Migrating from girepository-1.0 to girepository-2.0

libgirepository was originally part of gobject-introspection, where it was prototyped for a number of years.

Now that it’s considered stable (for a long time), it’s been moved to glib in order to simplify the build process of the two modules.

As part of this move, the API version has been bumped from 1.0 to 2.0, and some fairly straightforward API changes have been made. Note that the GIR version was previously 2.0, and is now 3.0 — so the new version of libgirepository uses girepository-2.0.pc and GIRepository-3.0.typelib.

The main change between the two versions of libgirepository is that it now uses GTypeInstance as the basis of its type system, rather than simple C struct aliasing. This means that GIBaseInfo instances are now reference counted using gi_base_info_ref() and gi_base_info_unref().

It also means that runtime cast macros such as GI_CALLABLE_INFO() are now available. Using these instead of simple C casts can improve the runtime type safety of your code.

Stack allocation of some GIBaseInfo subtypes is still possible, but they must now be cleared using gi_base_info_clear() once finished with. Previously this wasn’t necessary.

As part of moving the code over, the symbol prefix has changed from g_ to gi_ — this has affected every API in the library, but trivially.

The types of various function arguments have changed — for example from guint32 to size_t for most offsets. This will require minor adjustments in your code if integer type warnings are enabled.

API replacements from version 1.0 to 2.0

girepository-1.0	girepository-2.0
`GI_CHECK_VERSION`	`GLIB_CHECK_VERSION()`
`g_arg_info_get_closure`	`gi_arg_info_get_closure_index()`
`g_arg_info_get_destroy`	`gi_arg_info_get_destroy_index()`
`g_arg_info_get_type`	`gi_arg_info_get_type_info()`
`g_arg_info_load_type`	`gi_arg_info_load_type_info()`
-	`gi_base_info_ref()` and `gi_base_info_unref()`
`g_base_info_get_type`	Use type checking macros like `GI_IS_OBJECT_INFO()`, or raw `GType`s with `G_TYPE_FROM_INSTANCE()`
`g_info_new`	Removed with no replacement, use `gi_repository_find_by_name()` and related APIs
`g_callable_info_invoke` arguments	`is_method` and `throws` dropped in `gi_callable_info_invoke()`
`g_constant_info_get_type`	`gi_constant_info_get_type_info()`
`g_field_info_get_type`	`gi_field_info_get_type_info()`
`g_object_info_find_method_using_interfaces` and `g_object_info_find_vfunc_using_interfaces`	The `implementor` out argument has been renamed to `declarer` and is now of type `GIBaseInfo`
`g_object_info_get_type_init`	`gi_object_info_get_type_init_function_name()`
`g_object_info_get_ref_function`	`gi_object_info_get_ref_function_name()`
`g_object_info_get_unref_function`	`gi_object_info_get_unref_function_name()`
`g_object_info_get_set_value_function`	`gi_object_info_get_set_value_function_name()`
`g_object_info_get_get_value_function`	`gi_object_info_get_get_value_function_name()`
`g_property_info_get_type`	`gi_property_info_get_type_info()`
`g_registered_type_info_get_type_init`	`gi_registered_type_info_get_type_init_function_name()`
`g_irepository_*`	`gi_repository_*`
`g_irepository_get_default`	Singleton object removed; create separate `GIRepository` instances instead
`g_irepository_get_search_path` and `g_irepository_get_library_path`	Now return arrays rather than linked lists
`g_irepository_enumerate_versions`	Now returns an array rather than a linked list
`g_irepository_get_immediate_dependencies`, `g_irepository_get_dependencies` and `g_irepository_get_loaded_namespaces`	Now additionally return a length argument
`g_irepository_get_shared_library`	`gi_repository_get_shared_libraries()`
`g_irepository_dump`	Takes structured `input_filename` and `output_filename` arguments rather than a single formatted string
`g_function_invoker_destroy`	`gi_function_invoker_clear()`
`g_struct_info_get_copy_function`	`gi_struct_info_get_copy_function_name()`
`g_struct_info_get_free_function`	`gi_struct_info_get_free_function_name()`
`g_type_info_get_array_length` and `g_type_info_get_array_fixed_size`	Split success and failure return values out into a new out-argument and return value
`g_type_info_get_array_length`	`gi_type_info_get_array_length_index()`
`g_typelib_new_from_*`	All replaced with `gi_typelib_new_from_bytes()`
`g_typelib_free`	`GITypelib` is now a refcounted and boxed type, so use `gi_typelib_unref()`
`GI_FUNCTION_THROWS` and `GI_VFUNC_THROWS`	`gi_callable_info_can_throw_gerror()`
`g_union_info_get_discriminator_offset`	Split success and failure return values out into a new out-argument and return value
`g_union_info_get_copy_function`	`gi_union_info_get_copy_function_name()`
`g_union_info_get_free_function`	`gi_union_info_get_free_function_name()`
`GIInfoType`	Use `GType` directly
`GI_INFO_TYPE_BOXED`	Dropped in favour of `gi_registered_type_info_is_boxed()`

Utility program renames from version 1.0 to 2.0

girepository-1.0	girepository-2.0
`g-ir-compiler`	`gi-compile-repository`
`g-ir-generate`	`gi-decompile-typelib`
`g-ir-inspect`	`gi-inspect-typelib`

In addition, some command-line options have been changed.

The --version option for g-ir-inspect has been renamed to --typelib-version in gi-inspect-typelib.

The --includedir option to gi-decompile-typelib treats the given directories as most-important-first, consistent with gi-compile-repository --includedir and gcc -I. g-ir-generate treated --includedir options as least-important-first.

The unimplemented g-ir-compiler --module option has been removed in gi-compile-repository.

The unimplemented g-ir-generate --shlib option has been removed in gi-decompile-typelib.

gi-inspect-typelib only accepts one namespace parameter. g-ir-inspect accepted multiple namespaces, but would only inspect the first one, with the others being ignored.