dbus ☆

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Description:
Message bus system, providing inter-application communication

Type: Formula | Latest Version: 1.16.2@1 | Tracked Since: Dec 17, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: System utilities

Tags: ipc messaging system-bus linux desktop

Install: brew install dbus

About:
D-Bus is a high-level, cross-process communication (IPC) framework that allows applications to send messages to each other and expose methods to be called remotely. It features a bus daemon that routes messages between applications, handling service discovery and security policies. This makes it the standard for integrating desktop applications and system services on Linux and other UNIX-like systems.

Key Features:

System-wide and session-level message routing
Automatic service discovery and activation
Strong security model with fine-grained access control
Language bindings for C, C++, Python, Java, and more

Use Cases:

Enabling desktop components (like panels, notifications) to communicate
Allowing system services to expose configuration interfaces
Sending events between different application processes

Alternatives:

gRPC – D-Bus is designed for OS-level integration and desktop environments, while gRPC is a general-purpose RPC framework for microservices.
Unix Sockets – D-Bus provides a structured messaging protocol and service bus on top of lower-level transport like Unix sockets.

License: AFL-2.1 OR GPL-2.0-or-later

Bottles available for: arm64_tahoe, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_ventura, sonoma, ventura, arm64_linux, x86_64_linux

Version History

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