1<part> 2 <title>GIO Overview</title> 3 4 <chapter> 5 <title>Introduction</title> 6 7 <para> 8 GIO is striving to provide a modern, easy-to-use VFS API that sits 9 at the right level in the library stack, as well as other generally 10 useful APIs for desktop applications (such as networking and 11 D-Bus support). The goal is to overcome the shortcomings of GnomeVFS 12 and provide an API that is so good that developers prefer it over raw 13 POSIX calls. Among other things that means using GObject. It also means 14 not cloning the POSIX API, but providing higher-level, document-centric 15 interfaces. 16 </para> 17 18 <para> 19 The abstract file system model of GIO consists of a number of 20 interfaces and base classes for I/O and files: 21 <variablelist> 22 <varlistentry> 23 <term>GFile</term> 24 <listitem><para>reference to a file</para></listitem> 25 </varlistentry> 26 <varlistentry> 27 <term>GFileInfo</term> 28 <listitem><para>information about a file or filesystem</para></listitem> 29 </varlistentry> 30 <varlistentry> 31 <term>GFileEnumerator</term> 32 <listitem><para>list files in directories</para></listitem> 33 </varlistentry> 34 <varlistentry> 35 <term>GDrive</term> 36 <listitem><para>represents a drive</para></listitem> 37 </varlistentry> 38 <varlistentry> 39 <term>GVolume</term> 40 <listitem><para>represents a file system in an abstract way</para></listitem> 41 </varlistentry> 42 <varlistentry> 43 <term>GMount</term> 44 <listitem><para>represents a mounted file system</para></listitem> 45 </varlistentry> 46 </variablelist> 47 Then there is a number of stream classes, similar to the input and 48 output stream hierarchies that can be found in frameworks like Java: 49 <variablelist> 50 <varlistentry> 51 <term>GInputStream</term> 52 <listitem><para>read data</para></listitem> 53 </varlistentry> 54 <varlistentry> 55 <term>GOutputStream</term> 56 <listitem><para>write data</para></listitem> 57 </varlistentry> 58 <varlistentry> 59 <term>GIOStream</term> 60 <listitem><para>read and write data</para></listitem> 61 </varlistentry> 62 <varlistentry> 63 <term>GSeekable</term> 64 <listitem><para>interface optionally implemented by streams to support seeking</para></listitem> 65 </varlistentry> 66 </variablelist> 67 There are interfaces related to applications and the types 68 of files they handle: 69 <variablelist> 70 <varlistentry> 71 <term>GAppInfo</term> 72 <listitem><para>information about an installed application</para></listitem> 73 </varlistentry> 74 <varlistentry> 75 <term>GIcon</term> 76 <listitem><para>abstract type for file and application icons</para></listitem> 77 </varlistentry> 78 </variablelist> 79 There is a framework for storing and retrieving application settings: 80 <variablelist> 81 <varlistentry> 82 <term>GSettings</term> 83 <listitem><para>stores and retrieves application settings</para></listitem> 84 </varlistentry> 85 </variablelist> 86 There is support for network programming, including connectivity monitoring, 87 name resolution, lowlevel socket APIs and highlevel client and server 88 helper classes: 89 <variablelist> 90 <varlistentry> 91 <term>GSocket</term> 92 <listitem><para>lowlevel platform independent socket object</para></listitem> 93 </varlistentry> 94 <varlistentry> 95 <term>GResolver</term> 96 <listitem><para>asynchronous and cancellable DNS resolver</para></listitem> 97 </varlistentry> 98 <varlistentry> 99 <term>GSocketClient</term> 100 <listitem><para>high-level network client helper</para></listitem> 101 </varlistentry> 102 <varlistentry> 103 <term>GSocketService</term> 104 <listitem><para>high-level network server helper</para></listitem> 105 </varlistentry> 106 <varlistentry> 107 <term>GSocketConnection</term> 108 <listitem><para>network connection stream</para></listitem> 109 </varlistentry> 110 <varlistentry> 111 <term>GNetworkMonitor</term> 112 <listitem><para>network connectivity monitoring</para></listitem> 113 </varlistentry> 114 </variablelist> 115 There is support for connecting to <ulink url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus">D-Bus</ulink>, 116 sending and