AUTOVALA

Autovala is a program and a library designed to help in the creation of projects with Vala and CMake.

The idea is quite simple: CMake is very powerful, but writting the CMakeLists files is boring and repetitive. Why not let the computer create them, by guessing what to do with each file? And if, at the end, there are mistakes, let the user fix them in an easy way, and generate the final CMakeLists files.

This is what Autovala does. This process is done in three steps:

• First, Autovala checks all the folders and files, and writes a project file with the type of each file
• It also peeks the source files to determine which Vala packages they need, and generate automagically that list
• After that (and after allowing the user to check, if (s)he wishes, the project file), it uses that project file to generate the needed CMakeLists files

Autovala greatly simplifies the process of working with Vala because:

• Automatically determines the vala packages and libraries needed to compile and run the project, by inspecting the source code
• Automatically generates the .vapi and pkg-config files for libraries
• Automatically determinates the final destination for an icon, by checking its type (svg or png) and, in the later case, its size.
• Automatically generates manpages from text files in several possible input format (markdown, html, latex...).
• Greatly simplifies creating libraries in Vala, or a project with a binary that uses a library defined in the same project.
• Automatically generates the metadata files to create .DEB and .RPM packages.
• Easily integrates unitary tests for each binary in the project.
• Can generate automatically DBUS bindings by using the DBUS introspection capabilities.
• Automatically generates the list of source files for GETTEXT.
• Simplifies mixing C and Vala source files.

COMPILING AUTOVALA

Details about how to compile autovala are available in the INSTALL.md file.

You also can compile the plugins for Gedit and Scratch Text Editor, which are in the folders gedit_plugin and scratch_plugin. You can find inside the instructions.

USING AUTOVALA

The DOC folder contains the Wiki dumped in HTML format. Just open the index.html file with your browser, or go to the Wiki section in GitHub, and enjoy.

