GResource: GIO Reference Manual

## GResource GResource — Resource framework |

## Functions

GResource * | g_resource_load ()
GResource * | g_resource_new_from_data ()
GResource * | g_resource_ref ()
void | g_resource_unref ()
GBytes * | g_resource_lookup_data ()
GInputStream * | g_resource_open_stream ()
char ** | g_resource_enumerate_children ()
gboolean | g_resource_get_info ()
void | g_static_resource_init ()
void | g_static_resource_fini ()
GResource * | g_static_resource_get_resource ()
void | g_resources_register ()
void | g_resources_unregister ()
GBytes * | g_resources_lookup_data ()
GInputStream * | g_resources_open_stream ()
char ** | g_resources_enumerate_children ()
gboolean | g_resources_get_info ()

## Types and Values

| GResource
enum | GResourceFlags
enum | GResourceLookupFlags
struct | GStaticResource
#define | G_RESOURCE_ERROR
enum | GResourceError

## Object Hierarchy

        GBoxed
        ╰── GResource
        GEnum
        ╰── GResourceError
        GFlags
        ├── GResourceFlags
        ╰── GResourceLookupFlags

## Includes

    #include <gio/gio.h>

## Description

Applications and libraries often contain binary or textual data that is really part of the application, rather than user data. For instance GtkBuilder .ui files, splashscreen images, GMenu markup XML, CSS files, icons, etc. These are often shipped as files in `$datadir/appname`, or manually included as literal strings in the code.

The GResource API and the glib-compile-resources program provide a convenient and efficient alternative to this which has some nice properties. You maintain the files as normal files, so its easy to edit them, but during the build the files are combined into a binary bundle that is linked into the executable. This means that loading the resource files are efficient (as they are already in memory, shared with other instances) and simple (no need to check for things like I/O errors or locate the files in the filesystem). It also makes it easier to create relocatable applications.

Resource files can also be marked as compressed. Such files will be included in the resource bundle in a compressed form, but will be automatically uncompressed when the resource is used. This is very useful e.g. for larger text files that are parsed once (or rarely) and then thrown away.

Resource files can also be marked to be preprocessed, by setting the value of the `preprocess` attribute to a comma-separated list of preprocessing options. The only options currently supported are:

`xml-stripblanks` which will use the xmllint command to strip ignorable whitespace from the XML file. For this to work, the `XMLLINT` environment variable must be set to the full path to the xmllint executable, or xmllint must be in the `PATH`; otherwise the preprocessing step is skipped.

`to-pixdata` (deprecated since gdk-pixbuf 2.32) which will use the `gdk-pixbuf-pixdata` command to convert images to the GdkPixdata format, which allows you to create pixbufs directly using the data inside the resource file, rather than an (uncompressed) copy of it. For this, the `gdk-pixbuf-pixdata` program must be in the `PATH`, or the `GDK_PIXBUF_PIXDATA` environment variable must be set to the full path to the `gdk-pixbuf-pixdata` executable; otherwise the resource compiler will abort. `to-pixdata` has been deprecated since gdk-pixbuf 2.32, as GResource supports embedding modern image formats just as well. Instead of using it, embed a PNG or SVG file in your GResource.

`json-stripblanks` which will use the `json-glib-format` command to strip ignorable whitespace from the JSON file. For this to work, the `JSON_GLIB_FORMAT` environment variable must be set to the full path to the `json-glib-format` executable, or it must be in the `PATH`; otherwise the preprocessing step is skipped. In addition, at least version 1.6 of `json-glib-format` is required.

Resource files will be exported in the GResource namespace using the combination of the given `prefix` and the filename from the `file` element. The `alias` attribute can be used to alter the filename to expose them at a different location in the resource namespace. Typically, this is used to include files from a different source directory without exposing the source directory in the resource namespace, as in the example below.

Resource bundles are created by the glib-compile-resources program which takes an XML file that describes the bundle, and a set of files that the XML references. These are combined into a binary resource bundle.

An example resource description:

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    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <gresources>
      <gresource prefix="/org/gtk/Example">
        <file>data/splashscreen.png</file>
        <file compressed="true">dialog.ui</file>
        <file preprocess="xml-stripblanks">menumarkup.xml</file>
        <file alias="example.css">data/example.css</file>
      </gresource>
    </gresources>

This will create a resource bundle with the following files:

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    /org/gtk/Example/data/splashscreen.png
    /org/gtk/Example/dialog.ui
    /org/gtk/Example/menumarkup.xml
    /org/gtk/Example/example.css

Note that all resources in the process share the same namespace, so use Java-style path prefixes (like in the above example) to avoid conflicts.

