GioAppInfoMonitor

GAppInfoMonitor monitors application information for changes.

GAppInfoMonitor is a very simple object used for monitoring the app info database for changes (newly installed or removed applications).

Call g_app_info_monitor_get() to get a GAppInfoMonitor and connect to the GAppInfoMonitor::changed signal. The signal will be emitted once when the app info database changes, and will not be emitted again until after the next call to g_app_info_get_all() or another g_app_info_*() function. This is because monitoring the app info database for changes is expensive.

The following functions will re-arm the GAppInfoMonitor::changed signal so it can be emitted again:

• g_app_info_get_all()
• g_app_info_get_all_for_type()
• g_app_info_get_default_for_type()
• g_app_info_get_fallback_for_type()
• g_app_info_get_recommended_for_type()
• g_desktop_app_info_get_implementations()
• g_desktop_app_info_new()
• g_desktop_app_info_new_from_filename()
• g_desktop_app_info_new_from_keyfile()
• g_desktop_app_info_search()

The latter functions are available if using GDesktopAppInfo from gio-unix-2.0.pc (GIR namespace GioUnix-2.0).

In the usual case, applications should try to make note of the change (doing things like invalidating caches) but not act on it. In particular, applications should avoid making calls to GAppInfo APIs in response to the change signal, deferring these until the time that the updated data is actually required. The exception to this case is when application information is actually being displayed on the screen (for example, during a search or when the list of all applications is shown). The reason for this is that changes to the list of installed applications often come in groups (like during system updates) and rescanning the list on every change is pointless and expensive.

Available since: 2.40