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dbus-python_: Python bindings for D-Bus

.. _dbus-python: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/DBusBindings#python

About this Fork

This fork includes changes to the library to add a setup.py so it can be installed via pip (allowing the version to be controlled, etc.). This can be done by doing the following (under Ubuntu/Debian)::

$ sudo apt-get build-dep python-dbus
$ pip install -U git+https://github.com/posborne/dbus-python.git

There is not currently a package on PyPI as we would like to make one last push at including these changes in upstream.

Usage

Online documentation can be found at http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-python/.

There is an incomplete tutorial in doc/tutorial.txt__ (if you compile dbus-python with docutils_' rst2html tool installed or you're reading this document on the D-Bus website, there's also an HTML version__).

__ doc/tutorial.txt __ doc/tutorial.html

API documentation_ is generated if you compile dbus-python with epydoc_ version 3 and docutils_ installed. An online copy of the API documentation_ is also available.

.. _API documentation: api/index.html .. _epydoc: http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/ .. _docutils: http://docutils.sourceforge.net/ .. _online copy of the API documentation: http://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-python/api/

To develop on dbus-python, see doc/HACKING.txt__ or the HTML version__.

__ doc/HACKING.txt __ doc/HACKING.html

Problems and alternatives

dbus-python might not be the best D-Bus binding for you to use. dbus-python does not follow the principle of "In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess", and can't be changed to not do so without seriously breaking compatibility.

In addition, it uses libdbus (which has known problems with multi-threaded use) and attempts to be main-loop-agnostic (which means you have to select a suitable main loop for your application).

Alternative ways to get your Python code onto D-Bus include:

• GDBus, part of the GIO module of GLib, via GObject-Introspection and PyGI (uses the GLib main loop and object model)

• QtDBus, part of Qt, via PyQt (uses the Qt main loop and object model)

.. _GLib: http://developer.gnome.org/glib/ .. _PyGI: https://live.gnome.org/PyGObject .. _Qt: https://qt.nokia.com/ .. _PyQT: http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/software/pyqt/intro