D-Bus Integration ================= Finit ships with a built-in, brokerless [D-Bus][] implementation, **libink**, that exposes the running init system as a peer on its own private bus, and optionally on the system bus when `dbus-daemon` is available. Everything `initctl` does is also reachable from any generic D-Bus tooling — `dbus-send`, `dbus-monitor`, `gdbus`, language bindings, dashboards, monitoring agents, etc. > [!NOTE] > D-Bus support is enabled at build time with `--enable-dbus`. See > [Building](build.md) for details. When disabled, `initctl` keeps > using the legacy `INIT_SOCKET` transport and Finit exposes no bus. Bus address ----------- | Bus | Address | | --- | --- | | Local (always) | `unix:path=/run/finit/bus` | | System (opportunistic) | `unix:path=/var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket`, well-known name `org.finit` | The **local** bus is brokerless: clients connect straight to Finit over a Unix-domain socket using the standard D-Bus SASL EXTERNAL handshake. No `dbus-daemon` is required, which makes it suitable for embedded systems that don't ship one. The **system** bus is best-effort: at start-up Finit probes for a running `dbus-daemon` and, if reachable, registers `org.finit` so that standard tooling sees Finit just like any other system service: ```sh dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.finit \ /org/finit/manager \ org.finit.Manager1.ListServices dbus-monitor --system "sender='org.finit'" ``` If no system bus is present (the common case on embedded targets), this step is silently skipped. Object tree ----------- ``` / ├── org/ │ └── finit/ │ ├── manager Manager1 │ ├── cond Cond1 │ └── service/ │ ├── keventd Service1 (one per service) │ ├── sshd │ └── … └── org/freedesktop/DBus Standard well-known interfaces ``` Every node implements the usual stock interfaces: | Interface | Purpose | | ------------------------------------ | ------- | | `org.freedesktop.DBus` | `Hello`, `AddMatch`, `RemoveMatch` (on `/org/freedesktop/DBus`) | | `org.freedesktop.DBus.Peer` | `Ping`, `GetMachineId` | | `org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable`| `Introspect()` — XML description | | `org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties` | `Get`, `GetAll` (Set not yet implemented) | `org.finit.Manager1` -------------------- Lives at **`/org/finit/manager`**. Owns the global init operations and the service registry. ### Methods | Method | In sig | Out sig | Privileged | Notes | | ----------------------- | ------ | ------- | ---------- | ----- | | `ListServices` | — | `as` | no | Returns the identities (`name`, `name:id`) of every loaded service. | | `GetService` | `s` | `o` | no | Resolves a service identity to its `Service1` object path. | | `Start` | `s` | — | yes | Start the service(s) matching the identity. | | `Stop` | `s` | — | yes | Stop the service(s) matching the identity. | | `Restart` | `s` | — | yes | Restart (stop + start) the service(s). | | `Reload` | — | — | yes | Re-read all `*.conf` and apply changes (same as `initctl reload`). | | `SetRunlevel` | `u` | — | yes | Transition to runlevel `u` (0–6). | | `SetDebug` | — | — | yes | Toggle Finit's runtime debug flag. | | `Signal` | `su` | — | yes | Send signal number `u` (1–31) to every running service matching identity `s`. Halted matches are silently skipped. | | `Suspend` | — | — | yes | `sync()` + suspend-to-RAM. | | `Reboot` / `Halt` / `Poweroff` | — | — | yes | Trigger the corresponding shutdown sequence. | ### Properties All read-only strings; observable via `Properties.Get` and `Properties.GetAll`. | Property | Type | Returns | | -------------- | ---- | ------- | | `Runlevel` | `s` | Current runlevel as a digit (`"2"`, `"3"`, …) or `"S"`. | | `PrevRunlevel` | `s` | Previous runlevel, same encoding. | | `Version` | `s` | Finit's version string (`PACKAGE_VERSION`). | ### Signals | Signal | Body | Fires when | | ----------------------- | ---- | ---------- | | `ServiceStateChanged` | `(sss)` — identity, old state, new state | A service transitions between supervisor states. | | `RunlevelChanged` | `(ss)` — old level, new level | The system enters a new runlevel. | State names emitted by `ServiceStateChanged` are stable wire strings: `halted`, `done`, `dead`, `cleanup`, `teardown`, `stopping`, `setup`, `paused`, `waiting`, `starting`, `running`. `org.finit.Service1` (per-service objects) ------------------------------------------ Lives at **`/org/finit/service/`**, one object per loaded service. `` is the service identity (name, or `name:id` for templated services) put through systemd-style `_HH` hex escaping — ASCII alphanumerics and `_` pass through, anything else becomes `_HH` where `HH` is the hex byte. Use `Manager1.GetService(identity)` to look up the exact path rather than constructing it by hand. | Method | In sig | Out sig | Privileged | Notes | | --------- | ------ | ------- | ---------- | ----- | | `Start` | — | — | yes | Equivalent to `Manager1.Start()` for this service. | | `Stop` | — | — | yes | … | | `Restart` | — | — | yes | … | | `Reload` | — | — | yes | Reload (SIGHUP if supported, else restart). | The per-service surface lets generic tooling supply an object handle once and then invoke methods on it, instead of repeatedly passing the identity string. `org.finit.Cond1` ----------------- Lives at **`/org/finit/cond`**. Exposes Finit's [condition system](conditions.md) to bus clients. ### Methods | Method | In sig | Out sig | Privileged | Notes | | -------- | ------ | ------- | ---------- | ----- | | `Get` | `s` | `s` | no | Returns `"on"`, `"off"`, or `"flux"` for the named condition. | | `Set` | `s` | — | yes | Assert a `usr/` condition. Non-`usr/*` paths are rejected with `InvalidArgs` (system conditions belong to Finit's state machine). | | `Clear` | `s` | — | yes | Deassert a `usr/` condition. | | `List` | — | `as` | no | Names of all known conditions. | | `Dump` | — | `a(ss)` | no | `(name, state)` pairs for everything `List` returns. | ### Signals | Signal | Body | Fires when | | ------------------- | ---- | ---------- | | `ConditionChanged` | `(ss)` — name, new state | A condition is asserted or deasserted. | Authorization ------------- Privileged methods reject any caller whose peer `uid` isn't 0. On the **local** bus the kernel's `SO_PEERCRED` socket option tells Finit exactly who's calling, so privilege escalation through the bus is impossible. On the **system** bus, all incoming traffic is treated as unprivileged: it arrives through `dbus-daemon` (typically running as root) and Finit cannot yet ask the daemon for the real requester's uid via `GetConnectionUnixUser`. This means external tooling can freely `Get`/`Introspect`/`ListServices`, but every state-changing method returns `org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied`. Per-sender uid lookup is on the roadmap. When a privileged method is rejected the error name is exactly `org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied`, and the body carries a short reason string (e.g. `"permission denied: Start requires root"`). `initctl` integration --------------------- `initctl` transparently routes through D-Bus when the bus socket is present, and falls back to the legacy `INIT_SOCKET` transport otherwise. Concretely, the following subcommands use the bus first: | Subcommand | Method | | ------------------- | ------------------------------- | | `initctl start` | `Manager1.Start(svc)` | | `initctl stop` | `Manager1.Stop(svc)` | | `initctl restart` | `Manager1.Restart(svc)` | | `initctl reload` | `Manager1.Reload()` | | `initctl reload S` | `Service1.Reload()` (per-svc) | | `initctl reboot` | `Manager1.Reboot()` | | `initctl halt` | `Manager1.Halt()` | | `initctl poweroff` | `Manager1.Poweroff()` | | `initctl suspend` | `Manager1.Suspend()` | | `initctl debug` | `Manager1.SetDebug()` | | `initctl signal` | `Manager1.Signal(svc, signo)` | | `initctl runlevel` | `Properties.Get(Manager1.Runlevel/PrevRunlevel)` | | `initctl cond set/get/clr` | `Cond1.{Set,Get,Clear}` | Two `initctl` subcommands are pure D-Bus features without legacy equivalents: * `initctl monitor` — subscribes to every signal on the local bus and prints one line per delivery (with timestamp, interface and member). Same idea as `dbus-monitor`, but scoped to Finit and with no need to pass `--address`. * `initctl cond` (when D-Bus is reachable) emits the standard `Cond1.ConditionChanged` signal as a side effect, so subscribers observe user-driven state changes the same way they observe service-driven ones. Examples -------- The examples below use `dbus-send` and `dbus-monitor`, which ship as part of the [dbus][] reference implementation; they're widely packaged and don't pull in any extra runtime. Any tool that speaks D-Bus over an AF_UNIX socket works equally well — `gdbus`, Python's `jeepney`/`dasbus`, etc. — substitute their syntax for setting the bus address. When `org.finit` is registered on the system bus you can replace `--address=unix:path=/run/finit/bus` with `--system` in any example below. List the running services: ```sh dbus-send --address=unix:path=/run/finit/bus \ --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.finit \ /org/finit/manager \ org.finit.Manager1.ListServices ``` Read the current runlevel via the Properties interface: ```sh dbus-send --address=unix:path=/run/finit/bus \ --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.finit \ /org/finit/manager \ org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \ string:org.finit.Manager1 string:Runlevel ``` Subscribe to every state change on the manager object: ```sh dbus-monitor --address=unix:path=/run/finit/bus \ "type='signal',interface='org.finit.Manager1'" ``` Or use `initctl monitor`, which does the same without any address plumbing. Restart a service by its object path: ```sh dbus-send --address=unix:path=/run/finit/bus \ --type=method_call --dest=org.finit \ /org/finit/service/sshd \ org.finit.Service1.Restart ``` Trigger a `usr/`-condition assertion that wakes any dependent service: ```sh dbus-send --address=unix:path=/run/finit/bus \ --type=method_call --dest=org.finit \ /org/finit/cond \ org.finit.Cond1.Set string:"data-ready" ``` The `--dest=org.finit` argument is informational on the local brokerless bus — Finit accepts any destination because there's no broker to route by name — but `dbus-send` requires it syntactically. [dbus]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/dbus/dbus Implementation notes -------------------- The D-Bus server library lives in `libink/`. It speaks the binary D-Bus 1.0 wire format directly, has no `libdbus`/`sd-bus`/`GIO` dependency, and is tiny — a few thousand lines of C. The Finit-side glue in `src/dbus.c` registers vtables for Manager1/Service1/Cond1, emits the four signals from the appropriate hook points (state transitions, runlevel transitions, condition flips), and bridges the event loop to the libink server. The `initctl` client uses the same library — `link_client_open`, `link_client_call_v`, `link_client_reply`, `link_reader_*` — so the single wire-format implementation serves both ends. [D-Bus]: https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html