receiving messages, owning and watching bus names, 117 and making objects available on the bus: 118 <variablelist> 119 <varlistentry> 120 <term>GDBusConnection</term> 121 <listitem><para>a D-Bus connection</para></listitem> 122 </varlistentry> 123 124 <varlistentry> 125 <term>GDBusMethodInvocation</term> 126 <listitem><para>for handling remote calls</para></listitem> 127 </varlistentry> 128 129 <varlistentry> 130 <term>GDBusServer</term> 131 <listitem><para>helper for accepting connections</para></listitem> 132 </varlistentry> 133 134 <varlistentry> 135 <term>GDBusProxy</term> 136 <listitem><para>proxy to access D-Bus interfaces on a remote object</para></listitem> 137 </varlistentry> 138 139 </variablelist> 140 Beyond these, GIO provides facilities for file monitoring, 141 asynchronous I/O and filename completion. In addition to the 142 interfaces, GIO provides implementations for the local case. 143 Implementations for various network file systems are provided 144 by the GVFS package as loadable modules. 145 </para> 146 147 <para> 148 Other design choices which consciously break with the GnomeVFS 149 design are to move backends out-of-process, which minimizes the 150 dependency bloat and makes the whole system more robust. The backends 151 are not included in GIO, but in the separate GVFS package. The GVFS 152 package also contains the GVFS daemon, which spawn further mount 153 daemons for each individual connection. 154 </para> 155 156 <figure id="gvfs-overview"> 157 <title>GIO in the GTK+ library stack</title> 158 <graphic fileref="gvfs-overview.png" format="PNG"></graphic> 159 </figure> 160 161 <para> 162 The GIO model of I/O is stateful: if an application establishes e.g. 163 a SFTP connection to a server, it becomes available to all applications 164 in the session; the user does not have to enter his password over 165 and over again. 166 </para> 167 <para> 168 One of the big advantages of putting the VFS in the GLib layer 169 is that GTK+ can directly use it, e.g. in the filechooser. 170 </para> 171 </chapter> 172 173 <chapter> 174 <title>Writing GIO applications</title> 175 176 <para> 177 The information in the GLib <ulink url="http://developer.gnome.org/glib/stable/glib-programming.html">documentation</ulink> about writing GLib 178 applications is generally applicable when writing GIO applications. 179 </para> 180 181 <simplesect><title>Threads</title> 182 183 <para> 184 GDBus has its own private worker thread, so applications using 185 GDBus have at least 3 threads. GIO makes heavy use of the concept 186 of a <link linkend="g-main-context-push-thread-default">thread-default 187 main context</link> to execute callbacks of asynchronous 188 methods in the same context in which the operation was started. 189 </para> 190 191 </simplesect> 192 193 <simplesect id="async-programming"><title>Asynchronous Programming</title> 194 195 <para> 196 Many GIO functions come in two versions: synchronous and asynchronous, 197 denoted by an <code>_async</code> suffix. It is important to use these 198 appropriately: synchronous calls should not be used from 199 within a main loop which is shared with other code, such as one in the 200 application’s main thread. Synchronous calls block until they complete, 201 and I/O operations can take noticeable amounts of time (even on ‘fast’ 202 SSDs). Blocking a main loop iteration while waiting for I/O means that 203 other sources in the main loop will not be dispatched, such as input and 204 redraw handlers for the application’s UI. This can cause the application 205 to ‘freeze’ until I/O completes. 206 </para> 207 208 <para> 209 A few self-contained groups of functions, such as code generated by 210 <link linkend="gdbus-codegen"><application>gdbus-codegen</application></link>, 211 use a different convention: functions are asynchronous default, and it is 212 the <emphasis>synchronous</emphasis> version which has a 213 <code>_sync</code> 214 suffix. Aside from naming differences, they should be treated the same 215 way as functions following the normal convention above. 