# Migrating to GDBus

## Conceptual differences

The central concepts of D-Bus are modelled in a very similar way in dbus-glib and GDBus. Both have objects representing connections, proxies and method invocations. But there are some important differences:

- dbus-glib uses the libdbus reference implementation, GDBus doesn't. Instead, it relies on GIO streams as transport layer, and has its own implementation for the D-Bus connection setup and authentication. Apart from using streams as transport, avoiding libdbus also lets GDBus avoid some thorny multithreading issues.

- dbus-glib uses the GObject type system for method arguments and return values, including a homegrown container specialization mechanism. GDBus relies on the #GVariant type system which is explicitly designed to match D-Bus types.

- dbus-glib models only D-Bus interfaces and does not provide any types for objects. GDBus models both D-Bus interfaces (via the #GDBusInterface, #GDBusProxy and #GDBusInterfaceSkeleton types) and objects (via the #GDBusObject, #GDBusObjectSkeleton and #GDBusObjectProxy types).

- GDBus includes native support for the org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties (via the #GDBusProxy type) and org.freedesktop.DBus.ObjectManager D-Bus interfaces, dbus-glib doesn't.

- The typical way to export an object in dbus-glib involves generating glue code from XML introspection data using `dbus-binding-tool`. GDBus provides a similar tool called `gdbus-codegen` that can also generate Docbook D-Bus interface documentation.

- dbus-glib doesn't provide any convenience API for owning and watching bus names, GDBus provides the g_bus_own_name() and g_bus_watch_name() family of convenience functions.

- GDBus provides API to parse, generate and work with Introspection XML, dbus-glib doesn't.

- GTestDBus provides API to create isolated unit tests GDBus Test Scaffolding.

## API comparison

dbus-glib APIs and their GDBus counterparts

dbus-glib | GDBus
--- | ---
#DBusGConnection | #GDBusConnection
#DBusGProxy | #GDBusProxy, #GDBusInterface - also see #GDBusObjectProxy
#DBusGObject | #GDBusInterfaceSkeleton, #GDBusInterface - also see #GDBusObjectSkeleton
#DBusGMethodInvocation | #GDBusMethodInvocation
dbus_g_bus_get() | g_bus_get_sync(), also see g_bus_get()
dbus_g_proxy_new_for_name() | g_dbus_proxy_new_sync() and g_dbus_proxy_new_for_bus_sync(), also see g_dbus_proxy_new()
dbus_g_proxy_add_signal() | not needed, use the generic #GDBusProxy::g-signal
dbus_g_proxy_connect_signal() | use g_signal_connect() with #GDBusProxy::g-signal
dbus_g_connection_register_g_object() | g_dbus_connection_register_object() - also see g_dbus_object_manager_server_export()
dbus_g_connection_unregister_g_object() | g_dbus_connection_unregister_object() - also see g_dbus_object_manager_server_unexport()
dbus_g_object_type_install_info() | introspection data is installed while registering an object, see g_dbus_connection_register_object()
dbus_g_proxy_begin_call() | g_dbus_proxy_call()
dbus_g_proxy_end_call() | g_dbus_proxy_call_finish()
dbus_g_proxy_call() | g_dbus_proxy_call_sync()
dbus_g_error_domain_register() | g_dbus_error_register_error_domain()
dbus_g_error_has_name() | no direct equivalent, see g_dbus_error_get_remote_error()
dbus_g_method_return() | g_dbus_method_invocation_return_value()
dbus_g_method_return_error() | g_dbus_method_invocation_return_error() and variants
dbus_g_method_get_sender() | g_dbus_method_invocation_get_sender()

## Owning bus names

Using dbus-glib, you typically call RequestName manually to own a name, like in the following excerpt:

      error = NULL;
      res = dbus_g_proxy_call (system_bus_proxy,
                               "RequestName",
                               &error,
                               G_TYPE_STRING, NAME_TO_CLAIM,
                               G_TYPE_UINT,   DBUS_NAME_FLAG_ALLOW_REPLACEMENT,
                               G_TYPE_INVALID,
                               G_TYPE_UINT,   &result,
                               G_TYPE_INVALID);
      if (!res)
        {
          if (error != NULL)
            {
              g_warning ("Failed to acquire %s: %s",
                         NAME_TO_CLAIM, error->message);
              g_error_free (error);
            }
          else
            {
              g_warning ("Failed to acquire %s", NAME_TO_CLAIM);
            }
          goto out;
        }

      if (result != DBUS_REQUEST_NAME_REPLY_PRIMARY_OWNER)
        {
          if (error != NULL)
            {
              g_warning ("Failed to acquire %s: %s",
                         NAME_TO_CLAIM, error->message);
              g_error_free (error);
            }
          else
            {
              g_warning ("Failed to acquire %s", NAME_TO_CLAIM);
            }
          exit (1);
        }

      dbus_g_proxy_add_signal (system_bus_proxy, "NameLost",
                               G_TYPE_STRING, G_TYPE_INVALID);
      dbus_g_proxy_connect_signal (system_bus_proxy, "NameLost",
                                   G_CALLBACK (on_name_lost), NULL, NULL);

