GDNC(1)

💖 GDNC — the manual page, bestie edition 💖

okay so you're reading the gdnc(1) page from the GNUstep System Manual and honestly? you're about to understand it better than anyone. let's go 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

gdnc — the GNUstep Distributed Notification Center. that's it, that's the whole name. iconic behavior fr fr.

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

gdnc

literally just run it. no flags required. main character energy.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so the gdnc daemon is the lil messenger goblin that GNUstep programs use to send notifications and messages to each other. it's giving group chat but for processes 💅

by default it uses private inter-process communications — meaning only the current user on the machine it's running on can get in (that's on systems where the OS actually supports them, iykyk).

every single user needs their own instance of gdnc running. no sharing, no borrowing, no "can I have a sip of your daemon". ✋

and yes, gdnc will be started automatically the moment something needs it, so technically you're covered. but the recommended glow-up is to start it in a personal login script, like ~/.bashrc or ~/.cshrc. lowkey just put it there.

alternatively — like, if you have no command-line tools that use distributed notifications — you can launch gdnc when your windowing system or your window manager starts up. for example, on systems with X11 you can launch gdnc from your .xinitrc script. or, alternatively, if you're running Window Maker, you can just drop it in Window Maker's autostart script. whatever vibes ✨

there's a sample startup script in the GNUstep Build Guide if you want to copy someone's homework (please do).

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -NSHost hostname — the argument that attaches gdnc to a remote session. long distance relationship but make it IPC 🥰
• -GSPublic YES — runs a copy of the server to handle public notifications, which are available to all users on the local machine. sharing is caring bestie.
• -GSNetwork YES — runs a copy of the server to handle network-public notifications, available to all users able to connect to the local machine on the network. the extroverted option 🌈

🔍 DIAGNOSTICS 🔍

• gdomap -L GDNCServer will look up instances of gdnc which were launched with the NSHost, GSPublic, or GSNetwork command line arguments. it's the find-my-friends feature 🫶
• alternatively, gdomap -N will list all registered names on the local host. the full roster. the whole group chat. 👑

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• gdomap(8)
• GNUstep(7)
• gpbs(1)

the GNUstep Build Guide example startup script lives here:

http://gnustep.made-it.com/BuildGuide/index.html#GNUSTEP.SERVICES

📜 HISTORY 📜

• work on gdnc started October 1998. a legend was born 🎀
• this manual page first appeared in gnustep-base 1.7.2 (July 2003). vintage. collector's item.

💖 AUTHORS 💖

• gdnc was written by Richard Frith-Macdonald <rfm@gnu.org> — thank him, he ate 💅
• this man page was written by Martin Brecher <martin@mb-itconsulting.com> — also ate ✨

and that's the whole page bestie, no cap. this was GNUstep, August 2003, page GDNC(1) — still slaying all these years later. mwah 💖🎀🦋