1 .. |(version)| replace:: 1.24
2 .. -*- reStructuredText -*-
8 -------------------------
9 A fast, light, GTK+ IDE
10 -------------------------
12 :Authors: Enrico Tröger,
22 This document is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
23 License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
24 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this
25 license can be found in the file COPYING included with the source code
26 of this program, and also in the chapter `GNU General Public License`_.
40 Geany is a small and lightweight Integrated Development Environment. It
41 was developed to provide a small and fast IDE, which has only a few
42 dependencies on other packages. Another goal was to be as independent
43 as possible from a particular Desktop Environment like KDE or GNOME -
44 Geany only requires the GTK2 runtime libraries.
46 Some basic features of Geany:
50 * Autocompletion of symbols/words
51 * Construct completion/snippets
52 * Auto-closing of XML and HTML tags
54 * Many supported filetypes including C, Java, PHP, HTML, Python, Perl,
58 * Build system to compile and execute your code
59 * Simple project management
67 You can obtain Geany from http://www.geany.org/ or perhaps also from
68 your distribution. For a list of available packages, please see
69 http://www.geany.org/Download/ThirdPartyPackages.
76 Geany is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License
77 as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
78 the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this
79 license can be found in the file COPYING included with the source
80 code of this program and in the chapter, `GNU General Public License`_.
82 The included Scintilla library (found in the subdirectory
83 ``scintilla/``) has its own license, which can be found in the chapter,
84 `License for Scintilla and SciTE`_.
91 This documentation is available in HTML and text formats.
92 The latest version can always be found at http://www.geany.org/.
94 If you want to contribute to it, see `Contributing to this document`_.
106 You will need the GTK (>= 2.16.0) libraries and their dependencies
107 (Pango, GLib and ATK). Your distro should provide packages for these,
108 usually installed by default. For Windows, you can download an installer
109 from the website which bundles these libraries.
115 There are many binary packages available. For an up-to-date but maybe
116 incomplete list see http://www.geany.org/Download/ThirdPartyPackages.
122 Compiling Geany is quite easy.
123 To do so, you need the GTK (>= 2.16.0) libraries and header files.
124 You also need the Pango, GLib and ATK libraries and header files.
125 All these files are available at http://www.gtk.org, but very often
126 your distro will provide development packages to save the trouble of
127 building these yourself.
129 Furthermore you need, of course, a C and C++ compiler. The GNU versions
130 of these tools are recommended.
132 Autotools based build system
133 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
135 The Autotools based build system is very mature and has been well tested.
136 To use it, you just need the Make tool, preferably GNU Make.
138 Then run the following commands::
151 Waf based build system
152 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
154 The Waf build system is still quite young and under heavy development but already in a
155 usable state. In contrast to the Autotools system, Waf needs Python. So before using Waf, you need
156 to install Python on your system.
157 The advantage of the Waf build system over the Autotools based build system is that the whole
158 build process might be a bit faster. Especially when you use the Waf
159 cache feature for repetitive builds (e.g. when changing only a few source files
160 to test something) will become much faster since Waf will cache and re-use the
161 unchanged built files and only compile the changed code again. See `Waf Cache`_ for details.
162 To build Geany with Waf as run::
174 The Waf build system has a nice and interesting feature which can help to avoid
175 a lot of unnecessary rebuilding of unchanged code. This often happens when developing new features
176 or trying to debug something in Geany.
177 Waf is able to store and retrieve the object files from a cache. This cache is declared
178 using the environment variable ``WAFCACHE``.
179 A possible location of the cache directory could be ``~/.cache/waf``. In order to make use of
180 this, you first need to create this directory::
182 $ mkdir -p ~/.cache/waf
184 then add the environment variable to your shell configuration (the following example is for
185 Bash and should be adjusted to your used shell)::
187 export WAFCACHE=/home/username/.cache/waf
189 Remember to replace ``username`` with your actual username.
191 More information about the Waf cache feature are available at
192 http://code.google.com/p/waf/wiki/CacheObjectFiles.
196 You should be careful about the size of the cache directory as it may
197 grow rapidly over time.
198 Waf doesn't do any cleaning or other house-keeping of the cache yet, so you need to keep it
200 An easy way to keep it clean is to run the following command regularly to remove old
203 $ find /home/username/.cache/waf -mtime +14 -exec rm {} \;
205 This will delete all files in the cache directory which are older than 14 days.
207 For details about the ``find`` command and its options, check its manual page.
212 The configure script supports several common options, for a detailed
220 (depending on which build system you use).
222 You may also want to read the INSTALL file for advanced installation
225 * See also `Compile-time options`_.
227 Dynamic linking loader support and VTE
228 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
229 In the case that your system lacks dynamic linking loader support, you
230 probably want to pass the option ``--disable-vte`` to the ``configure``
231 script. This prevents compiling Geany with dynamic linking loader
232 support for automatically loading ``libvte.so.4`` if available.
236 If there are any errors during compilation, check your build
237 environment and try to find the error, otherwise contact the mailing
238 list or one the authors. Sometimes you might need to ask for specific
239 help from your distribution.
244 If you want to find Geany's system files after installation you may
245 want to know the installation prefix.
247 Pass the ``--print-prefix`` option to Geany to check this - see
248 `Command line options`_. The first path is the prefix.
250 On Unix-like systems this is commonly ``/usr`` if you installed from
251 a binary package, or ``/usr/local`` if you build from source.
254 Editing system files is not necessary as you should use the
255 per-user configuration files instead, which don't need root
256 permissions. See `Configuration files`_.
266 You can start Geany in the following ways:
268 * From the Desktop Environment menu:
270 Choose in your application menu of your used Desktop Environment:
271 Development --> Geany.
273 At Windows-systems you will find Geany after installation inside
274 the application menu within its special folder.
276 * From the command line:
278 To start Geany from a command line, type the following and press
286 The Geany window is shown in the following figure:
288 .. image:: ./images/main_window.png
290 The workspace has the following parts:
293 * An optional toolbar.
294 * An optional sidebar that can show the following tabs:
296 * Documents - A document list, and
297 * Symbols - A list of symbols in your code.
299 * The main editor window.
300 * An optional message window which can show the following tabs:
302 * Status - A list of status messages.
303 * Compiler - The output of compiling or building programs.
304 * Messages - Results of 'Find Usage', 'Find in Files' and other actions
305 * Scribble - A text scratchpad for any use.
306 * Terminal - An optional terminal window.
310 Most of these can be configured in the `Interface preferences`_, the
311 `View menu`_, or the popup menu for the relevant area.
313 Additional tabs may be added to the sidebar and message window by plugins.
315 The position of the tabs can be selected in the interface preferences.
317 The sizes of the sidebar and message window can be adjusted by
318 dragging the dividers.
323 ============ ======================= =================================================
324 Short option Long option Function
325 ============ ======================= =================================================
326 *none* +number Set initial line number for the first opened file
327 (same as --line, do not put a space between the + sign
328 and the number). E.g. "geany +7 foo.bar" will open the
329 file foo.bar and place the cursor in line 7.
331 *none* --column Set initial column number for the first opened file.
333 -c dir_name --config=directory_name Use an alternate configuration directory. The default
334 configuration directory is ``~/.config/geany/`` and that
335 is where ``geany.conf`` and other configuration files
338 *none* --ft-names Print a list of Geany's internal filetype names (useful
339 for snippets configuration).
341 -g --generate-tags Generate a global tags file (see
342 `Generating a global tags file`_).
344 -P --no-preprocessing Don't preprocess C/C++ files when generating tags.
346 -i --new-instance Do not open files in a running instance, force opening
347 a new instance. Only available if Geany was compiled
348 with support for Sockets.
350 -l --line Set initial line number for the first opened file.
352 *none* --list-documents Return a list of open documents in a running Geany
354 This can be used to read the currently opened documents in
355 Geany from an external script or tool. The returned list
356 is separated by newlines (LF) and consists of the full,
357 UTF-8 encoded filenames of the documents.
358 Only available if Geany was compiled with support for
361 -m --no-msgwin Do not show the message window. Use this option if you
362 do not need compiler messages or VTE support.
364 -n --no-ctags Do not load symbol completion and call tip data. Use this
365 option if you do not want to use them.
367 -p --no-plugins Do not load plugins or plugin support.
369 *none* --print-prefix Print installation prefix, the data directory, the lib
370 directory and the locale directory (in that order) to
371 stdout, one line each. This is mainly intended for plugin
372 authors to detect installation paths.
374 -r --read-only Open all files given on the command line in read-only mode.
375 This only applies to files opened explicitly from the command
376 line, so files from previous sessions or project files are
379 -s --no-session Do not load the previous session's files.
381 -t --no-terminal Do not load terminal support. Use this option if you do
382 not want to load the virtual terminal emulator widget
383 at startup. If you do not have ``libvte.so.4`` installed,
384 then terminal-support is automatically disabled. Only
385 available if Geany was compiled with support for VTE.
387 *none* --socket-file Use this socket filename for communication with a
388 running Geany instance. This can be used with the following
389 command to execute Geany on the current workspace::
391 geany --socket-file=/tmp/geany-sock-$(xprop -root _NET_CURRENT_DESKTOP | awk '{print $3}')
393 *none* --vte-lib Specify explicitly the path including filename or only
394 the filename to the VTE library, e.g.
395 ``/usr/lib/libvte.so`` or ``libvte.so``. This option is
396 only needed when the auto-detection does not work. Only
397 available if Geany was compiled with support for VTE.
399 -v --verbose Be verbose (print useful status messages).
401 -V --version Show version information and exit.
403 -? --help Show help information and exit.
405 *none* [files ...] Open all given files at startup. This option causes
406 Geany to ignore loading stored files from the last
407 session (if enabled).
408 Geany also recognizes line and column information when
409 appended to the filename with colons, e.g.
410 "geany foo.bar:10:5" will open the file foo.bar and
411 place the cursor in line 10 at column 5.
413 Projects can also be opened but a project file (\*.geany)
414 must be the first non-option argument. All additionally
415 given files are ignored.
416 ============ ======================= =================================================
418 You can also pass line number and column number information, e.g.::
420 geany some_file.foo:55:4
422 Geany supports all generic GTK options, a list is available on the
434 At startup, Geany loads all files from the last time Geany was
435 launched. You can disable this feature in the preferences dialog
436 (see `General Startup preferences`_).
438 You can start several instances of Geany, but only the first will
439 load files from the last session. In the subsequent instances, you
440 can find these files in the file menu under the "Recent files" item.
441 By default this contains the last 10 recently opened files. You can
442 change the number of recently opened files in the preferences dialog.
444 To run a second instance of Geany, do not specify any filenames on
445 the command-line, or disable opening files in a running instance
446 using the appropriate command line option.
449 Opening files from the command-line in a running instance
450 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
452 Geany detects if there is an an instance of itself already running and opens files
453 from the command-line in that instance. So, Geany can
454 be used to view and edit files by opening them from other programs
455 such as a file manager.
457 You can also pass line number and column number information, e.g.::
459 geany some_file.foo:55:4
461 This would open the file ``some_file.foo`` with the cursor on line 55,
464 If you do not like this for some reason, you can disable using the first
465 instance by using the appropriate command line option -- see the section
466 called `Command line options`_.
469 Virtual terminal emulator widget (VTE)
470 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
472 If you have installed ``libvte.so`` on your system, it is loaded
473 automatically by Geany, and you will have a terminal widget in the
474 notebook at the bottom.
476 If Geany cannot find any ``libvte.so`` at startup, the terminal widget
477 will not be loaded. So there is no need to install the package containing
478 this file in order to run Geany. Additionally, you can disable the use
479 of the terminal widget by command line option, for more information
480 see the section called `Command line options`_.
482 You can use this terminal (from now on called VTE) much as you would
483 a terminal program like xterm. There is basic clipboard support. You
484 can paste the contents of the clipboard by pressing the right mouse
485 button to open the popup menu, and choosing Paste. To copy text from
486 the VTE, just select the desired text and then press the right mouse
487 button and choose Copy from the popup menu. On systems running the
488 X Window System you can paste the last selected text by pressing the
489 middle mouse button in the VTE (on 2-button mice, the middle button
490 can often be simulated by pressing both mouse buttons together).
492 In the preferences dialog you can specify a shell which should be
493 started in the VTE. To make the specified shell a login shell just
494 use the appropriate command line options for the shell. These options
495 should be found in the manual page of the shell. For zsh and bash
496 you can use the argument ``--login``.
499 Geany tries to load ``libvte.so``. If this fails, it tries to load
500 some other filenames. If this fails too, you should check whether you
501 installed libvte correctly. Again note, Geany will run without this
504 It could be, that the library is called something else than
505 ``libvte.so`` (e.g. on FreeBSD 6.0 it is called ``libvte.so.8``). If so
506 please set a link to the correct file (as root)::
508 # ln -s /usr/lib/libvte.so.X /usr/lib/libvte.so
510 Obviously, you have to adjust the paths and set X to the number of your
513 You can also specify the filename of the VTE library to use on the command
514 line (see the section called `Command line options`_) or at compile time
515 by specifying the command line option ``--with-vte-module-path`` to
519 Defining own widget styles using .gtkrc-2.0
520 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
522 You can define your widget style for many of Geany's GUI parts. To
523 do this, just edit your ``.gtkrc-2.0`` (usually found in your home
524 directory on UNIX-like systems and in the etc subdirectory of your
525 Geany installation on Windows).
527 To have a defined style used by Geany you must assign it to
528 at least one of Geany's widgets. For example use the following line::
530 widget "Geany*" style "geanyStyle"
532 This would assign your style "geany_style" to all Geany
533 widgets. You can also assign styles only to specific widgets. At the
534 moment you can use the following widgets:
546 An example of a simple ``.gtkrc-2.0``::
552 widget "GeanyMainWindow" style "geanyStyle"
558 widget "GeanyPrefsDialog" style "geanyStyle"
564 Switching between documents
565 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
567 The documents list and the editor tabs are two different ways
568 to switch between documents using the mouse. When you hit the key
569 combination to move between tabs, the order is determined by the tab
570 order. It is not alphabetical as shown in the documents list
571 (regardless of whether or not editor tabs are visible).
573 See the `Notebook tab keybindings`_ section for useful
574 shortcuts including for Most-Recently-Used document switching.
578 The `Document->Clone` menu item copies the current document's text,
579 cursor position and properties into a new untitled document. If
580 there is a selection, only the selected text is copied. This can be
581 useful when making temporary copies of text or for creating
582 documents with similar or identical contents.
585 Character sets and Unicode Byte-Order-Mark (BOM)
586 ------------------------------------------------
592 Geany provides support for detecting and converting character sets. So
593 you can open and save files in different character sets, and even
594 convert a file from one character set to another. To do this,
595 Geany uses the character conversion capabilities of the GLib library.
597 Only text files are supported, i.e. opening files which contain
598 NULL-bytes may fail. Geany will try to open the file anyway but it is
599 likely that the file will be truncated because it can only be read up
600 to the first occurrence of a NULL-byte. All characters after this
601 position are lost and are not written when you save the file.
603 Geany tries to detect the encoding of a file while opening it, but
604 auto-detecting the encoding of a file is not easy and sometimes an
605 encoding might not be detected correctly. In this case you have to
606 set the encoding of the file manually in order to display it
607 correctly. You can this in the file open dialog by selecting an
608 encoding in the drop down box or by reloading the file with the
609 file menu item "Reload as". The auto-detection works well for most
610 encodings but there are also some encodings where it is known that
611 auto-detection has problems.
613 There are different ways to set different encodings in Geany:
615 * Using the file open dialog
617 This opens the file with the encoding specified in the encoding drop
618 down box. If the encoding is set to "Detect from file" auto-detection
619 will be used. If the encoding is set to "Without encoding (None)" the
620 file will be opened without any character conversion and Geany will
621 not try to auto-detect the encoding (see below for more information).
623 * Using the "Reload as" menu item
625 This item reloads the current file with the specified encoding. It can
626 help if you opened a file and found out that the wrong encoding was used.
628 * Using the "Set encoding" menu item
630 Contrary to the above two options, this will not change or reload
631 the current file unless you save it. It is useful when you want to
632 change the encoding of the file.
634 * Specifying the encoding in the file itself
636 As mentioned above, auto-detecting the encoding of a file may fail on
637 some encodings. If you know that Geany doesn't open a certain file,
638 you can add the specification line, described in the next section,
639 to the beginning of the file to force Geany to use a specific
640 encoding when opening the file.
643 In-file encoding specification
644 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
646 Geany detects meta tags of HTML files which contain charset information
649 <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-15" />
651 and the specified charset is used when opening the file. This is useful if the
652 encoding of the file cannot be detected properly.
653 For non-HTML files you can also define a line like::
655 /* geany_encoding=ISO-8859-15 */
659 # geany_encoding=ISO-8859-15 #
661 to force an encoding to be used. The #, /\* and \*/ are examples
662 of filetype-specific comment characters. It doesn't matter which
663 characters are around the string " geany_encoding=ISO-8859-15 " as long
664 as there is at least one whitespace character before and after this
665 string. Whitespace characters are in this case a space or tab character.
666 An example to use this could be you have a file with ISO-8859-15
667 encoding but Geany constantly detects the file encoding as ISO-8859-1.
668 Then you simply add such a line to the file and Geany will open it
669 correctly the next time.
671 Since Geany 0.15 you can also use lines which match the
672 regular expression used to find the encoding string:
673 ``coding[\t ]*[:=][\t ]*([a-z0-9-]+)[\t ]*``
676 These specifications must be in the first 512 bytes of the file.
677 Anything after the first 512 bytes will not be recognized.
681 # encoding = ISO-8859-15
685 # coding: ISO-8859-15
687 Special encoding "None"
688 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
690 There is a special encoding "None" which uses no
691 encoding. It is useful when you know that Geany cannot auto-detect
692 the encoding of a file and it is not displayed correctly. Especially
693 when the file contains NULL-bytes this can be useful to skip auto
694 detection and open the file properly at least until the occurrence
695 of the first NULL-byte. Using this encoding opens the file as it is
696 without any character conversion.
699 Unicode Byte-Order-Mark (BOM)
700 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
702 Furthermore, Geany detects a Unicode Byte Order Mark (see
703 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_Order_Mark for details). Of course,
704 this feature is only available if the opened file is in a Unicode
705 encoding. The Byte Order Mark helps to detect the encoding of a file,
706 e.g. whether it is UTF-16LE or UTF-16BE and so on. On Unix-like systems
707 using a Byte Order Mark could cause some problems for programs not
708 expecting it, e.g. the compiler gcc stops
709 with stray errors, PHP does not parse a script containing a BOM and
710 script files starting with a she-bang maybe cannot be started. In the
711 status bar you can easily see whether the file starts with a BOM or
714 If you want to set a BOM for a file or if you want to remove it
715 from a file, just use the document menu and toggle the checkbox.
718 If you are unsure what a BOM is or if you do not understand where
719 to use it, then it is probably not important for you and you can
731 Geany provides basic code folding support. Folding means the ability to
732 show and hide parts of the text in the current file. You can hide
733 unimportant code sections and concentrate on the parts you are working on
734 and later you can show hidden sections again. In the editor window there is
735 a small grey margin on the left side with [+] and [-] symbols which
736 show hidden parts and hide parts of the file respectively. By
737 clicking on these icons you can simply show and hide sections which are
738 marked by vertical lines within this margin. For many filetypes nested
739 folding is supported, so there may be several fold points within other
743 You can customize the folding icon and line styles - see the
744 filetypes.common `Folding Settings`_.