History of versions

• version 0.99.18 (2015-02-23)
  • Now calls gtk-update-icon-cache with the right path
  • Updated spanish translation and translatable strings
• version 0.99.17 (2015-02-17)
  • Better support for exporting Autovala projects to Valama
• version 0.99.16 (2015-02-17)
  • Added preliminary support to export Autovala project files to Valama project files
• version 0.99.15 (2015-02-15)
  • Can use the canvas size of a SVG file to determine the size entry where to put it
• version 0.99.14 (2015-02-12)
  • Allows to specify a different theme for icons
  • Now parses the INDEX.THEME file from an icon theme to know where to put an icon
  • Allows to specify extra folders where to search for .h files when compiling the C source files
  • Fixed a bug when setting several C parameters
• version 0.99.13 (2015-02-02)
  • Now doesn't take into account DEFINE parameters named "true", "false", "0" or "1"
  • Fixed the final directory name for bitmap icons
• version 0.99.12 (2015-01-11)
  • Fixed a bug when using development versions of Vala compiler
  • Allows to use alternative CMAKE files
• version 0.99.11 (2014-12-12)
  • Can create automagically the metadata for .deb and .rpm packages
  • Now honors the c_library parameters also in libraries
  • Now only updates the project view in editor plugins when the project file has changed.
  • Added support for GTK 3.4 (needed to allow to compile under Elementary OS Luna)
• version 0.99.10 (2014-11-18)
  • Added support for unitary tests
• version 0.99.9 (2014-09-23)
  • Now .gitignore also contains a line to ignore backup files (this is, files with a name ended in ~)
  • Allows to set an specific vala version in the configuration file, or let autovala set automatically the most recent version available
• version 0.99.8 (2014-09-18)
  • Fully fixed to avoid put as a requirement the library being built when it defines a sub-namespace of its own namespace
  • Autogenerates a .gitignore, .bzrignore and .hgignore files
• version 0.99.7 (2014-09-03)
  • Generates .deps files for libraries, needed with .vapi files
  • Adds Require field in pkg-config files to list the dependencies of a library
  • Now doesn't put as a requirement the library being built when it defines a sub-namespace of its own namespace
• version 0.99.6 (2014-08-27)
  • Doesn't show the message that can't resolve "Using Math" when using that statement
• version 0.99.5 (2014-08-26)
  • Allows to specify C libraries that lacks pkg-config support (like the math library, needed when using GLib.Math)
• version 0.99.4 (2014-08-25)
  • Added the "project_files" option to the text shown with "help"
• version 0.99.3 (2014-07-30)
  • Now detects valac development versions with non-classic version numbers, like Vala 0.25.1.1-ba8e
• version 0.99.2 (2014-06-30)
  • Now installs manpages at .../man/manX, instead of .../man/man/manX
• version 0.99.1 (2014-06-30)
  • Allows to list all the files needed to compile the project. Useful to add them to GIT, Bazaar, Subversion...
  • Now error messages are shown in STDERR instead of STDOUT
  • Added translations for Scratch plugin
• version 0.99.0 (2014-06-08)
  • Added global search (searchs string in all the files in a project)
  • Added panel to show the output of the building process
  • Internal changes to allow to add more types of elements
  • Now double-click is used to the files from the project view, the file view or the global search
  • Fixed scrolling problem in the project view under scratch text editor
• version 0.98.0 (2014-05-26)
  • Added support for GEdit 3.12 and later in the plugin
  • Added a plugin for Scratch Text Editor
  • Allows to create new projects from the plugins
  • Added folders /usr/lib64 and /usr/local/lib64 in the list for searching pkgconfig packages (enhances compatibility with Fedora)
  • Now it uses GNUInstallDirs with CMake, improving compatibility with non-debian-based systems
  • Now installs the autostart file in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/autostart when the code is being installed in the $HOME directory
  • Now adds all non-conditional CHECK elements
• version 0.97.0 (2014-05-12)
  • Added support for the new GEdit plugin for Autovala
  • Added two GTK3 widgets to allow to easily create plugins for text editors
  • Now the GLOBALS object has the vapiList as an static member, allowing to read it once. This speeds up the gedit plugin
  • Now autovala doesn't add hiden or backup source files
• version 0.96.0 (2014-05-04)
  • Now manages the bash-completion files automagically
  • When installing a project to the HOME folder, it won't install the bash-completion files to avoid an error (because they should go to /etc)
  • Added compatibility with source-based linux distributions (like gentoo), which doesn't add a link to a "default" vala compiler version
  • Allows to manually specify the vala compiler to use when building a project
• version 0.95.0 (2014-04-02)
  • Now always copy the CMAKE folder when doing a "cmake" or "update" command
  • Added extra checks when copying the CMAKE folder
  • Allows to automatically update the .po files with new strings (requires gettext 0.18.3)
  • Fixed bug when autodetecting manpages
  • Now checks if dbus-send and vala-dbus-binding-tool are installed if needed
  • Removed BASH dependency
  • Now supports several parameters in the compile_c_options statement
• version 0.94.0 (2014-03-21)
  • Now keeps automatic binaries when contains a manually-added DBus interface definition
• version 0.93.0 (2014-03-18)
  • Now remembers if a dbus interface must be generated using gdbus or dbus-glib.
• version 0.92.0 (2014-03-15)
  • Allows to generate automatically DBus interfaces, using DBus introspection capabilities and vala-dbus-binding-tool.
  • Now adds GIO automatically if it finds stdin. or stdout. in the source code.
• version 0.91.0 (2014-01-18)
  • When a project creates one or more libraries, the "make install" command shows a message remembering to run 'sudo ldconfig'.
• version 0.90.0 (2014-01-16)
  • Now takes into account the dependencies for VAPI files when creating the CMake files.
