Autovala

Current version: 1.17.0

Autovala is a program and a library designed to help in the creation of projects with Vala and CMake or Meson. It is a command-line program, but there are also official plugins for GEdit and Scratch text editors.

The idea is quite simple: CMake and Meson are very powerful, but writting the configuration 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 and meson.build files

Downloads

History of versions

• version 1.17.0 (2025/05/25)
• Replace deprecated meson method meson.source_root()
• Add meson version check
• Fix run_command() warning
• version 1.16.0 (2021/09/26)
• Fixed unitary tests in Meson
• version 1.15.1 (2020/03/07)
• If no global version is defined, doesn't set "version" value in Meson
• version 1.15.0 (2020/03/04)
• Add version number in Meson
• Compiles with Valac 0.48 (and previous)
• Fixed several warnings
• Changed license to GPLv3 only
• Fixed copyright file for debian packages (now it is machine-readable)
• version 1.14.0 (2019/03/18)
• Fix typelib destination path when using a non-standard folder for a library
• Added support for non-standard GIR paths
• Allows to include Meson files for manual commands, just like in CMake
• Now don't install the CMakeLists.txt files when using Meson
• Updated the Gedit plugin
• version 1.13.0 (2019/02/24)
• Adds automagically the gschemas compiler
• Now includes the meson scripts in the repositories
• Added support for specifying binary programs needed for building or running a project
• Extra fixes to deb generation
• version 1.12.1 (2019/02/11)
• Fixed a little bug in the typelib compilation
• version 1.12.0 (2019/02/10)
• Now compiles the .gir files into typelibs and install them when creating a library
• Changed constants namespace to ensure compatibility with g-ir-compile
• Reverted gfm to markdown_github to keep compatibility with current debian stable and ubuntu LTS
• version 1.11.0 (2019/02/10)
• Fixed library generation in Meson: now creates the .gir files fine
• Changed the obsolete type markdown_github with gfm for pandoc
• version 1.10.0 (2018/05/19)
• Now adds the version and project name in the PO files
• version 1.9.0 (2018/05/08)
• Now adds "-rdynamic" in meson/ninja, to ensure that it is possible to connect signals with Builder
• version 1.8.0 (2018/04/28)
• Fixed a bug when using .vapi files and building with meson
• version 1.7.0 (2018/04/23)
• Now ignores the built-in defines like VALA_X_Y
• version 1.6.1 (2018/03/28)
• Fixed error in translations that prevented building the code
• version 1.6.0 (2018/03/28)
• Allows to include notes for the translators in the code and add them in the .po files
• version 1.5.0 (2018/03/25)
• Now the package optimization works in systems with non-english languages
• Now remembers the data in the old *control* file in debian package files, allowing to personalize the descriptions and more
• version 1.4.0 (2018/03/24)
• Now removes unneeded packages in the dependencies list in debian/control files
• version 1.3.1 (2018/03/12)
• Updated documentation style
• version 1.3.0 (2018/03/01)
• Now uses valac --api-version to get the true folder with the VAPI files
• version 1.2.2 (2018/02/28)
• Now works with vala 0.39
• version 1.2.1 (2017/11/08)
• Fixed a bug when there is neither global nor local "version" statement
• version 1.2.0 (2017/10/29)
• Added support for mime files
• Added support for Polkit policy files
• Added support for global project version number
• Better pkgconfig files generated by CMake
• version 1.1.3 (2017/10/29)
• Added support for system dbus files
• Added support for configuration dbus files
• Fixed bug with aliases
• Fixed bug in meson when installing data files
• Now doesn't add conditionals to the *translate* statement when a source file is conditional
• version 1.1.2 (2017/10/16)
• Improved the support for Meson build system (thanks to cromerc for the invaluable help)
• Fixed the parallel compilation under CMake
• Allows to create "aliases" for binaries
• version 1.1.1 (2017/08/17)
• Updated bash completion options
• version 1.1.0 (2017/02/11)
• Added meson support
• version 1.0.1 (2017/02/09)
• Now includes the main CMakeLists.txt and the Config.vala.base files in the project's file list
• version 1.0.0 (2016/12/30)
• Updated version to 1.0.0
• version 0.99.48 (2016/12/16)
• Added initial support for Genie
• Now adds the .VAPI and .GS (Genie) files in all src/ folder to the list of files generated for SCM systems like GIT
• Now can find the icon themes even if XDG_DATA_DIRS is not defined
• version 0.99.47 (2016/10/23)
• Now the list of files to translate is kept ordered between executions, reducing the number of changes in repositories due to changes in the file order
• Added support for external data (useful to store data for external programs that use autovala)
