{
    "mode": "info",
    "parameter": "BUSCTL",
    "section": "",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/info/BUSCTL/json",
    "generated": "2026-08-05T02:45:09Z",
    "synopsis": "busctl [OPTIONS...] [COMMAND] [NAME...]",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "busctl - Introspect the bus\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "busctl [OPTIONS...] [COMMAND] [NAME...]\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "busctl may be used to introspect and monitor the D-Bus bus.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "COMMANDS": {
            "content": "The following commands are understood:\n\nlist\nShow all peers on the bus, by their service names. By default,\nshows both unique and well-known names, but this may be changed\nwith the --unique and --acquired switches. This is the default\noperation if no command is specified.\n\nstatus [SERVICE]\nShow process information and credentials of a bus service (if one\nis specified by its unique or well-known name), a process (if one\nis specified by its numeric PID), or the owner of the bus (if no\nparameter is specified).\n\nmonitor [SERVICE...]\nDump messages being exchanged. If SERVICE is specified, show\nmessages to or from this peer, identified by its well-known or\nunique name. Otherwise, show all messages on the bus. Use Ctrl+C to\nterminate the dump.\n\ncapture [SERVICE...]\nSimilar to monitor but writes the output in pcap format (for\ndetails, see the Libpcap File Format[1] description). Make sure to\nredirect standard output to a file. Tools like wireshark(1) may be\nused to dissect and view the resulting files.\n\ntree [SERVICE...]\nShows an object tree of one or more services. If SERVICE is\nspecified, show object tree of the specified services only.\nOtherwise, show all object trees of all services on the bus that\nacquired at least one well-known name.\n\nintrospect SERVICE OBJECT [INTERFACE]\nShow interfaces, methods, properties and signals of the specified\nobject (identified by its path) on the specified service. If the\ninterface argument is passed, the output is limited to members of\nthe specified interface.\n\ncall SERVICE OBJECT INTERFACE METHOD [SIGNATURE [ARGUMENT...]]\nInvoke a method and show the response. Takes a service name, object\npath, interface name and method name. If parameters shall be passed\nto the method call, a signature string is required, followed by the\narguments, individually formatted as strings. For details on the\nformatting used, see below. To suppress output of the returned\ndata, use the --quiet option.\n\nemit OBJECT INTERFACE SIGNAL [SIGNATURE [ARGUMENT...]]\nEmit a signal. Takes an object path, interface name and method\nname. If parameters shall be passed, a signature string is\nrequired, followed by the arguments, individually formatted as\nstrings. For details on the formatting used, see below. To specify\nthe destination of the signal, use the --destination= option.\n\nget-property SERVICE OBJECT INTERFACE PROPERTY...\nRetrieve the current value of one or more object properties. Takes\na service name, object path, interface name and property name.\nMultiple properties may be specified at once, in which case their\nvalues will be shown one after the other, separated by newlines.\nThe output is, by default, in terse format. Use --verbose for a\nmore elaborate output format.\n\nset-property SERVICE OBJECT INTERFACE PROPERTY SIGNATURE ARGUMENT...\nSet the current value of an object property. Takes a service name,\nobject path, interface name, property name, property signature,\nfollowed by a list of parameters formatted as strings.\n\nhelp\nShow command syntax help.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "OPTIONS": {
            "content": "The following options are understood:\n\n--address=ADDRESS\nConnect to the bus specified by ADDRESS instead of using suitable\ndefaults for either the system or user bus (see --system and --user\noptions).\n",
            "subsections": [
                {
                    "name": "--show-machine",
                    "content": "When showing the list of peers, show a column containing the names\nof containers they belong to. See systemd-machined.service(8).\n",
                    "long": "--show-machine"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--unique",
                    "content": "When showing the list of peers, show only \"unique\" names (of the\nform \":number.number\").\n",
                    "long": "--unique"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--acquired",
                    "content": "The opposite of --unique -- only \"well-known\" names will be shown.\n",
                    "long": "--acquired"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--activatable",
                    "content": "When showing the list of peers, show only peers which have actually\nnot been activated yet, but may be started automatically if\naccessed.\n\n--match=MATCH\nWhen showing messages being exchanged, show only the subset\nmatching MATCH. See sdbusaddmatch(3).\n\n--size=\nWhen used with the capture command, specifies the maximum bus\nmessage size to capture (\"snaplen\"). Defaults to 4096 bytes.\n",
                    "long": "--activatable"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--list",
                    "content": "When used with the tree command, shows a flat list of object paths\ninstead of a tree.\n",
                    "long": "--list"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-q, --quiet",
                    "content": "When used with the call command, suppresses display of the response\nmessage payload. Note that even if this option is specified, errors\nreturned will still be printed and the tool will indicate success\nor failure with the process exit code.\n",
                    "flag": "-q",
                    "long": "--quiet"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--verbose",
                    "content": "When used with the call or get-property command, shows output in a\nmore verbose format.\n",
                    "long": "--verbose"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--xml-interface",
