Geany

Geany
Geany
Original author	Enrico Tröger
Developer	Geany authors
Release	October 19, 2005; 21 years ago
Stable release	2.1.0 / 6 July 2025
Written in	C, C++
Operating system	Linux; macOS; Windows
Size	23 MB (Windows) 28 MB (MacOS) 32 MB (Linux)
Type	IDE
License	GPL-2.0-or-later
Website	www.geany.org
Repository	github.com/geany/geany ;

Geany (/dʒiːni/ JEE-NEE) is a free and open-source lightweight GUI text editor using Scintilla and GTK, including basic IDE features. It is designed to have short load times, with limited dependency on separate packages or external libraries on Linux. It has been ported to a wide range of operating systems, such as BSD, Linux, macOS, Solaris and Windows. The Windows port lacks an embedded terminal window.

On Linux it does not have proper Wayland support as of August 2026 with basic features like the clipboard not working. It does not run as native Wayland app and instead uses XWayland.

However there is discussion about porting the software to GTK4 eventually.

Geany resembles Notepad++ somewhat, which also uses Scintilla.

It is free software licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL version 2 or later.

Version history

In 2012, the version number was increased to 1.22 from 0.21 to reflect the maturity of the product, as requested by many users. Geany version 1.29 is based on GTK+ 3.22. Version 1.36 is based on GTK+ 3.24.14. Version 1.37.1 is the last version with GTK+ 2.24 support.

Features

Auto-completion
Bookmarks (called markers)
Multiple document support
Simple project management
Syntax highlighting
Code folding (partially)
Symbol lists
Code navigation
Embedded terminal emulator
Build system to compile and execute code using external tools
Extensible via plugins
Column / block / vertical select (via Shift + Ctrl + arrow keys)
User configurable keyboard action to editor function mapping
tree-structure-based collapsible file-paths in sidebar
Over 70 supported file types: C, C++, C#, Ada, Java, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, LaTeX, CSS, Python, Perl, Ruby, Pascal, Haskell, Erlang, Vala and many others.

Reception

Geany was received positively in articles on Linux.com and German Heise Online for editing programming code. However the dated Scintilla base has been found unsuitable to normal writing. Scintilla doesn't support proper caret movement between complex graphemes, bidirectional text and other features expected of modern text editors.

References

↑ "Release Geany 2.1 · geany/geany". Retrieved 9 July 2025.
↑ "geany/geany: A fast and lightweight IDE". GitHub. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 2016-07-11.
1 2 "geany/README at master · geany/geany · GitHub". github.com/geany/geany. Archived from the original on 2021-06-22. Retrieved 2021-06-22.
↑ "Geany's FAQ: How do you pronounce Geany?".
↑ "Fast, powerful Geany editor offers IDE features". Linux.com. Archived from the original on 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
↑ "geany.darwinports.com". geany.darwinports.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-16. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
↑ geany. "can't paste from xwayland apps in wayland · Issue #2079 · geany/geany". GitHub. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
↑ geany. "Geany 4.0, the GTK4 edition (and more) · geany geany · Discussion #3675". GitHub. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
↑ "Notepad++ and Scintilla". Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
↑ "Geany news archive". Many users told us our version numbers didn't reflect the maturity of Geany to their eyes, and wished it to be changed to reflect that. So after some discussion we decided to rename this version 1.22 instead of 0.22.
↑ "Geany 1.29 is Released with Improved GTK 3.22 Support". 15 November 2016.
↑ "Release Notes | Geany".
↑ "Geany-gtk2 Download (TXZ)". Archived from the original on 2021-09-10. Retrieved 2021-04-02.
↑ "Freelancer's Playground! | Using Geany's VTE". bayu.freelancer.web.id. 2008-08-26. Archived from the original on 2011-09-10. Retrieved 2014-02-03.
↑ "Geany".
↑ Sourav Rudra (20 October 2023). "Geany 2.0 Release Makes it a More Versatile Text Editor and IDE". itsfoss.com.
↑ "Supported Filetypes". Geany. Retrieved 2020-01-01.
↑ "Fast, powerful Geany editor offers IDE features". Linux.com. 2008-07-09. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
↑ online, heise (2012-10-17). "Toolbox: Geany für Code und Text". c't Magazin (in German). Retrieved 2026-08-03. Fazit: Kleines Genie für Quelltexte ... Die solide Scintilla-Codebasis hat seit Jahren keine großen Fortschritte gemacht und unterstützt keine Rechts-nach-links-Sprachen. Bei westlicher Schrift und Programmcode fallen die Probleme des Editors aber kaum ins Gewicht. (lmd) [Conclusion: A Little Genius for Source Code ... The robust Scintilla codebase has not seen any major advancements in years and does not support right-to-left languages. However, when working with Western scripts and program code, the editor’s issues are hardly noticeable. (lmd)]