216 </para> 217 218 <para> 219 The asynchronous (<code>_async</code>) versions of functions return 220 control to the caller immediately, after scheduling the I/O in the kernel 221 and adding a callback for it to the main loop. This callback will be 222 invoked when the operation has completed. From the callback, the paired 223 <code>_finish</code> function should be called to retrieve the return 224 value of the I/O operation, and any errors which occurred. For more 225 information on using and implementing asynchronous functions, see 226 <link linkend="GAsyncResult.description"><type>GAsyncResult</type></link> 227 and <link linkend="GTask.description"><type>GTask</type></link>. 228 </para> 229 230 <para> 231 By starting multiple asynchronous operations in succession, they will be 232 executed in parallel (up to an arbitrary limit imposed by GIO’s internal 233 worker thread pool). 234 </para> 235 236 <para> 237 The synchronous versions of functions can be used early in application 238 startup when there is no main loop to block, for example to load initial 239 configuration files. They can also be used for I/O on files which are 240 guaranteed to be small and on the local disk. Note that the user’s home 241 directory is not guaranteed to be on the local disk. 242 </para> 243 </simplesect> 244 245 <simplesect><title>Security</title> 246 247<para> 248When your program needs to carry out some privileged operation (say, 249create a new user account), there are various ways in which you can go 250about this: 251<itemizedlist> 252<listitem><para> 253Implement a daemon that offers the privileged operation. A convenient 254way to do this is as a D-Bus system-bus service. The daemon will probably 255need ways to check the identity and authorization of the caller before 256executing the operation. <ulink url="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/polkit/docs/latest/polkit.8.html">polkit</ulink> is a framework that allows this. 257</para></listitem> 258<listitem><para> 259Use a small helper that is executed with elevated privileges via 260pkexec. <ulink url="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/polkit/docs/latest/pkexec.1.html">pkexec</ulink> is a small program launcher that is part of polkit. 261</para></listitem> 262<listitem><para> 263Use a small helper that is executed with elevated privileges by 264being suid root. 265</para></listitem> 266</itemizedlist> 267None of these approaches is the clear winner, they all have their 268advantages and disadvantages. 269</para> 270 271<para> 272When writing code that runs with elevated privileges, it is important 273to follow some basic rules of secure programming. David Wheeler has an 274excellent book on this topic, 275<ulink url="http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-programs/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/index.html">Secure Programming for Linux and Unix HOWTO</ulink>. 276</para> 277 278<para> 279When using GIO in code that runs with elevated privileges, you have to 280be careful. GIO has extension points whose implementations get loaded 281from modules (executable code in shared objects), which could allow 282an attacker to sneak his own code into your application by tricking it 283into loading the code as a module. However, GIO will never load modules 284from your home directory except when explictly asked to do so via an 285environment variable. 286</para> 287 288<para> 289In most cases, your helper program should be so small that you don't 290need GIO, whose APIs are largely designed to support full-blown desktop 291applications. If you can't resist the convenience of these APIs, here 292are some steps you should take: 293<itemizedlist> 294<listitem><para> 295Clear the environment, e.g. using the <function>clearenv()</function> 296function. 297David Wheeler has a good <ulink url="http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-programs/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/environment-variables.html">explanation</ulink> for why it is 298important to sanitize the environment. 