GTK+ FAQ

Tony Gale

Shawn Amundson

Emmanuel Deloget


Table of Contents
General Information
Note: This FAQ is undergoing conversion to GTK+ 2.x
Before anything else: the greetings [GTK 2.x]
Authors [GTK 2.x]
What is GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
What is the + in GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
Does the G in GTK+, GDK and GLib stand for? [GTK 2.x]
Where is the documentation for GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
Is there a mailing list (or mailing list archive) for GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
How to get help with GTK+ [GTK 2.x]
How to report bugs in GTK+ [GTK 2.x]
Is there a Windows version of GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
What applications have been written with GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
How to find, configure, install, and troubleshoot GTK+
What do I need to compile GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
Where can I get GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
How do I configure/compile GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
When compiling GTK+ I get an error like: make: file `Makefile' line 456: Syntax error [GTK 2.x]
I've compiled and installed GTK+, but I can't get any programs to link with it! [GTK 2.x]
When installing a GTK+ application, configure reports that it can't find GTK. [GTK 2.x]
Development of GTK+
Whats this CVS thing that everyone keeps talking about, and how do I access it? [GTK 2.x]
How can I contribute to GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
How do I know if my patch got applied, and if not, why not? [GTK 2.x]
What is the policy on incorporating new widgets into the library? [GTK 2.x]
Is anyone working on bindings for languages other than C? [GTK 2.x]
Development with GTK+: the begining
How do I get started? [GTK 2.x]
How do I use the Glade GUI builder with GTK+? [GTK 2.x]
How do I write security sensitive/SUID/SGID programs with GTK+? Is GTK+ secure? What's this GTK_MODULES security hole I heard about? [GTK 2.x]
I tried to compile a small Hello World of mine, but it failed. Any clue? [GTK 2.x]
What about using the make utility? [GTK 2.x]
I use the backquote stuff in my makefiles, but my make process failed. [GTK 2.x]
I want to add some configure stuff, how could I do this? [GTK 2.x]
I try to debug my GTK+ application with gdb, but it hangs my X server when I hit some breakpoint. Any Idea? [GTK 2.x]
Development with GTK+: general questions
What widgets are in GTK?
Is GTK+ thread safe? How do I write multi-threaded GTK+ applications? [GTK 2.x]
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]
What's an easy way to run a function in the thread with the main loop? [GTK 2.x]
Why does this strange 'x io error' occur when I fork() in my GTK+ app? [GTK 2.x]
Why don't the contents of a button move when the button is pressed? Here's a patch to make it work that way... [GTK 2.x]
How do I identifiy a widgets top level window or other ancestor? [GTK 2.x]
How do I get the Window ID of a GtkWindow? [GTK 2.x]
How do I catch a double click event? [GTK 2.x]
By the way, what are the differences between signals and events?
Data I pass to the delete_event (or other event) handler gets corrupted.
I have my signal connected to the the (whatever) event, but it seems I don't catch it. What's wrong?
I need to add a new signal to a GTK+ widget. Any idea?
Is it possible to get some text displayed which is truncated to fit inside its allocation?
How do I make my window modal? / How do I make a single window active?
Why doesn't my widget (e.g. progressbar) update? [GTK 2.x]
How do I attach data to some GTK+ object/widget? [GTK 2.x]
How do I remove the data I have attached to an object?
How do I reparent a widget?
How could I get any widgets position?
How do I set the size of a widget/window? How do I prevent the user resizing my window? [GTK 2.x]
How do I add a popup menu to my GTK+ application?
How do I disable or enable a widget, such as a button?
Shouldn't the text argument in the gtk_clist_* functions be declared const?
How do I render pixels (image data) to the screen?
How do I create a pixmap without having my window being realized/shown?
How do I do drag-and-drop?
Why does GTK+/GLib leak memory?
Development with GTK+: widget specific questions
How do I find out about the selection of a GtkList?
How do I stop the column headings of a GtkCList disappearing when the list is scrolled?
I don't want the user of my applications to enter text into a GtkCombo. Any idea?
How do I catch a combo box change?
How can I define a separation line in a menu?
How can I right justify a menu, such as Help?
How do I add some underlined accelerators to menu items?
How can I retrieve the text from a GtkMenuItem?
How do I right (or otherwise) justify a GtkLabel?
How do I set the background color of a GtkLabel widget?
How do I set the color and font of a GtkLabel using a Resource File?
How do I configure Tooltips in a Resource File?
I can't add more than (something like) 2000 chars in a GtkEntry. What's wrong?
How do I make a GtkEntry widget activate on pressing the Return key?
How do I validate/limit/filter the input to a GtkEntry? [GTK 2.x]
How do I use horizontal scrollbars with a GtkText widget?
How do I change the font of a GtkText widget?
How do I set the cursor position in a GtkText object?
About GDK
What is GDK?
How do I use color allocation?
About GLib
What is GLib?
How can I use the doubly linked lists?
Memory does not seem to be released when I free the list nodes I've allocated
Why use g_print, g_malloc, g_strdup and fellow glib functions?
What's a GScanner and how do I use one?
GTK+ FAQ Contributions, Maintainers and Copyright