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<div class="refentry">
<a name="gtk-running"></a><div class="titlepage"></div>
<div class="refnamediv"><table width="100%"><tr>
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<h2><span class="refentrytitle">Running GTK+ Applications</span></h2>
<p>Running GTK+ Applications —
How to run and debug your GTK+ application
</p>
</td>
<td class="gallery_image" valign="top" align="right"></td>
</tr></table></div>
<div class="refsect1">
<a name="id-1.2.5.3"></a><h2>Running and debugging GTK+ Applications</h2>
<div class="refsect2">
<a name="id-1.2.5.3.2"></a><h3>Common commandline options</h3>
<p>
All GTK+ applications support a number of standard commandline
options. These are removed from <code class="literal">argv</code> by gtk_init().
Modules may parse and remove further options. The
<a class="link" href="gtk-x11.html#x11-cmdline" title="X11-specific commandline options">X11</a> and
<a class="link" href="gtk-windows.html#win32-cmdline" title="Windows-specific commandline options">Windows</a> GDK backends parse
some additional commandline options.
</p>
<p><b><code class="systemitem">--gtk-module <em class="replaceable"><code>module</code></em></code>. </b>
A list of modules to load in addition to those specified in the
<code class="envar">GTK2_MODULES</code> environment variable and the
<code class="literal">gtk-modules</code> setting.
</p>
<p><b><code class="systemitem">--g-fatal-warnings</code>. </b>
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.
</p>
<p><b><code class="systemitem">--gtk-debug <em class="replaceable"><code>options</code></em></code>. </b>
A list of <a class="link" href="gtk-running.html#GTK-Debug-Options" title="GTK_DEBUG">debug options</a>
to turn on in addition to those specified in the <code class="envar">GTK_DEBUG</code>
environment variable.
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<code class="option">--enable-debug=yes</code>.
</p>
<p><b><code class="systemitem">--gtk-no-debug <em class="replaceable"><code>options</code></em></code>. </b>
A list of <a class="link" href="gtk-running.html#GTK-Debug-Options" title="GTK_DEBUG">debug options</a>
to turn off.
This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<code class="option">--enable-debug=yes</code>.
</p>
<p>
The following options are really used by GDK, not by GTK+, but we
list them here for completeness nevertheless.
</p>
<p><b><code class="systemitem">--class <em class="replaceable"><code>class</code></em></code>. </b>
Sets the program class; see gdk_set_program_class().
</p>
<p><b><code class="systemitem">--name <em class="replaceable"><code>name</code></em></code>. </b>
Sets the program name.
</p>
<p><b><code class="systemitem">--gdk-debug <em class="replaceable"><code>options</code></em></code>. </b>
A list of <a class="link" href="gtk-running.html#GDK-Debug-Options" title="GDK_DEBUG">debug options</a>
to turn on in addition to those specified in the <code class="envar">GDK_DEBUG</code>
environment variable. This option is only available if GTK+ has been
configured with <code class="option">--enable-debug=yes</code>.
</p>
<p><b><code class="systemitem">--gdk-no-debug <em class="replaceable"><code>options</code></em></code>. </b>
A list of <a class="link" href="gtk-running.html#GDK-Debug-Options" title="GDK_DEBUG">debug options</a>
to turn off. This option is only available if GTK+ has been configured with
<code class="option">--enable-debug=yes</code>.
</p>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="refsect2">
<a name="id-1.2.5.3.3"></a><h3>Environment variables</h3>
<p>
GTK+ inspects a number of environment variables in addition to standard
variables like <code class="envar">LANG</code>, <code class="envar">PATH</code>, <code class="envar">HOME</code>
or <code class="envar">DISPLAY</code>; mostly to determine paths to look for certain
files. The X11,
<a class="link" href="gtk-windows.html#win32-envar" title="Windows-specific environment variables">Windows</a> and
Framebuffer GDK backends use some
additional environment variables.
</p>
<p><a name="GTK-Debug-Options"></a><b><code class="envar">GTK_DEBUG</code>. </b>
If GTK+ has been configured with <code class="option">--enable-debug=yes</code>,
this variable can be set to a list of debug options, which cause GTK+
to print out different types of debugging information.
