]> Enrico Troeger

&author_mail;

Nick Treleaven

nick.treleaven@btinternet.com

Frank Lanitz

frank@frank.uvena.de

2005-2006 This document is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this license can be found in the file COPYING included with the source code of this program and in the appendix of this document.

&app; is a small and lightweight Integrated Development Environment. It was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few dependencies from other packages. Another goal was to be as independent as possible from a special Desktop Environment like KDE or GNOME, so &app; only requires the GTK2 toolkit and therefore you only need the GTK2 runtime libraries installed to run it. The basic features of &app; are: Syntax highlighting Code completion Auto completion of often used constructs like if, for and while Auto completion of XML and HTML tags Call tips Many supported filetypes like C, Java, PHP, HTML, Python, Perl, Pascal Tag/Symbol lists

This documentation is available in various formats like HTML, text and PDF. The latest version is always available at &appurl;.

You can obtain &app; from &appurl; or perhaps from your distributor.

&app; is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this license can be found in the file COPYING included with the source code of this program and in the appendix of this document.

For compiling &app; yourself, you will need the GTK (>= 2.6.0) libraries and header files. You will also need the Pango, Glib and ATK libraries and header files. All these files are available at http://www.gtk.org. Furthermore you need, of course, a C compiler and the Make tool; a C++ compiler is also required for the included Scintilla library. The GNU versions of these tools are recommended.

Compiling &app; is quite easy. The following should do it: % ./configure % make % make install The configure script supports several common options, for a detailed list, type % ./configure --help In the case that your system lacks dynamic linking loader support, you probably want to pass the option --disable-vte to the configure script. This prevents compiling &app; with dynamic linking loader support to automatically load libvte.so.4 if available. &app; has been successfully compiled and tested under Debian 3.1 Sarge, Debian 3.2 Etch, Fedora Core 4, LinuxFromScratch and FreeBSD 6.0. It also compiles under Microsoft Windows, but there are lots of changes to the makefiles necessary. If there are any errors during compilation, check your build environment and try to find the error, otherwise contact the author at &author_mail;.

You can use the Fedora Core 4 repository from http://naturidentisch.de/packages/fc4/.

Binary packages for Debian are available at &deburl;/. You can add one of the following lines(depending on your system) to your apt sources.list to automatically get the latest version of &app;: deb &deburl;/ ./stable/ deb &deburl;/ ./testing/

Packages for SuSE are not yet available.

An ebuild for Gentoo can be found on http://www.gentoo.de.

You can start &app; in the following ways: From the Desktop Environment menu Choose in your application menu of your used Desktop Environment: Development &app; . From the command line To start &app; from a command line, type the following and press Return: % &app_small;

Short option Long option Function -n --no-ctags Do not load auto completion and call tip data. Use this option if you do not want to use them. For more information see . -m --no-msgwin Do not show the message window. Use this option if you do not need compiler messages or VTE support. -p --no-pipe Do not open files in a running instance, force opening a new instance. -t --no-terminal Do not load terminal support. Use this option if you do not want to load the virtual terminal emulator widget at startup. If you do not have libvte.so.4 installed, then terminal-support is automatically disabled. -l --vte-lib Specify explicitly the path including filename or only the filename to the VTE library, e.g. /usr/lib/libvte.so or libvte.so. This option is only needed when the autodetection does not work. -c directory_name --config=directory_name Use an alternate configuration directory. Default configuration directory is ~/.&app_small;/ and there resides &app_small;.conf and other configuration files. -d --debug Run &app; in debug mode, which means being verbose and printing lots of information. -? --help Show help information and exit. -v --version Show version information and exit. [files ...] Open all given files at startup. This option causes &app; to ignore loading stored files from the last session (if enabled). &app; supports all generic GTK options, a list is available on the help screen.

At startup, &app; loads the first 15 files from the last time &app; was launched. You can disable this feature in the preferences dialog(see ). If you specify some files on the command line, only these files will be opened, but you can find the files from the last session in the file menu under the "Recent files" item. This contains the last 15 recently opened files. It may be that &app; loads not exactly 15 session files, this depends on the compile time option GEANY_SESSION_FILES; the default is 15. For details see .