746 If you don't like it or don't need it at all, you can simply disable
747 folding support completely in the preferences dialog.
749 The folding behaviour can be changed with the "Fold/Unfold all children of
750 a fold point" option in the preference dialog. If activated, Geany will
751 unfold all nested fold points below the current one if they are already
752 folded (when clicking on a [+] symbol).
753 When clicking on a [-] symbol, Geany will fold all nested fold points
754 below the current one if they are unfolded.
756 This option can be inverted by pressing the Shift
757 key while clicking on a fold symbol. That means, if the "Fold/Unfold all
758 children of a fold point" option is enabled, pressing Shift will disable
759 it for this click and vice versa.
762 Column mode editing (rectangular selections)
763 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
765 There is basic support for column mode editing. To use it, create a
766 rectangular selection by holding down the Control and Shift keys
767 (or Alt and Shift on Windows) while selecting some text.
768 Once a rectangular selection exists you can start editing the text within
769 this selection and the modifications will be done for every line in the
772 It is also possible to create a zero-column selection - this is
773 useful to insert text on multiple lines.
775 Drag and drop of text
776 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
778 If you drag selected text in the editor widget of Geany the text is
779 moved to the position where the mouse pointer is when releasing the
780 mouse button. Holding Control when releasing the mouse button will
781 copy the text instead. This behaviour was changed in Geany 0.11 -
782 before the selected text was copied to the new position.
788 Geany allows each document to indent either with a tab character,
789 multiple spaces or a combination of both. The default indent
790 settings are set in `Editor Indentation preferences`_ (see the link
791 for more information).
793 The default settings can be overridden per-document using the
794 Document menu. They can also be overridden by projects - see
795 `Project management`_.
797 The indent mode for the current document is shown on the status bar
801 Indent with Tab characters.
805 Indent with tabs and spaces, depending on how much indentation is
808 Applying new indentation settings
809 `````````````````````````````````
810 After changing the default settings you may wish to apply the new
811 settings to every document in the current session. To do this use the
812 *Project->Apply Default Indentation* menu item.
814 Detecting indent type
815 `````````````````````
816 The *Detect from file* indentation preference can be used to
817 scan each file as it's opened and set the indent type based on
818 how many lines start with a tab vs. 2 or more spaces.
824 When enabled, auto-indentation happens when pressing *Enter* in the
825 Editor. It adds a certain amount of indentation to the new line so the
826 user doesn't always have to indent each line manually.
828 Geany has four types of auto-indentation:
831 Disables auto-indentation completely.
833 Adds the same amount of whitespace on a new line as on the last line.
835 Does the same as *Basic* but also indents a new line after an opening
836 brace '{', and de-indents when typing a closing brace '}'. For Python,
837 a new line will be indented after typing ':' at the end of the
840 Similar to *Current chars* but the closing brace will be aligned to
841 match the indentation of the line with the opening brace.
843 There is also XML-tag auto-indentation. This is enabled when the
844 mode is more than just Basic, and is also controlled by a filetype
845 setting - see `xml_indent_tags`_.
851 Geany provides a handy bookmarking feature that lets you mark one
852 or more lines in a document, and return the cursor to them using a
855 To place a mark on a line, either left-mouse-click in the left margin
856 of the editor window, or else use Ctrl-m. This will
857 produce a small green plus symbol in the margin. You can have as many
858 marks in a document as you like. Click again (or use Ctrl-m again)
859 to remove the bookmark. To remove all the marks in a given document,
860 use "Remove Markers" in the Document menu.
862 To navigate down your document, jumping from one mark to the next,
863 use Ctrl-. (control period). To go in the opposite direction on
864 the page, use Ctrl-, (control comma). Using the bookmarking feature
865 together with the commands to switch from one editor tab to another
866 (Ctrl-PgUp/PgDn and Ctrl-Tab) provides a particularly fast way to
867 navigate around multiple files.
870 Code navigation history
871 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
873 To ease navigation in source files and especially between
874 different files, Geany lets you jump between different navigation
875 points. Currently, this works for the following:
877 * `Go to tag declaration`_
878 * `Go to tag definition`_
883 When using one of these actions, Geany remembers your current position
884 and jumps to the new one. If you decide to go back to your previous
885 position in the file, just use "Navigate back a location". To
886 get back to the new position again, just use "Navigate forward a
887 location". This makes it easier to navigate in e.g. foreign code
888 and between different files.
891 Sending text through custom commands
892 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
894 You can define several custom commands in Geany and send the current
895 selection to one of these commands using the *Edit->Format->Send
896 Selection to* menu or keybindings. The output of the command will be
897 used to replace the current selection. This makes it possible to use
898 text formatting tools with Geany in a general way.
900 The selected text will be sent to the standard input of the executed
901 command, so the command should be able to read from it and it should
902 print all results to its standard output which will be read by
903 Geany. To help finding errors in executing the command, the output
904 of the program's standard error will be printed on Geany's standard
907 If there is no selection, the whole current line is used instead.
909 To add a custom command, use the *Send Selection to->Set Custom
910 Commands* menu item. Click on *Add* to get a new item and type the
911 command. You can also specify some command line options. Empty
912 commands are not saved.
914 Normal shell quoting is supported, so you can do things like:
916 * ``sed 's/\./(dot)/g'``
918 The above example would normally be done with the `Replace all`_
919 function, but it can be handy to have common commands already set up.
925 You can execute the context action command on the current word at the
926 cursor position or the available selection. This word or selection
927 can be used as an argument to the command.
928 The context action is invoked by a menu entry in the popup menu of the
929 editor and also a keyboard shortcut (see the section called
932 The command can be specified in the preferences dialog and also for
933 each filetype (see "context_action_cmd" in the section called
934 `Filetype configuration`_). When the context action is invoked, the filetype
935 specific command is used if available, otherwise the command
936 specified in the preferences dialog is executed.
938 The current word or selection can be referred with the wildcard "%s"
939 in the command, it will be replaced by the current word or
940 selection before the command is executed.
942 For example a context action can be used to open API documentation
943 in a browser window, the command to open the PHP API documentation
946 firefox "http://www.php.net/%s"
948 when executing the command, the %s is substituted by the word near
949 the cursor position or by the current selection. If the cursor is at
950 the word "echo", a browser window will open(assumed your browser is
951 called firefox) and it will open the address: http://www.php.net/echo.
957 Geany can offer a list of possible completions for symbols defined in the
958 tags and for all words in a document.
960 The autocompletion list for symbols is presented when the first few
961 characters of the symbol are typed (configurable, see `Editor Completions
962 preferences`_, default 4) or when the *Complete word*
963 keybinding is pressed (configurable, see `Editor keybindings`_,
966 When the defined keybinding is typed and the *Autocomplete all words in
967 document* preference (in `Editor Completions preferences`_)
968 is selected then the autocompletion list will show all matching words
969 in the document, if there are no matching symbols.
971 If you don't want to use autocompletion it can be dismissed until
972 the next symbol by pressing Escape. The autocompletion list is updated
973 as more characters are typed so that it only shows completions that start
974 with the characters typed so far. If no symbols begin with the sequence,
975 the autocompletion window is closed.
977 The up and down arrows will move the selected item. The highlighted
978 item on the autocompletion list can be chosen from the list by pressing
979 Enter/Return. You can also double-click to select an item. The sequence
980 will be completed to match the chosen item, and if the *Drop rest of
981 word on completion* preference is set (in `Editor Completions
982 preferences`_) then any characters after the cursor that match
983 a symbol or word are deleted.
987 By default, pressing Tab will complete the selected item by word part;
988 useful e.g. for adding the prefix ``gtk_combo_box_entry_`` without typing it
993 * gtk_combo_box_<e><TAB>
994 * gtk_combo_box_entry_<s><ENTER>
995 * gtk_combo_box_entry_set_text_column
997 The key combination can be changed from Tab - See `Editor keybindings`_.
998 If you clear/change the key combination for word part completion, Tab
999 will complete the whole word instead, like Enter.
1001 Scope autocompletion
1002 ````````````````````
1011 When you type ``foo.`` it will show an autocompletion list with 'i' and
1014 It only works for languages that set parent scope names for e.g. struct
1015 members. Currently this means C-like languages. The C tag parser only
1016 parses global scopes, so this won't work for structs or objects declared
1020 User-definable snippets
1021 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1023 Snippets are small strings or code constructs which can be replaced or
1024 completed to a more complex string. So you can save a lot of time when
1025 typing common strings and letting Geany do the work for you.
1026 To know what to complete or replace Geany reads a configuration file
1027 called ``snippets.conf`` at startup.
1029 Maybe you need to often type your name, so define a snippet like this::
1032 myname=Enrico Tröger
1034 Every time you write ``myname`` <TAB> in Geany, it will replace "myname"
1035 with "Enrico Tröger". The key to start autocompletion can be changed
1036 in the preferences dialog, by default it is TAB. The corresponding keybinding
1037 is called `Complete snippet`.
1041 You can override the default snippets using the user
1042 ``snippets.conf`` file. Use the *Tools->Configuration
1043 Files->snippets.conf* menu item. See also `Configuration file paths`_.
1045 This adds the default settings to the user file if the file doesn't
1046 exist. Alternatively the file can be created manually, adding only
1047 the settings you want to change. All missing settings will be read
1048 from the system snippets file.
1052 The file ``snippets.conf`` contains sections defining snippets that
1053 are available for particular filetypes and in general.
1055 The two sections "Default" and "Special" apply to all filetypes.
1056 "Default" contains all snippets which are available for every
1057 filetype and "Special" contains snippets which can only be used in
1058 other snippets. So you can define often used parts of snippets and
1059 just use the special snippet as a placeholder (see the
1060 ``snippets.conf`` for details).
1062 You can define sections with the name of a filetype eg "C++". The
1063 snippets in that section are only available for use in files with that
1064 filetype. Snippets in filetype sections will hide snippets with the
1065 same name in the "Default" section when used in a file of that
1068 **Substitution sequences for snippets**
1070 To define snippets you can use several special character sequences which
1071 will be replaced when using the snippet:
1073 ================ =========================================================
1074 \\n or %newline% Insert a new line (it will be replaced by the used EOL
1075 char(s): LF, CR/LF, or CR).
1077 \\t or %ws% Insert an indentation step, it will be replaced according
1078 to the current document's indent mode.
1080 \\s \\s to force whitespace at beginning or end of a value
1081 ('key= value' won't work, use 'key=\\svalue')
1083 %cursor% Place the cursor at this position after completion has
1084 been done. You can define multiple %cursor% wildcards
1085 and use the keybinding `Move cursor in snippet` to jump
1086 to the next defined cursor position in the completed
1089 %...% "..." means the name of a key in the "Special" section.
1090 If you have defined a key "brace_open" in the "Special"
1091 section you can use %brace_open% in any other snippet.
1092 ================ =========================================================
1094 Snippet names must not contain spaces otherwise they won't
1095 work correctly. But beside that you can define almost any
1096 string as a snippet and use it later in Geany. It is not limited
1097 to existing contructs of certain programming languages(like ``if``,
1098 ``for``, ``switch``). Define whatever you need.
1100 **Template wildcards**
1102 Since Geany 0.15 you can also use most of the available templates wildcards
1103 listed in `Template wildcards`_. All wildcards which are listed as
1104 `available in snippets` can be used. For instance to improve the above example::
1107 myname=My name is {developer}
1108 mysystem=My system: {command:uname -a}
1110 this will replace ``myname`` with "My name is " and the value of the template
1111 preference ``developer``.
1115 You can change the way Geany recognizes the word to complete,
1116 that is how the start and end of a word is recognised when the
1117 snippet completion is requested. The section "Special" may
1118 contain a key "wordchars" which lists all characters a string may contain
1119 to be recognized as a word for completion. Leave it commented to use
1120 default characters or define it to add or remove characters to fit your
1126 Normally you would type the snippet name and press Tab. However, you
1127 can define keybindings for snippets under the *Keybindings* group in
1132 block_cursor=<Ctrl>8
1135 Snippet keybindings may be overridden by Geany's configurable
1139 Inserting Unicode characters
1140 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1142 You can insert Unicode code points by hitting Ctrl-Shift-u, then still holding
1143 Ctrl-Shift, type some hex digits representing the code point for the character
1144 you want and hit Enter or Return (still holding Ctrl-Shift). If you release
1145 Ctrl-Shift before hitting Enter or Return (or any other character), the code
1146 insertion is completed, but the typed character is also entered. In the case
1147 of Enter/Return, it is a newline, as you might expect.
1150 In some earlier versions of Geany, you might need to first unbind Ctrl-Shift-u
1151 in the `keybinding preferences`_, then select *Tools->Reload Configuration*
1152 or restart Geany. Note that it works slightly differently from other GTK
1153 applications, in that you'll need to continue to hold down the Ctrl and Shift
1154 keys while typing the code point hex digits (and the Enter or Return to finish the code point).
1157 Search, replace and go to
1158 -------------------------
1160 This section describes search-related commands from the Search menu
1161 and the editor window's popup menu:
1168 * Go to tag definition
1169 * Go to tag declaration
1172 See also `Search`_ preferences.
1176 There are also two toolbar entries:
1181 There are keybindings to focus each of these - see `Focus
1182 keybindings`_. Pressing Escape will then focus the editor.
1186 The quickest way to find some text is to use the search bar entry in
1187 the toolbar. This performs a case-insensitive search in the current
1188 document whilst you type. Pressing Enter will search again, and pressing
1189 Shift-Enter will search backwards.
1194 The Find dialog is used for finding text in one or more open documents.
1196 .. image:: ./images/find_dialog.png
1202 The syntax for the *Use regular expressions* option is shown in
1203 `Regular expressions`_.
1206 *Use escape sequences* is implied for regular expressions.
1208 The *Use escape sequences* option will transform any escaped characters
1209 into their UTF-8 equivalent. For example, \\t will be transformed into
1210 a tab character. Other recognized symbols are: \\\\, \\n, \\r, \\uXXXX
1211 (Unicode characters).
1217 To find all matches, click on the Find All expander. This will reveal
1224 Find All In Document will show a list of matching lines in the
1225 current document in the Messages tab of the Message Window. *Find All
1226 In Session* does the same for all open documents.
1228 Mark will highlight all matches in the current document with a
1229 colored box. These markers can be removed by selecting the
1230 Remove Markers command from the Document menu.
1233 Change font in search dialog text fields
1234 ````````````````````````````````````````
1236 All search related dialogs use a Monospace for the text input fields to
1237 increase the readability of input text. This is useful when you are
1238 typing input such as regular expressions with spaces, periods and commas which
1239 might it hard to read with a proportional font.
1241 If you want to change the font, you can do this easily
1242 by inserting the following style into your ``.gtkrc-2.0``
1243 (usually found in your home directory on UNIX-like systems and in the
1244 etc subdirectory of your Geany installation on Windows)::
1246 style "search_style"
1248 font_name="Monospace 8"
1250 widget "GeanyDialogSearch.*.GtkEntry" style:highest "search_style"
1252 Please note the addition of ":highest" in the last line which sets the priority
1253 of this style to the highest available. Otherwise, the style is ignored
1254 for the search dialogs.
1259 The *Find Next/Previous Selection* commands perform a search for the
1260 current selected text. If nothing is selected, by default the current
1261 word is used instead. This can be customized by the
1262 *find_selection_type* preference - see `Various preferences`_.
1264 ===== =============================================
1265 Value *find_selection_type* behaviour
1266 ===== =============================================
1267 0 Use the current word (default).
1268 1 Try the X selection first, then current word.
1269 2 Repeat last search.
1270 ===== =============================================
1276 *Find Usage* searches all open files. It is similar to the *Find All In
1277 Session* option in the Find dialog.
1279 If there is a selection, then it is used as the search text; otherwise
1280 the current word is used. The current word is either taken from the
1281 word nearest the edit cursor, or the word underneath the popup menu
1282 click position when the popup menu is used. The search results are
1283 shown in the Messages tab of the Message Window.
1286 You can also use Find Usage for symbol list items from the popup
1293 *Find in Files* is a more powerful version of *Find Usage* that searches
1294 all files in a certain directory using the Grep tool. The Grep tool
1295 must be correctly set in Preferences to the path of the system's Grep
1296 utility. GNU Grep is recommended (see note below).
1298 .. image:: ./images/find_in_files_dialog.png
1300 The *Search* field is initially set to the current word in the editor
1301 (depending on `Search`_ preferences).
1303 The *Files* setting allows to choose which files are included in the
1304 search, depending on the mode:
1307 Search in all files;
1309 Use the current project's patterns, see `Project properties`_;
1311 Use custom patterns.
1313 Both project and custom patterns use a glob-style syntax, each
1314 pattern separated by a space. To search all ``.c`` and ``.h`` files,
1316 Note that an empty pattern list searches in all files rather
1319 The *Directory* field is initially set to the current document's directory,
1320 unless this field has already been edited and the current document has
1321 not changed. Otherwise, the current document's directory is prepended to
1322 the drop-down history. This can be disabled - see `Search`_ preferences.
1324 The *Encoding* field can be used to define the encoding of the files
1325 to be searched. The entered search text is converted to the chosen encoding
1326 and the search results are converted back to UTF-8.
1328 The *Extra options* field is used to pass any additional arguments to
1332 The *Files* setting uses ``--include=`` when searching recursively,
1333 *Recurse in subfolders* uses ``-r``; both are GNU Grep options and may
1334 not work with other Grep implementations.
1337 Filtering out version control files
1338 ```````````````````````````````````
1340 When using the *Recurse in subfolders* option with a directory that's
1341 under version control, you can set the *Extra options* field to filter
1342 out version control files.
1344 If you have GNU Grep >= 2.5.2 you can use the ``--exclude-dir``
1345 argument to filter out CVS and hidden directories like ``.svn``.
1347 Example: ``--exclude-dir=.svn --exclude-dir=CVS``
1349 If you have an older Grep, you can try using the ``--exclude`` flag
1350 to filter out filenames.
1352 SVN Example: ``--exclude=*.svn-base``
1354 The --exclude argument only matches the file name part, not the path.
1360 The Replace dialog is used for replacing text in one or more open
1363 .. image:: ./images/replace_dialog.png
1365 The Replace dialog has the same options for matching text as the Find
1366 dialog. See the section `Matching options`_.
1368 The *Use regular expressions* option allows regular expressions to
1369 be used in the search string and back references in the replacement
1370 text -- see the entry for '\\n' in `Regular expressions`_.
1375 To replace several matches, click on the *Replace All* expander. This
1376 will reveal several options:
1382 *Replace All In Document* will replace all matching text in the
1383 current document. *Replace All In Session* does the same for all open
1384 documents. *Replace All In Selection* will replace all matching text
1385 in the current selection of the current document.
1388 Go to tag definition
1389 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1391 If the current word or selection is the name of a tag definition
1392 (e.g. a function name) and the file containing the tag definition is
1393 open, this command will switch to that file and go to the
1394 corresponding line number. The current word is either the word
1395 nearest the edit cursor, or the word underneath the popup menu click
1396 position when the popup menu is used.
1399 If the corresponding tag is on the current line, Geany will first
1400 look for a tag declaration instead, as this is more useful.
1401 Likewise *Go to tag declaration* will search for a tag definition
1402 first in this case also.
