GTK+ FAQ

Tony Gale

Shawn Amundson

Emmanuel Deloget

This document is intended to answer questions that are likely to be frequently asked by programmers using GTK+ or people who are just looking at using GTK+.

Note: This FAQ mainly covers GTK+ 1.2. Where the text covers GTK+ 2.x this will be indicated

Table of Contents

1. General Information

1.1. Note: This FAQ mainly covers GTK+ 1.2
1.2. Before anything else: the greetings
1.3. Authors
1.4. What is GTK+?
1.5. What is the + in GTK+?
1.6. Does the G in GTK+, GDK and GLib stand for?
1.7. Where is the documentation for GTK+?
1.8. Is there a mailing list (or mailing list archive) for GTK+?
1.9. How to get help with GTK+
1.10. How to report bugs in GTK+
1.11. Is there a Windows version of GTK+?
1.12. What applications have been written with GTK+?
1.13. I'm looking for an application to write in GTK+. How about an IRC client?

2. How to find, configure, install, and troubleshoot GTK+

2.1. What do I need to run GTK+?
2.2. Where can I get GTK+?
2.3. How do I configure/compile GTK+?
2.4. When compiling GTK+ I get an error like: make: file `Makefile' line 456: Syntax error
2.5. I've compiled and installed GTK+, but I can't get any programs to link with it! [GTK 2.x]
2.6. When installing a GTK+ application, configure reports that it can't find GTK. [GTK 2.x]

3. Development of GTK+

3.1. Whats this CVS thing that everyone keeps talking about, and how do I access it?
3.2. How can I contribute to GTK+?
3.3. How do I know if my patch got applied, and if not, why not?
3.4. What is the policy on incorporating new widgets into the library?
3.5. Is anyone working on bindings for languages other than C?

4. Development with GTK+: the begining

4.1. How do I get started?
4.2. How do I use the Glade GUI builder with GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
4.3. How do I write security sensitive/SUID/SGID programs with GTK+? Is GTK+ secure? What's this GTK_MODULES security hole I heard about?
4.4. I tried to compile a small Hello World of mine, but it failed. Any clue? [GTK 2.x]
4.5. What about using the make utility? [GTK 2.x]
4.6. I use the backquote stuff in my makefiles, but my make process failed.
4.7. I want to add some configure stuff, how could I do this?
4.8. I try to debug my GTK+ application with gdb, but it hangs my X server when I hit some breakpoint. Any Idea?

5. Development with GTK+: general questions

5.1. What widgets are in GTK?
5.2. Is GTK+ thread safe? How do I write multi-threaded GTK+ applications? [GTK 2.x]
5.3. I'm doing some stuff with GTK+ in a separate thread, and properly locking with gdk_threads_enter/gdk_threads_leave() but the display doesn't update properly. [GTK 2.x]
5.4. What's an easy way to run a function in the thread with the main loop? [GTK 2.x]
5.5. Why does this strange 'x io error' occur when I fork() in my GTK+ app?
5.6. Why don't the contents of a button move when the button is pressed? Here's a patch to make it work that way...
5.7. How do I identifiy a widgets top level window or other ancestor?
5.8. How do I get the Window ID of a GtkWindow?
5.9. How do I catch a double click event (in a list widget, for example)?
5.10. By the way, what are the differences between signals and events?
5.11. Data I pass to the delete_event (or other event) handler gets corrupted.
5.12. I have my signal connected to the the (whatever) event, but it seems I don't catch it. What's wrong?
5.13. I need to add a new signal to a GTK+ widget. Any idea?
5.14. Is it possible to get some text displayed which is truncated to fit inside its allocation?
5.15. How do I make my window modal? / How do I make a single window active?
5.16. Why doesn't my widget (e.g. progressbar) update?
5.17. How do I attach data to some GTK+ object/widget? [GTK 2.x]
5.18. How do I remove the data I have attached to an object?
5.19. How do I reparent a widget?
5.20. How could I get any widgets position?
5.21. How do I set the size of a widget/window? How do I prevent the user resizing my window? [GTK 2.x]
5.22. How do I add a popup menu to my GTK+ application?
5.23. How do I disable or enable a widget, such as a button?
5.24. Shouldn't the text argument in the gtk_clist_* functions be declared const?
5.25. How do I render pixels (image data) to the screen?
5.26. How do I create a pixmap without having my window being realized/shown?
5.27. How do I do drag-and-drop?
5.28. Why does GTK+/GLib leak memory?

6. Development with GTK+: widget specific questions

6.1. How do I find out about the selection of a GtkList?
6.2. How do I stop the column headings of a GtkCList disappearing when the list is scrolled?
6.3. I don't want the user of my applications to enter text into a GtkCombo. Any idea?
6.4. How do I catch a combo box change?
6.5. How can I define a separation line in a menu?
6.6. How can I right justify a menu, such as Help?
6.7. How do I add some underlined accelerators to menu items?
6.8. How can I retrieve the text from a GtkMenuItem?
6.9. How do I right (or otherwise) justify a GtkLabel?
6.10. How do I set the background color of a GtkLabel widget?
6.11. How do I set the color and font of a GtkLabel using a Resource File?
6.12. How do I configure Tooltips in a Resource File?
6.13. I can't add more than (something like) 2000 chars in a GtkEntry. What's wrong?
6.14. How do I make a GtkEntry widget activate on pressing the Return key?
6.15. How do I validate/limit/filter the input to a GtkEntry?
6.16. How do I use horizontal scrollbars with a GtkText widget?
6.17. How do I change the font of a GtkText widget?
6.18. How do I set the cursor position in a GtkText object?

7. About GDK

7.1. What is GDK?
7.2. How do I use color allocation?

8. About GLib

8.1. What is GLib?
8.2. How can I use the doubly linked lists?
8.3. Memory does not seem to be released when I free the list nodes I've allocated
8.4. Why use g_print, g_malloc, g_strdup and fellow glib functions?
8.5. What's a GScanner and how do I use one?

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