                    "content": "When used with the introspect call, dump the XML description\nreceived from the D-Bus\norg.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable.Introspect call instead of the\nnormal output.\n\n--json=MODE\nWhen used with the call or get-property command, shows output\nformatted as JSON. Expects one of \"short\" (for the shortest\npossible output without any redundant whitespace or line breaks) or\n\"pretty\" (for a pretty version of the same, with indentation and\nline breaks). Note that transformation from D-Bus marshalling to\nJSON is done in a loss-less way, which means type information is\nembedded into the JSON object tree.\n",
                    "long": "--xml-interface"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-j",
                    "content": "Equivalent to --json=pretty when invoked interactively from a\nterminal. Otherwise equivalent to --json=short, in particular when\nthe output is piped to some other program.\n\n--expect-reply=BOOL\nWhen used with the call command, specifies whether busctl shall\nwait for completion of the method call, output the returned method\nresponse data, and return success or failure via the process exit\ncode. If this is set to \"no\", the method call will be issued but no\nresponse is expected, the tool terminates immediately, and thus no\nresponse can be shown, and no success or failure is returned via\nthe exit code. To only suppress output of the reply message\npayload, use --quiet above. Defaults to \"yes\".\n\n--auto-start=BOOL\nWhen used with the call or emit command, specifies whether the\nmethod call should implicitly activate the called service, should\nit not be running yet but is configured to be auto-started.\nDefaults to \"yes\".\n\n--allow-interactive-authorization=BOOL\nWhen used with the call command, specifies whether the services may\nenforce interactive authorization while executing the operation, if\nthe security policy is configured for this. Defaults to \"yes\".\n\n--timeout=SECS\nWhen used with the call command, specifies the maximum time to wait\nfor method call completion. If no time unit is specified, assumes\nseconds. The usual other units are understood, too (ms, us, s, min,\nh, d, w, month, y). Note that this timeout does not apply if\n--expect-reply=no is used, as the tool does not wait for any reply\nmessage then. When not specified or when set to 0, the default of\n\"25s\" is assumed.\n\n--augment-creds=BOOL\nControls whether credential data reported by list or status shall\nbe augmented with data from /proc/. When this is turned on, the\ndata shown is possibly inconsistent, as the data read from /proc/\nmight be more recent than the rest of the credential information.\nDefaults to \"yes\".\n\n--watch-bind=BOOL\nControls whether to wait for the specified AFUNIX bus socket to\nappear in the file system before connecting to it. Defaults to off.\nWhen enabled, the tool will watch the file system until the socket\nis created and then connect to it.\n\n--destination=SERVICE\nTakes a service name. When used with the emit command, a signal is\nemitted to the specified service.\n",
                    "flag": "-j"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--user",
                    "content": "Talk to the service manager of the calling user, rather than the\nservice manager of the system.\n",
                    "long": "--user"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--system",
                    "content": "Talk to the service manager of the system. This is the implied\ndefault.\n\n-H, --host=\nExecute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username\nand hostname separated by \"@\", to connect to. The hostname may\noptionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, separated by\n\":\", and then a container name, separated by \"/\", which connects\ndirectly to a specific container on the specified host. This will\nuse SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container\nnames may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses\nin brackets.\n\n-M, --machine=\nExecute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to\nconnect to, optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a\nseparating \"@\" character. If the special string \".host\" is used in\nplace of the container name, a connection to the local system is\nmade (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus:\n\"--user --machine=lennart@.host\"). If the \"@\" syntax is not used,\nthe connection is made as root user. If the \"@\" syntax is used\neither the left hand side or the right hand side may be omitted\n(but not both) in which case the local user name and \".host\" are\nimplied.\n",
                    "long": "--system"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-l, --full",
                    "content": "Do not ellipsize the output in list command.\n",
                    "flag": "-l",
                    "long": "--full"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--no-pager",
                    "content": "Do not pipe output into a pager.\n",
                    "long": "--no-pager"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--no-legend",
                    "content": "Do not print the legend, i.e. column headers and the footer with\nhints.\n",
                    "long": "--no-legend"
                },
                {
                    "name": "-h, --help",
                    "content": "Print a short help text and exit.\n",
                    "flag": "-h",
                    "long": "--help"
                },
                {
                    "name": "--version",
                    "content": "Print a short version string and exit.\n",
                    "long": "--version"
                }
            ]
        },
        "PARAMETER FORMATTING": {