You can then use glib-compile-resources to compile the XML to a binary bundle that you can load with `g_resource_load()`. However, its more common to use the --generate-source and --generate-header arguments to create a source file and header to link directly into your application. This will generate ``get_resource()``, ``register_resource()`` and ``unregister_resource()`` functions, prefixed by the `--c-name` argument passed to glib-compile-resources. ``get_resource()`` returns the generated GResource object. The register and unregister functions register the resource so its files can be accessed using `g_resources_lookup_data()`.

Once a GResource has been created and registered all the data in it can be accessed globally in the process by using API calls like `g_resources_open_stream()` to stream the data or `g_resources_lookup_data()` to get a direct pointer to the data. You can also use URIs like "resource:///org/gtk/Example/data/splashscreen.png" with GFile to access the resource data.

Some higher-level APIs, such as GtkApplication, will automatically load resources from certain well-known paths in the resource namespace as a convenience. See the documentation for those APIs for details.

There are two forms of the generated source, the default version uses the compiler support for constructor and destructor functions (where available) to automatically create and register the GResource on startup or library load time. If you pass `--manual-register`, two functions to register/unregister the resource are created instead. This requires an explicit initialization call in your application/library, but it works on all platforms, even on the minor ones where constructors are not supported. (Constructor support is available for at least Win32, Mac OS and Linux.)

Note that resource data can point directly into the data segment of e.g. a library, so if you are unloading libraries during runtime you need to be very careful with keeping around pointers to data from a resource, as this goes away when the library is unloaded. However, in practice this is not generally a problem, since most resource accesses are for your own resources, and resource data is often used once, during parsing, and then released.

When debugging a program or testing a change to an installed version, it is often useful to be able to replace resources in the program or library, without recompiling, for debugging or quick hacking and testing purposes. Since GLib 2.50, it is possible to use the `G_RESOURCE_OVERLAYS` environment variable to selectively overlay resources with replacements from the filesystem. It is a `G_SEARCHPATH_SEPARATOR`-separated list of substitutions to perform during resource lookups. It is ignored when running in a setuid process.

A substitution has the form

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    /org/gtk/libgtk=/home/desrt/gtk-overlay

The part before the `=` is the resource subpath for which the overlay applies. The part after is a filesystem path which contains files and subdirectories as you would like to be loaded as resources with the equivalent names.

In the example above, if an application tried to load a resource with the resource path `/org/gtk/libgtk/ui/gtkdialog.ui` then GResource would check the filesystem path `/home/desrt/gtk-overlay/ui/gtkdialog.ui`. If a file was found there, it would be used instead. This is an overlay, not an outright replacement, which means that if a file is not found at that path, the built-in version will be used instead. Whiteouts are not currently supported.

Substitutions must start with a slash, and must not contain a trailing slash before the '='. The path after the slash should ideally be absolute, but this is not strictly required. It is possible to overlay the location of a single resource with an individual file.

## Functions

### g_resource_load ()

    GResource *
    g_resource_load (const gchar *filename,
                     GError **error);

Loads a binary resource bundle and creates a GResource representation of it, allowing you to query it for data.

If you want to use this resource in the global resource namespace you need to register it with `g_resources_register()`.

If `filename` is empty or the data in it is corrupt, `G_RESOURCE_ERROR_INTERNAL` will be returned. If `filename` doesn’t exist, or there is an error in reading it, an error from `g_mapped_file_new()` will be returned.

#### Parameters

filename | the path of a filename to load, in the GLib filename encoding. | [type filename]
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

a new GResource, or `NULL` on error.

[transfer full]

Since: 2.32

### g_resource_new_from_data ()

    GResource *
    g_resource_new_from_data (GBytes *data,
                              GError **error);

Creates a GResource from a reference to the binary resource bundle. This will keep a reference to `data` while the resource lives, so the data should not be modified or freed.

If you want to use this resource in the global resource namespace you need to register it with `g_resources_register()`.

Note: `data` must be backed by memory that is at least pointer aligned. Otherwise this function will internally create a copy of the memory since GLib 2.56, or in older versions fail and exit the process.

If `data` is empty or corrupt, `G_RESOURCE_ERROR_INTERNAL` will be returned.

#### Parameters

data | A GBytes |
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

a new GResource, or `NULL` on error.

