchronously. This is a useful option for 
debugging, but it will slow down the performance considerably.
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<option>--gdk-target=x11</option>.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--gxid-host <replaceable>host</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
The host to contact the <application>gxid</application> daemon on; overrides 
the <link linkend="GXID"><envar>GXID_HOST</envar></link> environment variable.
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<option>--gdk-target=x11</option>.
</para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
<title><systemitem>--gxid-port <replaceable>port</replaceable></systemitem></title>

<para>
The port for the connection to <application>gxid</application>; overrides 
the <link linkend="GXID"><envar>GXID_PORT</envar></link> environment variable.
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<option>--gdk-target=x11</option>.
</para>
</formalpara>

</refsect2>

<refsect2>
<title>Environment variables</title>

<para> 
GTK+ inspects a number of environment variables in addition to standard
variables like <envar>LANG</envar>, <envar>PATH</envar>, <envar>HOME</envar> 
or <envar>DISPLAY</envar>; mostly to determine paths to look for certain files.
</para>

<formalpara id="GTK-Debug-Options">
  <title><envar>GTK_DEBUG</envar></title>

  <para>
  If GTK+ has been configured with <option>--enable-debug=yes</option>,
  this variable can be set to a list of debug options, which cause GTK+
  to print out different types of debugging information.
  <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>misc</term>
      <listitem><para>Miscellaneous information</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>text</term>
      <listitem><para>Information about text widget internals</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>tree</term>
      <listitem><para>Information about tree widget internals</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>updates</term>
      <listitem><para>Visual feedback about window updates</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>
  The special value <literal>all</literal> can be used to turn on all debug options.
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
  <title><envar>GTK_MODULES</envar></title>

  <para>
    A list of modules to load.
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
  <title><envar>GTK_PATH</envar></title>

  <para>
    Specifies a list of directories to search when GTK+ is looking for
    dynamically loaded objects such as the modules specified by
    <envar>GTK_MODULES</envar>, theme engines, and input method
    modules. If the path to the dynamically loaded object is given
    as an absolute path name, then GTK+ loads it directly. Otherwise,
    GTK+ goes in turn through the directories in GTK_PATH, followed
    by the directory <filename>.gtk-2.0</filename> in the user's home
    directory, followed by the system default directory, 
    which is <filename><replaceable>libdir</replaceable>/gtk-2.0/modules</filename>.
    (If <envar>GTK_EXE_PREFIX</envar> is defined, <replaceable>libdir</replaceable> is 
    <filename>$GTK_EXE_PREFIX/lib</filename>. Otherwise it is the libdir
    specified when GTK+ was configured, usually
    <filename>/usr/lib</filename>, or
    <filename>/usr/local/lib</filename>.)
    For each directory in this list, GTK+ actually looks in a
    subdirectory
    <filename><replaceable>directory</replaceable>/<replaceable>version</replaceable>/<replaceable>host</replaceable>/<replaceable>type</replaceable></filename>
    Where <replaceable>version</replaceable> is derived from the
    version of GTK+ (use <literal>pkg-config
    --variable=gtk_binary_version gtk+-2.0</literal> to determine this from a
    script), <replaceable>host</replaceable> is the architecture on
    which GTK+ was built. (use <literal>pkg-config
    --variable=gtk_host gtk+-2.0</literal> to determine this from a
    script), and <replaceable>type</replaceable> is a directory
    specific to the type of modules; currently it can be
    <literal>modules</literal>, <literal>engines</literal> or
    <literal>immodules</literal> corresponding to the three types of
    modules above. Either <replaceable>version</replaceable>,
    <replaceable>host</replaceable>, or both may be omitted. GTK+ looks
    first in the most specific directory, then in directories with
    fewer components.
    The components of GTK_PATH are separated by the ':' character on
    Linux and Unix, and the ';' character on Windows.
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
  <title><envar>GTK_IM_MODULE</envar></title>

  <para>
    Specifies an IM module to use in preference to the one determined
    from the locale. 
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara id="im-module-file">
  <title><envar>GTK_IM_MODULE_FILE</envar></title>

  <para>
    Specifies the file listing the IM modules to load. This environment
    variable overrides the <literal>im_module_file</literal> specified in 
    the RC files, which in turn overrides the default value 
    <filename><replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable>/gtk-2.0/gtk.immodules</filename>
    (<replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable> is the sysconfdir specified when GTK+ was configured, 
     usually <filename>/usr/local/etc</filename>.)
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
  <title><envar>GTK_RC_FILES</envar></title>
  
  <para>
    Specifies a list of RC files to parse instead of the default ones;
    see <link linkend="gtk-Resource-Files">Resource Files</link>.
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
  <title><envar>GTK_EXE_PREFIX</envar></title>

  <para>
    If set, GTK+ uses <filename>$GTK_EXE_PREFIX/lib</filename> instead of 
    the libdir configured when GTK+ was compiled.
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
  <title><envar>GTK_DATA_PREFIX</envar></title>

  <para>
    If set, makes GTK+ use <filename>$GTK_DATA_PREFIX</filename>
    instead of the prefix configured when GTK+ was compiled.
  </para>
</formalpara>

<para>
The following environment variables are used by GdkPixbuf, GDK or
Pango, not by GTK+ itself, but we list them here for completeness
nevertheless.
</para>

<formalpara>
  <title><envar>GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE</envar></title>

  <para>
    Specifies the file listing the GdkPixbuf loader modules to load. 
    This environment variable overrides the default value 
    <filename><replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable>/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf.loaders</filename>
    (<replaceable>sysconfdir</replaceable> is the sysconfdir specified when
	  GTK+ was configured, usually <filename>/usr/local/etc</filename>.)
  </para>
 </formalpara>

<formalpara id="GDK-Debug-Options">
  <title><envar>GDK_DEBUG</envar></title>

  <para>
  If GTK+ has been configured with <option>--enable-debug=yes</option>,
  this variable can be set to a list of debug options, which cause GDK
  to print out different types of debugging information.
  <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>misc</term>
      <listitem><para>Miscellaneous information</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>events</term>
      <listitem><para>Show all events received by GDK</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>dnd</term>
      <listitem><para>Information about drag-and-drop</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>xim</term>
      <listitem><para>Information about XIM support</para></listitem>
    </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>
  The special value <literal>all</literal> can be used to turn on all debug options.
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara id="GXID">
  <title><envar>GXID_HOST</envar> and <envar>GXID_PORT</envar></title>

  <para>
    The host and port to contact the <application>gxid</application> daemon on. 
    <application>gxid</application> is only necessary on X servers which 
    don't support using the pointer and extension devices at once, and is
    only built if GTK+ is configured with <option>--with-xinput=gxi</option>. 
    The <application>XFree86</application> X servers don't have this 
    restriction.
  </para>
</formalpara>

<formalpara>
  <title><envar>GDK_USE_XFT</envar></title>

  <para>
    If this variable is set to 1, GTK+ will use the Pango Xft backend instead
    of the X backend when possible (i.e. when the X server supports the XRender
    extension and Pango has been built with Xft support). 
  </para>
</formalpara>

</refsect2>

</refsect1>

</refentry>