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<refentry id="busctl"
xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
<refentryinfo>
<title>busctl</title>
<productname>systemd</productname>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<contrib>A monkey with a typewriter</contrib>
<firstname>Zbigniew</firstname>
<surname>Jędrzejewski-Szmek</surname>
<email>zbyszek@in.waw.pl</email>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>busctl</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>busctl</refname>
<refpurpose>Introspect the bus</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>busctl</command>
<arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg>
<arg choice="opt">COMMAND</arg>
<arg choice="opt" rep="repeat"><replaceable>NAME</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
<para><command>busctl</command> may be used to
introspect and monitor the D-Bus bus.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Options</title>
<para>The following options are understood:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--address=<replaceable>ADDRESS</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>Connect to the bus specified by
<replaceable>ADDRESS</replaceable> instead of using suitable
defaults for either the system or user bus (see
<option>--system</option> and <option>--user</option>
options).</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--show-machine</option></term>
<listitem><para>When showing the list of endpoints, show a
column containing the names of containers they belong to.
See
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--unique</option></term>
<listitem><para>When showing the list of endpoints, show
only "unique" names (of the form
<literal>:<replaceable>number</replaceable>.<replaceable>number</replaceable></literal>).
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--acquired</option></term>
<listitem><para>The opposite of <option>--unique</option>
only "well-known" names will be shown.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--activatable</option></term>
<listitem><para>When showing the list of endpoints, show
only endpoints which have actually not been activated yet,
but may be started automatically if accessed.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--match=<replaceable>MATCH</replaceable></option></term>
<listitem><para>When showing messages being exchanged, show only the
subset matching <replaceable>MATCH</replaceable>.</para></listitem>
<!-- TODO: link to sd_bus_add_match when it is written? -->
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--no-legend</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Do not print the legend,
i.e. the column headers and the
footer.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--size=</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>When used with the <command>capture</command> command
specifies the maximum bus message size to capture
("snaplen"). Defaults to 4096 bytes.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--list</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>When used with the <command>tree</command> command shows a
flat list of object paths instead of a tree.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--quiet</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>When used with the <command>call</command> command
suppresses display of the response message payload. Note that even
if this option is specified errors returned will still be
printed and the tool will indicate success or failure with
the process exit code.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--verbose</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>When used with the <command>call</command> or
<command>get-property</command> command shows output in a
more verbose format.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--expect-reply=</option><replaceable>BOOL</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>When used with the <command>call</command> command
specifies whether <command>busctl</command> shall wait for
completion of the method call, output the returned method
response data, and return success or failure via the process
exit code. If this is set to <literal>no</literal> the
method call will be issued but no response is expected, the
tool terminates immediately, and thus no response can be
shown, and no success or failure is returned via the exit
code. To only suppress output of the reply message payload
use <option>--quiet</option> above. Defaults to
<literal>yes</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--auto-start=</option><replaceable>BOOL</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>When used with the <command>call</command> command specifies
whether the method call should implicitly activate the
called service should it not be running yet but is
configured to be auto-started. Defaults to
<literal>yes</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--allow-interactive-authorization=</option><replaceable>BOOL</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>When used with the <command>call</command> command
specifies whether the services may enforce interactive
authorization while executing the operation, if the security
policy is configured for this. Defaults to
<literal>yes</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--timeout=</option><replaceable>SECS</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>When used with the <command>call</command> command
specifies the maximum time to wait for method call
completion. If no time unit is specified assumes
seconds. The usual other units are understood, too (ms, us,
s, min, h, d, w, month, y). Note that this timeout does not
apply if <option>--expect-reply=no</option> is used as the
tool does not wait for any reply message then. When not
specified or when set to 0 the default of
<literal>25s</literal> is assumed.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><option>--augment-creds=</option><replaceable>BOOL</replaceable></term>
<listitem>
<para>Controls whether credential data reported by
<command>list</command> or <command>status</command> shall
be augmented with data from
<filename>/proc</filename>. When this is turned on the data
shown is possibly inconsistent, as the data read from
<filename>/proc</filename> might be more recent than rest of
the credential information. Defaults to <literal>yes</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<xi:include href="user-system-options.xml" xpointer="user" />
<xi:include href="user-system-options.xml" xpointer="system" />
<xi:include href="user-system-options.xml" xpointer="host" />
<xi:include href="user-system-options.xml" xpointer="machine" />
<xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
<xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
<xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="no-pager" />
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Commands</title>
<para>The following commands are understood:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>list</command></term>
<listitem><para>Show service names on the bus. This is the
default if no command is specified.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>status</command> <arg choice="opt"><replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable></arg></term>
<listitem><para>Show process information and credentials of a
bus service (if one is specified by its unique or well-known
name), a process (if one is specified by its numeric PID), or
the owner of the bus (if no parameter is
specified).</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>monitor</command> <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat"><replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable></arg></term>
<listitem><para>Dump messages being exchanged. If
<replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable> is specified, show messages
to or from this endpoint. Otherwise, show all messages on the
bus. Use Ctrl-C to terminate dump.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>capture</command> <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat"><replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable></arg></term>
<listitem><para>Similar to <command>monitor</command> but
writes the output in pcap format (for details see the <ulink
