Default files =============
An application can cause GTK+ to parse a specific RC file by calling
Gtk.RC.Parse. In addition to this, certain files will be read at the end
of Gtk.Main.Init. Unless modified, the files looked for will be
The set of these default files can be retrieved with
Gtk.RC.Get_Default_Files and modified with Gtk.RC.Add_Default_File and
Gtk.RC.Set_Default_Files. Additionally, the GTK2_RC_FILES environment
variable can be set to a G_SEARCHPATH_SEPARATOR_S-separated list of files
in order to overwrite the set of default files at runtime.
For each RC file, in addition to the file itself, GTK+ will look for a
locale-specific file that will be parsed after the main file. For instance,
if LANG is set to ja_JP.ujis, when loading the default file ~/.gtkrc then
GTK+ looks for ~/.gtkrc.ja_JP and ~/.gtkrc.ja, and parses the first of
those that exists.
Pathnames and patterns
======================
A resource file defines a number of styles and key bindings and attaches
them to particular widgets. The attachment is done by the widget,
widget_class, and class declarations. As an example of such a statement:
widget "mywindow.*.GtkEntry" style "my-entry-class"
attaches the style "my-entry-class" to all widgets whose widget class
matches the pattern "mywindow.*.GtkEntry".
The patterns here are given in the standard shell glob syntax. The "?"
wildcard matches any character, while "*" matches zero or more of any
character. The three types of matching are against the widget path, the
class path and the class hierarchy. Both the widget and the class paths
consists of a "." separated list of all the parents of the widget and the
widget itself from outermost to innermost. The difference is that in the
widget path, the name assigned by Gtk.Widget.Set_Name is used if present,
otherwise the class name of the widget, while for the class path, the class
name is always used.
So, if you have a GtkEntry named "myentry", inside of a of a window named
"mywindow", then the widget path is: "mwindow.GtkHBox.myentry" while the
class path is: "GtkWindow.GtkHBox.GtkEntry".
Matching against class is a little different. The pattern match is done
against all class names in the widgets class hierarchy (not the layout
hierarchy) in sequence, so the pattern:
class "GtkButton" style "my-style"
will match not just Gtk_Button widgets, but also Gtk_Toggle_Button and
Gtk_Check_Button widgets, since those classes derive from Gtk_Button.
Additionally, a priority can be specified for each pattern, and styles
override other styles first by priority, then by pattern type and then by
order of specification (later overrides earlier). The priorities that can
be specified are (highest to lowest):
highest
rc
theme
application
gtk
lowest
rc is the default for styles read from an RC file, theme is the default for
styles read from theme RC files, application should be used for styles an
application sets up, and gtk is used for styles that GTK+ creates
internally.
Toplevel declarations
=====================
An RC file is a text file which is composed of a sequence of declarations.
'#' characters delimit comments and the portion of a line after a '#' is
ignored when parsing an RC file.
The possible toplevel declarations are:
binding name { ... }
Declares a binding set.
class pattern [ style | binding ][ : priority ] name
Specifies a style or binding set for a particular branch of the
inheritance hierarchy.
include filename
Parses another file at this point. If filename is not an absolute
filename, it is searched in the directories of the currently open RC
files.
GTK+ also tries to load a locale-specific variant of the included
file.
module_path path
Sets a path (a list of directories separated by colons) that will be
searched for theme engines referenced in RC files.
pixmap_path path
Sets a path (a list of directories separated by colons) that will be
searched for pixmaps referenced in RC files.
im_module_file pathname
Sets the pathname for the IM modules file. Setting this from RC
files is deprecated; you should use the environment variable
GTK_IM_MODULE_FILE instead.
style name [ = parent ] { ... }
Declares a style.
widget pattern [ style | binding ][ : priority ] name
Specifies a style or binding set for a particular group of widgets
by matching on the widget pathname.
widget_class pattern [ style | binding ][ : priority ] name
Specifies a style or binding set for a particular group of widgets
by matching on the class pathname.
setting = value
Specifies a value for a setting. Note that settings in RC files are
overwritten by system-wide settings which are managed by an
XSettings manager. See Gtk.Settings.
Styles
======
A RC style is specified by a style declaration in a RC file, and then bound
to widgets with a widget, widget_class, or class declaration. All styles
applying to a particular widget are composited together with widget
declarations overriding widget_class declarations which, in turn, override
class declarations. Within each type of declaration, later declarations
override earlier ones.
