ee247c0a2d
GArray supports a "zero_terminated" flag, but GPtrArray doesn't. This is odd, because especially for a pointer array it makes sense to have a %NULL sentinel. This would be for example useful to track or construct a strv array with a GPtrArray. As workaround for this missing feature you could use a GArray instead (ugly) or to explicitly add the %NULL element. However the latter increases the "len" of the array, which can be problematic if you want to still use the GPtrArray for other purposes. Add API for marking a GPtrArray as %NULL terminated. In that case, the API will ensure that there is always a valid %NULL sentinel after the array. Note that the API does not enforce that a %NULL terminated API actually has any data allocated. That means, even with a %NULL terminated array, pdata can still be %NULL (only if len is zero). Add g_ptr_array_new_null_terminated() constructor. The null-terminated flag cannot be cleared. Once the GPtrArray is flagged to be %NULL terminated, it sticks. The purpose is that once a user checks whether a GPtrArray instance is safe to be treated as a %NULL terminated array, the decision does not need to be re-evaluated. Also add a g_ptr_array_is_null_terminated(). That is useful because it allows you to check whether a GPtrArray created by somebody else is safe to use as a %NULL terminated array. Since there is no API to make an array not %NULL terminated anymore, this is not error prone. The new flag is tracked as a guint8 in GRealPtrArray. On common 64 bit architectures this does not increase the size of the struct as it fits in an existing hole. Note that this is not a bitfield because it's probably more efficient to access the entire guint8. However, there is still a 3 bytes hole (on common 32 and 64 architectures), so if we need to add more flags in the future, we still have space for 24 bits, despite the new flag not being a bitfield. The biggest downside of the patch is the runtime overhead that most operations now need to check whether %NULL termination is requested. Includes some tweaks and additional tests by Philip Withnall. https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/glib/-/issues/353
GLib
GLib is the low-level core library that forms the basis for projects such as GTK and GNOME. It provides data structure handling for C, portability wrappers, and interfaces for such runtime functionality as an event loop, threads, dynamic loading, and an object system.
The official download locations are: https://download.gnome.org/sources/glib
The official web site is: https://www.gtk.org/
Installation
See the file 'INSTALL.md'
Supported versions
Only the most recent unstable and stable release series are supported. All older versions are not supported upstream and may contain bugs, some of which may be exploitable security vulnerabilities.
See SECURITY.md for more details.
Documentation
API documentation is available online for GLib for the:
Discussion
If you have a question about how to use GLib, seek help on GNOME’s Discourse
instance. Alternatively, ask a question
on StackOverflow and tag it glib.
Reporting bugs
Bugs should be reported to the GNOME issue tracking system. You will need to create an account for yourself. You may also submit bugs by e-mail (without an account) by e-mailing incoming+gnome-glib-658-issue-@gitlab.gnome.org, but this will give you a degraded experience.
Bugs are for reporting problems in GLib itself, not for asking questions about how to use it. To ask questions, use one of our discussion forums.
In bug reports please include:
- Information about your system. For instance:
- What operating system and version
- For Linux, what version of the C library
- And anything else you think is relevant.
- How to reproduce the bug.
- If you can reproduce it with one of the test programs that are built
in the
tests/subdirectory, that will be most convenient. Otherwise, please include a short test program that exhibits the behavior. As a last resort, you can also provide a pointer to a larger piece of software that can be downloaded.
- If you can reproduce it with one of the test programs that are built
in the
- If the bug was a crash, the exact text that was printed out when the crash occurred.
- Further information such as stack traces may be useful, but is not necessary.
Contributing to GLib
Please follow the contribution guide to know how to start contributing to GLib.
Patches should be submitted as merge requests to gitlab.gnome.org. If the patch fixes an existing issue, please refer to the issue in your commit message with the following notation (for issue 123):
Closes: #123
Otherwise, create a new merge request that introduces the change. Filing a separate issue is not required.
Default branch renamed to main
The default development branch of GLib has been renamed to main. To update
your local checkout, use:
git checkout master
git branch -m master main
git fetch
git branch --unset-upstream
git branch -u origin/main
git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD refs/remotes/origin/main