299See <xref linkend="running-gio-apps"/> 300for a list of all environment variables affecting GIO. In particular, 301<envar>PATH</envar> (used to locate binaries), <envar>GIO_EXTRA_MODULES</envar> (used to locate loadable modules) and <envar>DBUS_{SYSTEM,SESSION}_BUS_ADDRESS</envar> (used to locate the D-Bus system and session bus) are important. 302</para></listitem> 303<listitem><para> 304Don't use GVfs, by setting <envar>GIO_USE_VFS=local</envar> in the environment. 305The reason to avoid GVfs in security-sensitive programs is that it uses 306many libraries which have not necessarily been audited for security problems. 307Gvfs is also heavily distributed and relies on a session bus to be present. 308</para></listitem> 309</itemizedlist> 310</para> 311 312 </simplesect> 313 314 </chapter> 315 316 <chapter> 317 <title>Compiling GIO applications</title> 318 319 <para> 320 GIO comes with a <filename>gio-2.0.pc</filename> file that you 321 should use together with <literal>pkg-config</literal> to obtain 322 the necessary information about header files and libraries. See 323 the <literal>pkg-config</literal> man page or the GLib documentation 324 for more information on how to use <literal>pkg-config</literal> 325 to compile your application. 326 </para> 327 328 <para> 329 If you are using GIO on UNIX-like systems, you may want to use 330 UNIX-specific GIO interfaces such as #GUnixInputStream, 331 #GUnixOutputStream, #GUnixMount or #GDesktopAppInfo. 332 To do so, use the <filename>gio-unix-2.0.pc</filename> file 333 instead of <filename>gio-2.0.pc</filename> 334 </para> 335 </chapter> 336 337 <chapter id="running-gio-apps"> 338 <title>Running GIO applications</title> 339 340 <para> 341 GIO inspects a few environment variables in addition to the 342 ones used by GLib. 343 </para> 344 345 <formalpara> 346 <title><envar>XDG_DATA_HOME</envar>, <envar>XDG_DATA_DIRS</envar></title> 347 348 <para> 349 GIO uses these environment variables to locate MIME information. 350 For more information, see the <ulink url="http://freedesktop.org/Standards/shared-mime-info-spec">Shared MIME-info Database</ulink> 351 and the <ulink url="http://freedesktop.org/Standards/basedir-spec">Base Directory Specification</ulink>. 352 </para> 353 </formalpara> 354 355 <formalpara> 356 <title><envar>GVFS_DISABLE_FUSE</envar></title> 357 358 <para> 359 This variable can be set to keep #Gvfs from starting the fuse backend, 360 which may be unwanted or unnecessary in certain situations. 361 </para> 362 </formalpara> 363 364 <formalpara> 365 <title><envar>GIO_USE_VFS</envar></title> 366 367 <para> 368 This environment variable can be set to the name of a #GVfs 369 implementation to override the default for debugging purposes. 370 The #GVfs implementation for local files that is included in GIO 371 has the name "local", the implementation in the gvfs module has 372 the name "gvfs". Most commonly, system software will set this to "local" 373 to avoid having `GFile` APIs perform unnecessary DBus calls. 374 </para><para> 375 The special value <literal>help</literal> can be used to print a list of 376 available implementations to standard output. 377 </para> 378 </formalpara> 379 380 <para> 381 The following environment variables are only useful for debugging 382 GIO itself or modules that it loads. They should not be set in a 383 production environment. 384 </para> 385 386 <formalpara> 387 <title><envar>GIO_USE_FILE_MONITOR</envar></title> 388 389 <para> 390 This variable can be set to the name of a #GFileMonitor 391 implementation to override the default for debugging purposes. 392 The #GFileMonitor implementation for local files that is included 393 in GIO on Linux has the name "inotify", others that are built 394 are built as modules (depending on the platform) are called 395 "fam" and "fen". 396 </para><para> 397 The special value <literal>help</literal> can be used to print a list of 398 available implementations to standard output. 399 </para> 400 </formalpara> 401 402 <formalpara> 403 <title><envar>GIO_USE_VOLUME_MONITOR</envar></title> 404 405 <para> 406 This variable can be set to the name of a #GVolumeMonitor 407 implementation to override the default for debugging purposes. 