&app; detects an already running instance of itself and opens new files in the already running one. So, you can use &app; like an editor to view and edit files by opening them from other programs. If you do not like this for some reason, you can disable it with the appropriate command line option. In the case that &app; crashed, you will get a message dialog at the next start, which asks you whether to delete an existing named pipe. If you are sure that there is no other instance of &app; is running, you can say Yes and &app; will start as usual. Otherwise click No and Geany will not start.

If a C file (with extension .c, .cpp, .h, etc.) is opened, a global tags file is loaded once, which contains many function declarations from glibc and some other libraries, like X, Bonobo, Gnome, GTK, Glib and so on. These declarations are used for call tips and auto completion. These tags are only useful if you are writing C or C++ source code, so if you know that you do not need these things, you can skip loading this tag file. To do so, start &app; with the argument "-n" or "--no-ctags", for more information see .

If you have installed libvte.so in your system, it is loaded automatically by &app;, and you will have a terminal widget in the notebook at the bottom. If &app; cannot find libvte.so at startup, the terminal widget will not be loaded. So there is no need to install the package containing this file in order to run &app;. Additionally, you can disable the use of the terminal widget by command line option, for more information see . You can use this terminal (from now on called VTE) nearly as an usual terminal program like xterm. There is basic clipboard support. You can paste the contents of the clipboard by pressing the right mouse button to open the popup menu and choosing Paste. To copy text from the VTE, just select the desired text and then press the right mouse button and choose Copy from the popup menu. On systems running the X Window System you can paste the last selected text by pressing the middle mouse button in the VTE (on 2-button mice, the middle button can often be simulated by pressing both mouse buttons together). &app; tries to load libvte.so. If this fails, it tries to load libvte.so.4. If this fails too, you should check whether you installed libvte correctly. Again, &app; also runs without this library. It could be, that the library is called something else than libvte.so.4 (e.g. on FreeBSD 6.0 it is called libvte.so.8). So please set a link to the correct file (as root). # ln -s /usr/lib/libvte.so.X /usr/lib/libvte.so.4 Obviously, you have to adjust the paths and set X to the number of your libvte.so.

You can use regular expressions in the search dialog, just by activating the check box (see the image below). Detailed information about special characters can be found in the .

In a regular expression, the following characters are interpreted: . Matches any character. \( This marks the start of a region for tagging a match. \) This marks the end of a tagged region. \n Where n is 1 through 9 refers to the first through ninth tagged region when replacing. For example, if the search string was Fred\([1-9]\)XXX and the replace string was Sam\1YYY, when applied to Fred2XXX this would generate Sam2YYY. \< This matches the start of a word. \> This matches the end of a word. \x This allows you to use a character x that would otherwise have a special meaning. For example, \[ would be interpreted as [ and not as the start of a character set. [...] This indicates a set of characters, for example, [abc] means any of the characters a, b or c. You can also use ranges, for example [a-z] for any lower case character. [^...] The complement of the characters in the set. For example, [^A-Za-z] means any character except an alphabetic character. $ This matches the end of a line. * This matches 0 or more times. For example, Sa*m matches Sm, Sam, Saam, Saaam and so on. + This matches 1 or more times. For example, Sa+m matches Sam, Saam, Saaam and so on.

should be written

For more information see .

