AtlBase

Modern GTK4 + Libadwaita foundation library for Rust applications.

AtlBase is a modular Rust framework designed to simplify the development of modern Linux desktop applications with GTK4 and Libadwaita. It provides reusable UI components, helper utilities, filesystem tools, configuration management, localization support, logging helpers, and system integration APIs.

Features

• GTK4 (>4.20) + Libadwaita 1.8 integration
• Ready-to-use dialogs and UI widgets
• File and folder chooser utilities
• Journald logging helpers
• Command execution utilities
• TOML configuration management
• Filesystem helper functions
• Internationalization (gettext)
• Root command execution helpers (pkexec)
• Reusable UI widget generators
• Modular architecture

Architecture Overview

AtlBase is divided into multiple high-level modules.

atlbase
├── helper/          -> Helper for basic operations
├── design/          -> GTK4 + Libadwaita UI framework
├── macros.rs        -> Reusable macros
├── prelude          -> Logic helper exports
└── ui_prelude       -> UI helper exports

Module Responsibilities

Module	Description
helper	Helper functions and utilities
design	UI dialogs, widgets, themes and utility components
macros	Shared macros used across applications
prelude	Central import point for backend helpers
ui_prelude	Central import point for UI helpers

Installation

Cargo.toml

Add AtlBase to your project:

[dependencies]
atlbase = "0.1"

System Requirements

AtlBase depends on GTK4 and Libadwaita development libraries.

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt install \
    libgtk-4-dev \
    libadwaita-1-dev \
    libvte-2.91-gtk4-dev \
    gettext

Fedora

sudo dnf install \
    gtk4-devel \
    libadwaita-devel \
    vte291-gtk4-devel \
    gettext

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S \
    gtk4 \
    libadwaita \
    vte4 \
    gettext

Using the Prelude Modules

AtlBase provides two convenience preludes.

Backend Prelude

use atlbase::prelude::*;

This imports:

• Command helpers
• Configuration utilities
• Filesystem helpers
• File utilities
• Localization helpers
• Logging utilities

UI Prelude

use atlbase::ui_prelude::*;

This imports:

• Dialog systems
• File choosers
• Theme helpers
• Widget creators
• Spinner dialogs
• Logging viewers

Core Modules

Helper Module

The helper module contains backend and system integration functionality.

Commands

Utilities for executing and managing system commands.

Available Features

• Run shell commands
• Capture command output
• Execute commands via pkexec
• Open terminal applications
• Open URLs in browser
• Detect command availability

Configuration

TOML-based configuration helpers.

Features

• Store structured settings
• Load configuration automatically
• Detect runtime environment
• Application environment helpers

File Utilities

Helpers for reading, writing and modifying files.

Features

• Write files
• Append lines
• Temporary application storage
• Clean and trim strings
• Read configuration values

Filesystem Utilities

Filesystem abstraction helpers.

Features

• Create directories
• Search files
• Expand paths (~ support)
• Delete files and directories
• Home directory detection
• File existence checks

Localization

gettext-based internationalization support.

Features

• Translation initialization
• Language directory handling
• Runtime locale switching

Logging

journald integration.

Features

• Syslog initialization
• Journald log viewer
• Custom headerbars for logs
• Runtime debugging

Design Module

The design module contains reusable GTK4 and Libadwaita UI components.

Dialogs

Ready-to-use dialogs for modern applications.

Available Dialogs

Dialog	Description
Alert Dialog	Standard alert message
About Dialog	ADW application about window
Entry Dialog	Text input dialog
Spinner Dialog	Background task progress dialog
Error Dialog	Error presentation
Image Dialog	Image preview dialog
Custom Dialog	Fully custom content container

Widget Utilities

AtlBase contains reusable widget generators.

Available Widgets

• Buttons with icons
• Icon-positioned buttons
• Entry widgets
• Password entry widgets
• Label + icon combinations

Dependency Overview

Dependency	Purpose
gtk4	GTK4 UI toolkit
libadwaita	GNOME/Adwaita components
vte4	Embedded terminal widget
tokio	Async runtime
serde	Serialization
confy	Configuration management
gettext-rs	Internationalization
networkmanager	Network integration
syslog	System logging
walkdir	Recursive filesystem traversal

Release Optimization

AtlBase is configured for highly optimized release builds.

[profile.release]
opt-level = "z"
lto = true
codegen-units = 1
panic = "abort"
strip = true

This configuration minimizes binary size while preserving performance.

Building

Debug Build

cargo build

Release Build

cargo build --release

Documentation

Generate local API documentation:

cargo doc --open

Testing

Run the example application:

cargo run --example test_app

License

GPL-3.0 License.

See the LICENSE file for more information.

Repository

GitHub Repository:

https://github.com/AtlantisOS-Project/atlantis-UI-base

Author

The AtlantisOS Project

Primary Developer: @NachtsternBuild