408 The #GVolumeMonitor implementation for local files that is included 409 in GIO has the name "unix", the udisks2-based implementation in the 410 gvfs module has the name "udisks2". 411 </para><para> 412 The special value <literal>help</literal> can be used to print a list of 413 available implementations to standard output. 414 </para> 415 </formalpara> 416 417 <formalpara> 418 <title><envar>GIO_USE_TLS</envar></title> 419 420 <para> 421 This variable can be set to the name of a #GTlsBackend 422 implementation to override the default for debugging purposes. 423 GIO does not include a #GTlsBackend implementation, the gnutls-based 424 implementation in the glib-networking module has the name "gnutls". 425 </para><para> 426 The special value <literal>help</literal> can be used to print a list of 427 available implementations to standard output. 428 </para> 429 </formalpara> 430 431 <formalpara> 432 <title><envar>GIO_MODULE_DIR</envar></title> 433 434 <para> 435 When this environment variable is set to a path, GIO will load 436 modules from this alternate directory instead of the directory 437 built into GIO. This is useful when running tests, for example. 438 </para> 439 </formalpara> 440 441 <formalpara> 442 <title><envar>GIO_EXTRA_MODULES</envar></title> 443 444 <para> 445 When this environment variable is set to a path, or a set of 446 paths separated by a colon, GIO will attempt to load 447 additional modules from within the path. 448 </para> 449 </formalpara> 450 451 <formalpara> 452 <title><envar>GSETTINGS_BACKEND</envar></title> 453 454 <para> 455 This variable can be set to the name of a #GSettingsBackend 456 implementation to override the default for debugging purposes. 457 The memory-based implementation that is included in GIO has 458 the name "memory", the one in dconf has the name "dconf". 459 </para><para> 460 The special value <literal>help</literal> can be used to print a list of 461 available implementations to standard output. 462 </para> 463 </formalpara> 464 465 <formalpara> 466 <title><envar>GSETTINGS_SCHEMA_DIR</envar></title> 467 468 <para> 469 This variable can be set to the name of a directory that is 470 considered in addition to the <filename>glib-2.0/schemas</filename> 471 subdirectories of the XDG system data dirs when looking 472 for compiled schemas for #GSettings. 473 </para> 474 </formalpara> 475 476 <formalpara> 477 <title><envar>DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS</envar></title> 478 479 <para> 480 This variable is consulted to find the address of the D-Bus system 481 bus. For the format of D-Bus addresses, see the D-Bus 482 <ulink url="http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html#addresses">specification</ulink>. 483 </para> 484 <para> 485 Setting this variable overrides platform-specific ways of determining 486 the system bus address. 487 </para> 488 </formalpara> 489 490 <formalpara> 491 <title><envar>DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS</envar></title> 492 493 <para> 494 This variable is consulted to find the address of the D-Bus session bus. 495 </para> 496 <para> 497 Setting this variable overrides platform-specific ways of determining 498 the session bus address. 499 </para> 500 </formalpara> 501 502 <formalpara> 503 <title><envar>DBUS_STARTER_BUS_TYPE</envar></title> 504 505 <para> 506 This variable is consulted to find out the 'starter' bus for an 507 application that has been started via D-Bus activation. The possible 508 values are 'system' or 'session'. 509 </para> 510 </formalpara> 511 512 <formalpara> 513 <title><envar>G_DBUS_DEBUG</envar></title> 514 515 <para> 516 This variable can be set to a list of debug options, which 517 cause GLib to print out different types of debugging 518 information when using the D-Bus routines. 