Tmds.DBus.Tool

The Tmds.DBus.Tool packages extends the dotnet cli to facilitate developing .NET Core applications that use D-Bus.

The tool supports:

  • codegen: generate C# code for consuming D-Bus services.
  • list: list the available objects, interfaces and services.
  • monitor: prints message bus messages.

The tool can be installed using dotnet tool install -g Tmds.DBus.Tool

Now it can be invoked from the command line:

$ dotnet restore
$ dotnet dbus --help

codegen

The codegen command generates C# based on a bus service or XML files. This C# code is meant as a starting point and can be further enhanced by the developer (e.g. introducing strongly typed enumerations).

$ dotnet dbus codegen --service org.gnome.ScreenSaver
$ dotnet dbus codegen /usr/share/dbus-1/interfaces/*.xml

It is possible to use the system bus (or specify an address) using the --bus option:

$ dotnet dbus codegen --bus system --service org.freedesktop.NetworkManager

Additional argument allow to further control the behavior:

  • bus: bus to use ('session', 'system', <address>)
  • path: start introspecting from a specific object path
  • no-recurse: only introspect the object at path
  • namespace: set the C# namespace
  • output: set the filename to generate
  • skip: don't generate C# for certain interfaces
  • interface: only generate C# for certain interfaces
  • no-ivt: don't add the InternalsVisibleTo Attribute
  • public: generate the code with public access modifier to make the types visible to other assemblies

The interface argument can also be used to name the interfaces.

For example, by default org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Connection.Active ActiveConnection is named Active. To name it ActiveConnection:

$ dotnet dbus codegen --bus system --service org.freedesktop.NetworkManager --interface org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.Connection.Active:ActiveConnection

note: The list command can be used to find out all interface names.

list

The list command can be used to list interfaces, objects, services and activatable-services.

$ dotnet dbus list services
$ dotnet dbus list activatable-services
$ dotnet dbus list --service org.gnome.SessionManager objects
$ dotnet dbus list --service org.freedesktop.systemd1 interfaces

The output when listing objects includes the full object paths and the interfaces the objects implement.

Additional argument allow to further control the behavior:

  • bus: bus to use ('session', 'system', <address>)
  • path: start introspecting from a specific object path
  • no-recurse: only introspect the object at path

The list command can also be used to list interfaces from XML files.

$ dotnet dbus list interfaces /usr/share/dbus-1/interfaces/*.xml

monitor

The monitor command registers the tool as a bus monitor and prints out the message bus messages.

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