External links

Media related to Geany at Wikimedia Commons
Official website
Official Plugins Repository on GitHub

[wikidata-c22d4266a1dd23c0ff85e7d440dcc0bc0d4a768c-v20-1] "Release Geany 2.1 · geany/geany". Retrieved 9 July 2025.

[2] "geany/geany: A fast and lightweight IDE". GitHub. 11 July 2016. Retrieved 2016-07-11.

[eefe-3] 1 2 "geany/README at master · geany/geany · GitHub". github.com/geany/geany. Archived from the original on 2021-06-22. Retrieved 2021-06-22.

[4] "Geany's FAQ: How do you pronounce Geany?".

[5] "Fast, powerful Geany editor offers IDE features". Linux.com. Archived from the original on 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2014-02-03.

[6] "geany.darwinports.com". geany.darwinports.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-16. Retrieved 2014-02-03.

[7] y. "can't paste from xwayland apps in wayland · Issue #2079 · geany/geany". GitHub. Retrieved 2026-08-03.

[8] y. "Geany 4.0, the GTK4 edition (and more) · geany geany · Discussion #3675". GitHub. Retrieved 2026-08-03.

[9] "Notepad++ and Scintilla". Archived from the original on 2019-02-19. Retrieved 2019-02-18.

[10] "Geany news archive". Many users told us our version numbers didn't reflect the maturity of Geany to their eyes, and wished it to be changed to reflect that. So after some discussion we decided to rename this version 1.22 instead of 0.22.

[11] "Geany 1.29 is Released with Improved GTK 3.22 Support". 15 November 2016.

[12] "Release Notes | Geany".

[13] "Geany-gtk2 Download (TXZ)". Archived from the original on 2021-09-10. Retrieved 2021-04-02.

[14] "Freelancer's Playground! | Using Geany's VTE". bayu.freelancer.web.id. 2008-08-26. Archived from the original on 2011-09-10. Retrieved 2014-02-03.

[15] "Geany".

[16] Sourav Rudra (20 October 2023). "Geany 2.0 Release Makes it a More Versatile Text Editor and IDE". itsfoss.com.

[17] "Supported Filetypes". Geany. Retrieved 2020-01-01.

[18] "Fast, powerful Geany editor offers IDE features". Linux.com. 2008-07-09. Retrieved 2026-08-03.

[19] , heise (2012-10-17). "Toolbox: Geany für Code und Text". c't Magazin (in German). Retrieved 2026-08-03. Fazit: Kleines Genie für Quelltexte ... Die solide Scintilla-Codebasis hat seit Jahren keine großen Fortschritte gemacht und unterstützt keine Rechts-nach-links-Sprachen. Bei westlicher Schrift und Programmcode fallen die Probleme des Editors aber kaum ins Gewicht. (lmd) [Conclusion: A Little Genius for Source Code ... The robust Scintilla codebase has not seen any major advancements in years and does not support right-to-left languages. However, when working with Western scripts and program code, the editor’s issues are hardly noticeable. (lmd)]