519 <variablelist> 520 <varlistentry> 521 <term>transport</term> 522 <listitem><para>Show IO activity (e.g. reads and writes)</para></listitem> 523 </varlistentry> 524 <varlistentry> 525 <term>message</term> 526 <listitem><para>Show all sent and received D-Bus messages</para></listitem> 527 </varlistentry> 528 <varlistentry> 529 <term>payload</term> 530 <listitem><para>Show payload for all sent and received D-Bus messages (implies message)</para></listitem> 531 </varlistentry> 532 <varlistentry> 533 <term>call</term> 534 <listitem><para>Trace g_dbus_connection_call() and g_dbus_connection_call_sync() API usage</para></listitem> 535 </varlistentry> 536 <varlistentry> 537 <term>signal</term> 538 <listitem><para>Show when a D-Bus signal is received</para></listitem> 539 </varlistentry> 540 <varlistentry> 541 <term>incoming</term> 542 <listitem><para>Show when an incoming D-Bus method call is received</para></listitem> 543 </varlistentry> 544 <varlistentry> 545 <term>return</term> 546 <listitem><para>Show when a reply is returned via the #GDBusMethodInvocation API</para></listitem> 547 </varlistentry> 548 <varlistentry> 549 <term>emission</term> 550 <listitem><para>Trace g_dbus_connection_emit_signal() API usage</para></listitem> 551 </varlistentry> 552 <varlistentry> 553 <term>authentication</term> 554 <listitem><para>Show information about connection authentication</para></listitem> 555 </varlistentry> 556 <varlistentry> 557 <term>address</term> 558 <listitem><para>Show information about D-Bus address lookups and autolaunching</para></listitem> 559 </varlistentry> 560 </variablelist> 561 The special value <literal>all</literal> can be used to turn 562 on all debug options. The special value 563 <literal>help</literal> can be used to print a list of 564 supported options to standard output. 565 </para> 566 </formalpara> 567 568 <formalpara> 569 <title><envar>G_DBUS_COOKIE_SHA1_KEYRING_DIR</envar></title> 570 571 <para> 572 Can be used to override the directory used to store the 573 keyring used in the <literal>DBUS_COOKIE_SHA1</literal> 574 authentication mechanism. Normally the directory used is 575 <filename>.dbus-keyrings</filename> in the user's home 576 directory. 577 </para> 578 </formalpara> 579 580 <formalpara> 581 <title><envar>G_DBUS_COOKIE_SHA1_KEYRING_DIR_IGNORE_PERMISSION</envar></title> 582 583 <para> 584 If set, the permissions of the directory used to store the 585 keyring used in the <literal>DBUS_COOKIE_SHA1</literal> 586 authentication mechanism won't be checked. Normally the 587 directory must be readable only by the user. 588 </para> 589 </formalpara> 590 </chapter> 591 592 <chapter id="extending-gio"> 593 <title>Extending GIO</title> 594 595 <para> 596 A lot of the functionality that is accessible through GIO 597 is implemented in loadable modules, and modules provide a convenient 598 way to extend GIO. In addition to the #GIOModule API which supports 599 writing such modules, GIO has a mechanism to define extension points, 600 and register implementations thereof, see #GIOExtensionPoint. 601 </para> 602 <para> 603 The following extension points are currently defined by GIO: 604 </para> 605 606 <formalpara> 607 <title>G_VFS_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 608 609 <para> 610 Allows to override the functionality of the #GVfs class. 611 Implementations of this extension point must be derived from #GVfs. 612 GIO uses the implementation with the highest priority that is active, 613 see g_vfs_is_active(). 614 </para> 615 <para> 616 GIO implements this extension point for local files, gvfs contains 617 an implementation that supports all the backends in gvfs. 618 </para> 619 </formalpara> 620 621 <formalpara> 622 <title>G_VOLUME_MONITOR_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 623 624 <para> 625 Allows to add more volume monitors. 626 Implementations of this extension point must be derived from 627 #GVolumeMonitor. GIO uses all registered extensions. 628 </para> 629 <para> 630 gvfs contains an implementation that works together with the #GVfs 631 implementation in gvfs. 632 </para> 633 </formalpara> 634 635 <formalpara> 636 <title>G_NATIVE_VOLUME_MONITOR_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 637 638 <para> 639 Allows to override the 'native' volume monitor. 