[transfer full]

Since: 2.32

### g_resource_ref ()

    GResource *
    g_resource_ref (GResource *resource);

Atomically increments the reference count of `resource` by one. This function is MT-safe and may be called from any thread.

#### Parameters

resource | A GResource |

#### Returns

The passed in GResource

Since: 2.32

### g_resource_unref ()

    void
    g_resource_unref (GResource *resource);

Atomically decrements the reference count of `resource` by one. If the reference count drops to 0, all memory allocated by the resource is released. This function is MT-safe and may be called from any thread.

#### Parameters

resource | A GResource |

Since: 2.32

### g_resource_lookup_data ()

    GBytes *
    g_resource_lookup_data (GResource *resource,
                            const char *path,
                            GResourceLookupFlags lookup_flags,
                            GError **error);

Looks for a file at the specified `path` in the resource and returns a GBytes that lets you directly access the data in memory.

The data is always followed by a zero byte, so you can safely use the data as a C string. However, that byte is not included in the size of the GBytes.

For uncompressed resource files this is a pointer directly into the resource bundle, which is typically in some readonly data section in the program binary. For compressed files we allocate memory on the heap and automatically uncompress the data.

`lookup_flags` controls the behaviour of the lookup.

#### Parameters

resource | A GResource |
path | A pathname inside the resource |
lookup_flags | A GResourceLookupFlags |
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

GBytes or `NULL` on error. Free the returned object with `g_bytes_unref()`.

[transfer full]

Since: 2.32

### g_resource_open_stream ()

    GInputStream *
    g_resource_open_stream (GResource *resource,
                            const char *path,
                            GResourceLookupFlags lookup_flags,
                            GError **error);

Looks for a file at the specified `path` in the resource and returns a GInputStream that lets you read the data.

`lookup_flags` controls the behaviour of the lookup.

#### Parameters

resource | A GResource |
path | A pathname inside the resource |
lookup_flags | A GResourceLookupFlags |
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

GInputStream or `NULL` on error. Free the returned object with `g_object_unref()`.

[transfer full]

Since: 2.32

### g_resource_enumerate_children ()

    char **
    g_resource_enumerate_children (GResource *resource,
                                   const char *path,
                                   GResourceLookupFlags lookup_flags,
                                   GError **error);

Returns all the names of children at the specified `path` in the resource. The return result is a `NULL` terminated list of strings which should be released with `g_strfreev()`.

If `path` is invalid or does not exist in the GResource, `G_RESOURCE_ERROR_NOT_FOUND` will be returned.

`lookup_flags` controls the behaviour of the lookup.

#### Parameters

resource | A GResource |
path | A pathname inside the resource |
lookup_flags | A GResourceLookupFlags |
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

an array of constant strings.

[array zero-terminated=1][transfer full]

Since: 2.32

### g_resource_get_info ()

    gboolean
    g_resource_get_info (GResource *resource,
                         const char *path,
                         GResourceLookupFlags lookup_flags,
                         gsize *size,
                         guint32 *flags,
                         GError **error);

Looks for a file at the specified `path` in the resource and if found returns information about it.

`lookup_flags` controls the behaviour of the lookup.

#### Parameters

resource | A GResource |
path | A pathname inside the resource |
lookup_flags | A GResourceLookupFlags |
size | a location to place the length of the contents of the file, or `NULL` if the length is not needed. | [out][optional]
flags | a location to place the flags about the file, or `NULL` if the length is not needed. | [out][optional]
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

`TRUE` if the file was found. `FALSE` if there were errors

Since: 2.32

### g_static_resource_init ()

    void
    g_static_resource_init (GStaticResource *static_resource);

Initializes a GResource from static data using a GStaticResource.

This is normally used by code generated by glib-compile-resources and is not typically used by other code.

#### Parameters

static_resource | pointer to a static GStaticResource |

Since: 2.32

### g_static_resource_fini ()

    void
    g_static_resource_fini (GStaticResource *static_resource);

Finalized a GResource initialized by `g_static_resource_init()`.

This is normally used by code generated by glib-compile-resources and is not typically used by other code.

#### Parameters

static_resource | pointer to a static GStaticResource |

Since: 2.32

### g_static_resource_get_resource ()

    GResource *
    g_static_resource_get_resource (GStaticResource *static_resource);

Gets the GResource that was registered by a call to `g_static_resource_init()`.

This is normally used by code generated by glib-compile-resources and is not typically used by other code.

#### Parameters

static_resource | pointer to a static GStaticResource |

#### Returns

a GResource.