</p>
<div class="variablelist"><table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col align="left" valign="top">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">misc</span></p></td>
<td><p>Miscellaneous information</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">plugsocket</span></p></td>
<td><p>Cross-process embedding</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">text</span></p></td>
<td><p>Text widget internals</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">tree</span></p></td>
<td><p>Tree widget internals</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">updates</span></p></td>
<td><p>Visual feedback about window updates</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">keybindings</span></p></td>
<td><p>Keybindings</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">multihead</span></p></td>
<td><p>Working on multiple displays</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">modules</span></p></td>
<td><p>Loading of modules</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">geometry</span></p></td>
<td><p>Size allocation</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">icontheme</span></p></td>
<td><p>Icon themes</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">printing</span></p></td>
<td><p>Printing support</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">builder</span></p></td>
<td><p>GtkBuilder support</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
<p>
The special value <code class="literal">all</code> can be used to turn on all
debug options.
</p>
<p><b><code class="envar">GTK2_MODULES</code>. </b>
A list of modules to load. Note that GTK+ also allows to specify modules to load via a commandline option (<code class="option">--gtk-module</code>) and with the <code class="literal">gtk-modules</code> setting.
</p>
<p><b><code class="envar">GTK_MODULES</code>. </b>
A list of modules to load in addition to the ones in the <code class="envar">GTK_MODULES</code> variable.
</p>
<div class="warning">
Note that this environment variable is read by GTK+ 3 too,
which may not have the same set of modules available for loading.
Use <code class="envar">GTK2_MODULES</code> for modules that are only compatible
with GTK+ 2.
</div>
<p><b><code class="envar">GTK_PATH</code>. </b>
Specifies a list of directories to search when GTK+ is looking for
dynamically loaded objects such as the modules specified by
<code class="envar">GTK_MODULES</code>, theme engines, input method
modules, file system backends and print backends. 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 <code class="filename">.gtk-2.0</code> in the user's
home directory, followed by the system default directory,
which is <code class="filename"><em class="replaceable"><code>libdir</code></em>/gtk-2.0/modules</code>.
(If <code class="envar">GTK_EXE_PREFIX</code> is defined, <em class="replaceable"><code>libdir</code></em> is
<code class="filename">$GTK_EXE_PREFIX/lib</code>. Otherwise it is the libdir
specified when GTK+ was configured, usually
<code class="filename">/usr/lib</code>, or
<code class="filename">/usr/local/lib</code>.)
For each directory in this list, GTK+ actually looks in a
subdirectory
<code class="filename"><em class="replaceable"><code>directory</code></em>/<em class="replaceable"><code>version</code></em>/<em class="replaceable"><code>host</code></em>/<em class="replaceable"><code>type</code></em></code>
Where <em class="replaceable"><code>version</code></em> is derived from the
version of GTK+ (use <code class="literal">pkg-config
--variable=gtk_binary_version gtk+-2.0</code> to determine this from a
script), <em class="replaceable"><code>host</code></em> is the architecture on
which GTK+ was built. (use <code class="literal">pkg-config
--variable=gtk_host gtk+-2.0</code> to determine this from a
script), and <em class="replaceable"><code>type</code></em> is a directory
specific to the type of modules; currently it can be
<code class="literal">modules</code>, <code class="literal">engines</code>,
<code class="literal">immodules</code>, <code class="literal">filesystems</code> or
<code class="literal">printbackends</code>, corresponding to the types of
modules mentioned above. Either <em class="replaceable"><code>version</code></em>,
<em class="replaceable"><code>host</code></em>, 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.
</p>
<div class="warning">
Note that this environment variable is read by GTK+ 3 too, which
makes it unsuitable for setting it system-wide (or session-wide),
since doing so will cause either GTK+ 2.x applications or GTK+ 3
applications to see incompatible modules.
</div>
<p><b><code class="envar">GTK_IM_MODULE</code>. </b>
Specifies an IM module to use in preference to the one determined
from the locale. If this isn't set and you are running on the system
that enables <code class="literal">XSETTINGS</code> and has a value in
<code class="literal">Gtk/IMModule</code>, that will be used for the default
IM module.
This also can be a colon-separated list of input-methods, which
GTK+ will try in turn until it finds one available on the system.
</p>
<p><a name="im-module-file"></a><b><code class="envar">GTK_IM_MODULE_FILE</code>. </b>
Specifies the file listing the IM modules to load. This environment
variable overrides the <code class="literal">im_module_file</code> specified in
the RC files, which in turn overrides the default value
<code class="filename"><em class="replaceable"><code>libdir</code></em>/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/immodules.cache</code>
(<em class="replaceable"><code>libdir</code></em> has the same meaning here as explained for <code class="envar">GTK_PATH</code>).