• Added support for persistent comments in the AVPRJ file
• version 0.99.46 (2016/10/02)
• Fixed bug when using an absolute path for vapidir: commands
• Allows to add non-existing folders with vapidir
• Fixed several english errors ("doesn't exists" changed to "doesn't exist")
• version 0.99.45 (2016/09/21)
• Allows to use CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE with standard and custom-defined types
• Now automagically generates the debugging symbols when the build type specified should have them
• By default compiles with the **Release** build type, ensuring -O3 optimizations for the binaries
• version 0.99.44 (2016/09/20)
• Allows to use conditionals in INCLUDE, SOURCE_DEPENDENCY and BINARY_DEPENDENCY commands
• version 0.99.43 (2016/09/18)
• Allows to compile and fully rebuild the project from external editors, like Gedit
• version 0.99.42 (2016/09/18)
• Now it pases the gresource files to the vala compiler, allowing to use Gtk Templates
• version 0.99.41 (2016/08/25)
• Fixed a bug in the --vapidir folder generation
• Fixed some compilation warnings
• version 0.99.40 (2016/08/21)
• Allows to specify --vapidir folders
• Now includes the files inside a GResource XML file in the project's file list
• version 0.99.39 (2016/08/02)
• Allows to use GResource files in projects
• Uses GResources to store icons and glade files
• Now shows the output of autovala when it can't refresh the widgets in an editor
• version 0.99.38 (2016/01/28)
• Now PKG_CONFIG_PATH takes precedence (and fully replaces) the base paths.
• Fixed a bug when compiling under windows
• version 0.99.37 (2015/12/05)
• Now the DBUS Service files ends with the right file name (it removes the ".base" if requires)
• version 0.99.36 (2015/12/02)
• Supports conditional CUSTOM and VALA_DESTINATION commands
• Now the Gedit plugin can be installed in the right folders both locally and globally
• version 0.99.35 (2015/11/24)
• Now the buttons in the plugins for Gedit and Scratch works fine (fixed callbacks)
• version 0.99.34 (2015/11/22)
• Allows to put several files in "source_dependency" and "binary_dependency" statements, allowing to search for one of the files listed fo fullfill the condition.
• version 0.99.33 (2015/11/09)
• Uses the new format for AppData files
• Recognizes **.metainfo.xml** files as AppData files too
• version 0.99.32 (2015/11/08)
• Recognizes AppData files, installing them in the right place and using its data when creating packages
• version 0.99.31 (2015/10/29)
• Allows to use "using PKG, PKG..." syntax (before only allowed one package per "using" statement)
• version 0.99.30 (2015/10/14)
• Removes multithread compilation under Arch, because doesn't work
• version 0.99.29 (2015/08/24)
• Updated PKGBUILD to the new Pandoc package
• Updated DEBIAN control files to support both valac-0.26 and 0.28
• Added Windows CMake support
• version 0.99.28 (2015/08/15)
• Now ensures that the Debian control file has a valid name
• version 0.99.27 (2015/05/31)
• Now refreshes fine the icon cache when there are several icon themes
• version 0.99.26 (2015/05/11)
• Now, for arch, installs libraries in /usr/lib instead of /usr/lib64
• Fixed dependencies in the DEB, RPM and Pacman files
• version 0.99.25 (2015/05/10)
• Now allows to generate PKGBUILD files for Arch's Pacman that support to download the sources from a repository (like GitHub)
• Added packaging files for the Gedit-Plugin
• Now, if it is not possible to determine to which package belongs a file, the package generation process will not be stopped
• Fixed some extra bugs in the PGBUILD generation process
• version 0.99.24 (2015/05/09)
• Now uses separated .base files when creating deb, rpm or pacman packages
• version 0.99.23 (2015/05/07)
• Added support for creating preliminar PACMAN's PKGBUILD files
• Fixed bug when extracting translation strings in non-ascii, UTF-8 format
• Removed (hope this one for all) the [type: gettext/glade] entry
• version 0.99.22 (2015/04/26)
• Better use of the VERSION field in packages
• version 0.99.21 (2015/04/23)
• Now sets the right permissions to DEB and RPM files
• Added msgfmt as dependency for programs
• Now fills the SECTION field in DEB packages
• Add bash-completion.pc as dependency when there are bash-completion files
• version 0.99.20 (2015/04/12)
• Now adds the field VERSION in the DEBIAN/CONTROL file
• Allows to set files that must be present during build (needed for readline, since it doesn't have pkg-config file)
• version 0.99.19 (2015/04/06)
• Now also passes the definitions set in CMAKE with -D to the C source files
• Adds again the GLADE mimetype to the POTFILES.in .ui files, to ensure that intltool-update recognizes them
• 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