            "content": "The call and set-property commands take a signature string followed by\na list of parameters formatted as string (for details on D-Bus\nsignature strings, see the Type system chapter of the D-Bus\nspecification[2]). For simple types, each parameter following the\nsignature should simply be the parameter's value formatted as string.\nPositive boolean values may be formatted as \"true\", \"yes\", \"on\", or\n\"1\"; negative boolean values may be specified as \"false\", \"no\", \"off\",\nor \"0\". For arrays, a numeric argument for the number of entries\nfollowed by the entries shall be specified. For variants, the signature\nof the contents shall be specified, followed by the contents. For\ndictionaries and structs, the contents of them shall be directly\nspecified.\n\nFor example,\n\ns jawoll\n\nis the formatting of a single string \"jawoll\".\n\nas 3 hello world foobar\n\nis the formatting of a string array with three entries, \"hello\",\n\"world\" and \"foobar\".\n\na{sv} 3 One s Eins Two u 2 Yes b true\n\nis the formatting of a dictionary array that maps strings to variants,\nconsisting of three entries. The string \"One\" is assigned the string\n\"Eins\". The string \"Two\" is assigned the 32-bit unsigned integer 2. The\nstring \"Yes\" is assigned a positive boolean.\n\nNote that the call, get-property, introspect commands will also\ngenerate output in this format for the returned data. Since this format\nis sometimes too terse to be easily understood, the call and\nget-property commands may generate a more verbose, multi-line output\nwhen passed the --verbose option.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "EXAMPLES": {
            "content": "Example 1. Write and Read a Property\n\nThe following two commands first write a property and then read it\nback. The property is found on the \"/org/freedesktop/systemd1\" object\nof the \"org.freedesktop.systemd1\" service. The name of the property is\n\"LogLevel\" on the \"org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager\" interface. The\nproperty contains a single string:\n\n# busctl set-property org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager LogLevel s debug\n# busctl get-property org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager LogLevel\ns \"debug\"\n\nExample 2. Terse and Verbose Output\n\nThe following two commands read a property that contains an array of\nstrings, and first show it in terse format, followed by verbose format:\n\n$ busctl get-property org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager Environment\nas 2 \"LANG=enUS.UTF-8\" \"PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin\"\n$ busctl get-property --verbose org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager Environment\nARRAY \"s\" {\nSTRING \"LANG=enUS.UTF-8\";\nSTRING \"PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin\";\n};\n\nExample 3. Invoking a Method\n\nThe following command invokes the \"StartUnit\" method on the\n\"org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager\" interface of the\n\"/org/freedesktop/systemd1\" object of the \"org.freedesktop.systemd1\"\nservice, and passes it two strings \"cups.service\" and \"replace\". As a\nresult of the method call, a single object path parameter is received\nand shown:\n\n# busctl call org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager StartUnit ss \"cups.service\" \"replace\"\no \"/org/freedesktop/systemd1/job/42684\"\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "dbus-daemon(1), D-Bus[3], sd-bus(3), systemd(1), machinectl(1),\nwireshark(1)\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "NOTES": {
            "content": "1. Libpcap File Format\nhttps://wiki.wireshark.org/Development/LibpcapFileFormat\n\n2. Type system chapter of the D-Bus specification\nhttp://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html#type-system\n\n3. D-Bus\nhttps://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/dbus\n\nsystemd 249                                                          BUSCTL(1)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "busctl - Introspect the bus",
    "flags": [
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--show-machine",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "When showing the list of peers, show a column containing the names of containers they belong to. See systemd-machined.service(8)."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--unique",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "When showing the list of peers, show only \"unique\" names (of the form \":number.number\")."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--acquired",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "The opposite of --unique -- only \"well-known\" names will be shown."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--activatable",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "When showing the list of peers, show only peers which have actually not been activated yet, but may be started automatically if accessed. --match=MATCH When showing messages being exchanged, show only the subset matching MATCH. See sdbusaddmatch(3). --size= When used with the capture command, specifies the maximum bus message size to capture (\"snaplen\"). Defaults to 4096 bytes."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--list",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "When used with the tree command, shows a flat list of object paths instead of a tree."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-q",
            "long": "--quiet",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "When used with the call 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."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--verbose",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "When used with the call or get-property command, shows output in a more verbose format."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--xml-interface",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "When used with the introspect call, dump the XML description received from the D-Bus org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable.Introspect call instead of the normal output. --json=MODE When used with the call or get-property command, shows output formatted as JSON. Expects one of \"short\" (for the shortest possible output without any redundant whitespace or line breaks) or \"pretty\" (for a pretty version of the same, with indentation and line breaks). Note that transformation from D-Bus marshalling to JSON is done in a loss-less way, which means type information is embedded into the JSON object tree."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-j",
            "long": null,