1405 Go to tag declaration
1406 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1408 Like *Go to tag definition*, but for a forward declaration such as a
1409 C function prototype or ``extern`` declaration instead of a function
1416 Go to a particular line number in the current file.
1422 You can use regular expressions in the Find and Replace dialogs
1423 by selecting the *Use regular expressions* check box (see `Matching
1424 options`_). The syntax is Perl compatible. Basic syntax is described
1425 in the table below. For full details, see
1426 http://www.geany.org/manual/gtk/glib/glib-regex-syntax.html.
1429 1. The *Use escape sequences* dialog option always applies for regular
1431 2. Searching backwards with regular expressions is not supported.
1433 **In a regular expression, the following characters are interpreted:**
1435 ======= ============================================================
1436 . Matches any character.
1438 ( This marks the start of a region for tagging a match.
1440 ) This marks the end of a tagged region.
1442 \\n Where n is 1 through 9 refers to the first through ninth tagged
1443 region when searching or replacing.
1445 Searching for (Wiki)\\1 matches WikiWiki.
1447 If the search string was Fred([1-9])XXX and the
1448 replace string was Sam\\1YYY, when applied to Fred2XXX this
1449 would generate Sam2YYY.
1451 \\0 When replacing, the whole matching text.
1453 \\b This matches a word boundary.
1455 \\c A backslash followed by d, D, s, S, w or W, becomes a
1456 character class (both inside and outside sets []).
1459 * D: any char except decimal digits
1460 * s: whitespace (space, \\t \\n \\r \\f \\v)
1461 * S: any char except whitespace (see above)
1462 * w: alphanumeric & underscore
1463 * W: any char except alphanumeric & underscore
1465 \\x This allows you to use a character x that would otherwise have
1466 a special meaning. For example, \\[ would be interpreted as [
1467 and not as the start of a character set. Use \\\\ for a literal
1470 [...] Matches one of the characters in the set. If the first
1471 character in the set is ^, it matches the characters NOT in
1472 the set, i.e. complements the set. A shorthand S-E (start
1473 dash end) is used to specify a set of characters S up to E,
1476 The special characters ] and - have no special
1477 meaning if they appear first in the set. - can also be last
1478 in the set. To include both, put ] first: []A-Z-].
1482 []|-] matches these 3 chars
1483 []-|] matches from ] to | chars
1484 [a-z] any lowercase alpha
1485 [^]-] any char except - and ]
1486 [^A-Z] any char except uppercase alpha
1489 ^ This matches the start of a line (unless used inside a set, see
1492 $ This matches the end of a line.
1494 \* This matches 0 or more times. For example, Sa*m matches Sm, Sam,
1495 Saam, Saaam and so on.
1497 \+ This matches 1 or more times. For example, Sa+m matches Sam,
1498 Saam, Saaam and so on.
1500 \? This matches 0 or 1 time(s). For example, Joh?n matches John, Jon.
1501 ======= ============================================================
1504 This table is adapted from Scintilla and SciTE documentation,
1505 distributed under the `License for Scintilla and SciTE`_.
1511 The View menu allows various elements of the main window to be shown
1512 or hidden, and also provides various display-related editor options.
1516 The Color schemes menu is available under the *View->Editor* submenu.
1517 It lists various color schemes for editor highlighting styles,
1518 including the default scheme first. Other items are available based
1519 on what color scheme files Geany found at startup.
1521 Color scheme files are read from the `Configuration file paths`_ under
1522 the ``colorschemes`` subdirectory. They should have the extension
1523 ``.conf``. The default color scheme
1524 is read from ``filetypes.common``.
1526 The `[named_styles] section`_ and `[named_colors] section`_ are the
1527 same as for ``filetypes.common``.
1529 The ``[theme_info]`` section can contain information about the
1530 theme. The ``name`` and ``description`` keys are read to set the
1531 menu item text and tooltip, respectively. These keys can have
1532 translations, e.g.::
1541 Tags are information that relates symbols in a program with the
1542 source file location of the declaration and definition.
1544 Geany has built-in functionality for generating tag information (aka
1545 "workspace tags") for supported filetypes when you open a file. You
1546 can also have Geany automatically load external tag files (aka "global
1547 tags files") upon startup, or manually using *Tools --> Load Tags*.
1549 Geany uses its own tag file format, similar to what ``ctags`` uses
1550 (but is incompatible with ctags). You use Geany to generate global
1551 tags files, as described below.
1557 Tags for each document are parsed whenever a file is loaded, saved or
1558 modified (see *Symbol list update frequency* preference in the `Editor
1559 Completions preferences`_). These are shown in the Symbol list in the
1560 Sidebar. These tags are also used for autocompletion of symbols and calltips
1561 for all documents open in the current session that have the same filetype.
1563 The *Go to Tag* commands can be used with all workspace tags. See
1564 `Go to tag definition`_.
1570 Global tags are used to provide autocompletion of symbols and calltips
1571 without having to open the corresponding source files. This is intended
1572 for library APIs, as the tags file only has to be updated when you upgrade
1575 You can load a custom global tags file in two ways:
1577 * Using the *Load Tags* command in the Tools menu.
1578 * By moving or symlinking tags files to the ``tags`` subdirectory of
1579 one of the `configuration file paths`_ before starting Geany.
1581 You can either download these files or generate your own. They have
1586 *lang_ext* is one of the extensions set for the filetype associated
1587 with the tags. See the section called `Filetype extensions`_ for
1591 Default global tags files
1592 `````````````````````````
1594 For some languages, a list of global tags is loaded when the
1595 corresponding filetype is first used. Currently these are for:
1600 * HTML -- &symbol; completion, e.g. for ampersand, copyright, etc.
1605 Global tags file format
1606 ```````````````````````
1608 Global tags files can have three different formats:
1611 * Pipe-separated format
1614 The first line of global tags files should be a comment, introduced
1615 by ``#`` followed by a space and a string like ``format=pipe``,
1616 ``format=ctags`` or ``format=tagmanager`` respectively, these are
1617 case-sensitive. This helps Geany to read the file properly. If this
1618 line is missing, Geany tries to auto-detect the used format but this
1622 The Tagmanager format is a bit more complex and is used for files
1623 created by the ``geany -g`` command. There is one tag per line.
1624 Different tag attributes like the return value or the argument list
1625 are separated with different characters indicating the type of the
1626 following argument. This is the more complete and recommended tag
1629 Pipe-separated format
1630 *********************
1631 The Pipe-separated format is easier to read and write.
1632 There is one tag per line and different tag attributes are separated
1633 by the pipe character (``|``). A line looks like::
1635 basename|string|(string path [, string suffix])|
1637 | The first field is the tag name (usually a function name).
1638 | The second field is the type of the return value.
1639 | The third field is the argument list for this tag.
1640 | The fourth field is the description for this tag but
1641 currently unused and should be left empty.
1643 Except for the first field (tag name), all other field can be left
1644 empty but the pipe separator must appear for them.
1646 You can easily write your own global tag files using this format.
1647 Just save them in your tags directory, as described earlier in the
1648 section `Global tags`_.
1652 This is the format that ctags generates, and that is used by Vim.
1653 This format is compatible with the format historically used by Vi.
1655 The format is described at http://ctags.sourceforge.net/FORMAT, but
1656 for the full list of existing extensions please refer to ctags.
1657 However, note that Geany may actually only honor a subset of the
1658 existing extensions.
1660 Generating a global tags file
1661 `````````````````````````````
1663 You can generate your own global tags files by parsing a list of
1664 source files. The command is::
1666 geany -g [-P] <Tag File> <File list>
1668 * Tag File filename should be in the format described earlier --
1669 see the section called `Global tags`_.
1670 * File list is a list of filenames, each with a full path (unless
1671 you are generating C/C++ tags and have set the CFLAGS environment
1672 variable appropriately).
1673 * ``-P`` or ``--no-preprocessing`` disables using the C pre-processor
1674 to process ``#include`` directives for C/C++ source files. Use this
1675 option if you want to specify each source file on the command-line
1676 instead of using a 'master' header file. Also can be useful if you
1677 don't want to specify the CFLAGS environment variable.
1679 Example for the wxD library for the D programming language::
1681 geany -g wxd.d.tags /home/username/wxd/wx/*.d
1684 Generating C/C++ tag files
1685 **************************
1686 You may need to first setup the `C ignore.tags`_ file.
1688 For C/C++ tag files gcc is required by default, so that header files
1689 can be preprocessed to include any other headers they depend upon. If
1690 you do not want this, use the ``-P`` option described above.
1692 For preprocessing, the environment variable CFLAGS should be set with
1693 appropriate ``-I/path`` include paths. The following example works with
1694 the bash shell, generating tags for the GnomeUI library::
1696 CFLAGS=`pkg-config --cflags libgnomeui-2.0` geany -g gnomeui.c.tags \
1697 /usr/include/libgnomeui-2.0/gnome.h
1699 You can adapt this command to use CFLAGS and header files appropriate
1700 for whichever libraries you want.
1703 Generating tag files on Windows
1704 *******************************
1705 This works basically the same as on other platforms::
1707 "c:\program files\geany\bin\geany" -g c:\mytags.php.tags c:\code\somefile.php
1713 You can ignore certain tags for C-based languages if they would lead
1714 to wrong parsing of the code. Use the *Tools->Configuration
1715 Files->ignore.tags* menu item to open the user ``ignore.tags`` file.
1716 See also `Configuration file paths`_.
1718 List all tag names you want to ignore in this file, separated by spaces
1723 G_GNUC_NULL_TERMINATED
1725 G_GNUC_WARN_UNUSED_RESULT
1727 This will parse code like:
1729 ``gchar **utils_strv_new(const gchar *first, ...)
1730 G_GNUC_NULL_TERMINATED;``
1732 More detailed information about ignore tags usage from the Exuberant Ctags
1735 Specifies a list of identifiers which are to be specially handled
1736 while parsing C and C++ source files. This option is specifically
1737 provided to handle special cases arising through the use of
1738 pre-processor macros. When the identifiers listed are simple identifiers,
1739 these identifiers will be ignored during parsing of the source files.
1740 If an identifier is suffixed with a '+' character, ctags will also
1741 ignore any parenthesis-enclosed argument list which may immediately
1742 follow the identifier in the source files.
1743 If two identifiers are separated with the '=' character, the first
1744 identifiers is replaced by the second identifiers for parsing purposes.
1746 For even more detailed information please read the manual page of
1749 Geany extends Ctags with a '*' character suffix - this means use
1750 prefix matching, e.g. G_GNUC_* will match G_GNUC_NULL_TERMINATED, etc.
1751 Note that prefix match items should be put after other items to ensure
1752 that items like G_GNUC_PRINTF+ get parsed correctly.
1758 You may adjust Geany's settings using the Edit --> Preferences
1759 dialog. Any changes you make there can be applied by hitting either
1760 the Apply or the OK button. These settings will persist between Geany
1761 sessions. Note that most settings here have descriptive popup bubble
1762 help -- just hover the mouse over the item in question to get help
1765 You may also adjust some View settings (under the View menu) that
1766 persist between Geany sessions. The settings under the Document menu,
1767 however, are only for the current document and revert to defaults
1768 when restarting Geany.
1771 In the paragraphs that follow, the text describing a dialog tab
1772 comes after the screenshot of that tab.
1775 General Startup preferences
1776 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1778 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_gen_startup.png
1783 Load files from the last session
1784 On startup, load the same files you had open the last time you
1787 Load virtual terminal support
1788 Load the library for running a terminal in the message window area.
1790 Enable plugin support
1791 Allow plugins to be used in Geany.
1795 Save window position and geometry
1796 Save the current position and size of the main window so next time
1797 you open Geany it's in the same location.
1800 Have a dialog pop up to confirm that you really want to quit Geany.
1806 Path to start in when opening or saving files.
1807 It must be an absolute path.
1810 Path to start in when opening project files.
1813 By default Geany looks in the system installation and the user
1814 configuration - see `Plugins`_. In addition the path entered here will be
1816 Usually you do not need to set an additional path to search for
1817 plugins. It might be useful when Geany is installed on a multi-user machine
1818 and additional plugins are available in a common location for all users.
1819 Leave blank to not set an additional lookup path.
1822 General Miscellaneous preferences
1823 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1825 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_gen_misc.png
1830 Beep on errors when compilation has finished
1831 Have the computer make a beeping sound when compilation of your program
1832 has completed or any errors occurred.
1834 Switch status message list at new message
1835 Switch to the status message tab (in the notebook window at the bottom)
1836 once a new status message arrives.
1838 Suppress status messages in the status bar
1839 Remove all messages from the status bar. The messages are still displayed
1840 in the status messages window.
1843 Another option is to use the *Switch to Editor* keybinding - it
1844 reshows the document statistics on the status bar. See `Focus
1847 Use Windows File Open/Save dialogs
1848 Defines whether to use the native Windows File Open/Save dialogs or
1849 whether to use the GTK default dialogs.
1851 Auto-focus widgets (focus follows mouse)
1852 Give the focus automatically to widgets below the mouse cursor.
1853 This works for the main editor widget, the scribble, the toolbar search field
1854 goto line fields and the VTE.
1860 Always wrap search around the document when finding a match.
1862 Hide the Find dialog
1863 Hide the `Find`_ dialog after clicking Find Next/Previous.
1865 Use the current word under the cursor for Find dialogs
1866 Use current word under the cursor when opening the Find, Find in Files or Replace dialog and
1867 there is no selection. When this option is disabled, the search term last used in the
1868 appropriate Find dialog is used.
1870 Use the current file's directory for Find in Files
1871 When opening the Find in Files dialog, set the directory to search to the directory of the current
1872 active file. When this option is disabled, the directory of the last use of the Find in Files
1873 dialog is used. See `Find in Files`_ for details.
1878 Use project-based session files
1879 Save your current session when closing projects. You will be able to
1880 resume different project sessions, automatically opening the files
1881 you had open previously.
1883 Store project file inside the project base directory
1884 When creating new projects, the default path for the project file contains
1885 the project base path. Without this option enabled, the default project file
1886 path is one level above the project base path.
1887 In either case, you can easily set the final project file path in the
1888 *New Project* dialog. This option provides the more common
1889 defaults automatically for convenience.
1892 Interface preferences
1893 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1895 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_interface_interface.png
1901 Whether to show the sidebar at all.
1904 Show the list of functions, variables, and other information in the
1905 current document you are editing.
1908 Show all the documents you have open currently. This can be used to
1909 change between documents (see `Switching between documents`_) and
1910 to perform some common operations such as saving, closing and reloading.
1913 Whether to place the sidebar on the left or right of the editor window.
1919 Change the font used to display documents.
1922 Change the font used for the Symbols sidebar tab.
1925 Change the font used for the message window area.
1931 Show the status bar at the bottom of the main window. It gives information about
1932 the file you are editing like the line and column you are on, whether any
1933 modifications were done, the file encoding, the filetype and other information.
1935 Interface Notebook tab preferences
1936 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1938 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_interface_notebook.png
1944 Show a notebook tab for all documents so you can switch between them
1945 using the mouse (instead of using the Documents window).
1948 Make each tab show a close button so you can easily close open
1951 Placement of new file tabs
1952 Whether to create a document with its notebook tab to the left or
1953 right of all existing tabs.
1956 Whether to place file tabs next to the current tab
1957 rather than at the edges of the notebook.
1959 Double-clicking hides all additional widgets
1960 Whether to call the View->Toggle All Additional Widgets command
1961 when double-clicking on a notebook tab.
1967 Set the positioning of the editor's notebook tabs to the right,
1968 left, top, or bottom of the editing window.
1971 Set the positioning of the sidebar's notebook tabs to the right,
1972 left, top, or bottom of the sidebar window.
1975 Set the positioning of the message window's notebook tabs to the
1976 right, left, top, or bottom of the message window.
1979 Interface Toolbar preferences
1980 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1982 Affects the main toolbar underneath the menu bar.
1984 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_interface_toolbar.png
1990 Whether to show the toolbar.
1992 Append Toolbar to the Menu
1993 Allows to append the toolbar to the main menu bar instead of placing it below.
1994 This is useful to save vertical space.
1997 See `Customizing the toolbar`_.
2003 Select the toolbar icon style to use - either icons and text, just
2005 The choice System default uses whatever icon style is set by GTK.
2008 Select the size of the icons you see (large, small or very small).
2009 The choice System default uses whatever icon size is set by GTK.
2012 Editor Features preferences
2013 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2015 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_edit_features.png
2021 Show long lines wrapped around to new display lines.
2026 Whether to move the cursor to the first non-whitespace character
2027 on the line when you hit the home key on your keyboard. Pressing it
2028 again will go to the very start of the line.
2030 Disable Drag and Drop
2031 Do not allow the dragging and dropping of selected text in documents.
2034 Allow groups of lines in a document to be collapsed for easier
2037 Fold/Unfold all children of a fold point
2038 Whether to fold/unfold all child fold points when a parent line
2041 Use indicators to show compile errors
2042 Underline lines with compile errors using red squiggles to indicate
2043 them in the editor area.
2045 Newline strips trailing spaces
2046 Remove any whitespace at the end of the line when you hit the
2047 Enter/Return key. See also `Strip trailing spaces`_. Note
2048 auto indentation is calculated before stripping, so although this
2049 setting will clear a blank line, it will not set the next line
2050 indentation back to zero.
2052 Line breaking column
2053 The editor column number to insert a newline at when Line Breaking
2054 is enabled for the current document.
2056 Comment toggle marker
2057 A string which is added when toggling a line comment in a source file.
2058 It is used to mark the comment as toggled.
2061 Editor Indentation preferences
2062 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2064 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_edit_indentation.png
2069 See `Indentation`_ for more information.
2072 The width of a single indent size in spaces. By default the indent
2073 size is equivalent to 4 spaces.
2075 Detect width from file
2076 Try to detect and set the indent width based on file content, when
2080 When Geany inserts indentation, whether to use:
2084 * Tabs and Spaces, depending on how much indentation is on a line
2086 The *Tabs and Spaces* indent type is also known as *Soft tab
2087 support* in some other editors.
2089 Detect type from file
2090 Try to detect and set the indent type based on file content, when
2094 The type of auto-indentation you wish to use after pressing Enter,
2098 Just add the indentation of the previous line.
2100 Add indentation based on the current filetype and any characters at
2101 the end of the line such as ``{``, ``}`` for C, ``:`` for Python.
2103 Like *Current chars* but for C-like languages, make a closing
2104 ``}`` brace line up with the matching opening brace.
2107 If set, pressing tab will indent the current line or selection, and
2108 unindent when pressing Shift-tab. Otherwise, the tab key will
2109 insert a tab character into the document (which can be different
2110 from indentation, depending on the indent type).
2113 There are also separate configurable keybindings for indent &
2114 unindent, but this preference allows the tab key to have different
2115 meanings in different contexts - e.g. for snippet completion.
2117 Editor Completions preferences
2118 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2120 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_edit_completions.png
2126 Whether to replace special keywords after typing Tab into a
2127 pre-defined text snippet.
2128 See `User-definable snippets`_.
2130 XML/HTML tag auto-closing
2131 When you open an XML/HTML tag automatically generate its
2134 Automatic continuation multi-line comments
2135 Continue automatically multi-line comments in languages like C, C++
2136 and Java when a new line is entered inside such a comment.
2137 With this option enabled, Geany will insert a ``*`` on every new line
2138 inside a multi-line comment, for example when you press return in the
2142 * This is a C multi-line comment, press <Return>
2144 then Geany would insert::
2148 on the next line with the correct indentation based on the previous line,
2149 as long as the multi-line is not closed by ``*/``.
