A recent article highlights growing frustrations with d-bus, the longstanding interprocess communication system in Linux, proposing hyprwire as a superior alternative. Critics point to security flaws and poor documentation after nearly two decades of use. The discussion underscores the need for modernization in Linux's core infrastructure.
D-Bus has served as a cornerstone of Linux distributions for almost 20 years, acting as an interprocess communication (IPC) bus that replaced earlier systems in environments like Gnome and KDE, establishing itself as the de facto standard. However, its design flaws have drawn sharp criticism, including from developer Vaxry, who argues in a recent piece that d-bus should be abandoned in favor of hyprwire.
Vaxry's proposal gains context from a video by Brodie Robertson, which details issues such as Arch Linux developing its own d-bus implementation instead of relying on the reference version. A notable security concern is CVE-2018-19358, which exposed risks from unlocked keyrings allowing any application on the bus to access contents. Gnome developers, maintainers of d-bus, responded by deeming it 'works as designed,' a stance reminiscent of controversies in projects like Wayland.
Hyprwire promises improvements through actual security permissions, message validation, and comprehensive documentation—areas where d-bus falls short. After nearly two decades, d-bus documentation remains rudimentary, consisting largely of poorly commented code, unfinished drafts, and files filled with TODOs. Vaxry acknowledges that widespread adoption of hyprwire is unlikely soon but hopes it will spur necessary reforms, preventing Linux from continuing with an outdated system for decades more.
The debate reflects broader tensions in Linux development, where inertia often delays innovation despite evident shortcomings. While d-bus enables convenient bus-like IPC over faster point-to-point methods like Unix sockets, its persistence raises questions about balancing compatibility with progress.