---
name: "sd_varlink_set_description"
section: "3"
platform: "linux"
package: "systemd-libs"
version: "262.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/sd_varlink_set_description"
---

# sd\_varlink\_set\_description(3)

Set or query description of a Varlink connection object

## NAME

sd\_varlink\_set\_description, sd\_varlink\_get\_description - Set or query description of a Varlink connection object

## SYNOPSIS

```
#include <systemd/sd-varlink.h>
```

**int sd\_varlink\_set\_description(sd\_varlink \****link***, const char \****description***);**

**const char\* sd\_varlink\_get\_description(sd\_varlink \****link***);**

## DESCRIPTION

**sd\_varlink\_set\_description()** sets the description string that is used in logging to the specified string. The string is copied internally and freed when the Varlink connection object is deallocated. The *description* argument may be **NULL**, in which case the description is unset.

**sd\_varlink\_get\_description()** returns a description string for the specified Varlink connection. This string may have been previously set with **sd\_varlink\_set\_description()**. If not set this way, a default string or **NULL** may be returned, depending how the connection was allocated and set up.

## RETURN VALUE

On success, **sd\_varlink\_set\_description()** returns a non-negative integer. On failure, it returns a negative errno-style error code. **sd\_varlink\_get\_description()** returns either **NULL** or a pointer to the description string.

### Errors

Returned errors may indicate the following problems:

**-EINVAL**

An argument is invalid.

**-ENOMEM**

Memory allocation failed.

## NOTES

Functions described here are available as a shared library, which can be compiled against and linked to with the **libsystemd** [**pkg-config**(1)](/pkg-config/1.md) file.

The code described here uses [**getenv**(3)](/getenv/3.md), which is declared to be not multi-thread-safe. This means that the code calling the functions described here must not call [**setenv**(3)](/setenv/3.md) from a parallel thread. It is recommended to only do calls to **setenv()** from an early phase of the program when no other threads have been started.

## HISTORY

**sd\_varlink\_set\_description()** was added in version 257.

**sd\_varlink\_get\_description()** was added in version 258.

## SEE ALSO

[**systemd**(1)](/systemd/1.md), [**sd-varlink**(3)](/sd-varlink/3.md)