There are some options which can only be changed at compile time. To change these options, edit the file src/geany.h. Look for a block of lines starting with #define GEANY_*. Any definitions which are not listed here should not be changed. Option Description Default GEANY_MAX_OPEN_FILES The limit to how many files can be open at the same time. 25 GEANY_SESSION_FILES How many files should be reopened from the last run. Obviously, the value should be smaller than GEANY_MAX_OPEN_FILES. 15 GEANY_WORDCHARS These characters define word boundaries. (look at sourcecode) GEANY_MAX_AUTOCOMPLETE_WORDS How many auto completion suggestions should &app; provide. 30 GEANY_STRING_UNTITLED A string used as the default name for new files. Be aware that the string can be translated, so change it only if you know what you are doing. untitled GEANY_CHECK_FILE_DELAY Time in seconds between checking a file for external changes. 30 GEANY_WINDOW_MINIMAL_WIDTH The minimal width of the main window. 620 GEANY_WINDOW_MINIMAL_HEIGHT The minimal height of the main window. 440 GEANY_WINDOW_DEFAULT_WIDTH The default width of the main window at the first start. 900 GEANY_WINDOW_DEFAULT_HEIGHT The default height of the main window at the first start. 600

&app; has an integrated build system. Firstly this means that the current source file will be saved before it is processed. This is for convenience so that you don't need to keep saving small changes to the current file before building. Secondly the output for Compile, Build and Make actions will be captured in the Compiler notebook tab of the messages window (assuming you have it visible). If there are any warnings or errors with line numbers shown in the Compiler output tab, you can double click on them and &app; will switch to the relevant source file (if it is open) and mark the line number so the problem can be corrected. Depending on the current file's filetype, the Build menu will contain the following items: Compile Build Build with "make" Build with make (custom target) Execute Set Includes and Arguments

The Compile command has different uses for different kinds of files. For compilable languages such as C and C++, the Compile command is setup to compile the current source file into a binary object file. Java source files will be compiled to class file bytecode. Interpreted languages such as Perl, Python, Ruby will compile to bytecode if the language supports it, or will run a syntax check, or failing that will run the file in its language interpreter.

For compilable languages such as C and C++, the Build command will link the current source file's equivalent object file into an executable. If the object file does not exist, the source will be compiled and linked in one step, producing just the executable binary. Interpreted languages do not use the Build command.

This effectively runs "make all" in the same directory as the current file. The Make tool path must be correctly set in the Tools tab of the Preferences dialog.

This is similar to running Build with "make" but you will be prompted for the make target name to be passed to the Make tool. For example, typing 'clean' in the dialog prompt will run "make clean" (again using the full path to the Make tool).

Execute will run the corresponding executable file, shell script or interpreted script in a terminal window. Note that the Terminal tool path must be correctly set in the Tools tab of the Preferences dialog - you can use any terminal program that runs a Bourne compatible shell. After your program or script has finished executing, you will be prompted to press the return key. This allows you to review any text output from the program before the terminal window is closed.

By default the Compile and Build commands invoke the compiler and linker with only the basic arguments needed by all programs. Using Set Includes and Arguments you can add any include paths and compile flags for the compiler, any library names and paths for the linker, and any arguments you want to use when running Execute. If you are using the Build command to compile and link in one step, you will need to set both the compiler arguments and the linker arguments in the linker command setting. These settings are not saved when &app; is shut down. See below for how to set permanent arguments. If you need complex settings for your build system, or several different settings, then writing a Makefile and using Build with "make" is recommended.

You can set the commands to run for compiling, building or executing by opening the relevant filetypes.* configuration file, and checking the [build_settings] section. See for more information.