640 Implementations of this extension point must be derived from 641 #GNativeVolumeMonitor. GIO uses the implementation with 642 the highest priority that is supported, as determined by the 643 is_supported() vfunc in #GVolumeMonitorClass. 644 </para> 645 <para> 646 GIO implements this extension point for local mounts, 647 gvfs contains a udisks2-based implementation. 648 </para> 649 </formalpara> 650 651 <formalpara> 652 <title>G_LOCAL_FILE_MONITOR_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 653 654 <para> 655 Allows to override the file monitor implementation for 656 local files. Implementations of this extension point must 657 be derived from #GLocalFileMonitor. GIO uses the implementation 658 with the highest priority that is supported, as determined by the 659 is_supported() vfunc in #GLocalFileMonitorClass. 660 </para> 661 <para> 662 GIO uses this extension point internally, to switch between 663 its fam-based and inotify-based file monitoring implementations. 664 </para> 665 </formalpara> 666 667 <formalpara> 668 <title>G_LOCAL_DIRECTORY_MONITOR_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 669 670 <para> 671 Allows to override the directory monitor implementation for 672 local files. Implementations of this extension point must be 673 derived from #GLocalDirectoryMonitor. GIO uses the implementation 674 with the highest priority that is supported, as determined by the 675 is_supported() vfunc in #GLocalDirectoryMonitorClass. 676 </para> 677 <para> 678 GIO uses this extension point internally, to switch between 679 its fam-based and inotify-based directory monitoring implementations. 680 </para> 681 </formalpara> 682 683 <formalpara> 684 <title>G_DESKTOP_APP_INFO_LOOKUP_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 685 686 <para> 687 Unix-only. Allows to provide a way to associate default handlers 688 with URI schemes. Implementations of this extension point must 689 implement the #GDesktopAppInfoLookup interface. GIO uses the 690 implementation with the highest priority. 691 </para> 692 <para> 693 This extension point has been discontinued in GLib 2.28. It is 694 still available to keep API and ABI stability, but GIO is no 695 longer using it for default handlers. Instead, the mime handler 696 mechanism is used, together with x-scheme-handler pseudo-mimetypes. 697 </para> 698 </formalpara> 699 700 <formalpara> 701 <title>G_SETTINGS_BACKEND_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 702 703 <para> 704 Allows to provide an alternative storage for #GSettings. 705 Implementations of this extension point must derive from the 706 #GSettingsBackend type. GIO contains a keyfile-based 707 implementation of this extension point, another one is provided 708 by dconf. 709 </para> 710 </formalpara> 711 712 <formalpara> 713 <title>G_PROXY_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 714 715 <para> 716 Allows to provide implementations for network proxying. 717 Implementations of this extension point must provide the 718 #GProxy interface, and must be named after the network 719 protocol they are proxying. 720 </para> 721 <para> 722 glib-networking contains an implementation of this extension 723 point based on libproxy. 724 </para> 725 </formalpara> 726 <formalpara> 727 <title>G_TLS_BACKEND_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 728 729 <para> 730 Allows to provide implementations for TLS support. 731 Implementations of this extension point must implement 732 the #GTlsBackend interface. 733 </para> 734 <para> 735 glib-networking contains an implementation of this extension 736 point. 737 </para> 738 </formalpara> 739 740 <formalpara> 741 <title>G_NETWORK_MONITOR_EXTENSION_POINT_NAME</title> 742 743 <para> 744 Allows to provide implementations for network connectivity 745 monitoring. 746 Implementations of this extension point must implement 747 the #GNetworkMonitorInterface interface. 748 </para> 749 <para> 750 GIO contains an implementation of this extension point 751 that is using the netlink interface of the Linux kernel. 752 </para> 753 </formalpara> 754 </chapter> 755</part> 756 757