Avalonia.DBus

A managed D-Bus client and service library for .NET 8+, with an integrated Roslyn source generator for strongly-typed proxies and handlers.

Built for Avalonia but usable from any .NET application. Runs on Linux and macOS.

Features

• Async/await API for method calls, signal subscriptions, and object registration
• Source generator that produces typed proxies and handler base classes from D-Bus XML interface definitions
• Full D-Bus type system support: variants, structs, dictionaries, arrays, object paths, signatures
• Bus-side methods integration (name ownership, introspection, name watching)

Quick Start

await using var connection = await DBusConnection.ConnectSessionAsync();

// Call a method
var reply = await connection.CallMethodAsync(
    "org.freedesktop.DBus",
    "/org/freedesktop/DBus",
    "org.freedesktop.DBus",
    "ListNames");

// Subscribe to signals
using var sub = await connection.SubscribeAsync(
    sender: null,
    path: "/org/freedesktop/Notifications",
    iface: "org.freedesktop.Notifications",
    member: "NotificationClosed",
    handler: async msg =>
    {
        var id = (uint)msg.Body[0];
        Console.WriteLine($"Notification {id} closed");
    });

Source Generator

Add D-Bus XML interface files to your project and set the DBusGeneratorMode item metadata to Proxy or Handler. The source generator emits strongly-typed classes so you can call D-Bus methods and implement interfaces without manual message construction.

See the samples/ directory for working examples, including an AT-SPI2 accessibility service implementation.

Requirements

• .NET 8.0 or later
• libdbus installed on the host system

License

MIT -- see LICENSE.md.