For all listed actions you can define your own keybindings. Open the preferences dialog, select the desired action and click on change. In the opening dialog you can press any key combination you want and it will be saved when you press OK. You can define only one key combination for one action. Some of the default key combinations cannot be changed, e.g. menu_new or menu_open. These are set by GTK and should be kept, but you can still add other key combinations for these actions. For example to execute menu_open by default CtrlO is set, but you can also define AltO, so that the file open dialog is shown by pressing either CtrlO or AltO. The following table lists all available actions for keyboard shortcuts. Action Description Menu items New Creates a new file. Open Opens a file. Save Saves the current file. Save all Saves all open files. Close all Closes all open files. Reload file Reloads the current file. All unsaved changes will be lost. Undo Undoes the last action. Redo Redoes the last action. Preferences Opens preferences dialog. Find Next Finds next result. Find Previous Finds previous result. Replace Opens the replace dialog. Go to line Opens the Go To Line dialog. Show Colour Chooser Opens the colour chooser dialog. Fullscreen Switches to fullscreen mode. Toggle Messages Window Toggles the message window (status and compiler messages) on and off. Zoom In Zooms in the text Zoom Out Zooms out the text Replace tabs by space Replaces all tabs with the right amount of spaces. Fold all Folds all contractible code blocks. Unfold all Unfolds all contracted code blocks. Build options Compile Compiles the current file. Build Builds (compiles if necessary and links) the current file. Build with "make" Builds the current file with the Make tool. Build with "make" (custom target) Builds the current file with the Make tool and a given target. Run Executes the current file in a terminal emulation. Run (alternative command) Executes the current file in a terminal emulation. Build options Opens the build options dialog. Miscellaneous Reload symbol list Reloads the tag/symbol list. Switch to Editor Switches to editor widget. Switch to Scribble Switches to scribble widget. Switch to VTE Switches to VTE widget. Switch to left document Switches to the previous open document. Switch to right document Switches to the next open document. Toggle sidebar Shows or hides the sidebar. Editing operations Duplicate line Duplicates the current line. Comment line Comments current line or selection. Complete word Shows auto completion list. Show calltip Shows call tips for the current function or method. Show macro list Shows a list of available macros and variables in the workspace. Suppress auto completion If you type something like if or for and press this key, it will not be auto completed.

All colour definitions and other filetype specific settings are stored in the filetype definition files. Those settings are colours for syntax highlighting, general settings like comment characters or word delimiter characters as well as compiler and linker settings. The system-wide configuration files can be found in $prefix/share/geany and are called filetypes.$ext, where $prefix is the path where &app; is installed (commonly /usr/local) and $ext is the name of the filetype. For every filetype there is a corresponding definition file. There is one exception: filetypes.common - this file is for general settings, which are not specific to a certain filetype. It is not recommended to edit the system-wide files, because they will be overridden when Geany is updated. To change the settings, copy a file from $prefix/share/geany to the subdirectory filedefs in your configuration directory (usually ~/.geany/). For example: % cp /usr/local/share/geany/filetypes.c /home/username/.geany/filedefs/ Then you can edit the file and the changes are also available after an update of &app; because they reside in your configuration directory. Alternatively, you can create a file ~/.geany/filedefs/filetypes.X and add only these settings you want to change. All missing settings will be read from the corresponding global definition file in $prefix/share/geany.

In this section the colours for syntax highlighting are defined. The format is always: key=forground_colour;background_colour;bold;italic Colours have to be specified as RGB hex values prefixed by 0x. For example red is 0xff0000, blue is 0x0000ff. The values are case-insensitive, but it is a good idea to use small letters. Bold and italic are flags and should only be "true" or "false". If their value is something other than "true" or "false", "false" is assumed.

This section contains keys for different keyword lists specific to the filetype. Some filetypes do not support keywords, so adding a new key will not work. You can only add or remove keywords to/from an existing list. The keywords list must be in one line without line ending characters.

Key Description Example wordchars Word delimiting characters. These characters define word boundaries. (look at sourcecode) comment_open A character or string which is used to comment code. If you want to use multiline comments, also set comment_close, otherwise leave it empty. comment_open=/* comment_close If multiline comments are used, this is the character or string to close the comment. comment_close=*/ comment_use_indent Set this to false if a comment character or string should start at column 0 of a line. If set to true it uses any indentation of the line. comment_use_indent=true would generate this if a line is commented (e.g. with CtrlD) #command_example(); comment_use_indent=false would generate this if a line is commented (e.g. with CtrlD) #command_example(); This setting only works for single line comments. comment_use_indent=true

