SD_BUS_MESSAGE_OPEN_CONTAINER

sd_bus_message_close_container() closes the last container opened with sd_bus_message_open_container(). On success, the write pointer of the message m is positioned after the closed container in its parent container or in m itself if there is no parent container.

sd_bus_message_enter_container() enters the next container of the message m for reading. It behaves mostly the same as sd_bus_message_open_container(). Entering a container allows reading its contents with sd_bus_message_read(3) and similar functions. type and contents are the same as in sd_bus_message_open_container().

sd_bus_message_exit_container() exits the scope of the last container entered with sd_bus_message_enter_container(). It behaves mostly the same as sd_bus_message_close_container(). Note that sd_bus_message_exit_container() may only be called after iterating through all members of the container, i.e. reading or skipping them. Use sd_bus_message_skip(3) to skip over felds of a container in order to be able to exit the container with sd_bus_message_exit_container() without reading all members.  

RETURN VALUE

On success, these functions return a non-negative integer. sd_bus_message_open_container() and sd_bus_message_close_container() return 0. sd_bus_message_enter_container() returns 1 if it successfully opened a new container, and 0 if that was not possible because the end of the currently open container or message was reached. sd_bus_message_exit_container() returns 1 on success. On failure, all of these functions return a negative errno-style error code.  

Errors

Returned errors may indicate the following problems:

-EINVAL

m or contents are NULL or type is invalid.

-EPERM

The message m is already sealed.

-ESTALE

The message m is in an invalid state.

-ENOMEM

Memory allocation failed.

-EBUSY

sd_bus_message_exit_container() was called but there are unread members left in the container.

NOTES

These APIs are implemented as a shared library, which can be compiled and linked to with the libsystemd pkg-config(1) file.  

EXAMPLES

Example 1. Append an array of strings to a message

#include <systemd/sd-bus.h>

int append_strings_to_message(sd_bus_message *m, const char *const *arr) {
  int r;

  r = sd_bus_message_open_container(m, 'a', "s");
  if (r < 0)
    return r;

  for (const char *s = *arr; *s; s++) {
    r = sd_bus_message_append(m, "s", s);
    if (r < 0)
      return r;
  }

  return sd_bus_message_close_container(m);
}

Example 2. Read an array of strings from a message

#include <stdio.h>

#include <systemd/sd-bus.h>

int read_strings_from_message(sd_bus_message *m) {
  int r;

  r = sd_bus_message_enter_container(m, 'a', "s");
  if (r < 0)
    return r;

  for (;;) {
    const char *s;

    r = sd_bus_message_read(m, "s", &s);
    if (r < 0)
      return r;
    if (r == 0)
      break;

    printf("%s\n", s);
  }

  return sd_bus_message_exit_container(m);
}

SEE ALSO

systemd(1), sd-bus(3), sd_bus_message_append(3), sd_bus_message_read(3), sd_bus_message_skip(3), m[blue]The D-Bus specificationm[][1]  

NOTES

1.

The D-Bus specification

https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/dbus-specification.html