How to use a variant dictionary (`a{sv}`) in dbus-send

Question

I have some trouble with dbus-send when using a{sv}

Calling a method with in_signature='a{ss}' seems to work using the following command line:

dbus-send --dest="org.test.TestService" 
/org/test/TestService/object org.test.TestService.method1 dict:string:string:"a","1","b","2"

Now I would like to have a dictionary with a variant type for values (in_signature=a{sv}),

How can I use it in dbus-send?

Answer 1

Not possible with dbus-send

As mentioned, dbus-send does not support all Dbus types. From dbus-send man page:

Also, dbus-send does not permit empty containers or nested containers (e.g. arrays of variants).

---

But possible gdbus

Buried in https://www.freedesktop.org/software/gstreamer-sdk/data/docs/2012.5/gio/gdbus.html we see this:

gdbus call --session \
           --dest org.freedesktop.Notifications \
           --object-path /org/freedesktop/Notifications \
           --method org.freedesktop.Notifications.Notify \
           my_app_name \
           42 \
           gtk-dialog-info \
           "The Summary" \
           "Here's the body of the notification" \
           [] \
           {} \
           5000

Bonus: this method returns the id, so you can close or replace the notification.