Manpages - sd_bus_message_open_container.3

sd_bus_message_open_container, sd_bus_message_close_container, sd_bus_message_enter_container, sd_bus_message_exit_container - Create and move between containers in D-Bus messages

  #include <systemd/sd-bus.h>

int sd_bus_message_open_container(sd_bus_message **/m/, char type, const char */contents/);*

int sd_bus_message_close_container(sd_bus_message **/m/);*

int sd_bus_message_enter_container(sd_bus_message **/m/, char type, const char */contents/);*

int sd_bus_message_exit_container(sd_bus_message **/m/);*

sd_bus_message_open_container() appends a new container to the message m. After opening a new container, it can be filled with content using sd_bus_message_append*(3) and similar functions. Containers behave like a stack. To nest containers inside each other, call *sd_bus_message_open_container() multiple times without calling sd_bus_message_close_container() in between. Each container will be nested inside the previous container. type represents the container type and should be one of “r”, “a”, “v” or “e” as described in sd_bus_message_append*(3). Instead of literals, the corresponding constants *SD_BUS_TYPE_STRUCT, SD_BUS_TYPE_ARRAY, SD_BUS_TYPE_VARIANT or SD_BUS_TYPE_DICT_ENTRY can also be used. contents describes the type of the containers elements and should be a D-Bus type string following the rules described in *sd_bus_message_append*(3).

sd_bus_message_close_container() closes the last container opened with sd_bus_message_open_container(). On success, the write pointer of the message m is positioned after the closed container in its parent container or in m itself if there is no parent container.

sd_bus_message_enter_container() enters the next container of the message m for reading. It behaves mostly the same as sd_bus_message_open_container(). Entering a container allows reading its contents with sd_bus_message_read*(3) and similar functions. type and contents are the same as in *sd_bus_message_open_container().

sd_bus_message_exit_container() exits the scope of the last container entered with sd_bus_message_enter_container(). It behaves mostly the same as sd_bus_message_close_container(). Note that sd_bus_message_exit_container() may only be called after iterating through all members of the container, i.e. reading or skipping them. Use sd_bus_message_skip*(3) to skip over felds of a container in order to be able to exit the container with *sd_bus_message_exit_container() without reading all members.

On success, these functions return a non-negative integer. sd_bus_message_open_container() and sd_bus_message_close_container() return 0. sd_bus_message_enter_container() returns 1 if it successfully opened a new container, and 0 if that was not possible because the end of the currently open container or message was reached. sd_bus_message_exit_container() returns 1 on success. On failure, all of these functions return a negative errno-style error code.

These APIs are implemented as a shared library, which can be compiled and linked to with the libsystemd *pkg-config*(1) file.

Example 1. Append an array of strings to a message

    #include <systemd/sd-bus.h>

    int append_strings_to_message(sd_bus_message *m, const char *const *arr) {
      int r;

      r = sd_bus_message_open_container(m, a, "s");
      if (r < 0)
        return r;

      for (const char *s = *arr; *s; s++) {
        r = sd_bus_message_append(m, "s", s);
        if (r < 0)
          return r;
      }

      return sd_bus_message_close_container(m);
    }

Example 2. Read an array of strings from a message

    #include <stdio.h>

    #include <systemd/sd-bus.h>

    int read_strings_from_message(sd_bus_message *m) {
      int r;

      r = sd_bus_message_enter_container(m, a, "s");
      if (r < 0)
        return r;

      for (;;) {
        const char *s;

        r = sd_bus_message_read(m, "s", &s);
        if (r < 0)
          return r;
        if (r == 0)
          break;

        printf("%s\n", s);
      }

      return sd_bus_message_exit_container(m);
    }

systemd*(1), *sd-bus*(3), *sd_bus_message_append*(3), *sd_bus_message_read*(3), *sd_bus_message_skip*(3), *The D-Bus specification[1]

1.

The D-Bus specification

https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html