</p>
<p><b><code class="envar">GTK2_RC_FILES</code>. </b>
Specifies a list of RC files to parse instead of the default ones;
see Resource Files.
</p>
<div class="warning">
Note that this environment variable is read by GTK+ 3 too, which
makes it unsuitable for setting it system-wide (or session-wide),
since doing so will cause either GTK+ 2.x applications or GTK+ 3
applications to see the wrong list of IM modules.
</div>
<p><b><code class="envar">GTK_EXE_PREFIX</code>. </b>
If set, GTK+ uses <code class="filename">$GTK_EXE_PREFIX/lib</code> instead of
the libdir configured when GTK+ was compiled.
</p>
<p><b><code class="envar">GTK_DATA_PREFIX</code>. </b>
If set, makes GTK+ use <code class="filename">$GTK_DATA_PREFIX</code>
instead of the prefix configured when GTK+ was compiled.
</p>
<p>
The following environment variables are used by GdkPixbuf, GDK or
Pango, not by GTK+ itself, but we list them here for completeness
nevertheless.
</p>
<p><b><code class="envar">GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE</code>. </b>
Specifies the file listing the GdkPixbuf loader modules to load.
This environment variable overrides the default value
<code class="filename"><em class="replaceable"><code>sysconfdir</code></em>/gtk-2.0/gdk-pixbuf.loaders</code>
(<em class="replaceable"><code>sysconfdir</code></em> is the sysconfdir specified when
GTK+ was configured, usually <code class="filename">/usr/local/etc</code>.)
</p>
<p><a name="GDK-Debug-Options"></a><b><code class="envar">GDK_DEBUG</code>. </b>
If GTK+ has been configured with <code class="option">--enable-debug=yes</code>,
this variable can be set to a list of debug options, which cause GDK
to print out different types of debugging information.
</p>
<div class="variablelist"><table border="0" class="variablelist">
<colgroup>
<col align="left" valign="top">
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">misc</span></p></td>
<td><p>Miscellaneous information</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">events</span></p></td>
<td><p>Show all events received by GDK</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">dnd</span></p></td>
<td><p>Information about drag-and-drop</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">xim</span></p></td>
<td><p>Information about XIM support</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">nograbs</span></p></td>
<td><p>Turn off all pointer and keyboard grabs</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">multihead</span></p></td>
<td><p>Information related to multiple screens</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">xinerama</span></p></td>
<td><p>Simulate a multi-monitor setup</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">cursor</span></p></td>
<td><p>Information about cursor objects (only win32)</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">draw</span></p></td>
<td><p>Information about drawing operations (only win32)</p></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><p><span class="term">eventloop</span></p></td>
<td><p>Information about event loop operation (mostly Quartz)</p></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
<p>
The special value <code class="literal">all</code> can be used to turn on all
debug options.
</p>
<p><b><code class="envar">GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS</code>. </b>
If set, GDK creates all windows as native windows. This can help
applications that make assumptions about 1-1 correspondence between
GDK windows and X11 windows.
</p>
<p><b><code class="envar">XDG_DATA_HOME</code>, <code class="envar">XDG_DATA_DIRS</code>. </b>
GTK+ uses these environment variables to locate icon themes
and MIME information. For more information, see
<a class="ulink" href="http://freedesktop.org/Standards/icon-theme-spec" target="_top">Icon Theme Specification</a>,
the <a class="ulink" href="http://freedesktop.org/Standards/shared-mime-info-spec" target="_top">Shared MIME-info Database</a>
and the <a class="ulink" href="http://freedesktop.org/Standards/basedir-spec" target="_top">Base Directory Specification</a>.
</p>
<p><b><code class="envar">DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID</code>. </b>
GTK+ uses this environment variable to provide startup notification
according to the <a class="ulink" href="http://standards.freedesktop.org/startup-notification-spec/startup-notification-latest.txt" target="_top">Startup Notification Spec</a>.
Following the specification, GTK+ unsets this variable after reading
it (to keep it from leaking to child processes). So, if you need its
value for your own purposes, you have to read it before calling
gtk_init().
</p>
</div>
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