linux_application_id 1.0.0

Provides synchronous access to the current Linux application's ID using the GLib/GIO GApplication API. Works with Flutter's default Linux embedder.

Linux Application ID

This package requires the application to be running under a GLib GApplication. Flutter's default Linux runner satisfies this requirement. If an alternative Linux embedder that does not use GApplication is used, this package may not work as intended.

It uses a conditional import to avoid breaking web builds.

Usage

import 'package:linux_application_id.dart/linux_application_id.dart';

print(linuxApplicationId());

Motivation

Why not package_info_plus

It performs two file I/O operations (asynchronous), parses a JSON file, assumes that data/flutter_assets/version.json exists, a Flutter-specific file, silently falls back to empty strings instead of null if parsing fails, and requires many dependencies (e.g., win32).

A lot of overhead, failure points, and dependencies for obtaining the Linux application ID.

Source code.

Why not read the APPLICATION_ID C macro

It does not appear to be possible using Dart FFI, and would require native code and Flutter method channels.

Why not Flutter method channels

They have some overhead compared to FFI and are Flutter specific.

Many platform implementation packages have been rewritten to use FFI, for example path_provider_foundation, and some plugins now use JNI on Android (e.g., path_provider_android).

Why not code generation or hardcoding

This works well for application packages, but not for published packages that need access to the running Linux application ID.

It would require explicitly passing the application ID as a String to the library, which is not ideal for Flutter plugins that use static void registerWith() to register the platform implementation.