GLIB-GENMARSHAL(1)

📦

version 2.90.1 · 10 versions

2.90.1 · arch rolling, ubuntu stonking (latest)
2.68.4 · centos-stream 9
2.80.4 · centos-stream 10
2.74.6 · debian bookworm
2.72.4 · ubuntu jammy
2.72.1 · ubuntu jammy
2.80.0 · ubuntu noble
2.74.6 · debian bookworm
2.88.4 · fedora 44, ubuntu resolute
2.88.1 · alpine 3.22, alpine 3.23, alpine 3.24, debian trixie, fedora 43, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu questing

💖 glib-genmarshal — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the glib-genmarshal page from the GLib manual set. it's a lil command-line tool and honestly? it's giving backstage crew at the function factory. let's get into it 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

glib-genmarshal — the C code marshaller generation utility for GLib closures, and yes she does exactly what it says on the tin 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

glib-genmarshal [OPTION…] [FILE…]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so glib-genmarshal is this small utility that generates C code marshallers for callback functions of the GClosure mechanism in the GObject sublibrary of GLib. lowkey iconic of her.

here's the vibe: the marshaller functions have a standard signature. they get handed the invoking closure, an array of value structures holding the callback function parameters, and a value structure for the return value of the callback. then the marshaller is responsible for calling the respective C code function of the closure with all the parameters on the stack, and collecting its return value. she's basically the middleman who knows everyone's names 🫶

glib-genmarshal takes a list of marshallers to generate as input. that marshaller list is either read from files passed as additional arguments on the command line — or from standard input, by using - as the input file. periodt.

📝 MARSHALLER LIST FORMAT 📝

the marshaller lists get processed line by line. a line can be a comment in the form of:

# this is a comment

or a marshaller specification of the form:

RTYPE:PTYPE
RTYPE:PTYPE,PTYPE
RTYPE:PTYPE,PTYPE,PTYPE
…

the RTYPE part specifies the callback's return type, and the PTYPE instances to the right of the colon specify the callback's parameter list — except for the first and the last arguments, which are always pointers. no cap.

🌈 PARAMETER TYPES 🌈

currently, the following types are supported (she has range):

VOID — indicates no return type, or no extra parameters. if VOID is used as the parameter list, no additional parameters may be present. it's the "nothing to see here" of types 💀
BOOLEAN — for boolean types (gboolean).
CHAR — for signed char types (gchar).
UCHAR — for unsigned char types (guchar).
INT — for signed integer types (gint).
UINT — for unsigned integer types (guint).
LONG — for signed long integer types (glong).
ULONG — for unsigned long integer types (gulong).
INT64 — for signed 64-bit integer types (gint64).
UINT64 — for unsigned 64-bit integer types (guint64).
ENUM — for enumeration types (gint).
FLAGS — for flag enumeration types (guint).
FLOAT — for single-precision float types (gfloat).
DOUBLE — for double-precision float types (gdouble).
STRING — for string types (gchar*).
BOXED — for boxed (anonymous but reference counted) types (GBoxed*).
PARAM — for GParamSpec or derived types (GParamSpec*).
POINTER — for anonymous pointer types (gpointer).
OBJECT — for GObject or derived types (GObject*).
VARIANT — for GVariant types (GVariant*).
NONE — deprecated alias for VOID. she's retired bestie, don't call her 📵
BOOL — deprecated alias for BOOLEAN. same energy, also retired 😭

👑 OPTIONS 👑

--header — generate header file contents of the marshallers. this option is mutually exclusive with the --body option — pick a lane, babe.
--body — generate C code file contents of the marshallers. this option is mutually exclusive with the --header option.
--prefix <PREFIX> — specify the marshaller prefix. the default prefix is g_cclosure_user_marshal.
--skip-source — skip source location remarks in generated comments. no receipts, no locations 💅
--stdinc — use the standard marshallers of the GObject library, and include glib-object.h in generated header files. mutually exclusive with the --nostdinc option.
--nostdinc — do not use the standard marshallers of the GObject library, and skip the glib-object.h include directive in generated header files. mutually exclusive with the --stdinc option.
--internal — mark generated functions as internal, using G_GNUC_INTERNAL. keeping it lowkey ✨
-valist-marshallers — generate valist marshallers, for use with g_signal_set_va_marshaller(). (yes, one dash. that's how she's written. copy it exactly fr fr)
-v, --version — print version information and exit.
--g-fatal-warnings — make warnings fatal. that is, exit immediately once a warning occurs. it's giving "one strike and you're out" 😤
-h, --help — print brief help and exit.
--output <FILE> — write output to FILE instead of the standard output.
--prototypes — generate function prototypes before the function definition in the C source file, in order to avoid a missing-prototypes compiler warning. this option is only useful when using the --body option.
--pragma-once — use the once pragma instead of an old style header guard when generating the C header file. this option is only useful when using the --header option.
--include-header <HEADER> — adds a #include directive for the given file in the C source file. this option is only useful when using the --body option.
-D <SYMBOL>[=<VALUE>] — adds a #define C pre-processor directive for SYMBOL and its given VALUE, or "1" if the value is unset. you can use this option multiple times; if you do, all the symbols will be defined in the same order given on the command line, before the symbols undefined using the -U option. this option is only useful when using the --body option.
-U <SYMBOL> — adds a #undef C pre-processor directive to undefine the given SYMBOL. you can use this option multiple times; if you do, all the symbols will be undefined in the same order given on the command line, after the symbols defined using the -D option. this option is only useful when using the --body option.
--quiet — minimizes the output of glib-genmarshal, by printing only warnings and errors. mutually exclusive with the --verbose option.
--verbose — increases the verbosity of glib-genmarshal, by printing debugging information. mutually exclusive with the --quiet option.

