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QtAppInstanceManager

QtAppInstanceManager is a tool to control how many instances of your Qt application are running at the same time, and to send messages between instances. It uses a local socket under the hood. You may then build upon this foundation any messaging system or protocol, such as JSON-RPC for instance (NB: not provided because out of the scope of this library).

It is intended to be a replacement for QtSingleApplication, the deprecated Qt4 official project.

Also, it differs from itay-grudev's SingleApplication because you don't need to inherit a child class of QCoreApplication to use QtAppInstanceManager, therefore it doesn't need configure-time flags and macros.

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Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Usage
• Examples
  • Single application
  • Multiple application instances
• Author
• License

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Requirements

• Platform: Windows, MacOS, Linux.
• CMake 3.21+
• Qt 6.6+

Usage

1. Add the library as a dependency in your CMakeLists.txt, for example with FetchContent.

   include(FetchContent)
   FetchContent_Declare(QtAppInstanceManager
    GIT_REPOSITORY "https://github.com/oclero/qtappinstancemanager.git"
   )
   FetchContent_MakeAvailable(QtAppInstanceManager)
   

2. Link with the library in CMake.

   target_link_libraries(your_project oclero::QtAppInstanceManager)
   

3. Include the only necessary header in your C++ file.

   #include <oclero/QtAppInstanceManager.hpp>
   

Examples

Single application

Just create an oclero::QtAppInstanceManager and configure it to allow only one instance running at the same time with setForceSingleInstance(true).

Complete example can be found in the /examples directory, including CMake and C++ file.

// Initialize instance manager to force only one instance running.
oclero::QtAppInstanceManager instanceManager;
instanceManager.setMode(QtAppInstanceManager::Mode::SingleInstance);

// When another instance will start, it will immediately quit the app and send its
// arguments to the primary instance.
QObject::connect(&instanceManager,
  &oclero::QtAppInstanceManager::secondaryInstanceMessageReceived,
  &instanceManager,
  [](const unsigned int id, QByteArray const& data) {
    // Do what you want:
    // - Raise the main window.
    // - Open a file in an another tab of your main window.
    // - ...
    qDebug() << "Secondary instance message received: " << data;
  });

// If you don't want for the app to quit, you can set the manual mode and handle this step by yourself.
instanceManager.setAppExitMode(QtAppInstanceManager::AppExitMode::Manual);
QObject::connect(&instanceManager,
  &QtAppInstanceManager::appExitRequested,
  &singleInstance,
  []() {
    // Do what you want.
    // Usually you should quit the app.
    qDebug() << "This app should exit";
    QCoreApplication::quit();
    std::exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
  });

Multiple application instances

oclero::QtAppInstanceManager instanceManager;

// If we are the FIRST instance to launch,
// we'll receive messages from other instances that will launch after us.
QObject::connect(&instanceManager,
                 &oclero::QtAppInstanceManager::secondaryInstanceMessageReceived,
                 &instanceManager,
  [](const unsigned int id, QByteArray const& data) {
    qDebug() << "Message received from secondary instance: " << data;
  });

// If we are another instance, we are able to receive messages from the primary one.
QObject::connect(&instanceManager,
                 &oclero::QtAppInstanceManager::primaryInstanceMessageReceived,
                 &instanceManager,
  [](QByteArray const& data) {
    qDebug() << "Message received from primary instance: " << data;
  });

// If ever the first instance to launch unexpectly shuts down,
// one of the secondary instances will immediately take of the role of the primary one.
QObject::connect(&instanceManager,
                 &oclero::QtAppInstanceManager::instanceRoleChanged,
                 &instanceManager,
  [&instanceManager]() {
    // There is a short period of time before roles are assigned again.
    if (!instanceManager.isPrimaryInstance() && !instanceManager.isSecondaryInstance()) {
      qDebug() << "Waiting for new role...";
    } else {
      qDebug() << "New role: " << (instanceManager.isPrimaryInstance() ? "Primary" : "Secondary");
    }
  });

Author

Olivier Cléro | email | website | github

Thanks to Emilien Vallot for his help and advices.

License

QtAppInstanceManager is available under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more info.