1DBUS-SEND(1) User Commands DBUS-SEND(1)
2
6 dbus-send - Send a message to a message bus
7
9 dbus-send [--system | --session | --bus=ADDRESS | --peer=ADDRESS]
10 [--sender=NAME] [--dest=NAME] [--print-reply [=literal]]
11 [--reply-timeout=MSEC] [--type=TYPE] OBJECT_PATH
12 INTERFACE.MEMBER [CONTENTS...]
13
16 The dbus-send command is used to send a message to a D-Bus message bus.
17 See http://www.freedesktop.org/software/dbus/ for more information
18 about the big picture.
19 There are two well-known message buses: the systemwide message bus
21 (installed on many systems as the "messagebus" service) and the
22 per-user-login-session message bus (started each time a user logs in).
23 The --system and --session options direct dbus-send to send messages to
24 the system or session buses respectively. If neither is specified,
25 dbus-send sends to the session bus.
26 Nearly all uses of dbus-send must provide the --dest argument which is
28 the name of a connection on the bus to send the message to. If --dest
29 is omitted, no destination is set.
30 The object path and the name of the message to send must always be
32 specified. Following arguments, if any, are the message contents
33 (message arguments). These are given as type-specified values and may
34 include containers (arrays, dicts, and variants) as described below.
35 <contents> ::= <item> | <container> [ <item> | <container>...]
37 <item> ::= <type>:<value>
38 <container> ::= <array> | <dict> | <variant>
39 <array> ::= array:<type>:<value>[,<value>...]
40 <dict> ::= dict:<type>:<type>:<key>,<value>[,<key>,<value>...]
41 <variant> ::= variant:<type>:<value>
42 <type> ::= string | int16 | uint16 | int32 | uint32 | int64 | uint64 | double | byte | boolean | objpath
43 D-Bus supports more types than these, but dbus-send currently does not.
45 Also, dbus-send does not permit empty containers or nested containers
46 (e.g. arrays of variants).
47 Here is an example invocation:
49 dbus-send --dest=org.freedesktop.ExampleName \
52 /org/freedesktop/sample/object/name \
53 org.freedesktop.ExampleInterface.ExampleMethod \
54 int32:47 string:'hello world' double:65.32 \
55 array:string:"1st item","next item","last item" \
56 dict:string:int32:"one",1,"two",2,"three",3 \
57 variant:int32:-8 \
58 objpath:/org/freedesktop/sample/object/name
59 Note that the interface is separated from a method or signal name by a
62 dot, though in the actual protocol the interface and the interface
63 member are separate fields.
64
66 The following options are supported:
67 --dest=NAME
69 Specify the name of the connection to receive the message.
70 --print-reply
72 Block for a reply to the message sent, and print any reply received
73 in a human-readable form. It also means the message type (--type=)
74 is method_call.
75 --print-reply=literal
77 Block for a reply to the message sent, and print the body of the
78 reply. If the reply is an object path or a string, it is printed
79 literally, with no punctuation, escape characters etc.
80 --reply-timeout=MSEC
82 Wait for a reply for up to MSEC milliseconds. The default is
83 implementation‐defined, typically 25 seconds.
84 --system
86 Send to the system message bus.
87 --session
89 Send to the session message bus. (This is the default.)
90 --bus=ADDRESS
92 Register on a message bus at ADDRESS, typically a dbus-daemon.
93 --peer=ADDRESS
95 Send to a non-message-bus D-Bus server at ADDRESS. In this case
96 dbus-send will not call the Hello method.
97 --sender=NAME
99 Request ownership of name NAME before sending the message. The name
100 will be released when dbus-send exits.
101 --type=TYPE
103 Specify method_call or signal (defaults to "signal").
104
106 dbus-send was written by Philip Blundell.
107
109 Please send bug reports to the D-Bus mailing list or bug tracker, see
110 http://www.freedesktop.org/software/dbus/
111D-Bus 1.14.10 09/01/2023 DBUS-SEND(1)