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.Application 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 applications.

       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
          specific 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
          application ID, as above.

       action <APP-ID> <ACTION> [PARAMETER]
          Invokes  the  named  action  (in  the same way as would occur when activating an action
          specified 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()