Xfce Wiki

Sub domains
 

Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

Link to this comparison view

Both sides previous revisionPrevious revision
Next revision		Previous revision
thunar:dev:build_and_run [2025/01/19 09:08] – alexxconsthunar:dev:build_and_run [2026/05/29 09:26] (current) – [Thunar - build, test, and debugging suggestions] alexxcons
Line 3: Line 3:
 ====== Thunar - build, test, and debugging suggestions ===== ====== Thunar - build, test, and debugging suggestions =====
  
-  * **[[#Building Thunar|Building Thunar]]** +First, check the [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/blob/master/README.md|Thunar README]] !
-  * **[[#Debugging Thunar|Debugging Thunar]]** +
-  * **[[#Thunar Build Flags|Thunar Build Flags]]**+
  
-----+Then refer to the following pages for build instructions on all Xfce packages:
  
-=== Building Thunar ===+https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building 
 +https://wiki.xfce.org/building/advanced
  
-First of all, check the [[https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/blob/master/README.md|Thunar README]] !+If dependencies are still missing, you will need to build and install the dependencies from source as well. (You might need to run "sudo /sbin/ldconfig -v" after installing shared libaries from source)
  
-Clone the sources (required packages: git): +For testing only thunar itself, you don't need to install it. You can run it directly from the source folder. (Though if you want to test thunar plugins, you will need to install it first):
-  git clone https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar +
-  +
-Enter build folder: +
-  cd thunar+
  
-Execute autogen (required packages: build-essential, automake, gobject-introspection): +  build/thunar/thunar -q;G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all build/thunar/thunar
-  ./autogen.sh +
-   +
-If any dependencies are missing, autogen will tell you. Depending on your distribution, installing the "dev" version of the dependent packages might be sufficient. (e.g. package: libexo-2-dev, libxfce4ui-2-dev, ... (naming might differ between distributions)) +
-If that does not help, you will need to build and install the dependencies from source as well. +
- +
-When autogen has finished successfully (all required dependencies have been installed), you can build thunar: +
-  make +
- +
-For testing only thunar itself, you don't need to install it. You can run it directly from the source folder. (Though if you want to test thunar plugins, you will need to install) +
-Here is my personal script for starting thunar from source: +
- +
-  #!/bin/bash +
-   +
-  # Quit any running thunar instance and start a new thunar from source. Enable debug messages +
-  THUNAR_TEST_FOLDER=/path/to/thunar/testing/folder +
-  echo "./thunar/thunar -q;./thunar/thunar $THUNAR_TEST_FOLDER" +
-  ./thunar/thunar -q;G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all ./thunar/thunar $THUNAR_TEST_FOLDER+
  
 Here a workaround to as well test thunar plugin changes (thunar-sbr in this example) without the need to install thunar: Here a workaround to as well test thunar plugin changes (thunar-sbr in this example) without the need to install thunar:
  
-  ./autogen.sh --with-custom-thunarx-dirs-enabled +  meson compile -C build -Dthunarx-dirs-envvar=true
-  make+
   THUNARX_DIRS=~/git/thunar/plugins/thunar-sbr/.libs ./thunar/thunar   THUNARX_DIRS=~/git/thunar/plugins/thunar-sbr/.libs ./thunar/thunar
  
----- 
- 
-=== Debugging Thunar === 
- 
-For debugging Thunar, I use the following: 
- 
-  #!/bin/bash 
-  echo "./thunar/thunar -q; gdb thunar/.libs/thunar" 
-  ./thunar/thunar -q; gdb thunar/.libs/thunar 
- 
-On a freeze, get a backtrace of all threads via 
- 
-  thread apply all bt 
- 
-If you want to test thunar-plugins, it is required to install thunar. 
- 
-You can install Thunar with: 
-  sudo make install 
- 
-Note that, per default, Thunar will be installed in parallel to the Thunar of your distribution, into the "/usr" folder. 
-You can uninstall it with: 
-  sudo make uninstall 
-   
-For more infoormation, check the INSTALL file in the source code! 
- 
-=== Thunar Build Flags === 
-Here is a small collection of useful flags which can be passed to ''./autogen.sh'' : 
- 
-<code>--enable-gtk-doc : Creates html documentation inside /doc/reference/thunarx/html 
---enable-introspection : for usage of the GtkInspector 
---prefix <install_dir>: install thunar to install_dir 
---enable-maintainer-mode 
---enable-debug=full|yes|minimum|no</code> 
  
-Some flags need to be passed to the thunar binary: +A full list of build flags can be found here: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/-/blob/master/meson_options.txt?ref_type=heads
-<code>--g-fatal-warnings : Lets thunar crash an any warning/error. Useful to get a backtrace / locate a warning/error/critical</code>+
  
-You might want to run that via gdb to get a backtrace: 
-<code>gdb --args thunar/.libs/thunar --g-fatal-warnings</code> 
 [[|Back To Top]] [[|Back To Top]]
 ---- ----
 [[ https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/start|Return to Main thunar documentation page]] [[ https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/start|Return to Main thunar documentation page]]