GNOME Goal #1: Move from popt to GOption

Since GNOME 2.10, GLib provides GOption, a commandline option parser. The help output of your program will be much nicer And it will enable us to slowly get rid of popt (even if libgnome will still have to depend on it for compatibility reasons).

The documentation is fairly complete, so go read it!

To know if a module uses popt and is concerned by this migration, you can grep for POPT in the whole module. If there's no result, you can be 95% sure that it's not used by the module.

Try to put a descriptive string as argument of g_option_context_new(). A good string might be the one you have as comment in the .desktop file for the module. Are we sure that this is the right usage of this argument? See bug #336085 -- ClaudioSaavedra.

Note that you don't have to call g_option_context_free() since GnomeProgram will do it when you unref it.

GOption will also automatically call g_set_progname() for you.

The most noticable difference is the change in the structure:

struct poptOption {
  const char * longName; /* may be NULL */
  char shortName;         /* may be '\0' */
  int argInfo;
  void * arg;             /* depends on argInfo */
  int val;                /* 0 means don't return, just update flag */
  char * descrip;         /* description for autohelp -- may be NULL */
  char * argDescrip;      /* argument description for autohelp */
};

typedef struct {
  const gchar *long_name;
  gchar        short_name;
  gint         flags;

  GOptionArg   arg;
  gpointer     arg_data;
  
  const gchar *description;
  const gchar *arg_description;
} GOptionEntry;

Also, don't forget to look at G_OPTION_REMAINING if you used to parse argv yourself (looking for filename arguments, eg).

libgnome 2.14 supports GOption and makes it easy to use it. Here's a short example:

static const GOptionEntry options[] = {
        { "size", 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_STRING, &size, N_("Specify the size"), NULL},
        { G_OPTION_REMAINING, 0, 0, G_OPTION_ARG_FILENAME_ARRAY, &files, NULL,  N_("[FILE...]") },
        { NULL}
};

int
main (int argc, char **argv)
{
        GnomeProgram *program;
        GOptionContext *context;

        /* do what you want to do before */

        /* gettext needs to be initialised here, at the latest */
        bindtextdomain (GETTEXT_PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
        bind_textdomain_codeset (GETTEXT_PACKAGE, "UTF-8");
        textdomain (GETTEXT_PACKAGE);

        context = g_option_context_new (_("- Show how to use GOption"));

        g_option_context_add_main_entries (context, options, GETTEXT_PACKAGE);

        program = gnome_program_init
                            (argv [0], "0.0.0.0", LIBGNOMEUI_MODULE,
                            argc, argv,
                            GNOME_PARAM_GOPTION_CONTEXT, context,
                            GNOME_PARAM_NONE);

        /* you can now use the size and files variables */

       g_object_unref (program);
       exit (0);
}

Note that you can ignore unknown options with g_option_context_set_ignore_unknown_options (context, TRUE);

Also because GOption support for libgnome was added in 2.14 (in GLib much earlier), you need to update configure.(ac|in) to require libgnome 2.14 like this:

LIBGNOME_REQUIRED=2.14.0
PKG_CHECK_MODULES([MYLIBS],[libgnome-2.0 >= $LIBGNOME_REQUIRED])

Status of this goal

1 module remaining

State	Markup
todo	`<: #ff8080> todo`
patch	`<: #ffc849> [[wiki:GnomeBug:xxxxx\|patch]]`
done	`<: #80ff80> [[wiki:GnomeBug:xxxxx\|done]]`
not needed	`<: #80ff80> not needed`

Above are the states and corresponding markup to update the modules state table below.

Tarball	Status
Desktop
alacarte	not needed
bug-buddy	done
cheese	done
control-center	done
dasher	done
deskbar-applet	not needed
eel	done
ekiga	done
eog	done
epiphany	done
evince	done
evolution-data-server	done
evolution	done
evolution-exchange	not needed
evolution-webcal	done
fast-user-switch-applet	not needed
file-roller	done
gcalctool	not needed
gconf-editor	done
gdm	done
gedit	done
gnome-applets	done
gnome-backgrounds	not needed
gnome-desktop	not needed
gnome-doc-utils	not needed
gnome-games	done
gnome-icon-theme	not needed
gnome-keyring	not needed
gnome-netstatus	not needed
gnome-nettool	done
gnome-mag	done
gnome-media	done
gnome-menus	not needed
gnome-panel	done
gnome-power-manager	done
gnome-python-desktop	not needed
gnome-screensaver	done
gnome-session	done
gnome-settings-daemon	done
gnome-speech	not needed
gnome-system-monitor	not needed
gnome-system-tools	done
gnome-terminal	done
gnome-themes	not needed
gnome-user-docs	not needed
gnome-utils	done
gnome-volume-manager	done
gok	done
gstreamer	done
gst-plugins	not needed
gtk-engines	not needed
gtkhtml	not needed
gtksourceview	not needed
gucharmap	done
gvfs	done
libgail-gnome	not needed
libgtop	done
libgweather	done
liboobs	not needed
librsvg	done
libsoup	not needed
libwnck	not needed
metacity	done
mousetweaks	done
nautilus	done
nautilus-cd-burner	done
orca	not needed
pygtksourceview	not needed
scrollkeeper	not needed
Seahorse	done
sound-juicer	done
swfdec-gnome	done
tomboy	not needed
totem-pl-parser	done
totem	done
vinagre	done
vino	not needed
vte	not needed
yelp	done
zenity	done
Desktop (to be deprecated)
gnome-keyring-manager	done
libgnomeprint	done
libgnomeprintui	done
Platform
GConf	done
at-spi	done
atk	not needed
gail	not needed
glib	not needed
gnome-mime-data	not needed
gnome-vfs	done
gtk+	done
gtk-doc	not needed
intltool	not needed
libglade	not needed
libxml2	not needed
libxslt	not needed
pango	done
pkgconfig	not needed	Has its own copy of popt
Platform (to be deprecated)
ORBit2	done
audiofile	not needed
esound	not needed
libIDL	not needed
libart_lgpl	not needed
libbonobo	done
libbonoboui	done
libgnome	done
libgnomecanvas	not needed
libgnomeui	done
Admin
pessulus	not needed
sabayon	not needed
Development Tools
accerciser	not needed
anjuta	done
devhelp	done
gdl	not needed
glade3	done
gnome-build	done
gnome-devel-docs	not needed
Bindings (C++)
glibmm	not needed
gtkmm	not needed
libglademm	not needed
gconfmm	not needed
libgnomecanvasmm	not needed
libgnome-vfsmm	not needed
libgnomemm	done
libgnomeuimm	done
libxml++	not needed
Bindings (java)
glib-java (jg-common)	not needed
libgtk-java	not needed
libgnome-java	not needed
libgconf-java	not needed
libglade-java	not needed
Bindings (perl)
Glib	not needed
Gtk2	not needed
Gtk2-GladeXML	not needed
Gnome2-GConf	not needed
Gnome2-Canvas	not needed
Gnome2-VFS	not needed
Gnome2	not needed
Bindings (python)
pygobject	done
pygtk	not needed
GnomePython	done
Other
camorama	to do
gnome-cups-manager	done
gthumb	done
libgda	done
startup-notification	not needed