.\" 
.\" dbus-launch manual page.
.\" Copyright (C) 2003 Red Hat, Inc.
.\"
.TH dbus-launch 1
.SH NAME
dbus-launch \- Utility to start a message bus from a shell script
.SH SYNOPSIS
.PP
.B dbus-launch [\-\-version] [\-\-sh-syntax] [\-\-csh-syntax] [\-\-auto-syntax] [\-\-exit-with-session] [\-\-config-file=FILENAME] [PROGRAM] [ARGS...]

.SH DESCRIPTION

The \fIdbus-launch\fP command is used to start \fIdbus-daemon\fP
from a shell script. It would normally be called from a user's login
scripts. Unlike the daemon itself, \fIdbus-launch\fP exits, so
backticks or the $() construct can be used to read information from
\fIdbus-launch\fP.

With no arguments, \fIdbus-launch\fP will simply print the values of
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS and DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID.

You may specify a program to be run; in this case, \fIdbus-launch\fP
will then set the appropriate environment variables and execute the
specified program, with the specified arguments.  See below for
examples.

Finally, you may use the \-\-sh-syntax, \-\-csh-syntax, or
\-\-auto-syntax commands to cause \fIdbus-launch\fP to emit shell code
to set up the environment.  This is useful in shell scripts.

With the \-\-auto-syntax option, \fIdbus-launch\fP looks at the value
of the SHELL environment variable to determine which shell syntax
should be used.  If SHELL ends in "csh", then csh-compatible code is
emitted; otherwise Bourne shell code is emitted.  Instead of passing
\-\-auto-syntax, you may explicity specify a particular one by using
\-\-sh-syntax for Bourne syntax, or \-\-csh-syntax for csh syntax.
In scripts, it's more robust to avoid \-\-auto-syntax and you hopefully
know which shell your script is written in.

.PP
See http://www.freedesktop.org/software/dbus/ for more information
about D-BUS. See also the man page for \fIdbus-daemon\fP.

.PP
Here is an example of how to use \fIdbus-launch\fP with an 
sh-compatible shell to start the per-session bus daemon:
.nf

  ## test for an existing bus daemon, just to be safe
  if test -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" ; then
      ## if not found, launch a new one
      eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`
      echo "D-BUS per-session daemon address is: $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"
  fi

.fi
You might run something like that in your login scripts.

.PP
Another way to use \fIdbus-launch\fP is to run your main session
program, like so:
.nf

dbus-launch gnome-session

.fi
The above would likely be appropriate for ~/.xsession or ~/.Xclients.

.SH OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
.TP
.I "--auto-syntax"
Choose \-\-csh-syntax or \-\-sh-syntax based on the SHELL environment variable.

.TP
.I "--config-file=FILENAME"
Pass \-\-config-file=FILENAME to the bus daemon, instead of passing it 
the \-\-session argument. See the man page for dbus-daemon

.TP
.I "--csh-syntax"
Emit csh compatible code to set up environment variables.

.TP
.I "--exit-with-session"
If this option is provided, a persistent "babysitter" process will be 
created that watches stdin for HUP and tries to connect to the X
server. If this process gets a HUP on stdin or loses its X connection,
it kills the message bus daemon.

.TP
.I "--sh-syntax"
Emit Bourne-shell compatible code to set up environment variables.

.TP
.I "--version"
Print the version of dbus-launch

.SH AUTHOR
See http://www.freedesktop.org/software/dbus/doc/AUTHORS

.SH BUGS
Please send bug reports to the D-BUS mailing list or bug tracker,
see http://www.freedesktop.org/software/dbus/