# @homebridge/dbus-native
> D-bus protocol implementation in native javascript
Latest version **0.7.9** (published 2026-08-15) · MIT license · 0 weekly downloads
## Install
```sh
npm install @homebridge/dbus-native
pnpm add @homebridge/dbus-native
yarn add @homebridge/dbus-native
bun add @homebridge/dbus-native
```
Provides the command `dbus2js`.
## Health
**Score 70/100 (B)** — status: active.
Positive: has types; no vulnerabilities; has provenance; recently updated; high maintenance score; high quality score.
Warnings: low downloads; no esm support; pre 1.0.
## Facts
| | |
|---|---|
| Version | 0.7.9 |
| Published | 2026-08-15 |
| First published | 2022-01-04 |
| Weekly downloads | 0 |
| License | MIT |
| TypeScript types | bundled |
| Module format | CommonJS |
| Dependencies | 6 |
| Unpacked size | 87.2 KB |
| Known vulnerabilities | 0 |
| Install scripts | no |
| Provenance | attested (GitHub Actions) |
| GitHub stars | 16 |
| Author | Andrey Sidorov |
| Maintainers | oznu, northernman, supereg, khaost, ebaauw, dustin.greif, nfarina, bwp91 |
| Keywords | dbus, dcop, d-bus, rpc, gnome, kde |
## Links
- npm: https://www.npmjs.com/package/@homebridge/dbus-native
- Repository: https://github.com/homebridge/dbus-native
- Homepage: https://github.com/homebridge/dbus-native#readme
- Issues: https://github.com/homebridge/dbus-native/issues
- npm.io page: https://npm.io/package/@homebridge/dbus-native
## Dependencies (6)
- [hexy](https://npm.io/package/hexy.md) ^0.4.0
- [long](https://npm.io/package/long.md) ^5.3.2
- [xml2js](https://npm.io/package/xml2js.md) ^0.6.2
- [minimist](https://npm.io/package/minimist.md) ^1.2.8
- [safe-buffer](https://npm.io/package/safe-buffer.md) ^5.2.1
- [event-stream](https://npm.io/package/event-stream.md) ^4.0.1
## Recent versions
- 0.7.9 (latest) — 2026-08-15
- 0.7.9-beta.3 (beta) — 2026-08-15
- 0.7.9-beta.2 — 2026-08-15
- 0.7.9-beta.1 — 2026-08-15
- 0.7.9-beta.0 — 2026-08-08
- 0.7.8 — 2026-07-25
- 0.7.7 — 2026-07-08
- 0.7.6 — 2026-05-25
- 0.7.6-beta.4 — 2026-05-24
- 0.7.6-beta.3 — 2026-05-24
- 0.7.6-beta.2 — 2026-05-09
- 0.7.6-beta.1 — 2026-05-09
- 0.7.6-beta.0 — 2026-05-08
- 0.7.5 — 2026-05-04
- 0.7.4 — 2026-03-29
- … 11 more at https://npm.io/package/@homebridge/dbus-native/versions
## README
# D-Bus Native
[](https://greenkeeper.io/)
[](https://github.com/homebridge/dbus-native/actions/workflows/run-test.yml)
D-bus protocol client and server for node.js
Fork Status
------------
This fork is maintained with the following changes:
* Removed the optional `abstract-socket` dependency for faster installs
* Moved to our `long.js` fork to work around a crash on `ARMv6` platforms running node 16.1+
* Updated dependencies (including `prettier`, which has made style changes to a lot of files)
Installation
------------
```shell
npm install dbus-native
```
or
```shell
git clone https://github.com/sidorares/node-dbus # clone the repo
cd node-dbus
npm install # install dependencies
sudo cp examples/com.github.sidorares.dbus.Example.conf /etc/dbus-1/system.d/ # if you want to test examples/service.js
```
Usage
------
Short example using desktop notifications service
```js
var dbus = require('dbus-native');
var sessionBus = dbus.sessionBus();
sessionBus
.getService('org.freedesktop.Notifications')
.getInterface(
'/org/freedesktop/Notifications',
'org.freedesktop.Notifications',
function(err, notifications) {
// dbus signals are EventEmitter events
notifications.on('ActionInvoked', function() {
console.log('ActionInvoked', arguments);
});
notifications.on('NotificationClosed', function() {
console.log('NotificationClosed', arguments);
});
notifications.Notify(
'exampl',
0,
'',
'summary 3',
'new message text',
['xxx yyy', 'test2', 'test3', 'test4'],
[],
5,
function(err, id) {
//setTimeout(function() { n.CloseNotification(id, console.log); }, 4000);
}
);
}
);
```
API
---
### Low level messaging: bus connection
`connection = dbus.createClient(options)`
options:
- socket - unix socket path
- port - TCP port
- host - TCP host
- busAddress - encoded bus address. Default is `DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS` environment variable. See http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html#addresses
- authMethods - array of authentication methods, which are attempted in the order provided (default:['EXTERNAL', 'DBUS_COOKIE_SHA1', 'ANONYMOUS'])
- ayBuffer - boolean (default:true): if true 'ay' dbus fields are returned as buffers
- ReturnLongjs - boolean (default:false): if true 64 bit dbus fields (x/t) are read out as Long.js objects, otherwise they are converted to numbers (which should be good up to 53 bits)
- ( TODO: add/document option to use adress from X11 session )
connection has only one method, `message(msg)`
message fields:
- type - methodCall, methodReturn, error or signal
- path - object path
- interface
- destination
- sender
- member
- serial
- signature
- body
- errorName
- replySerial
connection signals:
- connect - emitted after successful authentication
- message
- error
example:
```js
var dbus = require('dbus-native');
var conn = dbus.createConnection();
conn.message({
path: '/org/freedesktop/DBus',
destination: 'org.freedesktop.DBus',
interface: 'org.freedesktop.DBus',
member: 'Hello',
type: dbus.messageType.methodCall
});
conn.on('message', function(msg) {
console.log(msg);
});
```
### Note on INT64 'x' and UINT64 't'
Long.js is used for 64 Bit support. https://github.com/dcodeIO/long.js
The following javascript types can be marshalled into 64 bit dbus fields:
- typeof 'number' up to 53bits
- typeof 'string' (consisting of decimal digits with no separators or '0x' prefixed hexadecimal) up to full 64bit range
- Long.js objects (or object with compatible properties)
By default 64 bit dbus fields are unmarshalled into a 'number' (with precision loss beyond 53 bits). Use {ReturnLongjs:true} option to return the actual Long.js object and preserve the entire 64 bits.
### Links
- http://cgit.freedesktop.org/dbus - freedesktop reference C library
- https://github.com/guelfey/go.dbus
- https://github.com/Shouqun/node-dbus - libdbus
- https://github.com/Motorola-Mobility/node-dbus - libdbus
- https://github.com/izaakschroeder/node-dbus - libdbus
- https://github.com/agnat/node_libdbus
- https://github.com/agnat/node_dbus - native js
- https://github.com/cocagne/txdbus - native python + twisted
- http://search.cpan.org/~danberr/Net-DBus-1.0.0/ (seems to be native, but requires libdbus?)
- https://github.com/mvidner/ruby-dbus (native, sync)
- http://www.ndesk.org/DBusSharp (C#/Mono)
- https://github.com/lizenn/erlang-dbus/ - erlang
- https://github.com/mspanc/dbux/ - elixir
- http://0pointer.net/blog/the-new-sd-bus-api-of-systemd.html - Blog post about sb-bus and D-Bus in general
---
_Source: https://npm.io/package/@homebridge/dbus-native · Machine-readable twin of the npm.io package page. Health data is recomputed on every publish._