Introduction to GTK 4
The GTK 4 package contains
libraries used for creating graphical user interfaces for
applications.
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
Note
Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages
properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most
recent stable versions of the books.
Package Information
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Download (HTTP):
https://download.gnome.org/sources/gtk/4.16/gtk-4.16.7.tar.xz
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Download MD5 sum: e8d88098daebb2c573690827152908ac
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Download size: 18 MB
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Estimated disk space required: 1.1 GB (with docs; add 154 MB
for tests)
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Estimated build time: 1.7 SBU (using parallelism=4; with
docs; add 1.1 SBU for tests or 3.7 SBU for NVIDIA)
GTK 4 Dependencies
Required
FriBidi-1.0.16, gdk-pixbuf-2.42.12, graphene-1.10.8,
ISO Codes-4.17.0, libepoxy-1.5.10,
libxkbcommon-1.7.0, Pango-1.54.0, PyGObject-3.50.0, and wayland-protocols-1.38
Recommended
adwaita-icon-theme-47.0 (default for
some gtk4 settings keys), gst-plugins-bad-1.24.9, glslc from shaderc-2024.3,
gst-plugins-good-1.24.9 (runtime,
built with libvpx-1.15.0), hicolor-icon-theme-0.18 (needed for
tests and for defaults), and librsvg-2.59.2, and Vulkan-Loader-1.3.301
Recommended (Required if building GNOME)
GLib-2.82.2 (with GObject Introspection) and
Vulkan-Loader-1.3.301
Optional
Avahi-0.8 (for some tests), colord-1.4.7,
Cups-2.4.11, docutils-0.21.2, Gi-DocGen-2024.1, Highlight-4.14 (runtime, only used by
gtk4-demo for syntax
highlighting of demo source code), libcloudproviders-0.3.6, sassc-3.6.2, tinysparql-3.8.1, cpdb, pydbus (for
some tests), and sysprof
Installation of GTK 4
Install GTK 4 by running the
following commands:
mkdir build &&
cd build &&
meson setup --prefix=/usr \
--buildtype=release \
-D broadway-backend=true \
-D introspection=enabled \
-D vulkan=enabled \
.. &&
ninja
If you have Gi-DocGen-2024.1 installed and wish to build
the API documentation for this package, issue:
sed "s@'doc'@& / 'gtk-4.16.7'@" -i ../docs/reference/meson.build &&
meson configure -D documentation=true &&
ninja
To run the tests, issue:
env -u{GALLIUM_DRIVER,MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE} LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 \
dbus-run-session meson test --setup x11 --no-suite={headless,needs-udmabuf}
If you are in a Wayland session, replace the one occurrence of
x11 with wayland. One test is known to fail if Cantrell fonts
are not installed. About a dozen of tests are known to fail with
minor (mostly invisible) differences between the render output and
the shipped reference image. Issue grep 'not ok' meson-logs/testlog-x11.txt
-B3 (use testlog-wayland.txt if testing in a Wayland
session) to list them and the image files showing the render
output, the reference output, and the differences. You may take a
look at those images to ensure the differences are insignificant.
Many tests will fail if ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini exists and the
gtk-modules line is not commented out. Several other tests may fail
for unknown reason. On systems with NVIDIA graphics cards, the
tests may take significantly longer.
Now, as the root user:
ninja install
Command Explanations
--buildtype=release:
Specify a buildtype suitable for stable releases of the package, as
the default may produce unoptimized binaries.
-D broadway-backend=true:
This switch enables the HTML5 GDK backend.
-D introspection=enabled:
This switch enables using GObject Introspection to generate GIR
bindings of this packages. These bindings are required by GNOME.
-D cloudproviders=enabled: Use this
switch if you have libcloudproviders-0.3.6 installed and
wish to enable support for cloud providers in a file chooser
window.
-D tracker=enabled: Use this switch if
you have tinysparql-3.8.1 installed and wish to use
search functionality when running a file chooser.
-D colord=enabled: Use this switch if
you have colord-1.4.7 installed and wish to use colord
with the CUPS printing backend.
-D man-pages=true: Use this switch if
you have docutils-0.21.2 installed and wish to
generate the man pages.
