man > GAPPLICATION(1)

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.Appli‐
       cation interface as specified by the freedesktop.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 appli‐
       cations.

       It is possible for applications to refer to gapplication in the Exec line of  their  .desktop
       file  to  maintain  backwards compatibility with implementations 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 detailed help  on  a  spe‐
          cific 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 appli‐
          cation ID, as above.

       action <APP-ID> <ACTION> [PARAMETER]
          Invokes  the named action (in the same way as would occur when activating an action speci‐
          fied 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 GVariant 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  implementations  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 handle 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 "unrecognised commandline argument"
              exit 1
              ;;

            *)
              gapplication launch org.example.fooview "$@"
              ;;
          esac

SEE ALSO
       Desktop Entry Specification, gdbus(1), xdg-open(1), desktop-file-validate(1)


                                                                                      GAPPLICATION()