2151 Autocomplete symbols
2152 When you start to type a symbol name, look for the full string to
2153 allow it to be completed for you.
2155 Autocomplete all words in document
2156 When you start to type a word, Geany will search the whole document for
2157 words starting with the typed part to complete it, assuming there
2158 are no tag names to show.
2160 Drop rest of word on completion
2161 Remove any word part to the right of the cursor when choosing a
2162 completion list item.
2164 Characters to type for autocompletion
2165 Number of characters of a word to type before autocompletion is
2168 Completion list height
2169 The number of rows to display for the autocompletion window.
2171 Max. symbol name suggestions
2172 The maximum number of items in the autocompletion list.
2174 Symbol list update frequency
2175 The minimum delay (in milliseconds) between two symbol list updates.
2177 This option determines how frequently the tag list is updated for the
2178 current document. The smaller the delay, the more up-to-date the symbol
2179 list (and then the completions); but rebuilding the symbol list has a
2180 cost in performance, especially with large files.
2182 The default value is 250ms, which means the symbol list will be updated
2183 at most four times per second, even if the document changes continuously.
2185 A value of 0 disables automatic updates, so the symbol list will only be
2186 updated upon document saving.
2189 Auto-close quotes and brackets
2190 ``````````````````````````````
2192 Geany can automatically insert a closing bracket and quote characters when
2193 you open them. For instance, you type a ``(`` and Geany will automatically
2194 insert ``)``. With the following options, you can define for which
2195 characters this should work.
2198 Auto-close parenthesis when typing an opening one
2201 Auto-close curly brackets (braces) when typing an opening one
2204 Auto-close square brackets when typing an opening one
2207 Auto-close single quotes when typing an opening one
2210 Auto-close double quotes when typing an opening one
2213 Editor Display preferences
2214 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2216 This is for visual elements displayed in the editor window.
2218 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_edit_display.png
2223 Invert syntax highlighting colors
2224 Invert all colors, by default this makes white text on a black
2227 Show indendation guides
2228 Show vertical lines to help show how much leading indentation there
2232 Mark all tabs with an arrow "-->" symbol and spaces with dots to
2233 show which kinds of whitespace are used.
2236 Display a symbol everywhere that a carriage return or line feed
2240 Show or hide the Line Number margin.
2243 Show or hide the small margin right of the line numbers, which is used
2246 Stop scrolling at last line
2247 When enabled Geany stops scrolling when at the last line of the document.
2248 Otherwise you can scroll one more page even if there are no real lines.
2254 The long line marker helps to indicate overly-long lines, or as a hint
2255 to the user for when to break the line.
2259 Show a thin vertical line in the editor window at the given column
2262 Change the background color of characters after the given column
2263 position to the color set below. (This is recommended over the
2264 *Line* setting if you use proportional fonts).
2266 Don't mark long lines at all.
2269 Set this value to a value greater than zero to specify the column
2270 where it should appear.
2272 Long line marker color
2273 Set the color of the long line marker.
2279 Virtual space is space beyond the end of each line.
2280 The cursor may be moved into virtual space but no real space will be
2281 added to the document until there is some text typed or some other
2282 text insertion command is used.
2285 Do not show virtual spaces
2287 Only for rectangular selections
2288 Only show virtual spaces beyond the end of lines when drawing a rectangular selection
2291 Always show virtual spaces beyond the end of lines
2297 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_files.png
2302 Open new documents from the command-line
2303 Whether to create new documents when passing filenames that don't
2304 exist from the command-line.
2306 Default encoding (new files)
2307 The type of file encoding you wish to use when creating files.
2309 Used fixed encoding when opening files
2310 Assume all files you are opening are using the type of encoding specified below.
2312 Default encoding (existing files)
2313 Opens all files with the specified encoding instead of auto-detecting it.
2314 Use this option when it's not possible for Geany to detect the exact encoding.
2316 Default end of line characters
2317 The end of line characters to which should be used for new files.
2318 On Windows systems, you generally want to use CR/LF which are the common
2319 characters to mark line breaks.
2320 On Unix-like systems, LF is default and CR is used on MAC systems.
2324 Perform formatting operations when a document is saved. These
2325 can each be undone with the Undo command.
2327 Ensure newline at file end
2328 Add a newline at the end of the document if one is missing.
2330 Ensure consistent line endings
2331 Ensures that newline characters always get converted before
2332 saving, avoiding mixed line endings in the same file.
2334 .. _Strip trailing spaces:
2336 Strip trailing spaces
2337 Remove any whitespace at the end of each document line.
2340 This does not apply to Diff documents, e.g. patch files.
2342 Replace tabs by space
2343 Replace all tabs in the document with the equivalent number of spaces.
2346 It is better to use spaces to indent than use this preference - see
2352 Recent files list length
2353 The number of files to remember in the recently used files list.
2356 The number of seconds to periodically check the current document's
2357 file on disk in case it has changed. Setting it to 0 will disable
2361 These checks are only performed on local files. Remote files are
2362 not checked for changes due to performance issues
2363 (remote files are files in ``~/.gvfs/``).
2369 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_tools.png
2375 The command to execute a script in a terminal. Occurrences of %c
2376 in the command are substituted with the run script name, see
2377 `Terminal emulators`_.
2380 The location of your web browser executable.
2383 The location of the grep executable.
2386 For Windows users: at the time of writing it is recommended to use
2387 the grep.exe from the UnxUtils project
2388 (http://sourceforge.net/projects/unxutils). The grep.exe from the
2389 Mingw project for instance might not work with Geany at the moment.
2395 Set this to a command to execute on the current word.
2396 You can use the "%s" wildcard to pass the current word below the cursor
2397 to the specified command.
2400 Template preferences
2401 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2403 This data is used as meta data for various template text to insert into
2404 a document, such as the file header. You only need to set fields that
2405 you want to use in your template files.
2407 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_templ.png
2413 The name of the developer who will be creating files.
2416 The initials of the developer.
2419 The email address of the developer.
2422 You may wish to add anti-spam markup, e.g. ``name<at>site<dot>ext``.
2425 The company the developer is working for.
2428 The initial version of files you will be creating.
2431 Specify a format for the the {year} wildcard. You can use any conversion specifiers
2432 which can be used with the ANSI C strftime function. For details please see
2433 http://man.cx/strftime.
2436 Specify a format for the the {date} wildcard. You can use any conversion specifiers
2437 which can be used with the ANSI C strftime function. For details please see
2438 http://man.cx/strftime.
2441 Specify a format for the the {datetime} wildcard. You can use any conversion specifiers
2442 which can be used with the ANSI C strftime function. For details please see
2443 http://man.cx/strftime.
2446 Keybinding preferences
2447 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2449 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_keys.png
2451 There are some commands listed in the keybinding dialog that are not, by default,
2452 bound to a key combination, and may not be available as a menu item.
2455 For more information see the section `Keybindings`_.
2458 Printing preferences
2459 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2461 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_printing.png
2463 Use external command for printing
2464 Use a system command to print your file out.
2466 Use native GTK printing
2467 Let the GTK GUI toolkit handle your print request.
2470 Print the line numbers on the left of your paper.
2473 Print the page number on the bottom right of your paper.
2476 Print a header on every page that is sent to the printer.
2478 Use base name of the printed file
2479 Don't use the entire path for the header, only the filename.
2482 How the date should be printed. You can use the same format
2483 specifiers as in the ANSI C function strftime(). For details please
2484 see http://man.cx/strftime.
2490 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_various.png
2492 Rarely used preferences, explained in the table below. A few of them require
2493 restart to take effect, and a few other will only affect newly opened or created
2494 documents before restart.
2496 ================================ =========================================== ========== ===========
2497 Key Description Default Applies
2498 ================================ =========================================== ========== ===========
2500 use_gtk_word_boundaries Whether to look for the end of a word true to new
2501 when using word-boundary related documents
2502 Scintilla commands (see `Scintilla
2503 keyboard commands`_).
2504 brace_match_ltgt Whether to highlight <, > angle brackets. false immediately
2505 complete_snippets_whilst_editing Whether to allow completion of snippets false immediately
2506 when editing an existing line (i.e. there
2507 is some text after the current cursor
2508 position on the line). Only used when the
2509 keybinding `Complete snippet` is set to
2511 show_editor_scrollbars Whether to display scrollbars. If set to true immediately
2512 false, the horizontal and vertical
2513 scrollbars are hidden completely.
2514 indent_hard_tab_width The size of a tab character. Don't change 8 immediately
2515 it unless you really need to; use the
2516 indentation settings instead.
2517 **Interface related**
2518 show_symbol_list_expanders Whether to show or hide the small true to new
2519 expander icons on the symbol list documents
2521 allow_always_save Whether files can be saved always, even false immediately
2522 if they don't have any changes.
2523 By default, the Save button and menu
2524 item are disabled when a file is
2525 unchanged. When setting this option to
2526 true, the Save button and menu item are
2527 always active and files can be saved.
2528 compiler_tab_autoscroll Whether to automatically scroll to the true immediately
2529 last line of the output in the Compiler
2531 statusbar_template The status bar statistics line format. See below. immediately
2532 (See `Statusbar Templates`_ for details).
2533 new_document_after_close Whether to open a new document after all false immediately
2534 documents have been closed.
2535 msgwin_status_visible Whether to show the Status tab in the true immediately
2537 msgwin_compiler_visible Whether to show the Compiler tab in the true immediately
2539 msgwin_messages_visible Whether to show the Messages tab in the true immediately
2541 msgwin_scribble_visible Whether to show the Scribble tab in the true immediately
2544 emulation Terminal emulation mode. Only change this xterm immediately
2545 if you have VTE termcap files other than
2546 ``vte/termcap/xterm``.
2547 send_selection_unsafe By default, Geany strips any trailing false immediately
2548 newline characters from the current
2549 selection before sending it to the terminal
2550 to not execute arbitrary code. This is
2551 mainly a security feature.
2552 If, for whatever reasons, you really want
2553 it to be executed directly, set this option
2555 send_cmd_prefix String with which prefix the commands sent Empty immediately
2556 to the shell. This may be used to tell
2557 some shells (BASH with ``HISTCONTROL`` set
2558 to ``ignorespace``, ZSH with
2559 ``HIST_IGNORE_SPACE`` enabled, etc.) from
2560 putting these commands in their history by
2561 setting this to a space. Note that leading
2562 spaces must be escaped using `\s` in the
2565 use_atomic_file_saving Defines the mode how Geany saves files to false immediately
2566 disk. If disabled, Geany directly writes
2567 the content of the document to disk. This
2568 might cause loss of data when there is
2569 no more free space on disk to save the
2570 file. When set to true, Geany first saves
2571 the contents into a temporary file and if
2572 this succeeded, the temporary file is
2573 moved to the real file to save.
2574 This gives better error checking in case of
2575 no more free disk space. But it also
2576 destroys hard links of the original file
2577 and its permissions (e.g. executable flags
2578 are reset). Use this with care as it can
2579 break things seriously.
2580 The better approach would be to ensure your
2581 disk won't run out of free space.
2582 use_gio_unsafe_file_saving Whether to use GIO as the unsafe file true immediately
2583 saving backend. It is better on most
2584 situations but is known not to work
2585 correctly on some complex setups.
2586 gio_unsafe_save_backup Make a backup when using GIO unsafe file false immediately
2587 saving. Backup is named `filename~`.
2588 **Filetype related**
2589 extract_filetype_regex Regex to extract filetype name from file See below. immediately
2590 via capture group one.
2592 find_selection_type See `Find selection`_. 0 immediately
2593 **Build Menu related**
2594 number_ft_menu_items The maximum number of menu items in the 2 on restart
2595 filetype section of the Build menu.
2596 number_non_ft_menu_items The maximum number of menu items in the 3 on restart
2597 independent section of the Build menu.
2598 number_exec_menu_items The maximum number of menu items in the 2 on restart
2599 execute section of the Build menu.
2600 ================================ =========================================== ========== ===========
2602 The extract_filetype_regex has the default value GEANY_DEFAULT_FILETYPE_REGEX.
2607 The default statusbar template is (note ``\t`` = tab):
2609 ``line: %l / %L\t col: %c\t sel: %s\t %w %t %mmode: %M encoding: %e filetype: %f scope: %S``
2611 Settings the preference to an empty string will also cause Geany to use this
2614 The following format characters are available for the statusbar template:
2616 ============ ===========================================================
2617 Placeholder Description
2618 ============ ===========================================================
2619 ``%l`` The current line number starting at 1
2620 ``%L`` The total number of lines
2621 ``%c`` The current column number starting at 0
2622 ``%C`` The current column number starting at 1
2623 ``%s`` The number of selected characters or if only whole lines
2624 selected, the number of selected lines.
2625 ``%w`` Shows ``RO`` when the document is in read-only mode,
2626 otherwise shows whether the editor is in overtype (OVR)
2627 or insert (INS) mode.
2628 ``%t`` Shows the indentation mode, either tabs (TAB),
2629 spaces (SP) or both (T/S).
2630 ``%m`` Shows whether the document is modified (MOD) or nothing.
2631 ``%M`` The name of the document's line-endings (ex. ``Unix (LF)``)
2632 ``%e`` The name of the document's encoding (ex. UTF-8).
2633 ``%f`` The filetype of the document (ex. None, Python, C, etc).
2634 ``%S`` The name of the scope where the caret is located.
2635 ``%p`` The caret position in the entire document starting at 0.
2636 ``%r`` Shows whether the document is read-only (RO) or nothing.
2637 ``%Y`` The Scintilla style number at the caret position. This is
2638 useful if you're debugging color schemes or related code.
2639 ============ ===========================================================
2641 Terminal (VTE) preferences
2642 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2644 See also: `Virtual terminal emulator widget (VTE)`_.
2646 .. image:: ./images/pref_dialog_vte.png
2652 Select the font that will be used in the terminal emulation control.
2655 Select the font color.
2658 Select the background color of the terminal.
2661 Select the background image to show behind the terminal's text.
2664 The number of lines buffered so that you can scroll though the history.
2667 The location of the shell on your system.
2670 Scroll the terminal to the prompt line when pressing a key.
2673 Scroll the output down.
2676 Let the terminal cursor blink.
2678 Override Geany keybindings
2679 Allow the VTE to receive keyboard shortcuts (apart from focus commands).
2681 Disable menu shortcut key (F10 by default)
2682 Disable the menu shortcut when you are in the virtual terminal.
2684 Follow path of the current file
2685 Make the path of the terminal change according to the path of the
2688 Execute programs in VTE
2689 Execute programs in the virtual terminal instead of using the external
2690 terminal tool. Note that if you run multiple execute commands at once
2691 the output may become mixed together in the VTE.
2693 Don't use run script
2694 Don't use the simple run script which is usually used to display
2695 the exit status of the executed program.
2696 This can be useful if you already have a program running in the VTE
2697 like a Python console (e.g. ipython). Use this with care.
2703 Project management is optional in Geany. Currently it can be used for:
2705 * Storing and opening session files on a project basis.
2706 * Overriding default settings with project equivalents.
2707 * Configuring the Build menu on a project basis.
2709 A list of session files can be stored and opened with the project
2710 when the *Use project-based session files* preference is enabled,
2711 in the *Project* group of the `Preferences`_ dialog.
2713 As long as a project is open, the Build menu will use
2714 the items defined in project's settings, instead of the defaults.
2715 See `Build Menu Configuration`_ for information on configuring the menu.
2717 The current project's settings are saved when it is closed, or when
2718 Geany is shutdown. When restarting Geany, the previously opened project
2719 file that was in use at the end of the last session will be reopened.
2721 The project menu items are detailed below.
2727 To create a new project, fill in the *Name* field. By default this
2728 will setup a new project file ``~/projects/name.geany``. Usually it's
2729 best to store all your project files in the same directory (they are
2730 independent of any source directory trees).
2732 The Base path text field is setup to use ``~/projects/name``. This
2733 can safely be set to any existing path -- it will not touch the file
2734 structure contained in it.
2740 You can set an optional description for the project. Currently it's
2741 only used for a template wildcard - see `Template wildcards`_.
2743 The *Base path* field is used as the directory to run the Build menu commands.
2744 The specified path can be an absolute path or it is considered to be
2745 relative to the project's file name.
2747 The *File patterns* field allows to specify a list of file patterns for the
2748 project, which can be used in the `Find in files`_ dialog.
2750 The *Indentation* tab allows you to override the default
2751 `Indentation`_ settings.
2757 The Open command displays a standard file chooser, starting in
2758 ``~/projects``. Choose a project file named with the ``.geany``
2761 When project session support is enabled, Geany will close the currently
2762 open files and open the session files associated with the project.
2768 Project file settings are saved when the project is closed.
2770 When project session support is enabled, Geany will close the project
2771 session files and open any previously closed default session files.
2776 After editing code with Geany, the next step is to compile, link, build,
2777 interpret, run etc. As Geany supports many languages each with a different
2778 approach to such operations, and as there are also many language independent
2779 software building systems, Geany does not have a built-in build system, nor
2780 does it limit which system you can use. Instead the build menu provides
2781 a configurable and flexible means of running any external commands to
2782 execute your preferred build system.
2784 This section provides a description of the default configuration of the
2785 build menu and then covers how to configure it, and where the defaults fit in.
2787 Running the commands from within Geany has two benefits:
2789 * The current file is automatically saved before the command is run.
2790 * The output is captured in the Compiler notebook tab and parsed for
2793 Warnings and errors that can be parsed for line numbers will be shown in
2794 red in the Compiler tab and you can click on them to switch to the relevant
2795 source file (or open it) and mark the line number. Also lines with
2796 warnings or errors are marked in the source, see `Indicators`_ below.
2799 If Geany's default error message parsing does not parse errors for
2800 the tool you're using, you can set a custom regex in the Build Commands
2801 Dialog, see `Build Menu Configuration`_.
2806 Indicators are red squiggly underlines which are used to highlight
2807 errors which occurred while compiling the current file. So you can
2808 easily see where your code failed to compile. You can remove them by
2809 selecting *Remove Error Indicators* in the Document menu.
2811 If you do not like this feature, you can disable it - see `Editor Features
2815 Default build menu items
2816 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2817 Depending on the current file's filetype, the default Build menu will contain
2818 the following items:
2823 * Make Custom Target
2828 * Set Build Menu Commands
2834 The Compile command has different uses for different kinds of files.
2836 For compilable languages such as C and C++, the Compile command is
2837 set up to compile the current source file into a binary object file.
2839 Java source files will be compiled to class file bytecode.
2841 Interpreted languages such as Perl, Python, Ruby will compile to
2842 bytecode if the language supports it, or will run a syntax check,
2843 or if that is not available will run the file in its language interpreter.
2848 For compilable languages such as C and C++, the Build command will link
2849 the current source file's equivalent object file into an executable. If
2850 the object file does not exist, the source will be compiled and linked
2851 in one step, producing just the executable binary.
2853 Interpreted languages do not use the Build command.
2856 If you need complex settings for your build system, or several
2857 different settings, then writing a Makefile and using the Make
2858 commands is recommended; this will also make it easier for users to
2859 build your software.
2865 This runs "make" in the same directory as the
2871 This is similar to running 'Make' but you will be prompted for
2872 the make target name to be passed to the Make tool. For example,
2873 typing 'clean' in the dialog prompt will run "make clean".
2879 Make object will run "make current_file.o" in the same directory as
2880 the current file, using the filename for 'current_file'. It is useful
2881 for building just the current file without building the whole project.