-D sysprof=enabled: Use this switch if
you have sysprof installed and
wish to enable tracing support for GTK4-based applications.
-D vulkan=disabled: Use this switch
instead of -D
vulkan=enabled if you don't have Vulkan-Loader-1.3.301 or glslc from shaderc-2024.3
installed. It will disable the Vulkan backend that the upstream
prefers to use on Wayland-based graphical environments.
LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1: Force the test
suite to use the softpipe or llvmpipe driver from Mesa. The test
suite is so sensitive that the minor differences caused by a
different Mesa driver can trigger test failures.
env
-u{GALLIUM_DRIVER,MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE}:
Unset variables which may conflict with LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1.
--no-suite={headless,needs-udmabuf}:
Disable the tests requiring the external dependency pydbus, and the
tests requiring the device node /dev/udmabuf. The device node not exist if the
feature is not enabled in the kernel configuration, and even if it
exists it cannot be accessed as unprivileged users.
Configuring GTK 4
Config Files
~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini and
/usr/share/gtk-4.0/settings.ini
Configuration Information
GTK 4 themes change the way a
GTK 4 application looks. An icon
theme can be used to change the icons that appear on the
application's toolbar. If you have installed a GTK 4 theme (e.g. the Adwaita theme built in
GTK 4), an icon theme (such as
oxygen-icons-6.0.0) and/or a font
(Dejavu fonts), you can set your
preferences in ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini, or the default
system-wide configuration file (as the root user), in /usr/share/gtk-4.0/settings.ini. For the local
user, an example is:
mkdir -pv ~/.config/gtk-4.0
cat > ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini << "EOF"
[Settings]
gtk-theme-name = Adwaita
gtk-icon-theme-name = oxygen
gtk-font-name = DejaVu Sans 12
gtk-cursor-theme-size = 18
gtk-xft-antialias = 1
gtk-xft-hinting = 1
gtk-xft-hintstyle = hintslight
gtk-xft-rgba = rgb
gtk-cursor-theme-name = Adwaita
EOF
There are many settings keys, some with default values. You can
find them at Settings:
GTK 4 Reference Manual.
Contents
Installed Programs:
gtk4-broadwayd, gtk4-builder-tool,
gtk4-demo, gtk4-demo-application, gtk4-encode-symbolic-svg,
gtk4-icon-browser, gtk4-launch, gtk4-node-editor,
gtk4-print-editor, gtk4-query-settings, gtk4-update-icon-cache,
and gtk4-widget-factory
Installed Libraries:
libgtk-4.so
Installed Directories:
/usr/include/gtk-4.0, /usr/lib/gtk-4.0,
and /usr/share/gtk-4.0
Short Descriptions
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gtk4-broadwayd
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provides support for displaying GTK 4 applications in a
web browser using HTML5 and web sockets
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gtk4-builder-tool
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performs various operations on GtkBuilder .ui files
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gtk4-demo
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is a simple program that demonstrates some of the tasks
that can be done with GTK 4
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gtk4-demo-application
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is a simple GTK 4 application which is useful for testing
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gtk4-encode-symbolic-svg
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converts symbolic SVG icons into special PNG files. GTK 4
can load and recolor these PNGs, just like original SVGs,
but loading them is much faster
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gtk4-icon-browser
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is a utility to explore the icons in the current icon
theme. It shows icons in various sizes, their symbolic
variants when available, as well as a description of the
icon and its context
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gtk4-launch
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launches an application using the given name. The name
should match the application .desktop file name (as seen
in /usr/share/applications), with or
without the '.desktop' extension
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gtk4-node-editor
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is a utility to show and edit render node files. Such
render node files can be obtained e.g. from the GTK
inspector
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gtk4-print-editor
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is a simple program to demonstrate printing using GTK 4
applications
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gtk4-query-settings
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provides a complete listing of all settings related to
GTK 4
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gtk4-update-icon-cache
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is an icon theme caching utility that creates mmap()able
cache files for icon themes
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gtk4-widget-factory
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is a program to view GTK 4 themes and widgets
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libgtk-4.so
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contains functions that provide an API to implement
graphical user interfaces
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