Rust GTK 3 bindings

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Rust bindings and wrappers for GTK 3, part of gtk3-rs, a multi-platform GUI toolkit. It is a part of gtk-rs.

GTK 3.22.30 is the lowest supported version for the underlying library.

Minimum supported Rust version

Currently, the minimum supported Rust version is 1.70.0.

Building

gtk expects GTK, GLib and Cairo development files to be installed on your system. See the GTK installation page.

Using

We recommend using crates from crates.io, as demonstrated here.

If you want to track the bleeding edge, use the git dependency instead:

[dependencies]
gtk = { git = "https://github.com/gtk-rs/gtk3-rs.git" }

Avoid mixing versioned and git crates like this:

# This will not compile
[dependencies]
gtk = "0.13"
gtk = { git = "https://github.com/gtk-rs/gtk3-rs.git" }

"Hello, World!" example program

//! GTK needs to be initialized before use by calling [fn@init]. Creating an [struct@Application] will call [fn@init] for you.

use gtk::prelude::*;
use gtk::{Application, ApplicationWindow};

fn main() {
    let app = Application::builder()
        .application_id("org.example.HelloWorld")
        .build();

    app.connect_activate(|app| {
        // We create the main window.
        let win = ApplicationWindow::builder()
            .application(app)
            .default_width(320)
            .default_height(200)
            .title("Hello, World!")
            .build();

        // Don't forget to make all widgets visible.
        win.show_all();
    });

    app.run();
}

The main loop

In a typical GTK application you set up the UI, assign signal handlers and run the main event loop.

use gtk::prelude::*;
use gtk::{Application, ApplicationWindow, Button};

fn main() {
    let application = Application::builder()
        .application_id("com.example.FirstGtkApp")
        .build();

    application.connect_activate(|app| {
        let window = ApplicationWindow::builder()
            .application(app)
            .title("First GTK Program")
            .default_width(350)
            .default_height(70)
            .build();

        let button = Button::with_label("Click me!");
        button.connect_clicked(|_| {
            eprintln!("Clicked!");
        });
        window.add(&button);

        window.show_all();
    });

    application.run();
}

Threads

GTK is not thread-safe. Accordingly, none of this crate's structs implement [Send] or [Sync].

The thread where [fn@init] was called is considered the main thread. OS X has its own notion of the main thread and [fn@init] must be called on that thread. After successful initialization, calling any gtk or [mod@gdk] functions (including [fn@init]) from other threads will panic.

Any thread can schedule a closure to be run by the main loop on the main thread via [fn@glib::idle_add] or [fn@glib::timeout_add]. While working with GTK you might need the [fn@glib::idle_add_local] or [fn@glib::timeout_add_local] version without the [Send] bound. Those may only be called from the main thread.

Panics

The gtk and [mod@gdk] crates have some run-time safety and contract checks.

• Any constructor or free function will panic if called before [fn@init] or on a non-main thread.

• Any [&str] or &Path parameter with an interior null (\0) character will cause a panic.

• Some functions will panic if supplied out-of-range integer parameters. All such cases will be documented individually but they are not yet.

• A panic in a closure that handles signals or in any other closure passed to a gtk function will abort the process.

Features

Library versions

By default this crate provides only GTK 3.22.30 APIs. You can access additional functionality by selecting one of the v3_24, etc. features.

Cargo.toml example:

[dependencies.gtk]
version = "0.x.y"
features = ["v3_24"]

Take care when choosing the version to target: some of your users might not have easy access to the latest ones. The higher the version, the fewer users will have it installed.

Documentation

Most of this documentation is generated from the C API.

Until all parts of the documentation have been reviewed there will be incongruities with the actual Rust API.

• Rust API - Stable
• Rust API - Development
• C API
• GTK Installation instructions

Generate the docs:

> RUSTFLAGS="--cfg docsrs" cargo doc

(if the installed GTK+ version is lower than 3.16, adjust the feature name accordingly).

Contribute

Contributor you're welcome!

See the general bindings documentation.

Most of the bindings (src/auto) are generated by gir using this configuration file. After editing Gir.toml the sources can be regenerated with

> make gir

When opening a PR please put the changes to the src/auto directory in a separate commit.

You may also wish to run cargo clippy -- -D warnings and check that you're clean because otherwise you may be surprised when CI fails.

See Also

• atk
• cairo
• gdk
• gdk-pixbuf
• gio
• glib
• pango

But also:

• gtk-rs project overview
• General GLib family types and object system overview
• GTK documentation

License

gtk is available under the MIT License, please refer to it.