Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
DBUS-UUIDGEN(1) 		  User Commands 		 DBUS-UUIDGEN(1)

NAME
     dbus-uuidgen - Utility to generate UUIDs

SYNOPSIS
     dbus-uuidgen [--version] [--ensure [=FILENAME]] [--get [=FILENAME]]

DESCRIPTION
     The dbus-uuidgen command generates or reads a universally unique ID.

     Note  that the D-Bus UUID has no relationship to RFC 4122 and does not gen-
     erate UUIDs compatible with that spec. Many systems have a separate command
     for that (often called "uuidgen").

     See https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus/  for  more  information
     about D-Bus.

     The primary usage of dbus-uuidgen is to run in the post-install script of a
     D-Bus package like this:

	   dbus-uuidgen --ensure

     This  will  ensure that /var/lib/dbus/machine-id exists and has the uuid in
     it. It won't overwrite an existing uuid, since this id should remain  fixed
     for a single machine until the next reboot at least.

     The  important  properties  of  the machine UUID are that 1) it remains un-
     changed until the next reboot and 2) it is different for  any  two  running
     instances	of  the  OS kernel. That is, if two processes see the same UUID,
     they should also see the same shared memory, UNIX domain sockets,	local  X
     displays, localhost.localdomain resolution, process IDs, and so forth.

     If  you  run dbus-uuidgen with no options it just prints a new uuid made up
     out of thin air.

     If you run it with --get, it prints the machine UUID  by  default,  or  the
     UUID in the specified file if you specify a file.

     If  you  try  to change an existing machine-id on a running system, it will
     probably result in bad things happening. Don't try  to  change  this  file.
     Also,  don't make it the same on two different systems; it needs to be dif-
     ferent anytime there are two different kernels running.

     The UUID should be different on two  different  virtual  machines,  because
     there are two different kernels.

OPTIONS
     The following options are supported:

     --get[=FILENAME]
	 If  a	filename  is  not  given, defaults to localstatedir/lib/dbus/ma-
	 chine-id (localstatedir is usually /var). If this file  exists  and  is
	 valid,  the  uuid in the file is printed on stdout. Otherwise, the com-
	 mand exits with a nonzero status.

     --ensure[=FILENAME]
	 If a filename is  not	given,	defaults  to  localstatedir/lib/dbus/ma-
	 chine-id  (localstatedir  is usually /var). If this file exists then it
	 will be validated, and a failure code returned if it contains the wrong
	 thing. If the file does not exist, it will be created with a  new  uuid
	 in it. On success, prints no output.

     --version
	 Print the version of dbus-uuidgen

AUTHOR
     See https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/AUTHORS

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-UUIDGEN(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dbus-uuidgen&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

home | help