Key Description Example compiler This item specifies the command to compile source code files. But it is also possible to use it with interpreted languages like Perl or Python. With these filetypes you can use this option as a kind of syntax parser, which sends output to the compiler message window. You should quote the filename to also support filenames with spaces. The following wildcards for filenames are available: %f - complete filename without path %e - filename without path and without extension compiler=gcc -Wall -c "%f" linker This item specifies the command to link the file. If the file is not already compiled, it will be compiled while linking. The -o option is automatically added by &app;. This item works well with GNU gcc, but may be problematic with other compilers (esp. with the linker). linker=gcc -Wall "%f" run_cmd Use this item to execute your file. It has to have been built already. Use the %e wildcard to have only the name of the executable (i.e. without extension) or use the %f wildcard if you need the complete filename, e.g. for shell scripts. run_cmd="./%e"

There is a special filetype definition file called filetypes.common. This file defines some general non-filetype-specific settings. Key Description Example default The default style for text (e.g. for files without filetype). For the detailed format, please see the above "[styling] Section". default=0x000000;0xffffff;false;false selection The style for colouring selections. Only foreground and background colour are interpreted. selection=0xc0c0c0;0x00007F;false;false brace_good The style for brace highlighting when a matching brace was found. brace_good=0xff0000;0xFFFFFF;true;false brace_bad The style for brace highlighting when no matching brace was found. brace_bad=0x0000ff;0xFFFFFF;true;false current_line The style for colouring the background of the current line. Only the second argument is interpreted. current_line=0x0;0xE5E5E5;false;false folding_style The style of folding icons. Only first and second arguments are used. Valid values for the first argument are: 1 - for boxes 2 - for circles Valid values for the second argument are: 1 - for straight lines 2 - for curved lines folding_style=1;1;false;false

&app; supports several templates for file headers, multiline comments (frame comments), function descriptions, a typical ChangeLog entry and a short GPL notice. To use these templates, just open the Edit menu or open the popup menu by right-clicking in the editor widget, and choose "Insert Comments" and insert templates as you want. Some templates (like file header or ChangeLog entry) will always be inserted at the top of the file. To insert a function description, the cursor must be inside of the function, so that the function name can be determined automatically. The description will be positioned correctly one line above the function, just check it out. If the cursor is not inside of a function or the function name cannot be determined, you cannot insert a function description. Each template can be customized to your needs. The templates are in the configuration directory, which is in ~/.&app_small;/ (see for further information about the configuration directory). Just open the desired template with an editor (ideally &app; ;-) ) and edit the template as your needs. There are some wildcards which will be automatically replaced by &app; at startup. All wildcards must be enclosed by "{" and "}", e.g. {date}. In the configuration dialog you can find a tab "Templates" (see ). You can define the default values which will be inserted in the templates. You should restart &app; after making changes, because they are only read at startup. Since &app; 0.3 there are also templates for creating new files. They can be found in ~/.&app_small;/, too. All template files for creating new files begin with template.filetype. followed by the filetype. At creating a new file with a filetype template, the template for the fileheader is automatically prepended. Please note that the complete behaviour is still under development and will probably be changed in one of the next releases. Sorry.   Wildcard Description Available in following templates developer The name of the developer. filetypes, file header, function description, ChangeLog entry initial The developer's initials, e.g. "ET" for Enrico Troeger or "JFD" for John Foobar Doe. filetypes, file header, function description, ChangeLog entry mail The email address of the developer. file header, function description, ChangeLog entry company The company the developer is working for. filetypes, file header, function description, ChangeLog entry year The current year in the format: YYYY filetypes, file header, function description, ChangeLog entry version The initial version of a new file. filetypes, file header, function description, ChangeLog entry date The current date in the format: YYYY-MM-DD filetypes, file header, function description, ChangeLog entry untitled The string "untitled" (this will be translated to your locale), used in filetype templates filetypes, file header, function description, ChangeLog entry geanyversion The actual Geany version, e.g. "&app; &appversion;" filetypes, file header, function description, ChangeLog entry datetime The current date and time in the format: DD.MM.YYYY HH:mm:ss ZZZZ file header, function description filename The filename of the current file. Only available for the file header template. file header gpl This wildcard inserts a short GPL notice. file header functionname The function name of the function at the cursor position. This wildcard will only be replaced in the function description template. function description If you need any other wildcards or a special date/time format, please email the author &author_mail;.

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