Owning bus names

Using dbus-glib, you typically call RequestName manually to own a name, like in the following excerpt:

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error = NULL;
res = dbus_g_proxy_call (system_bus_proxy,
                         "RequestName",
                         &error,
                         G_TYPE_STRING, NAME_TO_CLAIM,
                         G_TYPE_UINT,   DBUS_NAME_FLAG_ALLOW_REPLACEMENT,
                         G_TYPE_INVALID,
                         G_TYPE_UINT,   &result,
                         G_TYPE_INVALID);
if (!res)
  {
    if (error != NULL)
      {
        g_warning ("Failed to acquire %s: %s",
                   NAME_TO_CLAIM, error->message);
        g_error_free (error);
      }
    else
      {
        g_warning ("Failed to acquire %s", NAME_TO_CLAIM);
      }
    goto out;
  }

if (result != DBUS_REQUEST_NAME_REPLY_PRIMARY_OWNER)
  {
    if (error != NULL)
      {
        g_warning ("Failed to acquire %s: %s",
                   NAME_TO_CLAIM, error->message);
        g_error_free (error);
      }
    else
      {
        g_warning ("Failed to acquire %s", NAME_TO_CLAIM);
      }
    exit (1);
  }

dbus_g_proxy_add_signal (system_bus_proxy, "NameLost",
                         G_TYPE_STRING, G_TYPE_INVALID);
dbus_g_proxy_connect_signal (system_bus_proxy, "NameLost",
                             G_CALLBACK (on_name_lost), NULL, NULL);

/* further setup ... */

While you can do things this way with GDBus too, using g_dbus_proxy_call_sync(), it is much nicer to use the high-level API for this:

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static void
on_name_acquired (GDBusConnection *connection,
                  const gchar     *name,
                  gpointer         user_data)
{
  /* further setup ... */
}

/* ... */

  owner_id = g_bus_own_name (G_BUS_TYPE_SYSTEM,
                             NAME_TO_CLAIM,
                             G_BUS_NAME_OWNER_FLAGS_ALLOW_REPLACEMENT,
                             on_bus_acquired,
                             on_name_acquired,
                             on_name_lost,
                             NULL,
                             NULL);

  g_main_loop_run (loop);

  g_bus_unown_name (owner_id);

Note that g_bus_own_name() works asynchronously and requires you to enter your mainloop to await the on_name_aquired() callback. Also note that in order to avoid race conditions (e.g. when your service is activated by a method call), you have to export your manager object before acquiring the name. The on_bus_acquired() callback is the right place to do such preparations.