2886 The next error item will move to the next detected error in the file.
2890 The previous error item will move to the previous detected error in the file.
2895 Execute will run the corresponding executable file, shell script or
2896 interpreted script in a terminal window. The command set in the
2897 "Set Build Commands" dialog is run in a script to ensure the terminal
2898 stays open after execution completes. Note: see `Terminal emulators`_
2899 below for the command format. Alternatively the built-in VTE can be used
2900 if it is available - see `Virtual terminal emulator widget (VTE)`_.
2902 After your program or script has finished executing, the run script will
2903 prompt you to press the return key. This allows you to review any text
2904 output from the program before the terminal window is closed.
2907 The execute command output is not parsed for errors.
2910 Stopping running processes
2911 ``````````````````````````
2913 When there is a running program, the Execute menu item in the menu and
2914 the Run button in the toolbar
2915 each become a stop button so you can stop the current running program (and
2916 any child processes). This works by sending the SIGQUIT signal to the process.
2918 Depending on the process you started it is possible that the process
2919 cannot be stopped. For example this can happen when the process creates
2920 more than one child process.
2926 The Terminal field of the tools preferences tab requires a command to
2927 execute the terminal program and to pass it the name of the Geany run
2928 script that it should execute in a Bourne compatible shell (eg /bin/sh).
2929 The marker "%c" is substituted with the name of the Geany run script,
2930 which is created in the working directory set in the Build commands
2931 dialog, see `Build menu commands dialog`_ for details.
2933 As an example the default (Linux) command is::
2935 xterm -e "/bin/sh %c"
2941 By default Compile, Build and Execute are fairly basic commands. You
2942 may wish to customise them using *Set Build Commands*.
2944 E.g. for C you can add any include paths and compile flags for the
2945 compiler, any library names and paths for the linker, and any
2946 arguments you want to use when running Execute.
2948 Build menu configuration
2949 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
2951 The build menu has considerable flexibility and configurability, allowing
2952 both menu labels the commands they execute and the directory they execute
2953 in to be configured.
2955 For example, if you change one of the default make commands to run say 'waf'
2956 you can also change the label to match.
2958 These settings are saved automatically when Geany is shut down.
2960 The build menu is divided into four groups of items each with different
2963 * Filetype build commands - are configurable and depend on the filetype of the
2964 current document; they capture output in the compiler tab and parse it for
2966 * Independent build commands - are configurable and mostly don't depend on the
2967 filetype of the current document; they also capture output in the
2968 compiler tab and parse it for errors.
2969 * Execute commands - are configurable and intended for executing your
2970 program or other long running programs. The output is not parsed for errors
2971 and is directed to the terminal command selected in preferences.
2972 * Fixed commands - these perform built-in actions:
2974 * Go to the next error.
2975 * Go to the previous error.
2976 * Show the build menu commands dialog.
2978 The maximum numbers of items in each of the configurable groups can be
2979 configured in the `Various preferences`_. Even though the maximum number of
2980 items may have been increased, only those menu items that have values
2981 configured are shown in the menu.
2983 The groups of menu items obtain their configuration from four potential
2984 sources. The highest priority source that has the menu item defined will
2985 be used. The sources in decreasing priority are:
2987 * A project file if open
2988 * The user preferences
2989 * The system filetype definitions
2992 The detailed relationships between sources and the configurable menu item groups
2993 is shown in the following table.
2995 +--------------+---------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------+
2996 | Group | Project File | Preferences | System Filetype | Defaults |
2997 +==============+=====================+==========================+===================+===============================+
2998 | Filetype | Loads From: project | Loads From: | Loads From: | None |
2999 | | file | filetypes.xxx file in | filetypes.xxx in | |
3000 | | | ~/.config/geany/filedefs | Geany install | |
3001 | | Saves To: project | | | |
3002 | | file | Saves to: as above, | Saves to: as user | |
3003 | | | creating if needed. | preferences left. | |
3004 +--------------+---------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------+
3005 | Filetype | Loads From: project | Loads From: | Loads From: | 1: |
3006 | Independent | file | geany.conf file in | filetypes.xxx in | Label: _Make |
3007 | | | ~/.config/geany | Geany install | Command: make |
3008 | | Saves To: project | | | |
3009 | | file | Saves to: as above, | Saves to: as user | 2: |
3010 | | | creating if needed. | preferences left. | Label: Make Custom _Target |
3011 | | | | | Command: make |
3014 | | | | | Label: Make _Object |
3015 | | | | | Command: make %e.o |
3016 +--------------+---------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------+
3017 | Execute | Loads From: project | Loads From: | Loads From: | Label: _Execute |
3018 | | file or else | geany.conf file in | filetypes.xxx in | Command: ./%e |
3019 | | filetype defined in | ~/.config/geany or else | Geany install | |
3020 | | project file | filetypes.xxx file in | | |
3021 | | | ~/.config/geany/filedefs | Saves To: as user | |
3022 | | Saves To: | | preferences left. | |
3023 | | project file | Saves To: | | |
3024 | | | filetypes.xxx file in | | |
3025 | | | ~/.config/geany/filedefs | | |
3026 +--------------+---------------------+--------------------------+-------------------+-------------------------------+
3028 The following notes on the table reference cells by coordinate as (group,source):
3030 * General - for filetypes.xxx substitute the appropriate extension for
3031 the filetype of the current document for xxx - see `filenames`_.
3033 * System Filetypes - Labels loaded from these sources are locale sensitive
3034 and can contain translations.
3036 * (Filetype, Project File) and (Filetype, Preferences) - preferences use a full
3037 filetype file so that users can configure all other filetype preferences
3038 as well. Projects can only configure menu items per filetype. Saving
3039 in the project file means that there is only one file per project not
3042 * (Filetype-Independent, System Filetype) - although conceptually strange, defining
3043 filetype-independent commands in a filetype file, this provides the ability to
3044 define filetype dependent default menu items.
3046 * (Execute, Project File) and (Execute, Preferences) - the project independent
3047 execute and preferences independent execute commands can only be set by hand
3048 editing the appropriate file, see `Preferences file format`_ and `Project file
3051 Build menu commands dialog
3052 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
3054 Most of the configuration of the build menu is done through the Build Menu
3055 Commands Dialog. You edit the configuration sourced from preferences in the
3056 dialog opened from the Build->Build Menu Commands item and you edit the
3057 configuration from the project in the build tab of the project preferences
3058 dialog. Both use the same form shown below.
3060 .. image:: ./images/build_menu_commands_dialog.png
3062 The dialog is divided into three sections:
3064 * Filetype build commands (selected based on the current document's filetype).
3065 * Independent build commands (available regardless of filetype).
3066 * Filetype execute commands.
3068 The filetype and independent sections also each contain a field for the regular
3069 expression used for parsing command output for error and warning messages.
3071 The columns in the first three sections allow setting of the label, command,
3072 and working directory to run the command in.
3074 An item with an empty label will not be shown in the menu.
3076 An empty working directory will default to the directory of the current document.
3077 If there is no current document then the command will not run.
3079 The dialog will always show the command selected by priority, not just the
3080 commands configured in this configuration source. This ensures that you always
3081 see what the menu item is going to do if activated.
3083 If the current source of the menu item is higher priority than the
3084 configuration source you are editing then the command will be shown
3085 in the dialog but will be insensitive (greyed out). This can't happen
3086 with the project source but can with the preferences source dialog.
3088 The clear buttons remove the definition from the configuration source you are editing.
3089 When you do this the command from the next lower priority source will be shown.
3090 To hide lower priority menu items without having anything show in the menu
3091 configure with a nothing in the label but at least one character in the command.
3093 Substitutions in commands and working directories
3094 `````````````````````````````````````````````````
3096 The first occurence of each of the following character sequences in each of the
3097 command and working directory fields is substituted by the items specified below
3098 before the command is run.
3100 * %d - substituted by the absolute path to the directory of the current file.
3101 * %e - substituted by the name of the current file without the extension or path.
3102 * %f - substituted by the name of the current file without the path.
3103 * %p - if a project is open, substituted by the base path from the project.
3106 If the basepath set in the project preferences is not an absolute path , then it is
3107 taken as relative to the directory of the project file. This allows a project file
3108 stored in the source tree to specify all commands and working directories relative
3109 to the tree itself, so that the whole tree including the project file, can be moved
3110 and even checked into and out of version control without having to re-configure the
3113 Build menu keyboard shortcuts
3114 `````````````````````````````
3116 Keyboard shortcuts can be defined for the first two filetype menu items, the first three
3117 independent menu items, the first two execute menu items and the fixed menu items.
3118 In the keybindings configuration dialog (see `Keybinding preferences`_)
3119 these items are identified by the default labels shown in the `Build Menu`_ section above.
3121 It is currently not possible to bind keyboard shortcuts to more than these menu items.
3123 You can also use underlines in the labels to set mnemonic characters.
3128 The configurable Build Menu capability was introduced in Geany 0.19 and
3129 required a new section to be added to the configuration files (See
3130 `Preferences file format`_). Geany will still load older format project,
3131 preferences and filetype file settings and will attempt to map them into the new
3132 configuration format. There is not a simple clean mapping between the formats.
3133 The mapping used produces the most sensible results for the majority of cases.
3134 However, if they do not map the way you want, you may have to manually
3135 configure some settings using the Build Commands
3136 Dialog or the Build tab of the project preferences dialog.
3138 Any setting configured in either of these dialogs will override settings mapped from
3139 older format configuration files.
3144 Since Geany 0.13 there has been printing support using GTK's printing API.
3145 The printed page(s) will look nearly the same as on your screen in Geany.
3146 Additionally, there are some options to modify the printed page(s).
3149 The background text color is set to white, except for text with
3150 a white foreground. This allows dark color schemes to save ink
3153 You can define whether to print line numbers, page numbers at the bottom of
3154 each page and whether to print a page header on each page. This header
3155 contains the filename of the printed document, the current page number and
3156 the date and time of printing. By default, the file name of the document
3157 with full path information is added to the header. If you prefer to add
3158 only the basename of the file(without any path information) you can set it
3159 in the preferences dialog. You can also adjust the format of the date and
3160 time added to the page header. The available conversion specifiers are the
3161 same as the ones which can be used with the ANSI C strftime function.
3163 All of these settings can also be changed in the print dialog just before
3164 actual printing is done.
3165 On Unix-like systems the provided print dialog offers a print preview. The
3166 preview file is opened with a PDF viewer and by default GTK uses ``evince``
3167 for print preview. If you have not installed evince or just want to use
3168 another PDF viewer, you can change the program to use in the file
3169 ``.gtkrc-2.0`` (usually found in your home directory). Simply add a line
3172 gtk-print-preview-command = "epdfview %f"
3174 at the end of the file. Of course, you can also use xpdf, kpdf or whatever
3175 as the print preview command.
3177 Geany also provides an alternative basic printing support using a custom
3178 print command. However, the printed document contains no syntax highlighting.
3179 You can adjust the command to which the filename is passed in the preferences
3180 dialog. The default command is::
3184 ``%f`` will be substituted by the filename of the current file. Geany
3185 will not show errors from the command itself, so you should make
3186 sure that it works before(e.g. by trying to execute it from the
3189 A nicer example, which many prefer is::
3191 % a2ps -1 --medium=A4 -o - %f | xfprint4
3193 But this depends on a2ps and xfprint4. As a replacement for xfprint4,
3194 gtklp or similar programs can be used.
3201 Plugins are loaded at startup, if the *Enable plugin support*
3202 general preference is set. There is also a command-line option,
3203 ``-p``, which prevents plugins being loaded. Plugins are scanned in
3204 the following directories:
3206 * ``$prefix/lib/geany`` on Unix-like systems (see `Installation prefix`_)
3207 * The ``lib`` subfolder of the installation path on Windows.
3208 * The ``plugins`` subfolder of the user configuration directory - see
3209 `Configuration file paths`_.
3210 * The `Extra plugin path` preference (usually blank) - see `Paths`_.
3212 Most plugins add menu items to the *Tools* menu when they are loaded.
3214 See also `Plugin documentation`_ for information about single plugins
3215 which are included in Geany.
3219 The Plugin Manager dialog lets you choose which plugins
3220 should be loaded at startup. You can also load and unload plugins on the
3221 fly using this dialog. Once you click the checkbox for a specific plugin
3222 in the dialog, it is loaded or unloaded according to its previous state.
3223 By default, no plugins are loaded at startup until you select some.
3224 You can also configure some plugin specific options if the plugin
3231 Geany supports the default keyboard shortcuts for the Scintilla
3232 editing widget. For a list of these commands, see `Scintilla
3233 keyboard commands`_. The Scintilla keyboard shortcuts will be overridden
3234 by any custom keybindings with the same keyboard shortcut.
3240 There are some non-configurable bindings to switch between documents,
3241 listed below. These can also be overridden by custom keybindings.
3243 =============== ==================================
3245 =============== ==================================
3246 Alt-[1-9] Select left-most tab, from 1 to 9.
3247 Alt-0 Select right-most tab.
3248 =============== ==================================
3250 See also `Notebook tab keybindings`_.
3253 Configurable keybindings
3254 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
3256 For all actions listed below you can define your own keybindings. Open
3257 the Preferences dialog, select the desired action and click on
3258 change. In the resulting dialog you can press the key combination you
3259 want to assign to the action and it will be saved when you press OK.
3260 You can define only one key combination for each action and each key
3261 combination can only be defined for one action.
3263 The following tables list all customizable keyboard shortcuts, those
3264 which are common to many applications are marked with (C) after the
3269 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3270 Action Default shortcut Description
3271 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3272 New Ctrl-N (C) Creates a new file.
3274 Open Ctrl-O (C) Opens a file.
3276 Open selected file Ctrl-Shift-O Opens the selected filename.
3278 Re-open last closed tab Re-opens the last closed document tab.
3280 Save Ctrl-S (C) Saves the current file.
3282 Save As Saves the current file under a new name.
3284 Save all Ctrl-Shift-S Saves all open files.
3286 Close all Ctrl-Shift-W Closes all open files.
3288 Close Ctrl-W (C) Closes the current file.
3290 Reload file Ctrl-R (C) Reloads the current file. All unsaved changes
3293 Print Ctrl-P (C) Prints the current file.
3295 Quit Ctrl-Q (C) Quits Geany.
3296 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3301 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3302 Action Default shortcut Description
3303 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3304 Undo Ctrl-Z (C) Un-does the last action.
3306 Redo Ctrl-Y Re-does the last action.
3308 Delete current line(s) Ctrl-K Deletes the current line (and any lines with a
3311 Delete to line end Ctrl-Shift-Delete Deletes from the current caret position to the
3312 end of the current line.
3314 Duplicate line or selection Ctrl-D Duplicates the current line or selection.
3316 Transpose current line Transposes the current line with the previous one.
3318 Scroll to current line Ctrl-Shift-L Scrolls the current line into the centre of the
3319 view. The cursor position and or an existing
3320 selection will not be changed.
3322 Scroll up by one line Alt-Up Scrolls the view.
3324 Scroll down by one line Alt-Down Scrolls the view.
3326 Complete word Ctrl-Space Shows the autocompletion list. If already showing
3327 tag completion, it shows document word completion
3328 instead, even if it is not enabled for automatic
3329 completion. Likewise if no tag suggestions are
3330 available, it shows document word completion.
3332 Show calltip Ctrl-Shift-Space Shows a calltip for the current function or
3335 Show macro list Ctrl-Return Shows a list of available macros and variables in
3338 Complete snippet Tab If you type a construct like if or for and press
3339 this key, it will be completed with a matching
3342 Suppress snippet completion If you type a construct like if or for and press
3343 this key, it will not be completed, and a space or
3344 tab will be inserted, depending on what the
3345 construct completion keybinding is set to. For
3346 example, if you have set the construct completion
3347 keybinding to space, then setting this to
3348 Shift+space will prevent construct completion and
3351 Context Action Executes a command and passes the current word
3352 (near the cursor position) or selection as an
3353 argument. See the section called `Context
3356 Move cursor in snippet Jumps to the next defined cursor positions in a
3357 completed snippets if multiple cursor positions
3360 Word part completion Tab When the autocompletion list is visible, complete
3361 the currently selected item up to the next word
3364 Move line(s) up Alt-PageUp Move the current line or selected lines up by
3367 Move line(s) down Alt-PageDown Move the current line or selected lines down by
3369 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3372 Clipboard keybindings
3373 `````````````````````
3374 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3375 Action Default shortcut Description
3376 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3377 Cut Ctrl-X (C) Cut the current selection to the clipboard.
3379 Copy Ctrl-C (C) Copy the current selection to the clipboard.
3381 Paste Ctrl-V (C) Paste the clipboard text into the current document.
3383 Cut current line(s) Ctrl-Shift-X Cuts the current line (and any lines with a
3384 selection) to the clipboard.
3386 Copy current line(s) Ctrl-Shift-C Copies the current line (and any lines with a
3387 selection) to the clipboard.
3388 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3393 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3394 Action Default shortcut Description
3395 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3396 Select all Ctrl-A (C) Makes a selection of all text in the current
3399 Select current word Alt-Shift-W Selects the current word under the cursor.
3401 Select current paragraph Alt-Shift-P Selects the current paragraph under the cursor
3402 which is defined by two empty lines around it.
3404 Select current line(s) Alt-Shift-L Selects the current line under the cursor (and any
3405 partially selected lines).
3407 Select to previous word part (Extend) selection to previous word part boundary.
3409 Select to next word part (Extend) selection to next word part boundary.
3410 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3415 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3416 Action Default shortcut Description
3417 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3418 Insert date Shift-Alt-D Inserts a customisable date.
3420 Insert alternative whitespace Inserts a tab character when spaces should
3421 be used for indentation and inserts space
3422 characters of the amount of a tab width when
3423 tabs should be used for indentation.
3425 Insert New Line Before Current Inserts a new line with indentation.
3427 Insert New Line After Current Inserts a new line with indentation.
3428 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3433 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3434 Action Default shortcut Description
3435 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3436 Toggle case of selection Ctrl-Alt-U Changes the case of the selection. A lowercase
3437 selection will be changed into uppercase and vice
3438 versa. If the selection contains lower- and
3439 uppercase characters, all will be converted to
3442 Comment line Comments current line or selection.
3444 Uncomment line Uncomments current line or selection.
3446 Toggle line commentation Ctrl-E Comments a line if it is not commented or removes
3447 a comment if the line is commented.
3449 Increase indent Ctrl-I Indents the current line or selection by one tab
3450 or by spaces in the amount of the tab width
3453 Decrease indent Ctrl-U Removes one tab or the amount of spaces of
3454 the tab width setting from the indentation of the
3455 current line or selection.
3457 Increase indent by one space Indents the current line or selection by one
3460 Decrease indent by one space Deindents the current line or selection by one
3463 Smart line indent Indents the current line or all selected lines
3464 with the same indentation as the previous line.
3466 Send to Custom Command 1 (2,3) Ctrl-1 (2,3) Passes the current selection to a configured
3467 external command (available for the first
3468 three configured commands, see
3469 `Sending text through custom commands`_ for
3472 Send Selection to Terminal Sends the current selection or the current
3473 line (if there is no selection) to the
3474 embedded Terminal (VTE).
3476 Reflow lines/block Reformat selected lines or current
3477 (indented) text block,
3478 breaking lines at the long line marker or the
3479 line breaking column if line breaking is
3480 enabled for the current document.
3481 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3484 Settings keybindings
3485 ````````````````````
3486 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3487 Action Default shortcut Description
3488 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3489 Preferences Ctrl-Alt-P Opens preferences dialog.