🧚 USING GLIB-GENMARSHAL WITH MESON 🧚

Meson supports generating closure marshallers using glib-genmarshal out of the box in its gnome module. no extra setup, she's built different 💅

in your meson.build file you will typically call the gnome.genmarshal() method with the source list of marshallers to generate:

gnome = import('gnome')
marshal_files = gnome.genmarshal('marshal',
  sources: 'marshal.list',
  internal: true,
)

the marshal_files variable will contain an array of two elements, in the following order:

a build target for the source file
a build target for the header file

you should use the returned objects to provide a dependency on every other build target that references the source or header file; for instance, if you are using the source to build a library:

mainlib = library('project',
  sources: project_sources + marshal_files,
  …
)

additionally, if you are including the generated header file inside a build target that depends on the library you just built, you must ensure that the internal dependency includes the generated header as a required source file:

mainlib_dep = declare_dependency(sources: marshal_files[1], link_with: mainlib)

⚠️ you should not include the generated source file as well, otherwise it will be built separately for every target that depends on it, causing build failures. bestie do not do it, i'm begging 😭

to know more about why all this is required, please refer to the corresponding Meson FAQ entry <https://mesonbuild.com/FAQ.html#how-do-i-tell-meson-that-my-sources-use-generated-headers>.

for more information on how to use the method, see the Meson documentation <https://mesonbuild.com/Gnome-module.html#gnomegenmarshal> for gnome.genmarshal().

🍓 USING GLIB-GENMARSHAL WITH AUTOTOOLS 🍓

in order to use glib-genmarshal in your project when using Autotools as the build system, you will first need to modify your configure.ac file to ensure you find the appropriate command using pkg-config — similarly as to how you discover the compiler and linker flags for GLib:

PKG_PROG_PKG_CONFIG([0.28])

PKG_CHECK_VAR([GLIB_GENMARSHAL], [glib-2.0], [glib_genmarshal])

in your Makefile.am file you will typically need very simple rules to generate the C files needed for the build:

marshal.h: marshal.list
        $(AM_V_GEN)$(GLIB_GENMARSHAL) \
                --header \
                --output=$@ \
                $<

marshal.c: marshal.list marshal.h
        $(AM_V_GEN)$(GLIB_GENMARSHAL) \
                --include-header=marshal.h \
                --body \
                --output=$@ \
                $<

BUILT_SOURCES += marshal.h marshal.c
CLEANFILES += marshal.h marshal.c
EXTRA_DIST += marshal.list

in the example above, the first rule generates the header file and depends on a marshal.list file in order to regenerate the result in case the marshallers list is updated. the second rule generates the source file for the same marshal.list, and includes the file generated by the header rule. it's a lil chain reaction and honestly? obsessed 🫶

⭐ EXAMPLE ⭐

to generate marshallers for the following callback functions:

void   foo (gpointer data1,
            gpointer data2);
void   bar (gpointer data1,
            gint     param1,
            gpointer data2);
gfloat baz (gpointer data1,
            gboolean param1,
            guchar   param2,
            gpointer data2);

the marshaller.list file has to look like this:

VOID:VOID
VOID:INT
FLOAT:BOOLEAN,UCHAR

and you call glib-genmarshal like this:

glib-genmarshal --header marshaller.list > marshaller.h
glib-genmarshal --body marshaller.list > marshaller.c

the generated marshallers have the arguments encoded in their function name. for this particular list, they are:

g_cclosure_user_marshal_VOID__VOID(...),
g_cclosure_user_marshal_VOID__INT(...),
g_cclosure_user_marshal_FLOAT__BOOLEAN_UCHAR(...).

they can be used directly for GClosures or be passed in as the GSignalCMarshaller c_marshaller argument upon creation of signals:

GClosure *cc_foo, *cc_bar, *cc_baz;

cc_foo = g_cclosure_new (NULL, foo, NULL);
g_closure_set_marshal (cc_foo, g_cclosure_user_marshal_VOID__VOID);
cc_bar = g_cclosure_new (NULL, bar, NULL);
g_closure_set_marshal (cc_bar, g_cclosure_user_marshal_VOID__INT);
cc_baz = g_cclosure_new (NULL, baz, NULL);
g_closure_set_marshal (cc_baz, g_cclosure_user_marshal_FLOAT__BOOLEAN_UCHAR);

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

glib-mkenums(1) <man:glib-mkenums(1)> — her sister, also slaying ✨

and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎀💖✨ this was the glib-genmarshal manual page — footer energy: glib-genmarshal(), that's the name stamped at the bottom of the original page, dated/versioned right along with the rest of the GLib docs. go generate some marshallers, you've got this 🫶💅👑

📦 where this page comes from

arch rolling: glib2-devel 2.90.1-1 · LGPL-2.1-or-later
ubuntu stonking: libgio-2.0-dev-bin 2.90.0-1 · LGPL-2.1-or-later
📜 the page's license: LGPL-2.1-or-later
💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on 2026-10-13: a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms