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DBUS-SEND(1)			  User Commands 		    DBUS-SEND(1)

NAME
     dbus-send - Send a message to a message bus

SYNOPSIS
     dbus-send	 [--system   |	 --session  |  --bus=ADDRESS  |  --peer=ADDRESS]
	       [--sender=NAME] [--dest=NAME]  [--print-reply [=literal]]  [--re-
	       ply-timeout=MSEC]   [--type=TYPE]   OBJECT_PATH	INTERFACE.MEMBER
	       [CONTENTS...]

DESCRIPTION
     The dbus-send command is used to send a message to a D-Bus message bus. See
     https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus/ for more information  about
     the big picture.

     There  are  two  well-known  message buses: the systemwide message bus (in-
     stalled on many systems as the "messagebus" service) and  the  per-user-lo-
     gin-session  message  bus	(started each time a user logs in). The --system
     and --session options direct dbus-send to send messages to  the  system  or
     session buses respectively. If neither is specified, dbus-send sends to the
     session bus.

     Nearly  all uses of dbus-send must provide the --dest argument which is the
     name of a connection on the bus to send the message to. If --dest is  omit-
     ted, no destination is set.

     The  object  path and the name of the message to send must always be speci-
     fied. Following arguments, if any, are the message contents (message  argu-
     ments). These are given as type-specified values and may include containers
     (arrays, dicts, and variants) as described below.

	 <contents>   ::= <item> | <container> [ <item> | <container>...]
	 <item>       ::= <type>:<value>
	 <container>  ::= <array> | <dict> | <variant>
	 <array>      ::= array:<type>:<value>[,<value>...]
	 <dict>       ::= dict:<type>:<type>:<key>,<value>[,<key>,<value>...]
	 <variant>    ::= variant:<type>:<value>
	 <type>       ::= string | int16 | uint16 | int32 | uint32 | int64 | uint64 | double | byte | boolean | objpath

     D-Bus  supports  more  types  than these, but dbus-send currently does not.
     Also, dbus-send does not permit empty containers or nested containers (e.g.
     arrays of variants).

     Here is an example invocation:

	   dbus-send --dest=org.freedesktop.ExampleName 	      \
		     /org/freedesktop/sample/object/name	      \
		     org.freedesktop.ExampleInterface.ExampleMethod   \
		     int32:47 string:'hello world' double:65.32       \
		     array:string:"1st item","next item","last item"  \
		     dict:string:int32:"one",1,"two",2,"three",3      \
		     variant:int32:-8				      \
		     objpath:/org/freedesktop/sample/object/name

     Note that the interface is separated from a method or signal name by a dot,
     though in the actual protocol the interface and the  interface  member  are
     separate fields.

OPTIONS
     The following options are supported:

     --dest=NAME
	 Specify the name of the connection to receive the message.

     --print-reply
	 Block	for a reply to the message sent, and print any reply received in
	 a human-readable form. It also means  the  message  type  (--type=)  is
	 method_call.

     --print-reply=literal
	 Block for a reply to the message sent, and print the body of the reply.
	 If  the  reply  is an object path or a string, it is printed literally,
	 with no punctuation, escape characters etc.

     --reply-timeout=MSEC
	 Wait for a reply for up to MSEC milliseconds. The default is  implemen-
	 tation-defined, typically 25 seconds.

     --system
	 Send to the system message bus.

     --session
	 Send to the session message bus. (This is the default.)

     --bus=ADDRESS
	 Register on a message bus at ADDRESS, typically a dbus-daemon.

     --peer=ADDRESS
	 Send  to  a  non-message-bus  D-Bus  server  at  ADDRESS.  In this case
	 dbus-send will not call the Hello method.

     --sender=NAME
	 Request ownership of name NAME before sending	the  message.  The  name
	 will be released when dbus-send exits.

     --type=TYPE
	 Specify method_call or signal (defaults to "signal").

EXIT STATUS
     Exit status 0 indicates success. A non-zero exit status indicates any fail-
     ure,  including  invalid  parameters,  failure  to  connect to the --bus or
     --peer, failure to obtain the --sender name, a timeout while waiting for  a
     reply  to	a  method  call,  or receiving an error as the reply to a method
     call.

AUTHOR
     dbus-send was written by Philip Blundell.

BUGS
     Please send bug reports to the D-Bus  mailing  list  or  bug  tracker,  see
     https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus/

D-Bus 1.16.2			   06/11/2026			    DBUS-SEND(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
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