3491 Plugin Preferences Opens plugin preferences dialog.
3492 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3497 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3498 Action Default shortcut Description
3499 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3500 Find Ctrl-F (C) Opens the Find dialog.
3502 Find Next Ctrl-G Finds next result.
3504 Find Previous Ctrl-Shift-G Finds previous result.
3506 Find Next Selection Finds next occurence of selected text.
3508 Find Previous Selection Finds previous occurence of selected text.
3510 Replace Ctrl-H (C) Opens the Replace dialog.
3512 Find in files Ctrl-Shift-F Opens the Find in files dialog.
3514 Next message Jumps to the line with the next message in
3515 the Messages window.
3517 Previous message Jumps to the line with the previous message
3518 in the Messages window.
3520 Find Usage Ctrl-Shift-E Finds all occurrences of the current word (near
3521 the keyboard cursor) or selection in all open
3522 documents and displays them in the messages
3525 Find Document Usage Ctrl-Shift-D Finds all occurrences of the current word (near
3526 the keyboard cursor) or selection in the current
3527 document and displays them in the messages
3530 Mark All Ctrl-Shift-M Highlight all matches of the current
3531 word/selection in the current document
3532 with a colored box. If there's nothing to
3533 find, or the cursor is next to an existing match,
3534 the highlighted matches will be cleared.
3535 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3540 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3541 Action Default shortcut Description
3542 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3543 Navigate forward a location Alt-Right (C) Switches to the next location in the navigation
3544 history. See the section called `Code Navigation
3547 Navigate back a location Alt-Left (C) Switches to the previous location in the
3548 navigation history. See the section called
3549 `Code navigation history`_.
3551 Go to line Ctrl-L Focuses the Go to Line entry (if visible) or
3552 shows the Go to line dialog.
3554 Goto matching brace Ctrl-B If the cursor is ahead or behind a brace, then it
3555 is moved to the brace which belongs to the current
3556 one. If this keyboard shortcut is pressed again,
3557 the cursor is moved back to the first brace.
3559 Toggle marker Ctrl-M Set a marker on the current line, or clear the
3560 marker if there already is one.
3562 Goto next marker Ctrl-. Goto the next marker in the current document.
3564 Goto previous marker Ctrl-, Goto the previous marker in the current document.
3566 Go to tag definition Ctrl-T Jump to the definition of the current word or
3567 selection. See `Go to tag definition`_.
3569 Go to tag declaration Ctrl-Shift-T Jump to the declaration of the current word or
3570 selection. See `Go to tag declaration`_.
3572 Go to Start of Line Home Move the caret to the start of the line.
3573 Behaves differently if smart_home_key_ is set.
3575 Go to End of Line End Move the caret to the end of the line.
3577 Go to Start of Display Line Alt-Home Move the caret to the start of the display line.
3578 This is useful when you use line wrapping and
3579 want to jump to the start of the wrapped, virtual
3580 line, not the real start of the whole line.
3581 If the line is not wrapped, it behaves like
3582 `Go to Start of Line`.
3584 Go to End of Display Line Alt-End Move the caret to the end of the display line.
3585 If the line is not wrapped, it behaves like
3586 `Go to End of Line`.
3588 Go to Previous Word Part Ctrl-/ Goto the previous part of the current word.
3590 Go to Next Word Part Ctrl-\\ Goto the next part of the current word.
3591 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3595 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3596 Action Default shortcut Description
3597 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3598 Fullscreen F11 (C) Switches to fullscreen mode.
3600 Toggle Messages Window Toggles the message window (status and compiler
3601 messages) on and off.
3603 Toggle Sidebar Shows or hides the sidebar.
3605 Toggle all additional widgets Hide and show all additional widgets like the
3606 notebook tabs, the toolbar, the messages window
3609 Zoom In Ctrl-+ (C) Zooms in the text.
3611 Zoom Out Ctrl-- (C) Zooms out the text.
3613 Zoom Reset Ctrl-0 Reset any previous zoom on the text.
3614 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3618 ================================ ========================= ==================================================
3619 Action Default shortcut Description
3620 ================================ ========================= ==================================================
3621 Switch to Editor F2 Switches to editor widget.
3622 Also reshows the document statistics line
3623 (after a short timeout).
3625 Switch to Search Bar F7 Switches to the search bar in the toolbar (if
3628 Switch to Message Window Focus the Message Window's current tab.
3630 Switch to Compiler Focus the Compiler message window tab.
3632 Switch to Messages Focus the Messages message window tab.
3634 Switch to Scribble F6 Switches to scribble widget.
3636 Switch to VTE F4 Switches to VTE widget.
3638 Switch to Sidebar Focus the Sidebar.
3640 Switch to Sidebar Symbol List Focus the Symbol list tab in the Sidebar
3643 Switch to Sidebar Document List Focus the Document list tab in the Sidebar
3645 ================================ ========================= ==================================================
3648 Notebook tab keybindings
3649 ````````````````````````
3650 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3651 Action Default shortcut Description
3652 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3653 Switch to left document Ctrl-PageUp (C) Switches to the previous open document.
3655 Switch to right document Ctrl-PageDown (C) Switches to the next open document.
3657 Switch to last used document Ctrl-Tab Switches to the previously shown document (if it's
3659 Holding Ctrl (or another modifier if the keybinding
3660 has been changed) will show a dialog, then repeated
3661 presses of the keybinding will switch to the 2nd-last
3662 used document, 3rd-last, etc. Also known as
3663 Most-Recently-Used documents switching.
3665 Move document left Ctrl-Shift-PageUp Changes the current document with the left hand
3668 Move document right Ctrl-Shift-PageDown Changes the current document with the right hand
3671 Move document first Moves the current document to the first position.
3673 Move document last Moves the current document to the last position.
3674 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3677 Document keybindings
3678 ````````````````````
3679 ==================================== ==================== ==================================================
3680 Action Default shortcut Description
3681 ==================================== ==================== ==================================================
3682 Clone See `Cloning documents`_.
3684 Replace tabs by space Replaces all tabs with the right amount of spaces.
3686 Replace spaces by tabs Replaces leading spaces with tab characters.
3688 Toggle current fold Toggles the folding state of the current code block.
3690 Fold all Folds all contractible code blocks.
3692 Unfold all Unfolds all contracted code blocks.
3694 Reload symbol list Ctrl-Shift-R Reloads the tag/symbol list.
3696 Toggle Line wrapping Enables or disables wrapping of long lines.
3698 Toggle Line breaking Enables or disables automatic breaking of long
3699 lines at a configurable column.
3701 Remove Markers Remove any markers on lines or words which
3702 were set by using 'Mark All' in the
3703 search dialog or by manually marking lines.
3705 Remove Error Indicators Remove any error indicators in the
3708 Remove Markers and Error Indicators Combines ``Remove Markers`` and
3709 ``Remove Error Indicators``.
3710 ==================================== ==================== ==================================================
3715 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3716 Action Default shortcut Description
3717 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3718 New Create a new project.
3719 Open Opens a project file.
3720 Properties Shows project properties.
3721 Close Close the current project.
3722 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3727 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3728 Action Default shortcut Description
3729 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3730 Compile F8 Compiles the current file.
3732 Build F9 Builds (compiles if necessary and links) the
3735 Make all Shift-F9 Builds the current file with the Make tool.
3737 Make custom target Ctrl-Shift-F9 Builds the current file with the Make tool and a
3740 Make object Shift-F8 Compiles the current file with the Make tool.
3742 Next error Jumps to the line with the next error from the
3745 Previous error Jumps to the line with the previous error from
3746 the last build process.
3748 Run F5 Executes the current file in a terminal emulation.
3750 Set Build Commands Opens the build commands dialog.
3751 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3756 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3757 Action Default shortcut Description
3758 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3759 Show Color Chooser Opens the Color Chooser dialog.
3760 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3765 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3766 Action Default shortcut Description
3767 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3768 Help F1 (C) Opens the manual.
3769 =============================== ========================= ==================================================
3777 You must use UTF-8 encoding *without BOM* for configuration files.
3780 Configuration file paths
3781 ------------------------
3782 Geany has default configuration files installed for the system and
3783 also per-user configuration files.
3785 The system files should not normally be edited because they will be
3786 overwritten when upgrading Geany.
3788 The user configuration directory can be overridden with the ``-c``
3789 switch, but this is not normally done. See `Command line options`_.
3792 Any missing subdirectories in the user configuration directory
3793 will be created when Geany starts.
3795 You can check the paths Geany is using with *Help->Debug Messages*.
3796 Near the top there should be 2 lines with something like::
3798 Geany-INFO: System data dir: /usr/share/geany
3799 Geany-INFO: User config dir: /home/username/.config/geany
3802 Paths on Unix-like systems
3803 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
3804 The system path is ``$prefix/share/geany``, where ``$prefix`` is the
3805 path where Geany is installed (see `Installation prefix`_).
3807 The user configuration directory is normally:
3808 ``/home/username/.config/geany``
3812 The system path is the ``data`` subfolder of the installation path
3815 The user configuration directory might vary, but on Windows XP it's:
3816 ``C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\geany``
3821 There's a *Configuration files* submenu in the *Tools* menu that
3822 contains items for some of the available user configuration files.
3823 Clicking on one opens it in the editor for you to update. Geany will
3824 reload the file after you have saved it.
3827 Other configuration files not shown here will need to be opened
3828 manually, and will not be automatically reloaded when saved.
3829 (see *Reload Configuration* below).
3831 There's also a *Reload Configuration* item which can be used if you
3832 updated one of the other configuration files, or modified or added
3835 *Reload Configuration* is also necessary to update syntax highlighting colors.
3838 Syntax highlighting colors aren't updated in open documents after
3839 saving filetypes.common as this may take a significant
3843 Global configuration file
3844 -------------------------
3846 System administrators can add a global configuration file for Geany
3847 which will be used when starting Geany and a user configuration file
3850 The global configuration file is read from ``geany.conf`` in the
3851 system configuration path - see `Configuration file paths`_. It can
3852 contain any settings which are found in the usual configuration file
3853 created by Geany, but does not have to contain all settings.
3856 This feature is mainly intended for package maintainers or system
3857 admins who want to set up Geany in a multi user environment and
3858 set some sane default values for this environment. Usually users won't
3863 Filetype definition files
3864 -------------------------
3866 All color definitions and other filetype specific settings are
3867 stored in the filetype definition files. Those settings are colors
3868 for syntax highlighting, general settings like comment characters or
3869 word delimiter characters as well as compiler and linker settings.
3871 See also `Configuration file paths`_.
3875 Each filetype has a corresponding filetype definition file. The format
3876 for built-in filetype `Foo` is::
3880 The extension is normally just the filetype name in lower case.
3882 However there are some exceptions:
3884 =============== =========
3886 =============== =========
3890 Matlab/Octave matlab
3891 =============== =========
3893 There is also the `special file filetypes.common`_.
3895 For `custom filetypes`_, the filename for `Foo` is different::
3899 See the link for details.
3903 The system-wide filetype configuration files can be found in the
3904 system configuration path and are called ``filetypes.$ext``,
3905 where $ext is the name of the filetype. For every
3906 filetype there is a corresponding definition file. There is one
3907 exception: ``filetypes.common`` -- this file is for general settings,
3908 which are not specific to a certain filetype.
3911 It is not recommended that users edit the system-wide files,
3912 because they will be overridden when Geany is updated.
3916 To change the settings, copy a file from the system configuration
3917 path to the subdirectory ``filedefs`` in your user configuration
3918 directory. Then you can edit the file and the changes will still be
3919 available after an update of Geany.
3921 Alternatively, you can create the file yourself and add only the
3922 settings you want to change. All missing settings will be read from
3923 the corresponding system configuration file.
3927 At startup Geany looks for ``filetypes.*.conf`` files in the system and
3928 user filetype paths, adding any filetypes found with the name matching
3929 the '``*``' wildcard - e.g. ``filetypes.Bar.conf``.
3931 Custom filetypes are not as powerful as built-in filetypes, but
3932 support for the following has been implemented:
3934 * Recognizing and setting the filetype (after the user has manually edited
3935 ``filetype_extensions.conf``).
3936 * Reading filetype settings in the ``[settings]`` section, including:
3937 * Using an existing syntax highlighting lexer (`lexer_filetype`_ key).
3938 * Using an existing tag parser (``tag_parser`` key).
3939 * Build commands (``[build-menu]`` section).
3940 * Loading global tags files (sharing the ``tag_parser`` namespace).
3942 See `Filetype configuration`_ for details on each setting.
3944 Creating a custom filetype from an existing filetype
3945 ````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3946 Because most filetype settings will relate to the syntax
3947 highlighting (e.g. styling, keywords, ``lexer_properties``
3948 sections), it is best to copy an existing filetype file that uses
3949 the lexer you wish to use as the basis of a custom filetype, using
3950 the correct filename extension format shown above, e.g.::
3952 cp filetypes.foo filetypes.Bar.conf
3954 Then add the ``lexer_filetype=Foo`` setting (if not already present)
3955 and add/adjust other settings.
3958 The ``[styling]`` and ``[keywords]`` sections have key names
3959 specific to each filetype/lexer. You must follow the same
3960 names - in particular, some lexers only support one keyword
3964 Filetype configuration
3965 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
3967 As well as the sections listed below, each filetype file can contain
3968 a [build-menu] section as described in `[build-menu] section`_.
3973 In this section the colors for syntax highlighting are defined. The
3976 * ``key=foreground_color;background_color;bold_flag;italic_flag``
3978 Colors have to be specified as RGB hex values prefixed by
3979 0x or # similar to HTML/CSS hex triplets. For example, all of the following
3980 are valid values for pure red; 0xff0000, 0xf00, #ff0000, or #f00. The
3981 values are case-insensitive but it is a good idea to use lower-case.
3982 Note that you can also use *named colors* as well by substituting the
3983 color value with the name of a color as defined in the ``[named_colors]``
3984 section, see the `[named_colors] Section`_ for more information.
3986 Bold and italic are flags and should only be "true" or "false". If their
3987 value is something other than "true" or "false", "false" is assumed.
3989 You can omit fields to use the values from the style named ``"default"``.
3991 E.g. ``key=0xff0000;;true``
3993 This makes the key style have red foreground text, default background
3994 color text and bold emphasis.
3998 The second format uses a *named style* name to reference a style
3999 defined in filetypes.common.
4001 * ``key=named_style``
4002 * ``key2=named_style2,bold,italic``
4004 The bold and italic parts are optional, and if present are used to
4005 toggle the bold or italic flags to the opposite of the named style's
4006 flags. In contrast to style definition booleans, they are a literal
4007 ",bold,italic" and commas are used instead of semi-colons.
4009 E.g. ``key=comment,italic``
4011 This makes the key style match the ``"comment"`` named style, but with
4014 To define named styles, see the filetypes.common `[named_styles]
4017 Reading styles from another filetype
4018 ************************************
4019 You can automatically copy all of the styles from another filetype
4020 definition file by using the following syntax for the ``[styling]``
4025 Where Foo is a filetype name. The corresponding ``[styling]``
4026 section from ``filetypes.foo`` will be read.
4028 This is useful when the same lexer is being used for multiple
4029 filetypes (e.g. C/C++/C#/Java/etc). For example, to make the C++
4030 styling the same as the C styling, you would put the following in
4039 This section contains keys for different keyword lists specific to
4040 the filetype. Some filetypes do not support keywords, so adding a
4041 new key will not work. You can only add or remove keywords to/from
4045 The keywords list must be in one line without line ending characters.
4048 [lexer_properties] section
4049 ``````````````````````````
4050 Here any special properties for the Scintilla lexer can be set in the
4051 format ``key.name.field=some.value``.
4053 Properties Geany uses are listed in the system filetype files. To find
4054 other properties you need Geany's source code::
4056 egrep -o 'GetProperty\w*\("([^"]+)"[^)]+\)' scintilla/Lex*.cxx
4063 This is the default file extension used when saving files, not
4064 including the period character (``.``). The extension used should
4065 match one of the patterns associated with that filetype (see
4066 `Filetype extensions`_).
4068 *Example:* ``extension=cxx``
4071 These characters define word boundaries when making selections
4072 and searching using word matching options.
4074 *Example:* (look at system filetypes.\* files)
4077 This overrides the *whitespace_chars* filetypes.common setting.
4080 A character or string which is used to comment code. If you want to use
4081 multiline comments only, don't set this but rather comment_open and
4084 Single-line comments are used in priority over multiline comments to
4085 comment a line, e.g. with the `Comment/Uncomment line` command.
4087 *Example:* ``comment_single=//``
4090 A character or string which is used to comment code. You need to also
4091 set comment_close to really use multiline comments. If you want to use
4092 single-line comments, prefer setting comment_single.
4094 Multiline comments are used in priority over single-line comments to
4095 comment a block, e.g. template comments.
4097 *Example:* ``comment_open=/*``
4100 If multiline comments are used, this is the character or string to
4103 *Example:* ``comment_close=*/``
4106 Set this to false if a comment character or string should start at
4107 column 0 of a line. If set to true it uses any indentation of the
4110 Note: Comment indentation
4112 ``comment_use_indent=true`` would generate this if a line is
4113 commented (e.g. with Ctrl-D)::
4117 ``comment_use_indent=false`` would generate this if a line is
4118 commented (e.g. with Ctrl-D)::
4120 # command_example();
4123 Note: This setting only works for single line comments (like '//',
4126 *Example:* ``comment_use_indent=true``
4129 A command which can be executed on the current word or the current
4132 Example usage: Open the API documentation for the
4133 current function call at the cursor position.
4136 be set for every filetype or if not set, a global command will
4137 be used. The command itself can be specified without the full
4138 path, then it is searched in $PATH. But for security reasons,
4139 it is recommended to specify the full path to the command. The
4140 wildcard %s will be replaced by the current word at the cursor
4141 position or by the current selection.
4143 Hint: for PHP files the following could be quite useful:
4144 context_action_cmd=firefox "http://www.php.net/%s"
4146 *Example:* ``context_action_cmd=devhelp -s "%s"``
4149 The TagManager language name, e.g. "C". Usually the same as the
4155 A filetype name to setup syntax highlighting from another filetype.
4156 This must not be recursive, i.e. it should be a filetype name that
4157 doesn't use the *lexer_filetype* key itself, e.g.::
4162 The second line is wrong, because ``filetypes.cpp`` itself uses
4163 ``lexer_filetype=C``, which would be recursive.
4165 symbol_list_sort_mode
4166 What the default symbol list sort order should be.
4168 ===== =====================================
4170 ===== =====================================
4172 1 Sort tags by appearance (line number)
4173 ===== =====================================
4175 .. _xml_indent_tags:
4178 If this setting is set to *true*, a new line after a line ending with an
4179 unclosed XML/HTML tag will be automatically indented. This only applies
4180 to filetypes for which the HTML or XML lexer is used. Such filetypes have
4181 this setting in their system configuration files.
4184 [indentation] section
4185 `````````````````````
4187 This section allows definition of default indentation settings specific to
4188 the file type, overriding the ones configured in the preferences. This can
4189 be useful for file types requiring specific indentation settings (e.g. tabs
4190 only for Makefile). These settings don't override auto-detection if activated.
