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 "unrecognized commandline argument"


    exit 1


    ;;


  *)


    gapplication launch org.example.fooview "$@"


    ;;
esac