big-gtk-kit

GTK4 building blocks shared by the BigLinux Rust programs, and the tools that check them. A piece enters only when it is GTK-generic, used by more than one program or backed by a measurement, and it depends on nothing but GTK and libadwaita: no code of any application.

When GTK or libadwaita gets something wrong, the fix lives here, as a different way of doing the same thing — never as a patch to the library. Each workaround checks for the faulty state first, so a fixed library leaves it idle.

Built for the GTK 4.22 and libadwaita 1.9 BigLinux ships; older libraries are not supported.

Use

Rust, as a Cargo git dependency:

big-gtk-kit = { git = "https://github.com/biglinux/big-gtk-kit" }

deny.toml in each consumer allows git sources from the biglinux GitHub organisation only.

big-item-view/ is a second crate in this workspace: one drawn, virtualized widget for an icon grid, a column flow or rows with columns. A list of 5 000 items is 44 widgets instead of a GtkColumnView's 2 903 (+1.6 MiB against +10.0 MiB). Coloured icons come from the caller's IconLoader, else GTK's icon theme draws them.

big-item-view = { git = "https://github.com/biglinux/big-gtk-kit" }

The Python programs carry their own copy of the Python port (big_gtk_kit: install() with the tooltip card, the dialog focus fix and the popup-parent release), so they need nothing from this repository.

Install

app.connect_startup(|_| big_gtk_kit::install());

This turns on what needs no change at the call sites:

• the tooltip card below;
• taking the focus out of every AdwDialog as it closes: otherwise a dialog opened over a window where nothing had the focus kept its whole widget tree (libadwaita 1.9 restores no focus, GTK 4.22 loses the reference it then takes), 22 of 25 measured, every AdwShortcutsDialog over 120 objects;
• releasing the parent surface of every Wayland popup: GDK never drops the reference a popup takes on it, so every window that showed a popover, menu or tooltip kept its surface after closing, 25 of 25 measured (GTK 4.22.4, still so on main; limited to those versions).

Workarounds

Clippy enforces them: copy the entries of this repository's clippy.toml into the program's own.

Use	Instead of	Why (measured)
accessible::relate	update_relation	gtk-rs 0.11 leaks the target list on every call
alert::choose, choose_future	AlertDialogExtManual::choose	libadwaita-rs 0.9 keeps every dialog asked that way
alert::Alert	adw::AlertDialog::new, builder	libadwaita 1.9 leaves three breakpoints of every dialog behind, about 1.8 KB an opening; an Alert asks again with a dialog already made; add responses, connect closed and downgrade through it (a WeakAlert from an earlier question no longer upgrades)
breakpoint::add	add_breakpoint	libadwaita 1.9 never releases a window's breakpoints
css::add_provider_for_widget_lifetime	style_context_add_provider_for_display per widget	the display keeps the provider and its rules
dialog::Dialog	adw::Dialog::new, builder	the same three breakpoints per opening; a Dialog shows one already made, as Alert does; one kept and presented again stays an adw::Dialog
dialog::present_kept	building AdwShortcutsDialog per opening	its sections and models outlive it (libadwaita 1.9)
menu::append_shared_section, append_refilled_section (items vary per build)	gio::Menu::append_section	GTK 4.22's menu tracker keeps every section it shows
password::password_row	PasswordEntryRow::new, build()	libadwaita 1.9 keeps the buffer, and the password
popover::auto_unparent_on_close	a popover left on set_parent	GTK pins it, and its tree, to the widget forever
source::remove	glib::SourceId::remove	panics, and so aborts the program, when the source already ran
switch::set_active	Switch::set_active	GTK 4.22 cancels a click's slide on an unchanged value
view_switcher::toggles_for	AdwViewStack, AdwInlineViewSwitcher	leak their animation and a tree per page

Not reachable from a program, so left as they are: the three breakpoints of a dialog made outside Alert and Dialog (an AdwPreferencesDialog, an AdwAboutDialog, or one that must stay its own object, such as a Relm4 root built per opening), breakpoints declared in .ui files, and GtkSourceView 5.20's completion (3 GSignalGroup and 4 GtkAdjustment per view with its map).

Tooltips

After install(), every tooltip-text and tooltip-markup of the program shows as the BigLinux card — set in code, builders, relm4 view! or .ui files alike — in light, dark and high contrast, with no change at the call sites. GTK keeps deriving the accessible name and description from the tooltip.

• One card per window or popover, made on first hover; widgets carry nothing.
• 150 ms before the first card; moving on to a neighbour shows the next at once.
• A click, key, scroll or touch closes it; it stays closed on that widget.
• tooltip::set_icon(&widget, Some("icon-name")) adds an icon tile.
• tooltip::set_show_when_inactive(true) for panels, which are never active.
• tooltip::set_follow_pointer(true) anchors cards at the pointer's column.
• tooltip::hide_all() closes the card when a popup or preview is about to take its place without an input event.
• tooltip::set_area_tips(&view, |view, x, y| ...) gives a widget that draws its own items one tip per item, in place of answering GTK's query-tooltip.
• In a program made of modules, each linking its own copy of the kit, these settings and hide_all reach the copy that installed the cards: they live on the display, so call them once it is open.

cargo run --example tooltip_demo shows every case (BIG_DEMO_DARK=1 for the dark card, BIG_DEMO_FOLLOW=1 to follow the pointer).

Checks

cargo fmt --all --check
cargo clippy --workspace --all-targets -- -D warnings
tools/headless-gate.sh cargo test --workspace -- --include-ignored
cargo deny check
ruff check . && ruff format --check .

The ignored tests need a display; tools/headless-gate.sh runs them in a private KWin session.

tools/

Leak detection for GTK4 programs: a static checker for Rust sources, plus a per-type sweep over open/close cycles with a GObject census and a reference tracer that work on any GLib process. See tools/README.md.