      /* further setup ... */

While you can do things this way with GDBus too, using g_dbus_proxy_call_sync(), it is much nicer to use the high-level API for this:

    static void
    on_name_acquired (GDBusConnection *connection,
                      const gchar     *name,
                      gpointer         user_data)
    {
      /* further setup ... */
    }

    /* ... */

      owner_id = g_bus_own_name (G_BUS_TYPE_SYSTEM,
                                 NAME_TO_CLAIM,
                                 G_BUS_NAME_OWNER_FLAGS_ALLOW_REPLACEMENT,
                                 on_bus_acquired,
                                 on_name_acquired,
                                 on_name_lost,
                                 NULL,
                                 NULL);

      g_main_loop_run (loop);

      g_bus_unown_name (owner_id);

Note that g_bus_own_name() works asynchronously and requires you to enter your mainloop to await the on_name_aquired() callback. Also note that in order to avoid race conditions (e.g. when your service is activated by a method call), you have to export your manager object before acquiring the name. The on_bus_acquired() callback is the right place to do such preparations.

## Creating proxies for well-known names

dbus-glib lets you create proxy objects for well-known names, like the following example:

      proxy = dbus_g_proxy_new_for_name (system_bus_connection,
                                         "org.freedesktop.Accounts",
                                         "/org/freedesktop/Accounts",
                                         "org.freedesktop.Accounts");

For a #DBusGProxy constructed like this, method calls will be sent to the current owner of the name, and that owner can change over time.

The same can be achieved with #GDBusProxy:

      error = NULL;
      proxy = g_dbus_proxy_new_for_bus_sync (G_BUS_TYPE_SYSTEM,
                                             G_DBUS_PROXY_FLAGS_NONE,
                                             NULL, /* GDBusInterfaceInfo */
                                             "org.freedesktop.Accounts",
                                             "/org/freedesktop/Accounts",
                                             "org.freedesktop.Accounts",
                                             NULL, /* GCancellable */
                                             &error);

For an added layer of safety, you can specify what D-Bus interface the proxy is expected to conform to by using the #GDBusInterfaceInfo type. Additionally, #GDBusProxy loads, caches and tracks changes to the D-Bus properties on the remote object. It also sets up match rules so D-Bus signals from the remote object are delivered locally.

The #GDBusProxy type normally isn't used directly - instead proxies subclassing #GDBusProxy generated by `gdbus-codegen` is used, see

## Generating code and docs

### Using gdbus-codegen

dbus-glib comes with `dbus-binding-tool`, which can produce somewhat nice client- and server-side wrappers for a D-Bus interface. With GDBus, `gdbus-codegen` is used and like its counterpart, it also takes D-Bus Introspection XML as input:

Example D-Bus Introspection XML

    FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: gdbus-example-objectmanager.xml

If this XML is processed like this

    gdbus-codegen --interface-prefix org.gtk.GDBus.Example.ObjectManager. \
                  --generate-c-code generated-code	                      \
                  --c-namespace Example 				      \
                  --c-generate-object-manager			      \
                  --generate-docbook generated-docs                       \
                  gdbus-example-objectmanager.xml

then two files `generated-code.h` and `generated-code.c` are generated. Additionally, two XML files `generated-docs-org.gtk.GDBus.Example.ObjectManager.Animal` and `generated-docs-org.gtk.GDBus.Example.ObjectManager.Cat` with Docbook XML are generated. For an example of what the docs look like see the Animal D-Bus interface documentation. and the Cat D-Bus interface documentation.

While the contents of `generated-code.h` and `generated-code.c` are best described by the `gdbus-codegen` manual page, brief examples of how this generated code can be used can be found in and . Additionally, since the generated code has 100% gtk-doc coverage, see #ExampleAnimal, #ExampleCat, #ExampleObject and #ExampleObjectManagerClient pages for documentation.

Server-side application using generated code

    FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: gdbus-example-objectmanager-server.c

Client-side application using generated code

    FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: gdbus-example-objectmanager-client.c

FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: objectmanager-gen-org.gtk.GDBus.Example.ObjectManager.Animal.xml FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: objectmanager-gen-org.gtk.GDBus.Example.ObjectManager.Cat.xml FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: ExampleAnimal.xml FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: ExampleCat.xml FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: ExampleObject.xml FIXME: MISSING XINCLUDE CONTENT: ExampleObjectManagerClient.xml