  • Now allows to specify libraries to be added when compiling the C code but not the Vala code. Useful when mixing C and Vala source files.
• version 0.35.0 (2013-12-26)
  • Now includes automagically the VAPIs files in the "vapis" folder for each binary/library
  • Now doesn't add a vala package if a local VAPI provides the same namespaces
  • Allows to pass flags to the C compiler/linker
  • Allows to mix VALA and C source files in the same binary or library
• version 0.34.0 (2013-12-21)
  • Now adds GObject only if the source file contains classes
• version 0.33.0 (2013-12-14)
  • Fixed bug with libgee 0.6, which is named, due to historical reasons, as libgee-1.0
• version 0.32.0 (2013-12-06)
  • Always forces GLib and GObject packages to ensure that everything compiles
  • Added GLib.File as rule to detect when automagically add GIO
• version 0.31.0 (2013-12-04)
  • Allows to install the projects in the local folder
• version 0.30.0 (2013-12-04)
  • Now shows a warning message when it can't find a package from a Using statement
  • Now supports packages that contains more than one namespace when the user sets manually that package
  • Now adds a tabulator inside conditionals in the CMakeLists.files
  • Now puts the manual packages before the automatic ones in the configuration file
  • Added support for nested namespaces in VAPI files
• version 0.29.0 (2013-12-02)
  • Now uses regular expressions for processing the USING and PROJECT VERSION strings, which gives more flexibility to the user
  • Now can autodetect in some cases when to add the gio package
• version 0.28.0 (2013-12-01)
  • Supports the use of conditionals with COMPILE_OPTIONS statement
  • Allows to use several COMPILE_OPTIONS in the same binary/library
• version 0.27.0 (2013-12-01)
  • Full refactorization to simplify future maintenance and improvements
  • Removed the Gedit plugin (until having spare time to fix it)
• version 0.26.0 (2013-11-17)
  • Added support for more input formats when creating man pages
  • Now MarkDown format is github format
• version 0.25.0 (2013-11-16)
  • Added support for creating and installing man pages
  • Added manpages for Autovala
• version 0.24.0 (2013-10-20)
  • Added conditional compilation and conditional installation support
• version 0.23.0 (2013-10-14)
  • Added bash_completion support
• version 0.22.0 (2013-10-14)
  • Autovala and gedit plugin are now different projects, allowing to compile only the former
  • Now supports several namespaces in the same .vapi file
• version 0.21.0 (2013-09-14)
  • Allows to specify GIO, GIO-unix, GObject and GModule packages for compilation
• version 0.20.0 (2013-05-19)
  • When initializating a new project, it will copy the needed CMAKE scripts for Vala and create an empty source file
  • Now the CUSTOM command accepts both files and folders
  • Now only adds CUSTOM_VAPIS_LIST command when there are a custom VAPI list
  • Now forbides to set files in the main directory (all files/folders must be inside a folder in the main directory). This is a must to avoid failures.
• version 0.19.0 (2013-04-30)
  • Now the plugin deletes the content of the install folder, but not the folder itself
• version 0.18.0 (2013-04-30)
  • Allows to delete the INSTALL folder from Gedit
  • Allows to delete the INSTALL folder, update the .avprj file, run cmake and launch make in a single step from Gedit
• version 0.17.0 (2013-04-28)
  • Fixed bug in plugin when updating the whole project
• version 0.16.0 (2013-04-28)
  • Added plugin for Gedit
• version 0.15.0 (2013-04-26)
  • Allows to specify manually the destination directory for binaries and libraries (useful for plugins)
  • Allows to install files in a manually specified destination directory
  • Autodetects autorun .desktop files and install them in the right place
• version 0.14.0 (2013-04-21)
  • Now the autovala library can use its own translated messages instead the ones from the main app (useful when embedding autovala in other programs)
• version 0.13.0 (2013-04-11)
  • In libraries, includes the librarynamespaceConstant namespace to allow to get access to build data without clash (only when the library has a namespace)
  • Added clear command, to remove the automatic parts in the .avprj file
• version 0.12.0 (2013-04-09)
  • When checking VAPI files, now will give priority to the version number inside it (gir_version), and only when there is no such number will use the one in the filename
• version 0.11.0 (2013-04-07)
  • Includes the Constant namespace in the executables (but not in libraries to avoid clash)
  • Enabled gettext to allow to translate the messages in Autovala
  • Translation to spanish
  • Fixed messages
  • Fixed a bug in Constants that prevented defining the VERSION field
  • New format for the version string inside source code, that allows to set it in libraries without clash
• version 0.10.0 (2013-04-07)
  • Allows to link an executable with a library from the same project
  • Now Autovala itself is a shared library, and the command line binary uses it
  • Fixed several bugs in the .pc generation
  • Fixed the installation paths for include files
• version 0.9.0 (2013-04-06)
  • Fixed a bug in the .pc generation
• version 0.8.0 (2013-04-06)
  • Automatically generates the .pc file for libraries
  • Fixed a bug with CMake when creating more than one binary and/or library
• version 0.7.0 (2013-04-05)
  • Now honors the IGNORE command with VAPI files and source folders
• version 0.6.0 (2013-04-05)
  • Added support for CUSTOM VAPI files
  • Installs Valadoc file sin a better place
  • Added instructions in HTML format, extracted from GitHub's wiki
• version 0.5.0 (2013-04-01)
  • Adds all source files at SRC and their subdirectories
• version 0.4.0 (2013-03-31)
  • Fixed a bug when PKG_CONFIG_PATH is empty
• version 0.3.0 (2013-03-30)
  • Added support for source files that are not in the same folder than the binary they belong to
  • Added documentation about DOC command
  • Valadoc support
• version 0.2.0 (2013-03-30)
  • Now recognizes the DOC folder
  • Now also search libraries in PKG_CONFIG_PATH
• version 0.1.0 (2013-03-29)
  • First public version