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Equivalent to --json=pretty when invoked interactively from a terminal. Otherwise equivalent to --json=short, in particular when the output is piped to some other program. --expect-reply=BOOL When used with the call command, specifies whether busctl 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 \"no\", 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 --quiet above. Defaults to \"yes\". --auto-start=BOOL When used with the call or emit 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 \"yes\". --allow-interactive-authorization=BOOL When used with the call command, specifies whether the services may enforce interactive authorization while executing the operation, if the security policy is configured for this. Defaults to \"yes\". --timeout=SECS When used with the call 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 --expect-reply=no is used, as the tool does not wait for any reply message then. When not specified or when set to 0, the default of \"25s\" is assumed. --augment-creds=BOOL Controls whether credential data reported by list or status shall be augmented with data from /proc/. When this is turned on, the data shown is possibly inconsistent, as the data read from /proc/ might be more recent than the rest of the credential information. Defaults to \"yes\". --watch-bind=BOOL Controls whether to wait for the specified AFUNIX bus socket to appear in the file system before connecting to it. Defaults to off. When enabled, the tool will watch the file system until the socket is created and then connect to it. --destination=SERVICE Takes a service name. When used with the emit command, a signal is emitted to the specified service."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--user",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Talk to the service manager of the calling user, rather than the service manager of the system."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--system",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Talk to the service manager of the system. This is the implied default. -H, --host= Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username and hostname separated by \"@\", to connect to. The hostname may optionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, separated by \":\", and then a container name, separated by \"/\", which connects directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses in brackets. -M, --machine= Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to connect to, optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a separating \"@\" character. If the special string \".host\" is used in place of the container name, a connection to the local system is made (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus: \"--user --machine=lennart@.host\"). If the \"@\" syntax is not used, the connection is made as root user. If the \"@\" syntax is used either the left hand side or the right hand side may be omitted (but not both) in which case the local user name and \".host\" are implied."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-l",
            "long": "--full",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Do not ellipsize the output in list command."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--no-pager",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Do not pipe output into a pager."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--no-legend",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Do not print the legend, i.e. column headers and the footer with hints."
        },
        {
            "flag": "-h",
            "long": "--help",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Print a short help text and exit."
        },
        {
            "flag": "",
            "long": "--version",
            "arg": null,
            "description": "Print a short version string and exit."
        }
    ],
    "examples": [
        "Example 1. Write and Read a Property",
        "The following two commands first write a property and then read it",
        "back. The property is found on the \"/org/freedesktop/systemd1\" object",
        "of the \"org.freedesktop.systemd1\" service. The name of the property is",
        "\"LogLevel\" on the \"org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager\" interface. The",
        "property contains a single string:",
        "# 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\"",
        "Example 2. Terse and Verbose Output",
        "The following two commands read a property that contains an array of",
        "strings, and first show it in terse format, followed by verbose format:",
        "$ busctl get-property org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager Environment",
        "as 2 \"LANG=enUS.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=enUS.UTF-8\";",
        "STRING \"PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin\";",
        "};",
        "Example 3. Invoking a Method",
        "The following command invokes the \"StartUnit\" method on the",
        "\"org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager\" interface of the",
        "\"/org/freedesktop/systemd1\" object of the \"org.freedesktop.systemd1\"",
        "service, and passes it two strings \"cups.service\" and \"replace\". As a",
        "result of the method call, a single object path parameter is received",
        "and shown:",
        "# busctl call org.freedesktop.systemd1 /org/freedesktop/systemd1 org.freedesktop.systemd1.Manager StartUnit ss \"cups.service\" \"replace\"",
        "o \"/org/freedesktop/systemd1/job/42684\""
    ],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "dbus-daemon",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dbus-daemon/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "sd-bus",
            "section": "3",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/sd-bus/3/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "systemd",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/systemd/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "machinectl",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/machinectl/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "wireshark",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/wireshark/1/json"
        }
    ]
}