4193 The forced indentation width.
4196 The forced indentation type.
4198 ===== =======================
4199 Value Indentation type
4200 ===== =======================
4203 2 Mixed (tabs and spaces)
4204 ===== =======================
4207 [build_settings] section
4208 ````````````````````````
4210 As of Geany 0.19 this section is supplemented by the `[build-menu] section`_.
4211 Values that are set in the [build-menu] section will override those in this section.
4214 This is a regular expression to parse a filename
4215 and line number from build output. If undefined, Geany will fall
4216 back to its default error message parsing.
4218 Only the first two matches will be read by Geany. Geany will look for
4219 a match that is purely digits, and use this for the line number. The
4220 remaining match will be used as the filename.
4222 *Example:* ``error_regex=(.+):([0-9]+):[0-9]+``
4224 This will parse a message such as:
4225 ``test.py:7:24: E202 whitespace before ']'``
4229 If any build menu item settings have been configured in the Build Menu Commands
4230 dialog or the Build tab of the project preferences dialog then these
4231 settings are stored in the [build-menu] section and override the settings in
4232 this section for that item.
4235 This item specifies the command to compile source code files. But
4236 it is also possible to use it with interpreted languages like Perl
4237 or Python. With these filetypes you can use this option as a kind of
4238 syntax parser, which sends output to the compiler message window.
4240 You should quote the filename to also support filenames with
4241 spaces. The following wildcards for filenames are available:
4243 * %f -- complete filename without path
4244 * %e -- filename without path and without extension
4246 *Example:* ``compiler=gcc -Wall -c "%f"``
4249 This item specifies the command to link the file. If the file is not
4250 already compiled, it will be compiled while linking. The -o option
4251 is automatically added by Geany. This item works well with GNU gcc,
4252 but may be problematic with other compilers (esp. with the linker).
4254 *Example:* ``linker=gcc -Wall "%f"``
4257 Use this item to execute your file. It has to have been built
4258 already. Use the %e wildcard to have only the name of the executable
4259 (i.e. without extension) or use the %f wildcard if you need the
4260 complete filename, e.g. for shell scripts.
4262 *Example:* ``run_cmd="./%e"``
4265 Special file filetypes.common
4266 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4268 There is a special filetype definition file called
4269 filetypes.common. This file defines some general non-filetype-specific
4272 You can open the user filetypes.common with the
4273 *Tools->Configuration Files->filetypes.common* menu item. This adds
4274 the default settings to the user file if the file doesn't exist.
4275 Alternatively the file can be created manually, adding only the
4276 settings you want to change. All missing settings will be read from
4280 See the `Filetype configuration`_ section for how to define styles.
4283 [named_styles] section
4284 ``````````````````````
4285 Named styles declared here can be used in the [styling] section of any
4290 *In filetypes.common*::
4293 foo=0xc00000;0xffffff;false;true
4301 This saves copying and pasting the whole style definition into several
4305 You can define aliases for named styles, as shown with the ``bar``
4306 entry in the above example, but they must be declared after the
4310 [named_colors] section
4311 ``````````````````````
4312 Named colors declared here can be used in the ``[styling]`` or
4313 ``[named_styles]`` section of any filetypes.* file or color scheme.
4318 my_red_color=#FF0000
4319 my_blue_color=#0000FF
4322 foo=my_red_color;my_blue_color;false;true
4324 This allows to define a color pallete by name so that to change a color
4325 scheme-wide only involves changing the hex value in a single location.
4330 This is the default style. It is used for styling files without a
4333 *Example:* ``default=0x000000;0xffffff;false;false``
4336 The style for coloring selected text. The format is:
4340 * Use foreground color
4341 * Use background color
4343 The colors are only set if the 3rd or 4th argument is true. When
4344 the colors are not overridden, the default is a dark grey
4345 background with syntax highlighted foreground text.
4347 *Example:* ``selection=0xc0c0c0;0x00007F;true;true``
4350 The style for brace highlighting when a matching brace was found.
4352 *Example:* ``brace_good=0xff0000;0xFFFFFF;true;false``
4355 The style for brace highlighting when no matching brace was found.
4357 *Example:* ``brace_bad=0x0000ff;0xFFFFFF;true;false``
4360 The style for coloring the caret(the blinking cursor). Only first
4361 and third argument is interpreted.
4362 Set the third argument to true to change the caret into a block caret.
4364 *Example:* ``caret=0x000000;0x0;false;false``
4367 The width for the caret(the blinking cursor). Only the first
4368 argument is interpreted. The width is specified in pixels with
4369 a maximum of three pixel. Use the width 0 to make the caret
4372 *Example:* ``caret=1;0;false;false``
4375 The style for coloring the background of the current line. Only
4376 the second and third arguments are interpreted. The second argument
4377 is the background color. Use the third argument to enable or
4378 disable background highlighting for the current line (has to be
4381 *Example:* ``current_line=0x0;0xe5e5e5;true;false``
4384 The style for coloring the indentation guides. Only the first and
4385 second arguments are interpreted.
4387 *Example:* ``indent_guide=0xc0c0c0;0xffffff;false;false``
4390 The style for coloring the white space if it is shown. The first
4391 both arguments define the foreground and background colors, the
4392 third argument sets whether to use the defined foreground color
4393 or to use the color defined by each filetype for the white space.
4394 The fourth argument defines whether to use the background color.
4396 *Example:* ``white_space=0xc0c0c0;0xffffff;true;true``
4399 Line number margin foreground and background colors.
4401 .. _Folding Settings:
4404 Fold margin foreground and background colors.
4406 fold_symbol_highlight
4407 Highlight color of folding symbols.
4410 The style of folding icons. Only first and second arguments are
4413 Valid values for the first argument are:
4420 Valid values for the second argument are:
4423 * 1 -- for straight lines
4424 * 2 -- for curved lines
4426 *Default:* ``folding_style=1;1;``
4428 *Arrows:* ``folding_style=3;0;``
4431 Draw a thin horizontal line at the line where text is folded. Only
4432 first argument is used.
4434 Valid values for the first argument are:
4436 * 0 -- disable, do not draw a line
4437 * 1 -- draw the line above folded text
4438 * 2 -- draw the line below folded text
4440 *Example:* ``folding_horiz_line=0;0;false;false``
4443 First argument: drawing of visual flags to indicate a line is wrapped.
4444 This is a bitmask of the values:
4446 * 0 -- No visual flags
4447 * 1 -- Visual flag at end of subline of a wrapped line
4448 * 2 -- Visual flag at begin of subline of a wrapped line. Subline is
4449 indented by at least 1 to make room for the flag.
4451 Second argument: wether the visual flags to indicate a line is wrapped
4452 are drawn near the border or near the text. This is a bitmask of the values:
4454 * 0 -- Visual flags drawn near border
4455 * 1 -- Visual flag at end of subline drawn near text
4456 * 2 -- Visual flag at begin of subline drawn near text
4458 Only first and second arguments are interpreted.
4460 *Example:* ``line_wrap_visuals=3;0;false;false``
4463 First argument: sets the size of indentation of sublines for wrapped lines
4464 in terms of the width of a space, only used when the second argument is ``0``.
4466 Second argument: wrapped sublines can be indented to the position of their
4467 first subline or one more indent level. Possible values:
4469 * 0 - Wrapped sublines aligned to left of window plus amount set by the first argument
4470 * 1 - Wrapped sublines are aligned to first subline indent (use the same indentation)
4471 * 2 - Wrapped sublines are aligned to first subline indent plus one more level of indentation
4473 Only first and second arguments are interpreted.
4475 *Example:* ``line_wrap_indent=0;1;false;false``
4478 Translucency for the current line (first argument) and the selection
4479 (second argument). Values between 0 and 256 are accepted.
4481 Note for Windows 95, 98 and ME users:
4482 keep this value at 256 to disable translucency otherwise Geany might crash.
4484 Only the first and second arguments are interpreted.
4486 *Example:* ``translucency=256;256;false;false``
4489 The style for a highlighted line (e.g when using Goto line or goto tag).
4490 The foreground color (first argument) is only used when the Markers margin
4491 is enabled (see View menu).
4493 Only the first and second arguments are interpreted.
4495 *Example:* ``marker_line=0x000000;0xffff00;false;false``
4498 The style for a marked search results (when using "Mark" in Search dialogs).
4499 The second argument sets the background color for the drawn rectangle.
4501 Only the second argument is interpreted.
4503 *Example:* ``marker_search=0x000000;0xb8f4b8;false;false``
4506 The style for a marked line (e.g when using the "Toggle Marker" keybinding
4507 (Ctrl-M)). The foreground color (first argument) is only used
4508 when the Markers margin is enabled (see View menu).
4510 Only the first and second arguments are interpreted.
4512 *Example:* ``marker_mark=0x000000;0xb8f4b8;false;false``
4515 Translucency for the line marker (first argument) and the search marker
4516 (second argument). Values between 0 and 256 are accepted.
4518 Note for Windows 95, 98 and ME users:
4519 keep this value at 256 to disable translucency otherwise Geany might crash.
4521 Only the first and second arguments are interpreted.
4523 *Example:* ``marker_translucency=256;256;false;false``
4526 Amount of space to be drawn above and below the line's baseline.
4527 The first argument defines the amount of space to be drawn above the line, the second
4528 argument defines the amount of space to be drawn below.
4530 Only the first and second arguments are interpreted.
4532 *Example:* ``line_height=0;0;false;false``
4535 The style for coloring the calltips. The first two arguments
4536 define the foreground and background colors, the third and fourth
4537 arguments set whether to use the defined colors.
4539 *Example:* ``calltips=0xc0c0c0;0xffffff;false;false``
4545 Characters to treat as whitespace. These characters are ignored
4546 when moving, selecting and deleting across word boundaries
4547 (see `Scintilla keyboard commands`_).
4549 This should include space (\\s) and tab (\\t).
4551 *Example:* ``whitespace_chars=\s\t!\"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^`{|}~``
4558 To change the default filetype extension used when saving a new file,
4559 see `Filetype definition files`_.
4561 You can override the list of file extensions that Geany uses to detect
4562 filetypes using the user ``filetype_extensions.conf`` file. Use the
4563 *Tools->Configuration Files->filetype_extensions.conf* menu item. See
4564 also `Configuration file paths`_.
4566 You should only list lines for filetype extensions that you want to
4567 override in the user configuration file and remove or comment out
4568 others. The patterns are listed after the ``=`` sign, using a
4569 semi-colon separated list of patterns which should be matched for
4572 For example, to override the filetype extensions for Make, the file
4576 Make=Makefile*;*.mk;Buildfile;
4578 Filetype group membership
4579 -------------------------
4580 Group membership is also stored in ``filetype_extensions.conf``. This
4581 file is used to store information Geany needs at startup, whereas the
4582 separate filetype definition files hold information only needed when
4583 a document with their filetype is used.
4585 The format looks like::
4594 The key names cannot be configured.
4597 Group membership is only read at startup.
4599 Preferences file format
4600 -----------------------
4602 The user preferences file ``geany.conf`` holds settings for all the items configured
4603 in the preferences dialog. This file should not be edited while Geany is running
4604 as the file will be overwritten when the preferences in Geany are changed or Geany
4608 [build-menu] section
4609 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4611 The [build-menu] section contains the configuration of the build menu.
4612 This section can occur in filetype, preferences and project files and
4613 always has the format described here. Different menu items are loaded
4614 from different files, see the table in the `Build Menu Configuration`_
4615 section for details. All the settings can be configured from the dialogs
4616 except the execute command in filetype files and filetype definitions in
4617 the project file, so these are the only ones which need hand editing.
4619 The build-menu section stores one entry for each setting for each menu item that
4620 is configured. The keys for these settings have the format:
4626 * GG - is the menu item group,
4629 - NF for independent (non-filetype)
4632 * NN - is a two decimal digit number of the item within the group,
4634 * FF - is the field,
4638 - WD for working directory
4644 The project file contains project related settings and possibly a
4645 record of the current session files.
4648 [build-menu] additions
4649 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4651 The project file also can have extra fields in the [build-menu] section
4652 in addition to those listed in `[build-menu] section`_ above.
4654 When filetype menu items are configured for the project they are stored
4655 in the project file.
4657 The ``filetypes`` entry is a list of the filetypes which exist in the
4660 For each filetype the entries for that filetype have the format defined in
4661 `[build-menu] section`_ but the key is prefixed by the name of the filetype
4662 as it appears in the ``filetypes`` entry, eg the entry for the label of
4663 filetype menu item 0 for the C filetype would be
4671 Geany supports the following templates:
4675 * Function description
4680 To use these templates, just open the Edit menu or open the popup menu
4681 by right-clicking in the editor widget, and choose "Insert Comments"
4682 and insert templates as you want.
4684 Some templates (like File header or ChangeLog entry) will always be
4685 inserted at the top of the file.
4687 To insert a function description, the cursor must be inside
4688 of the function, so that the function name can be determined
4689 automatically. The description will be positioned correctly one line
4690 above the function, just check it out. If the cursor is not inside
4691 of a function or the function name cannot be determined, the inserted
4692 function description won't contain the correct function name but "unknown"
4696 Geany automatically reloads template information when it notices you
4697 save a file in the user's template configuration directory. You can
4698 also force this by selecting *Tools->Reload Configuration*.
4704 Meta data can be used with all templates, but by default user set
4705 meta data is only used for the ChangeLog and File header templates.
4707 In the configuration dialog you can find a tab "Templates" (see
4708 `Template preferences`_). You can define the default values
4709 which will be inserted in the templates.
4715 File templates are templates used as the basis of a new file. To
4716 use them, choose the *New (with Template)* menu item from the *File*
4719 By default, file templates are installed for some filetypes. Custom
4720 file templates can be added by creating the appropriate template file. You can
4721 also edit the default file templates.
4723 The file's contents are just the text to place in the document, with
4724 optional template wildcards like ``{fileheader}``. The fileheader
4725 wildcard can be placed anywhere, but it's usually put on the first
4726 line of the file, followed by a blank line.
4728 Adding file templates
4729 `````````````````````
4731 File templates are read from ``templates/files`` under the
4732 `Configuration file paths`_.
4734 The filetype to use is detected from the template file's extension, if
4735 any. For example, creating a file ``module.c`` would add a menu item
4736 which created a new document with the filetype set to 'C'.
4738 The template file is read from disk when the corresponding menu item is
4742 Customizing templates
4743 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4745 Each template can be customized to your needs. The templates are
4746 stored in the ``~/.config/geany/templates/`` directory (see the section called
4747 `Command line options`_ for further information about the configuration
4748 directory). Just open the desired template with an editor (ideally,
4749 Geany ;-) ) and edit the template to your needs. There are some
4750 wildcards which will be automatically replaced by Geany at startup.
4756 All wildcards must be enclosed by "{" and "}", e.g. {date}.
4758 **Wildcards for character escaping**
4760 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4761 Wildcard Description Available in
4762 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4763 ob { Opening Brace (used to prevent other file templates, file header, snippets.
4764 wildcards being expanded).
4765 cb } Closing Brace. file templates, file header, snippets.
4766 pc \% Percent (used to escape e.g. %block% in
4767 snippets). snippets.
4768 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4770 **Global wildcards**
4772 These are configurable, see `Template preferences`_.
4774 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4775 Wildcard Description Available in
4776 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4777 developer The name of the developer. file templates, file header,
4778 function description, ChangeLog entry,
4781 initial The developer's initials, e.g. "ET" for file templates, file header,
4782 Enrico Tröger or "JFD" for John Foobar Doe. function description, ChangeLog entry,
4785 mail The email address of the developer. file templates, file header,
4786 function description, ChangeLog entry,
4789 company The company the developer is working for. file templates, file header,
4790 function description, ChangeLog entry,
4793 version The initial version of a new file. file templates, file header,
4794 function description, ChangeLog entry,
4796 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4798 **Date & time wildcards**
4800 The format for these wildcards can be changed in the preferences
4801 dialog, see `Template preferences`_. You can use any conversion
4802 specifiers which can be used with the ANSI C strftime function.
4803 For details please see http://man.cx/strftime.
4805 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4806 Wildcard Description Available in
4807 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4808 year The current year. Default format is: YYYY. file templates, file header,
4809 function description, ChangeLog entry,
4812 date The current date. Default format: file templates, file header,
4813 YYYY-MM-DD. function description, ChangeLog entry,
4816 datetime The current date and time. Default format: file templates, file header,
4817 DD.MM.YYYY HH:mm:ss ZZZZ. function description, ChangeLog entry,
4819 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4821 **Dynamic wildcards**
4823 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4824 Wildcard Description Available in
4825 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4826 untitled The string "untitled" (this will be file templates, file header,
4827 translated to your locale), used in function description, ChangeLog entry,
4828 file templates. bsd, gpl, snippets.
4830 geanyversion The actual Geany version, e.g. file templates, file header,
4831 "Geany |(version)|". function description, ChangeLog entry,
4834 filename The filename of the current file. file header, snippets, file
4835 For new files, it's only replaced when templates.
4836 first saving if found on the first 4 lines
4839 project The current project's name, if any. file header, snippets, file templates.
4841 description The current project's description, if any. file header, snippets, file templates.
4843 functionname The function name of the function at the function description.
4844 cursor position. This wildcard will only be
4845 replaced in the function description
4848 command:path Executes the specified command and replace file templates, file header,
4849 the wildcard with the command's standard function description, ChangeLog entry,
4850 output. See `Special {command:} wildcard`_ bsd, gpl, snippets.
4852 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4854 **Template insertion wildcards**
4856 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4857 Wildcard Description Available in
4858 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4859 gpl This wildcard inserts a short GPL notice. file header.
4861 bsd This wildcard inserts a BSD licence notice. file header.
4863 fileheader The file header template. This wildcard snippets, file templates.
4864 will only be replaced in file templates.
4865 ============== ============================================= =======================================
4868 Special {command:} wildcard
4869 ***************************
4871 The {command:} wildcard is a special one because it can execute
4872 a specified command and put the command's output (stdout) into
4881 Linux localhost 2.6.9-023stab046.2-smp #1 SMP Mon Dec 10 15:04:55 MSK 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux
4883 Using this wildcard you can insert nearly any arbitrary text into the
4886 In the environment of the executed command the variables
4887 ``GEANY_FILENAME``, ``GEANY_FILETYPE`` and ``GEANY_FUNCNAME`` are set.
4888 The value of these variables is filled in only if Geany knows about it.
4889 For example, ``GEANY_FUNCNAME`` is only filled within the function
4890 description template. However, these variables are ``always`` set,
4891 just maybe with an empty value.
4892 You can easily access them e.g. within an executed shell script using::
4898 If the specified command could not be found or not executed, the wildcard is substituted
4899 by an empty string. In such cases, you can find the occurred error message on Geany's
4900 standard error and in the Help->Debug Messages dialog.
4903 Customizing the toolbar
4904 -----------------------
4906 You can add, remove and reorder the elements in the toolbar by using
4907 the toolbar editor, or by manually editing the configuration file
4910 The toolbar editor can be opened from the preferences editor on the Toolbar tab or
4911 by right-clicking on the toolbar itself and choosing it from the menu.
4913 Manually editing the toolbar layout
4914 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4916 To override the system-wide configuration file, copy it to your user
4917 configuration directory (see `Configuration file paths`_).
4921 % cp /usr/local/share/geany/ui_toolbar.xml /home/username/.config/geany/
4923 Then edit it and add any of the available elements listed in the file or remove
4924 any of the existing elements. Of course, you can also reorder the elements as
4925 you wish and add or remove additional separators.
4926 This file must be valid XML, otherwise the global toolbar UI definition
4927 will be used instead.
4929 Your changes are applied once you save the file.
4932 (1) You cannot add new actions which are not listed below.
