# sdbus-cpp

**Repository Path**: posstar/sdbus-cpp

## Basic Information

- **Project Name**: sdbus-cpp
- **Description**: No description available
- **Primary Language**: Unknown
- **License**: LGPL-2.1
- **Default Branch**: master
- **Homepage**: None
- **GVP Project**: No

## Statistics

- **Stars**: 0
- **Forks**: 0
- **Created**: 2026-05-01
- **Last Updated**: 2026-05-01

## Categories & Tags

**Categories**: Uncategorized

**Tags**: None

## README

sdbus-c++
=========

![ci](https://github.com/Kistler-Group/sdbus-cpp/workflows/CI/badge.svg)
![license](https://img.shields.io/github/license/Kistler-Group/sdbus-cpp)
![release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/Kistler-Group/sdbus-cpp)

sdbus-c++ is a high-level C++ D-Bus library for Linux designed to provide expressive, easy-to-use API in modern C++. It adds another layer of abstraction on top of sd-bus, a nice, fresh C D-Bus implementation by systemd.

sdbus-c++ has been written primarily as a replacement of dbus-c++, which currently suffers from a number of (unresolved) bugs, concurrency issues and inherent design complexities and limitations. sdbus-c++ has learned from dbus-c++ and has chosen a different path, a path of simple yet powerful design that is intuitive and friendly to the user and inherently free of those bugs.

Even though sdbus-c++ uses sd-bus library, it is not necessarily constrained to systemd and can perfectly be used in non-systemd environments as well.

Building and installing the library
-----------------------------------

The library is built using CMake:

```bash
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ${OTHER_CONFIG_FLAGS}
$ cmake --build .
$ sudo cmake --build . --target install
```

### CMake configuration flags for sdbus-c++

* `SDBUSCPP_BUILD_CODEGEN` [boolean]

  Build the codegen tool `sdbus-c++-xml2cpp` for generating the high level C++ bindings out of the D-Bus IDL XML description. Default value: `OFF`. Use `-DSDBUSCPP_BUILD_CODEGEN=ON` flag to turn on building the code gen.

* `SDBUSCPP_BUILD_DOCS` [boolean]

  Include sdbus-c++ documentation files and tutorials. Default value: `ON`. With this option turned on, you may also enable/disable the following option:

    * `SDBUSCPP_BUILD_DOXYGEN_DOCS` [boolean]

      Build Doxygen documentation of sdbus-c++ API. If enabled, the documentation must still be built explicitly through `cmake --build . --target doc`. Default value: `OFF`. Use `-DSDBUSCPP_BUILD_DOXYGEN_DOCS=OFF` to disable searching for Doxygen and building Doxygen documentation of sdbus-c++ API.

* `SDBUSCPP_BUILD_TESTS` [boolean]

  Build sdbus-c++ unit and integration tests, invokable by `cmake --build . --target test` (Note: before invoking `cmake --build . --target test`, make sure you copy `tests/integrationtests/files/org.sdbuscpp.integrationtests.conf` file to `/etc/dbus-1/system.d` directory). That incorporates downloading and building static libraries of Google Test. Default value: `OFF`. Use `-DBUILD_TESTS=ON` to enable building the tests. With this option turned on, you may also enable/disable the following options:

    * `SDBUSCPP_BUILD_PERF_TESTS` [boolean]

      Build sdbus-c++ performance tests. Default value: `OFF`.

    * `SDBUSCPP_BUILD_STRESS_TESTS` [boolean]

      Build sdbus-c++ stress tests. Default value: `OFF`.

    * `SDBUSCPP_TESTS_INSTALL_PATH` [string]

      Path where the test binaries shall get installed. Default value: `${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/tests/sdbus-c++` (previously: `/opt/test/bin`).

* `SDBUSCPP_BUILD_EXAMPLES` [boolean]

  Build example programs which are located in the _example_ directory. Examples are not installed. Default value: `OFF`.

* `SDBUSCPP_BUILD_LIBSYSTEMD` [boolean]

  Build sd-bus (libsystemd library) instead of searching for it in the system, and make it part of sdbus-c++ library. Default value: `OFF`, which means that the sd-bus implementation library (`libsystemd`, `libelogind`, or `basu`) will be searched via `pkg-config` in the system.

  This option may be very helpful in environments where sd-bus implementation library is unavailable (see [Solving sd-bus dependency](docs/using-sdbus-c++.md#solving-sd-bus-dependency) for more information).
  
  With this option turned off, you may provide the following additional configuration flag:

    * `SDBUSCPP_SDBUS_LIB` [string]

      Defines which sd-bus implementation library to search for and use. Allowed values: `default`, `systemd`, `elogind`, `basu`. Default value: `default`, which means that sdbus-c++ will try to find any of `systemd`, `elogind`, `basu` in the order as listed here.

  With this option turned on, you may provide the following additional configuration flag:

    * `SDBUSCPP_LIBSYSTEMD_VERSION` [string]

      Defines version of systemd to be downloaded, built and integrated into sdbus-c++. Default value: `252`, minimum value: `239`.

    * `SDBUSCPP_LIBSYSTEMD_EXTRA_CONFIG_OPTS` [string]

      Additional options to be passed as-is to the libsystemd build system in its configure step. Can be used for passing e.g. toolchain file path in case of cross builds. Default value: empty.

* `CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE` [string]

  CMake-builtin option. Set to `Release` to build sdbus-c++ for production use. Set to `Debug` if you want to help further develop (and debug) the library :)

* `BUILD_SHARED_LIBS` [boolean]

  Global CMake flag, promoted in sdbus-c++ project to a CMake option. Use this to control whether sdbus-c++ is built as either a shared or static library. Default value: `ON`.

Dependencies
------------

* `C++20/C++17` - the library uses C++20 features, but its public API is backwards compatible with C++17 and provides optional extra features when C++20 features are available
* `libsystemd`/`libelogind`/`basu` - libraries containing sd-bus implementation that sdbus-c++ is written around. In case of `libsystemd` and `libelogind`, version >= 238 is needed. (In case you have you're missing any of those sd-bus implementations, don't worry, see [Solving sd-bus dependency](docs/using-sdbus-c++.md#solving-sd-bus-dependency) for more information.)
* `googletest` - google unit testing framework, only necessary when building tests, will be downloaded and built automatically.
* `pkgconfig` - required for sdbus-c++ to be able to find some dependency packages.
* `expat` - necessary when building the xml2cpp binding code generator (`SDBUSCPP_BUILD_CODEGEN` option is `ON`).

Licensing
---------

The library is distributed under LGPLv2.1 license, with a specific exception for macro/template/inline code in library header files.

References/documentation
------------------------

* [Using sdbus-c++](docs/using-sdbus-c++.md) - *the* main, comprehensive tutorial on sdbus-c++
* [Systemd and dbus configuration](docs/systemd-dbus-config.md)
* [D-Bus Specification](https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html)
* [sd-bus Overview](http://0pointer.net/blog/the-new-sd-bus-api-of-systemd.html)

Contributing
------------

Contributions that increase the library quality, functionality, or fix issues are very welcome. To introduce a change, please submit a pull request with a description.

Contact
-------

https://github.com/Kistler-Group/sdbus-cpp