VAPIGEN(1)

📦
version 0.56.19 · 6 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, ubuntu stonking

👑 VAPIGEN(1) — bestie edition 👑

okay so first things first, this is the vapigen page, and it lives in the User Commands part of the manual (section 1, iykyk). pull up a chair, we're doing this together 🫶

🌸 NAME 🌸

vapigen — generate a Vala API. that's it, that's the whole vibe. ✨

💅 SYNOPSIS 💅

vapigen SOURCE PKGBASE [OPTION]... [FILE]...

so it wants a SOURCE and a PKGBASE right up front, then whatever [OPTION]... and [FILE]... you feel like throwing at it. main character energy fr.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

vapigen is a utility that generates Vala API (VAPI) files from GI files. and where do those GI files come from? bestie, they may be generated using the vala-gen-introspect(1) utility. it's giving pipeline. it's giving teamwork. 🌈

🎀 Usage:

vapigen [OPTION???] FILE... - Vala API Generator

(yes the ??? is really in there. not me questioning it. it's iconic, leave it alone 💀)

✨ Help Options:

  • -h, --help — show help options. literally the "help me bestie" button.

🫶 Application Options:

  • --vapidir=DIRECTORY... — look for package bindings in DIRECTORY. yes you can pass more than one, go off 💖
  • --girdir=DIRECTORY... — look for GIR bindings in DIRECTORY. the GIR files stay GIR-ing 📁✨
  • --metadatadir=DIRECTORY... — look for GIR .metadata files in DIRECTORY. metadata? she's organized.
  • --nostdpkg — do not include standard packages. standard packages? not invited to this party 🙈
  • --pkg=PACKAGE... — include the binding for PACKAGE. stack 'em up, plural, you can add as many as you want 🧚
  • --library=NAME — the library name. just NAME. that's the whole job.
  • -d, --directory=DIRECTORY — output directory. where the goods land 📦
  • --disable-warnings — disable warnings. turn the volume down on the yelling 🎧
  • --version — display version number. who are you, what era are you from 👑
  • -q, --quiet — do not print messages to the console. silent mode, mysterious mode, shhh 🤫

💀 BUGS 💀

found something broken? take it here, no cap:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vala/issues

🌸 HOMEPAGE OR CONTACT 🌸

https://vala.dev

💜 AUTHORS 💜

Jörg Billeter, Raffaele Sandrini. legends, honestly. thank you for your service 🫡✨

🔥 EXAMPLES 🔥

okay so here's the whole glow-up journey. after compilation, this command generates a GI for pango:

vala-gen-introspect pango packages/pango

and then you can convert that into a Vala API like this:

vapigen --pkg cairo --vapidir . --library pango packages/pango/pango.gi

see how it all connects?? obsessed. 🌟

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

  • vala-gen-introspect (1) — the other half of this duo, go say hi 💖
that's the whole page bestie, you ate it, no crumbs 💅

and a lil sign-off from the page itself: this was brought to you by Vala API Generator 0.56.19, dated March 2026. periodt. 🎀

📦 where this page comes from