url="http://wiki.wireshark.org/Development/LibpcapFileFormat">Libpcap
File Format</ulink> description. Make sure to redirect the
output to STDOUT to a file. Tools like
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>wireshark</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
may be used to dissect and view the generated
files.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>tree</command> <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat"><replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable></arg></term>
<listitem><para>Shows an object tree of one or more
services. If <replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable> is specified,
show object tree of the specified services only. Otherwise,
show all object trees of all services on the bus that acquired
at least one well-known name.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>introspect</command> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>OBJECT</replaceable></arg></term>
<listitem><para>Show interfaces, methods, properties and
signals of the specified object (identified by its path) on
the specified service.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>call</command> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>OBJECT</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>INTERFACE</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>METHOD</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="opt"><replaceable>SIGNATURE</replaceable> <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat"><replaceable>ARGUMENT</replaceable></arg></arg></term>
<listitem><para>Invoke a method and show the response. Takes a
service name, object path, interface name and method name. If
parameters shall be passed to the method call a signature
string is required, followed by the arguments, individually
formatted as strings. For details on the formatting used, see
below. To suppress output of the returned data use the
<option>--quiet</option> option.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>get-property</command> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>OBJECT</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>INTERFACE</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>PROPERTY</replaceable></arg></term>
<listitem><para>Retrieve the current value of one or more
object properties. Takes a service name, object path,
interface name and property name. Multiple properties may be
specified at once in which case their values will be shown one
after the other, separated by newlines. The output is by
default in terse format. Use <option>--verbose</option> for a
more elaborate output format.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>set-property</command> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>SERVICE</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>OBJECT</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>INTERFACE</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>PROPERTY</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>SIGNATURE</replaceable></arg> <arg choice="plain" rep="repeat"><replaceable>ARGUMENT</replaceable></arg></term>
<listitem><para>Set the current value an object
property. Takes a service name, object path, interface name,
property name, property signature, followed by a list of
parameters formatted as strings.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><command>help</command></term>
<listitem><para>Show command syntax help.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Parameter Formatting</title>
<para>The <command>call</command> and
<command>set-property</command> commands take a signature string
followed by a list of parameters formatted as string (for details
on D-Bus signature strings see the <ulink
url="http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html#type-system">Type
system chapter of the D-Bus specification</ulink>). For simple
types each parameter following the signature should simply be the
parameter's value formatted as string. Positive boolean values may
be formatted as <literal>true</literal>, <literal>yes</literal>,
<literal>on</literal>, <literal>1</literal>; negative boolean
values may be specified as <literal>false</literal>,
<literal>no</literal>, <literal>off</literal>,
<literal>0</literal>. For arrays, a numeric argument for the
number of entries followed by the entries shall be specified. For
variants the signature of the contents shall be specified,
followed by the contents. For dictionaries and structs the
contents of them shall be directly specified.</para>
<para>For example,
<programlisting>s jawoll</programlisting> is the formatting
of a single string <literal>jawoll</literal>.</para>
<para>
<programlisting>as 3 hello world foobar</programlisting>
is the formatting of a string array with three entries,
<literal>hello</literal>, <literal>world</literal> and
<literal>foobar</literal>.</para>
<para>
<programlisting>a{sv} 3 One s Eins Two u 2 Yes b true</programlisting>
is the formatting of a dictionary
array that maps strings to variants, consisting of three
entries. The string <literal>One</literal> is assigned the
string <literal>Eins</literal>. The string
<literal>Two</literal> is assigned the 32bit unsigned
integer 2. The string <literal>Yes</literal> is assigned a
positive boolean.</para>
<para>Note that the <command>call</command>,
<command>get-property</command>, <command>introspect</command>
commands will also generate output in this format for the returned
data. Since this format is sometimes too terse to be easily
understood, the <command>call</command> and
<command>get-property</command> commands may generate a more
verbose, multi-line output when passed the
<option>--verbose</option> option.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Examples</title>
<example>
<title>Write and Read a Property</title>
<para>The following two commands first write a property and then
read it back. The property is found on the
<literal>/org/freedesktop/systemd1</literal> object of the
<literal>org.freedesktop.systemd1</literal> service. The name of
the property is <literal>LogLevel</literal> on the
<literal>org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager</literal>
interface. The property contains a single string:</para>
<programlisting># busctl set-property org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager LogLevel s debug
# busctl get-property org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager LogLevel
s "debug"</programlisting>
</example>
<example>
<title>Terse and Verbose Output</title>
<para>The following two commands read a property that contains
an array of strings, and first show it in terse format, followed
by verbose format:</para>
<programlisting>$ busctl get-property org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager Environment
as 2 "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" "PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin"
$ busctl get-property --verbose org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager Environment
ARRAY "s" {
STRING "LANG=en_US.UTF-8";
STRING "PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin";
};</programlisting>
</example>
<example>
<title>Invoking a Method</title>
<para>The following command invokes a the
<literal>StartUnit</literal> method on the
<literal>org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager</literal>
interface of the
<literal>/org/freedesktop/systemd1</literal> object
of the <literal>org.freedesktop.systemd1</literal>
service, and passes it two strings
<literal>cups.service</literal> and
<literal>replace</literal>. As result of the method
call a single object path parameter is received and
shown:</para>
<programlisting># busctl call org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager StartUnit ss "cups.service" "replace"
o "/org/freedesktop/systemd1/job/42684"</programlisting>
</example>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>dbus-daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<ulink url="http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus">D-Bus</ulink>,
<ulink url="https://code.google.com/p/d-bus/">kdbus</ulink>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd-bus</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-bus-proxyd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>wireshark</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>