Within a style declaration, the possible elements are:
bg[state] = color
Sets the color used for the background of most widgets.
fg[state] = color
Sets the color used for the foreground of most widgets.
base[state] = color
Sets the color used for the background of widgets displaying editable
text. This color is used for the background of, among others,
Gtk_Text, Gtk_Entry, Gtk_List, and Gtk_CList.
text[state] = color
Sets the color used for foreground of widgets using base for the
background color.
xthickness = number
Sets the xthickness, which is used for various horizontal padding
values in GTK+.
ythickness = number
Sets the ythickness, which is used for various vertical padding
values in GTK+.
bg_pixmap[state] = pixmap
Sets a background pixmap to be used in place of the bg color (or for
GtkText, in place of the base color. The special value "
The colors and background pixmaps are specified as a function of the state
of the widget. The states are:
NORMAL
A color used for a widget in its normal state.
ACTIVE
A variant of the NORMAL color used when the widget is in the
GTK_STATE_ACTIVE state, and also for the trough of a ScrollBar, tabs
of a NoteBook other than the current tab and similar areas.
Frequently, this should be a darker variant of the NORMAL color.
PRELIGHT
A color used for widgets in the GTK_STATE_PRELIGHT state. This state
is the used for Buttons and MenuItems that have the mouse cursor over
them, and for their children.
SELECTED
A color used to highlight data selected by the user. for instance, the
selected items in a list widget, and the selection in an editable
widget.
INSENSITIVE
A color used for the background of widgets that have been set
insensitive with Gtk.Widget.Set_Sensitive().
Colors can be specified as a string containing a color name (GTK+ knows all
names from the X color database /usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt), in one of the
hexadecimal forms #rrrrggggbbbb, #rrrgggbbb, #rrggbb, or #rgb, where r, g
and b are hex digits, or they can be specified as a triplet { r, g, b},
where r, g and b are either integers in the range 0-65535 or floats in the
range 0.0-1.0.
In a stock definition, icon sources are specified as a 4-tuple of image
filename or icon name, text direction, widget state, and size, in that
order. Each icon source specifies an image filename or icon name to use
with a given direction, state, and size. Filenames are specified as a
string such as "itemltr.png", while icon names (looked up in the current
icon theme), are specified with a leading @, such as @"item-ltr". The *
character can be used as a wildcard, and if direction/state/size are
omitted they default to *. So for example, the following specifies
different icons to use for left-to-right and right-to-left languages:
stock["my-stock-item"] = {
{ "itemltr.png", LTR, *, * },
{ "itemrtl.png", RTL, *, * }}
This could be abbreviated as follows:
stock["my-stock-item"] = {
{ "itemltr.png", LTR },
{ "itemrtl.png", RTL }}
You can specify custom icons for specific sizes, as follows:
stock["my-stock-item"] = {
{ "itemmenusize.png", *, *, "gtk-menu" },
{ "itemtoolbarsize.png", *, *, "gtk-large-toolbar" }
{ "itemgeneric.png" }} /* implicit *, *, * as a fallback */
The sizes that come with GTK+ itself are "gtk-menu", "gtk-small-toolbar",
"gtk-large-toolbar", "gtk-button", "gtk-dialog". Applications can define
other sizes (see also Gtk.Icon_Factory to learn more about this)
It's also possible to use custom icons for a given state, for example:
stock["my-stock-item"] = {
{ "itemprelight.png", *, PRELIGHT },
{ "iteminsensitive.png", *, INSENSITIVE },
{ "itemgeneric.png" }} /* implicit *, *, * as a fallback */
When selecting an icon source to use, GTK+ will consider text direction
most important, state second, and size third. It will select the best match
based on those criteria. If an attribute matches exactly (e.g. you
specified PRELIGHT or specified the size), GTK+ won't modify the image; if
the attribute matches with a wildcard, GTK+ will scale or modify the image
to match the state and size the user requested.
Key bindings
============
Key bindings allow the user to specify actions to be taken on particular
key presses. The form of a binding set declaration is:
binding name {
bind key {
signalname (param, ...)
...
}
...
}
key is a string consisting of a series of modifiers followed by the name of
a key. The modifiers can be:
The action that is bound to the key is a sequence of signal names (strings)
followed by parameters for each signal. The signals must be action signals.
Each parameter can be a float, integer, string, or unquoted string
representing an enumeration value. The types of the parameters specified
must match the types of the parameters of the signal.
Binding sets are connected to widgets in the same manner as styles, with
one difference: Binding sets override other binding sets first by pattern
type, then by priority and then by order of specification. The priorities
that can be specified and their default values are the same as for styles.
Note that modifications made with this function are not cumulative with previous calls to gtk_widget_modify_style() or with such functions as gtk_widget_modify_fg(). If you wish to retain previous values, you must first call gtk_widget_get_modifier_style(), make your modifications to the returned style, then call gtk_widget_modify_style() with that style. On the other hand, if you first call gtk_widget_modify_style(), subsequent calls to such functions gtk_widget_modify_fg() will have a cumulative effect with the initial modifications.
Return value: the modifier style for the widget. This rc style is owned by the widget. If you want to keep a pointer to value this around, you must add a refcount using Ref.