2.8. Code Attributes

Code attributes instruct the Vala compiler details about how the code is supposed to work on the target platform. They are mostly used for bindings in vapi files.

The most prominent example is the [CCode (...)] attribute:

[CCode (cname = "SDL_PropertiesID", has_type_id = false)]
public struct PropertiesID : uint32 {}

Another common example is the [DBus (...)] attribute, which is used for exporting remote interfaces via D-Bus:

[DBus (name = "net.example")]
public interface Header.Example {
    // ...
}

Here are some examples of the syntax:

[AttributeName]
class Example {
    // ...
}

[AttributeName, AnotherAttributeName]
var number = 1;

[AttributeName, AnotherAttributeName (name = "value"), YetAnotherAttributeName]
var str = "string";

[AttributeName (name = "value"), AnotherAttributeName]
var character = 'c';

[AttributeName]
[AttributeName (name = "value")]
var boolean = true;

[AttributeName (name = "value", anotherName = 1, thirdName = false)]
int integer = 1;

You can use as many attributes and arguments in the attributes as you want.

For more information on attributes, refer to the reference manual.