4933 (2) Everything you add or change must be inside the /ui/toolbar/ path.
4936 Available toolbar elements
4937 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4939 ================== ==============================================================================
4940 Element name Description
4941 ================== ==============================================================================
4942 New Create a new file
4943 Open Open an existing file
4944 Save Save the current file
4945 SaveAll Save all open files
4946 Reload Reload the current file from disk
4947 Close Close the current file
4948 CloseAll Close all open files
4949 Print Print the current file
4950 Cut Cut the current selection
4951 Copy Copy the current selection
4952 Paste Paste the contents of the clipboard
4953 Delete Delete the current selection
4954 Undo Undo the last modification
4955 Redo Redo the last modification
4956 NavBack Navigate back a location
4957 NavFor Navigate forward a location
4958 Compile Compile the current file
4959 Build Build the current file, includes a submenu for Make commands. Geany
4960 remembers the last chosen action from the submenu and uses this as default
4961 action when the button itself is clicked.
4962 Run Run or view the current file
4963 Color Open a color chooser dialog, to interactively pick colors from a palette
4964 ZoomIn Zoom in the text
4965 ZoomOut Zoom out the text
4966 UnIndent Decrease indentation
4967 Indent Increase indentation
4968 Replace Replace text in the current document
4969 SearchEntry The search field belonging to the 'Search' element (can be used alone)
4970 Search Find the entered text in the current file (only useful if you also
4972 GotoEntry The goto field belonging to the 'Goto' element (can be used alone)
4973 Goto Jump to the entered line number (only useful if you also use 'GotoEntry')
4974 Preferences Show the preferences dialog
4976 ================== ==============================================================================
4980 Plugin documentation
4981 ====================
4986 The HTML Characters plugin helps when working with special
4987 characters in XML/HTML, e.g. German Umlauts ü and ä.
4990 Insert entity dialog
4991 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
4993 When the plugin is enabled, you can insert special character
4994 entities using *Tools->Insert Special HTML Characters*.
4996 This opens up a dialog where you can find a huge amount of special
4997 characters sorted by category that you might like to use inside your
4998 document. You can expand and collapse the categories by clicking on
4999 the little arrow on the left hand side. Once you have found the
5000 desired character click on it and choose "Insert". This will insert
5001 the entity for the character at the current cursor position. You
5002 might also like to double click the chosen entity instead.
5005 Replace special chars by its entity
5006 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
5008 To help make a XML/HTML document valid the plugin supports
5009 replacement of special chars known by the plugin. Both bulk
5010 replacement and immediate replacement during typing are supported.
5012 A few characters will not be replaced. These are
5023 You can activate/deactivate this feature using the *Tools->HTML
5024 Replacement->Auto-replace Special Characters* menu item. If it's
5025 activated, all special characters (beside the given exceptions from
5026 above) known by the plugin will be replaced by their entities.
5028 You could also set a keybinding for the plugin to toggle the status
5035 After inserting a huge amount of text, e.g. by using copy & paste, the
5036 plugin allows bulk replacement of all known characters (beside the
5037 mentioned exceptions). You can find the function under the same
5038 menu at *Tools->HTML Replacement->Replace Characters in Selection*, or
5039 configure a keybinding for the plugin.
5047 This plugin sets on every new file (*File->New* or *File->New (with template)*)
5048 a randomly chosen filename and set its filetype appropriate to the used template
5049 or when no template was used, to a configurable default filetype.
5050 This enables you to quickly compile, build and/or run the new file without the
5051 need to give it an explicit filename using the Save As dialog. This might be
5052 useful when you often create new files just for testing some code or something
5059 This plugin creates a backup copy of the current file in Geany when it is
5060 saved. You can specify the directory where the backup copy is saved and
5061 you can configure the automatically added extension in the configure dialog
5062 in Geany's plugin manager.
5064 After the plugin was loaded in Geany's plugin manager, every file is
5065 copied into the configured backup directory when the file is saved in Geany.
5069 Contributing to this document
5070 =============================
5072 This document (``geany.txt``) is written in `reStructuredText`__
5073 (or "reST"). The source file for it is located in Geany's ``doc``
5074 subdirectory. If you intend on making changes, you should grab the
5075 source right from Git to make sure you've got the newest version. After
5076 editing the file, to build the HTML document to see how your changes
5077 look, run "``make doc``" in the subdirectory ``doc`` of Geany's source
5078 directory. This regenerates the ``geany.html`` file. To generate a PDF
5079 file, use the command "``make pdf``" which should generate a file called
5080 geany-|(version)|.pdf.
5082 __ http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html
5084 After you are happy with your changes, create a patch e.g. by using::
5086 % git diff geany.txt > foo.patch
5088 or even better, by creating a Git-formatted patch which will keep authoring
5089 and description data, by first committing your changes (doing so in a fresh
5090 new branch is recommended for `matser` not to diverge from upstream) and then
5091 using git format-patch::
5093 % git checkout -b my-documentation-changes # create a fresh branch
5094 % git commit geany.txt
5095 Write a good commit message...
5096 % git format-patch HEAD^
5097 % git checkout master # go back to master
5099 and then submit that file to the mailing list for review.
5101 Also you can clone the Geany repository at GitHub and send a pull request.
5103 Note, you will need the Python docutils software package installed
5104 to build the docs. The package is named ``python-docutils`` on Debian
5110 Scintilla keyboard commands
5111 ===========================
5113 Copyright © 1998, 2006 Neil Hodgson <neilh(at)scintilla(dot)org>
5115 This appendix is distributed under the terms of the License for
5116 Scintilla and SciTE. A copy of this license can be found in the file
5117 ``scintilla/License.txt`` included with the source code of this
5118 program and in the appendix of this document. See `License for
5119 Scintilla and SciTE`_.
5128 Keyboard commands for Scintilla mostly follow common Windows and GTK+
5129 conventions. All move keys (arrows, page up/down, home and end)
5130 allows to extend or reduce the stream selection when holding the
5131 Shift key, and the rectangular selection when holding the
5132 appropriate keys (see `Column mode editing (rectangular selections)`_).
5134 Some keys may not be available with some national keyboards
5135 or because they are taken by the system such as by a window manager
5136 or GTK. Keyboard equivalents of menu commands are listed in the
5137 menus. Some less common commands with no menu equivalent are:
5139 ============================================= ======================
5141 ============================================= ======================
5142 Magnify text size. Ctrl-Keypad+
5143 Reduce text size. Ctrl-Keypad-
5144 Restore text size to normal. Ctrl-Keypad/
5146 Dedent block. Shift-Tab
5147 Delete to start of word. Ctrl-BackSpace
5148 Delete to end of word. Ctrl-Delete
5149 Delete to start of line. Ctrl-Shift-BackSpace
5150 Go to start of document. Ctrl-Home
5151 Extend selection to start of document. Ctrl-Shift-Home
5152 Go to start of display line. Alt-Home
5153 Extend selection to start of display line. Alt-Shift-Home
5154 Go to end of document. Ctrl-End
5155 Extend selection to end of document. Ctrl-Shift-End
5156 Extend selection to end of display line. Alt-Shift-End
5157 Previous paragraph. Shift extends selection. Ctrl-Up
5158 Next paragraph. Shift extends selection. Ctrl-Down
5159 Previous word. Shift extends selection. Ctrl-Left
5160 Next word. Shift extends selection. Ctrl-Right
5161 ============================================= ======================
5172 * Double-click on empty space in the notebook tab bar to open a
5174 * Middle-click on a document's notebook tab to close the document.
5175 * Hold `Ctrl` and click on any notebook tab to switch to the last used
5177 * Double-click on a document's notebook tab to toggle all additional
5178 widgets (to show them again use the View menu or the keyboard
5179 shortcut). The interface pref must be enabled for this to work.
5184 * Alt-scroll wheel moves up/down a page.
5185 * Ctrl-scroll wheel zooms in/out.
5186 * Shift-scroll wheel scrolls 8 characters right/left.
5187 * Ctrl-click on a word in a document to perform *Go to Tag Definition*.
5188 * Ctrl-click on a bracket/brace to perform *Go to Matching Brace*.
5193 * Double-click on a symbol-list group to expand or compact it.
5198 * Scrolling the mouse wheel over a notebook tab bar will switch
5201 The following are derived from X-Windows features (but GTK still supports
5204 * Middle-click pastes the last selected text.
5205 * Middle-click on a scrollbar moves the scrollbar to that
5206 position without having to drag it.
5210 Compile-time options
5211 ====================
5213 There are some options which can only be changed at compile time,
5214 and some options which are used as the default for configurable
5215 options. To change these options, edit the appropriate source file
5216 in the ``src`` subdirectory. Look for a block of lines starting with
5217 ``#define GEANY_*``. Any definitions which are not listed here should
5221 Most users should not need to change these options.
5226 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5227 Option Description Default
5228 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5229 GEANY_STRING_UNTITLED A string used as the default name for new untitled
5230 files. Be aware that the string can be
5231 translated, so change it only if you know
5233 GEANY_WINDOW_MINIMAL_WIDTH The minimal width of the main window. 620
5234 GEANY_WINDOW_MINIMAL_HEIGHT The minimal height of the main window. 440
5235 GEANY_WINDOW_DEFAULT_WIDTH The default width of the main window at the 900
5237 GEANY_WINDOW_DEFAULT_HEIGHT The default height of the main window at the 600
5239 **Windows specific**
5240 GEANY_USE_WIN32_DIALOG Set this to 1 if you want to use the default 0
5241 Windows file open and save dialogs instead
5242 GTK's file open and save dialogs. The
5243 default Windows file dialogs are missing
5244 some nice features like choosing a filetype
5245 or an encoding. *Do not touch this setting
5246 when building on a non-Win32 system.*
5247 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5252 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5253 Option Description Default
5254 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5255 GEANY_PROJECT_EXT The default filename extension for Geany geany
5256 project files. It is used when creating new
5257 projects and as filter mask for the project
5259 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5264 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5265 Option Description Default
5266 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5267 GEANY_FILETYPE_SEARCH_LINES The number of lines to search for the 2
5268 filetype with the extract filetype regex.
5269 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5274 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5275 Option Description Default
5276 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5277 GEANY_WORDCHARS These characters define word boundaries when a string with:
5278 making selections and searching using word a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and
5279 matching options. underscore.
5280 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5285 These are default settings that can be overridden in the `Preferences`_ dialog.
5287 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5288 Option Description Default
5289 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5290 GEANY_MIN_SYMBOLLIST_CHARS How many characters you need to type to 4
5291 trigger the autocompletion list.
5292 GEANY_DISK_CHECK_TIMEOUT Time in seconds between checking a file for 30
5294 GEANY_DEFAULT_TOOLS_MAKE The make tool. This can also include a path. "make"
5295 GEANY_DEFAULT_TOOLS_TERMINAL A terminal emulator command, see See below.
5296 `Terminal emulators`_.
5297 GEANY_DEFAULT_TOOLS_BROWSER A web browser. This can also include a path. "firefox"
5298 GEANY_DEFAULT_TOOLS_PRINTCMD A printing tool. It should be able to accept "lpr"
5299 and process plain text files. This can also
5301 GEANY_DEFAULT_TOOLS_GREP A grep tool. It should be compatible with "grep"
5302 GNU grep. This can also include a path.
5303 GEANY_DEFAULT_MRU_LENGTH The length of the "Recent files" list. 10
5304 GEANY_DEFAULT_FONT_SYMBOL_LIST The font used in sidebar to show symbols and "Sans 9"
5306 GEANY_DEFAULT_FONT_MSG_WINDOW The font used in the messages window. "Sans 9"
5307 GEANY_DEFAULT_FONT_EDITOR The font used in the editor window. "Monospace 10"
5308 GEANY_TOGGLE_MARK A string which is used to mark a toggled "~ "
5310 GEANY_MAX_AUTOCOMPLETE_WORDS How many autocompletion suggestions should 30
5312 GEANY_DEFAULT_FILETYPE_REGEX The default regex to extract filetypes from See below.
5314 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5316 The GEANY_DEFAULT_FILETYPE_REGEX default value is -\\*-\\s*([^\\s]+)\\s*-\\*- which finds Emacs filetypes.
5318 The GEANY_DEFAULT_TOOLS_TERMINAL default value on Windows is::
5322 and on any non-Windows system is::
5324 xterm -e "/bin/sh %c"
5330 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5331 Option Description Default
5332 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5333 GEANY_BUILD_ERR_HIGHLIGHT_MAX Amount of build error indicators to 50
5334 be shown in the editor window.
5335 This affects the special coloring
5336 when Geany detects a compiler output line as
5337 an error message and then highlights the
5338 corresponding line in the source code.
5339 Usually only the first few messages are
5340 interesting because following errors are
5342 All errors in the Compiler window are parsed
5343 and unaffected by this value.
5344 PRINTBUILDCMDS Every time a build menu item priority FALSE
5345 calculation is run, print the state of the
5346 menu item table in the form of the table
5347 in `Build Menu Configuration`_. May be
5348 useful to debug configuration file
5349 overloading. Warning produces a lot of
5350 output. Can also be enabled/disabled by the
5351 debugger by setting printbuildcmds to 1/0
5352 overriding the compile setting.
5353 ============================== ============================================ ==================
5357 GNU General Public License
5358 ==========================
5362 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
5363 Version 2, June 1991
5365 Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
5366 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
5367 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
5368 of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
5372 The licenses for most software are designed to take away your
5373 freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public
5374 License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free
5375 software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This
5376 General Public License applies to most of the Free Software
5377 Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to
5378 using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by
5379 the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to
5382 When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
5383 price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
5384 have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
5385 this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it
5386 if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it
5387 in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
5389 To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid
5390 anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights.
5391 These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you
5392 distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
5394 For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
5395 gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
5396 you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
5397 source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
5400 We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and
5401 (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy,
5402 distribute and/or modify the software.
5404 Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain
5405 that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free
5406 software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we
5407 want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so
5408 that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original
5409 authors' reputations.
5411 Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software
5412 patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
5413 program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the
5414 program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any
5415 patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
5417 The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
5418 modification follow.
5420 GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
5421 TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
5423 0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
5424 a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
5425 under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below,
5426 refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
5427 means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
5428 that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
5429 either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
5430 language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
5431 the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".
5433 Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
5434 covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of
5435 running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
5436 is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
5437 Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
5438 Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
5440 1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
5441 source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
5442 conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
5443 copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
5444 notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
5445 and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
5446 along with the Program.
5448 You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
5449 you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
5451 2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
5452 of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
5453 distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1
5454 above, provided that you also meet all of these conditions:
5456 a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
5457 stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
5459 b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
5460 whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
5461 part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
5462 parties under the terms of this License.
5464 c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
5465 when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
5466 interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
5467 announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
5468 notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
5469 a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
5470 these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
5471 License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
5472 does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
5473 the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
5475 These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
5476 identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
5477 and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
5478 themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
5479 sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
5480 distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
5481 on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
5482 this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
5483 entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.
5485 Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
5486 your rights to work written entirely by you; rather, the intent is to
5487 exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or
5488 collective works based on the Program.
5490 In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
5491 with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
5492 a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
5493 the scope of this License.
5495 3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
5496 under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
5497 Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
5499 a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
5500 source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
5501 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
5503 b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
5504 years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
5505 cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
5506 machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
5507 distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
5508 customarily used for software interchange; or,
5510 c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
5511 to distribute corresponding source code. (This alternative is
5512 allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
5513 received the program in object code or executable form with such
5514 an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)
5516 The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
5517 making modifications to it. For an executable work, complete source
5518 code means all the source code for all modules it contains, plus any
5519 associated interface definition files, plus the scripts used to
5520 control compilation and installation of the executable. However, as a
5521 special exception, the source code distributed need not include
5522 anything that is normally distributed (in either source or binary
5523 form) with the major components (compiler, kernel, and so on) of the
5524 operating system on which the executable runs, unless that component
5525 itself accompanies the executable.
5527 If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering
5528 access to copy from a designated place, then offering equivalent
5529 access to copy the source code from the same place counts as
5530 distribution of the source code, even though third parties are not
5531 compelled to copy the source along with the object code.
5533 4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program
5534 except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
5535 otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
5536 void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
5537 However, parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under
5538 this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such
5539 parties remain in full compliance.
5541 5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
5542 signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or
5543 distribute the Program or its derivative works. These actions are
5544 prohibited by law if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by
5545 modifying or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
5546 Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so, and
5547 all its terms and conditions for copying, distributing or modifying
5548 the Program or works based on it.
5550 6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work based on the
5551 Program), the recipient automatically receives a license from the
5552 original licensor to copy, distribute or modify the Program subject to
5553 these terms and conditions. You may not impose any further
5554 restrictions on the recipients' exercise of the rights granted herein.
5555 You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to
5558 7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
5559 infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
5560 conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
5561 otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
5562 excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
5563 distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
5564 License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
5565 may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
5566 license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
5567 all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
5568 the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
5569 refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
5571 If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
5572 any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
5573 apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other
5576 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
5577 patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
5578 such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
5579 integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
5580 implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
5581 generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
5582 through that system in reliance on consistent application of that
5583 system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or she is willing
5584 to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot
5587 This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
5588 be a consequence of the rest of this License.
5590 8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
5591 certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
5592 original copyright holder who places the Program under this License
5593 may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
5594 those countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or among
5595 countries not thus excluded. In such case, this License incorporates
5596 the limitation as if written in the body of this License.
5598 9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
5599 of the General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will
5600 be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to
5601 address new problems or concerns.
5603 Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program
5604 specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any
5605 later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions
5606 either of that version or of any later version published by the Free
5607 Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of
5608 this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software
5611 10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free
5612 programs whose distribution conditions are different, write to the author
5613 to ask for permission. For software which is copyrighted by the Free
5614 Software Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we sometimes
5615 make exceptions for this. Our decision will be guided by the two goals
5616 of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and
5617 of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally.
5621 11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY
5622 FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN
5623 OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES
5624 PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED
5625 OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
5626 MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS
5627 TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE
5628 PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING,
5629 REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
5631 12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
5632 WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR
5633 REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
5634 INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING
5635 OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
5636 TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY
5637 YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER
5638 PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE
5639 POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
5641 END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
5643 How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
5645 If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
5646 possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
5647 free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
5649 To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
5650 to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
5651 convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
5652 the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
5654 <one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
5655 Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
5657 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
5658 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
5659 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
5660 (at your option) any later version.
5662 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
5663 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
5664 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
5665 GNU General Public License for more details.
5667 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
5668 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
5669 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
5672 Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
5674 If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
5675 when it starts in an interactive mode:
5677 Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
5678 Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
5679 This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
5680 under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
5682 The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
5683 parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may
5684 be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
5685 mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
5687 You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
5688 school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
5689 necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
5691 Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
5692 `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
5694 <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
5695 Ty Coon, President of Vice
5697 This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
5698 proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
5699 consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
5700 library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
5701 Public License instead of this License.
5706 License for Scintilla and SciTE
5707 ===============================
5709 Copyright 1998-2003 by Neil Hodgson <neilh(at)scintilla(dot)org>
5713 Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and
5714 its documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
5715 provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and
5716 that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
5717 supporting documentation.
5719 NEIL HODGSON DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE,
5720 INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS, IN
5721 NO EVENT SHALL NEIL HODGSON BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT OR
5722 CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS
5723 OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE
5724 OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
5725 USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.