6

Is it possible in a bash shell script (single file) with loops variables etc that executes zenity among other programs to remove zenity and add GTK functions instead?

If yes then is it possible also to add bash commands, variables, loops (copied from the bash shell script) to qt4 designer?

What i'm asking is if there a possibility that GTK functions can be combined with bash commands inside a bash shell script or even bash commands with qt4 designer.

I want to get rid of zenity (or yad, kdialog) because is very limited to a more advanced windows and still use all the rest bash functions that there already there in the bash shell script, is it possible?

GoldHaloWings
  • 517

4 Answers4

13

There are no "GTK commands" in the way there are GTK+ functions in Python. GTK+ is a library with bindings in several languages, but it doesn't have executable commands for the functions it provides. You can try to do parts of what the GTK+ API can do via some external commands:

  • zenity, yad, etc. for showing dialog boxes
  • xsel or xclip to access the clipboard
  • wmctrl for controlling application windows

But the vast majority of GTK+ functionality can't be accessed by commands.

muru
  • 207,228
7

Shells are just command interpreters as per POSIX definition. Gtk is a library, and meant to be imported in actual programming languages. So the answer is no, you can't use full-blown Gtk stuff in shell scripts, only the limited set of things that yad and zenity allow.

But you can use Python. It's a scripting language, yet more suitable for system and programming stuff than shells. You can call commands stored in places like /bin or /usr/bin via subprocess module in Python. I've done so many times for my Gtk apps.

Here's for example a standard function I use for calling external commands from Python script:

def run_cmd(self, cmdlist):
    """ Reusable function for running external commands """
    new_env = dict(os.environ)
    new_env['LC_ALL'] = 'C'
    try:
        stdout = subprocess.check_output(cmdlist, env=new_env)
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        pass
    else:
        if stdout:
            return stdout

And here's an example using it in my xrandr-indicator for switching screen resolution from Ubuntu's top panel; as the name suggests, it calls xrandr behind the scenes :

    self.run_cmd(['xrandr','--output',out,'--mode',mode])

As for shell, you'd need to call a shell with -c argument. So something like this could work:

subprocess.Popen(['bash','-c', 'echo hello world'])

Alternatively, consider implementing interprocess communication. Make GUI in python, but let it communicate with a shell script via named pipe or file.

Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
  • 107,582
1

I know this thread is old, still those who are seeking for an answer, there is a program named gtkdialog which might be useful. Its documentation is here and examples are here.

Lakshay Rohila
  • 11
0

I agree with @Sergiy that using only Python would be ideal. But i think of a better compromise. Rather than running Bash code from Python as proposed. It should be possible to keep the Bash code and to only run GTK from Python. Something like this :

exec 3> >(python3 &>/dev/null)

cat >&3 <<__CODE__
# python init gtk ...
__CODE__

# bash code ...
echo "..." >&3   # run a gtk command
# bash code ...

exec 3>&-
user285259
  • 262