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Gio.NetworkMonitor

interface

GNetworkMonitor provides an easy-to-use cross-platform API for monitoring network connectivity. On Linux, the available implementations are based on the kernel's netlink interface and on NetworkManager.

There is also an implementation for use inside Flatpak sandboxes.

Methods

can_reach

def can_reach(self, connectable: SocketConnectable, cancellable: Cancellable | None = ...) -> bool

Attempts to determine whether or not the host pointed to by connectable can be reached, without actually trying to connect to it.

This may return True even when NetworkMonitor:network-available is False, if, for example, monitor can determine that connectable refers to a host on a local network.

If monitor believes that an attempt to connect to connectable will succeed, it will return True. Otherwise, it will return False and set error to an appropriate error (such as IOErrorEnum.HOST_UNREACHABLE).

Note that although this does not attempt to connect to connectable, it may still block for a brief period of time (eg, trying to do multicast DNS on the local network), so if you do not want to block, you should use NetworkMonitor.can_reach_async.

Parameters:

can_reach_async

def can_reach_async(self, connectable: SocketConnectable, cancellable: Cancellable | None = ..., callback: Callable[[NetworkMonitor | None, AsyncResult], None] | None = ...) -> None

Asynchronously attempts to determine whether or not the host pointed to by connectable can be reached, without actually trying to connect to it.

For more details, see NetworkMonitor.can_reach.

When the operation is finished, callback will be called. You can then call NetworkMonitor.can_reach_finish to get the result of the operation.

Parameters:

  • connectable — a SocketConnectable
  • cancellable — a Cancellable, or None
  • callback — a GAsyncReadyCallback to call when the request is satisfied

can_reach_finish

def can_reach_finish(self, result: AsyncResult) -> bool

Finishes an async network connectivity test. See NetworkMonitor.can_reach_async.

Parameters:

get_connectivity

def get_connectivity(self) -> NetworkConnectivity

Gets a more detailed networking state than NetworkMonitor.get_network_available.

If NetworkMonitor:network-available is False, then the connectivity state will be NetworkConnectivity.LOCAL.

If NetworkMonitor:network-available is True, then the connectivity state will be NetworkConnectivity.FULL (if there is full Internet connectivity), NetworkConnectivity.LIMITED (if the host has a default route, but appears to be unable to actually reach the full Internet), or NetworkConnectivity.PORTAL (if the host is trapped behind a "captive portal" that requires some sort of login or acknowledgement before allowing full Internet access).

Note that in the case of NetworkConnectivity.LIMITED and NetworkConnectivity.PORTAL, it is possible that some sites are reachable but others are not. In this case, applications can attempt to connect to remote servers, but should gracefully fall back to their "offline" behavior if the connection attempt fails.

get_network_available

def get_network_available(self) -> bool

Checks if the network is available. "Available" here means that the system has a default route available for at least one of IPv4 or IPv6. It does not necessarily imply that the public Internet is reachable. See NetworkMonitor:network-available for more details.

get_network_metered

def get_network_metered(self) -> bool

Checks if the network is metered. See NetworkMonitor:network-metered for more details.

Static functions

get_default

@staticmethod
def get_default() -> NetworkMonitor

Gets the default NetworkMonitor for the system.

Virtual methods

do_can_reach

def do_can_reach(self, connectable: SocketConnectable, cancellable: Cancellable | None = ...) -> bool

Attempts to determine whether or not the host pointed to by connectable can be reached, without actually trying to connect to it.

This may return True even when NetworkMonitor:network-available is False, if, for example, monitor can determine that connectable refers to a host on a local network.

If monitor believes that an attempt to connect to connectable will succeed, it will return True. Otherwise, it will return False and set error to an appropriate error (such as IOErrorEnum.HOST_UNREACHABLE).

Note that although this does not attempt to connect to connectable, it may still block for a brief period of time (eg, trying to do multicast DNS on the local network), so if you do not want to block, you should use NetworkMonitor.can_reach_async.

Parameters:

do_can_reach_async

def do_can_reach_async(self, connectable: SocketConnectable, cancellable: Cancellable | None = ..., callback: Callable[[NetworkMonitor | None, AsyncResult], None] | None = ...) -> None

Asynchronously attempts to determine whether or not the host pointed to by connectable can be reached, without actually trying to connect to it.

For more details, see NetworkMonitor.can_reach.

When the operation is finished, callback will be called. You can then call NetworkMonitor.can_reach_finish to get the result of the operation.

Parameters:

  • connectable — a SocketConnectable
  • cancellable — a Cancellable, or None
  • callback — a GAsyncReadyCallback to call when the request is satisfied

do_can_reach_finish

def do_can_reach_finish(self, result: AsyncResult) -> bool

Finishes an async network connectivity test. See NetworkMonitor.can_reach_async.

Parameters:

do_network_changed

def do_network_changed(self, network_available: bool) -> None

the virtual function pointer for the GNetworkMonitor::network-changed signal.

Properties

connectivity

connectivity: NetworkConnectivity | int  # read-only

More detailed information about the host's network connectivity. See NetworkMonitor.get_connectivity and NetworkConnectivity for more details.

network_available

network_available: bool  # read-only

Whether the network is considered available. That is, whether the system has a default route for at least one of IPv4 or IPv6.

Real-world networks are of course much more complicated than this; the machine may be connected to a wifi hotspot that requires payment before allowing traffic through, or may be connected to a functioning router that has lost its own upstream connectivity. Some hosts might only be accessible when a VPN is active. Other hosts might only be accessible when the VPN is not active. Thus, it is best to use NetworkMonitor.can_reach or NetworkMonitor.can_reach_async to test for reachability on a host-by-host basis. (On the other hand, when the property is False, the application can reasonably expect that no remote hosts at all are reachable, and should indicate this to the user in its UI.)

See also NetworkMonitor::network-changed.

network_metered

network_metered: bool  # read-only

Whether the network is considered metered.

That is, whether the system has traffic flowing through the default connection that is subject to limitations set by service providers. For example, traffic might be billed by the amount of data transmitted, or there might be a quota on the amount of traffic per month. This is typical with tethered connections (3G and 4G) and in such situations, bandwidth intensive applications may wish to avoid network activity where possible if it will cost the user money or use up their limited quota. Anything more than a few hundreds of kilobytes of data usage per hour should be avoided without asking permission from the user.

If more information is required about specific devices then the system network management API should be used instead (for example, NetworkManager or ConnMan).

If this information is not available then no networks will be marked as metered.

See also NetworkMonitor:network-available.

Signals

network-changed

def on_network_changed(self, network_available: bool) -> None: ...

Emitted when the network configuration changes.