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How to detect when MPRIS player is added or removed on D-Bus?

So far the only way I found is to call ListNames method on org.freedesktop.DBus periodically, and check if any org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.* is added or removed.

But isn't there a better way? For example, is there a D-Bus signal notifying about changes in the list of bus names, to avoid calling ListNames periodically?

Solution

  • The signal is NameOwnerChanged on the org.freedesktop.DBus bus. It has 3 arguments: name, old owner, and new owner.

    If there is no old owner (empty string), only a new one, then the name was added. And vice-versa, if there is no new owner, then the name was removed.

    To filter players-only bus names the name can be checked to start with org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.