[transfer none]

Since: 2.32

### g_resources_register ()

    void
    g_resources_register (GResource *resource);

Registers the resource with the process-global set of resources. Once a resource is registered the files in it can be accessed with the global resource lookup functions like `g_resources_lookup_data()`.

#### Parameters

resource | A GResource |

Since: 2.32

### g_resources_unregister ()

    void
    g_resources_unregister (GResource *resource);

Unregisters the resource from the process-global set of resources.

#### Parameters

resource | A GResource |

Since: 2.32

### g_resources_lookup_data ()

    GBytes *
    g_resources_lookup_data (const char *path,
                             GResourceLookupFlags lookup_flags,
                             GError **error);

Looks for a file at the specified `path` in the set of globally registered resources and returns a GBytes that lets you directly access the data in memory.

The data is always followed by a zero byte, so you can safely use the data as a C string. However, that byte is not included in the size of the GBytes.

For uncompressed resource files this is a pointer directly into the resource bundle, which is typically in some readonly data section in the program binary. For compressed files we allocate memory on the heap and automatically uncompress the data.

`lookup_flags` controls the behaviour of the lookup.

#### Parameters

path | A pathname inside the resource |
lookup_flags | A GResourceLookupFlags |
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

GBytes or `NULL` on error. Free the returned object with `g_bytes_unref()`.

[transfer full]

Since: 2.32

### g_resources_open_stream ()

    GInputStream *
    g_resources_open_stream (const char *path,
                             GResourceLookupFlags lookup_flags,
                             GError **error);

Looks for a file at the specified `path` in the set of globally registered resources and returns a GInputStream that lets you read the data.

`lookup_flags` controls the behaviour of the lookup.

#### Parameters

path | A pathname inside the resource |
lookup_flags | A GResourceLookupFlags |
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

GInputStream or `NULL` on error. Free the returned object with `g_object_unref()`.

[transfer full]

Since: 2.32

### g_resources_enumerate_children ()

    char **
    g_resources_enumerate_children (const char *path,
                                    GResourceLookupFlags lookup_flags,
                                    GError **error);

Returns all the names of children at the specified `path` in the set of globally registered resources. The return result is a `NULL` terminated list of strings which should be released with `g_strfreev()`.

`lookup_flags` controls the behaviour of the lookup.

#### Parameters

path | A pathname inside the resource |
lookup_flags | A GResourceLookupFlags |
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

an array of constant strings.

[array zero-terminated=1][transfer full]

Since: 2.32

### g_resources_get_info ()

    gboolean
    g_resources_get_info (const char *path,
                          GResourceLookupFlags lookup_flags,
                          gsize *size,
                          guint32 *flags,
                          GError **error);

Looks for a file at the specified `path` in the set of globally registered resources and if found returns information about it.

`lookup_flags` controls the behaviour of the lookup.

#### Parameters

path | A pathname inside the resource |
lookup_flags | A GResourceLookupFlags |
size | a location to place the length of the contents of the file, or `NULL` if the length is not needed. | [out][optional]
flags | a location to place the GResourceFlags about the file, or `NULL` if the flags are not needed. | [out][optional]
error | return location for a GError, or `NULL` |

#### Returns

`TRUE` if the file was found. `FALSE` if there were errors

Since: 2.32

## Types and Values

### GResource

    typedef struct _GResource GResource;

A resource bundle.

Since: 2.32

### enum GResourceFlags

GResourceFlags give information about a particular file inside a resource bundle.

#### Members

G_RESOURCE_FLAGS_NONE | No flags set. |
G_RESOURCE_FLAGS_COMPRESSED | The file is compressed. |

Since: 2.32

### enum GResourceLookupFlags

GResourceLookupFlags determine how resource path lookups are handled.

#### Members

G_RESOURCE_LOOKUP_FLAGS_NONE | No flags set. |

Since: 2.32

### struct GStaticResource

    struct GStaticResource {
    };

GStaticResource is an opaque data structure and can only be accessed using the following functions.

### G_RESOURCE_ERROR

    #define G_RESOURCE_ERROR (g_resource_error_quark ())

Error domain for GResource. Errors in this domain will be from the GResourceError enumeration. See GError for more information on error domains.

### enum GResourceError

An error code used with `G_RESOURCE_ERROR` in a GError returned from a GResource routine.

#### Members

G_RESOURCE_ERROR_NOT_FOUND | no file was found at the requested path |
G_RESOURCE_ERROR_INTERNAL | unknown error |

Since: 2.32