dbus-app-launcher

A simple service that allows executing a program via D-Bus.

Note: Allowing D-Bus clients to execute arbitrary programs may pose a security risk. Use carefully.

Installation

To build the code, you will need Haskell and the stack command line utility. Get it here.

To build and install, run stack install. This will build the code and copy the executable to ~/.local/bin.

Next, set up a D-Bus service description that will automatically launch the new service whenever it is accessed:

/usr/share/dbus-1/services/nl.dvdgiessen.dbusapplauncher.service

[D-BUS Service]
Name=nl.dvdgiessen.dbusapplauncher
Exec=/home/USERNAME/.local/bin/dbus-app-launcher

Using the service

The service currently exports one interface, Exec. Calling any of the methods of this interface will start the program using the exec() syscall.

• Service name: nl.dvdgiessen.dbusapplauncher
• Object path: /nl/dvdgiessen/DBusAppLauncher
• Interface: nl.dvdgiessen.dbusapplauncher.Exec
• Methods:
  • Cmd(String cmd)
  • CmdArgs(String cmd, List<String> args)
  • CmdArgsEnv(String cmd, List<String> args, Map<String,String> env)

Issues and contributing

This is my first Haskell program, so there's probably plenty that could be improved upon. Feel free to fork it or open pull requests if you find a bug.

I might add more functionality in the future, for example for running programs and returning their exit code and stdout/stderr output. Currently my own use case for this program is for starting applications from KWin scripts (see kwin-toggleterminal if you're interested in that sort of thing), so adding more functionality probably won't be a priority until I have a need for it myself.

License

dbus-app-launcher is freely distributable under the terms of the MIT license.