bt-agent(1)

💖 bt-agent — the whole entire manual ✨

okay bestie, quick vibe check before we dive in: this page is bt-agent, and it lives in the bluez-tools family. yes the manual name is bt-agent even though the NAME section is gonna say something else, we'll get to that, i promise, it's giving typo energy and we're gonna be normal about it 🫶

🎀 NAME

bt-adapter — a bluetooth agent

not me clocking that the NAME line says bt-adapter when literally everything else on this page is about bt-agent 🙈 i am simply reporting what the page says, i do not make the rules, i just read them out loud with my whole chest 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS

bt-agent [OPTION...]

Help Options:

  -h, --help

Application Options:

  -c, --capability=<capability>
  -p, --pin
  -d, --daemon

🌸 DESCRIPTION

this one is an interactive utility, and its whole job is managing incoming Bluetooth requests. we're talking stuff like a request for a pincode, a request to authorize a connection, a request to authorize a service request, etc. etc. 🦋

like... it's the little agent standing at the door being like "mm, do we let this one in?" and honestly? main character energy, no notes ✨

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -h, --help — shows you the help. that's it, that's the whole thing, iconic behavior 🌈
• -c, --capability <capability> — you're telling it what the agent's input and output capabilities are. capability has to be one of these four, and there is no fifth one, don't try it:
  • DisplayOnly
  • DisplayYesNo (this one is the default)
  • KeyboardOnly
  • NoInputNoOutput

and fr fr, if you don't define this option at all, DisplayYesNo is what you get. so if you wanted a different vibe you GOTTA say so out loud, bestie 💅

• -p, --pin <file path> — point it at a file holding a list of authorization codes, one per device, matched up by name or by mac address 👑

the contents of that file should be in this format:

AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF    123456
RemoteDeviceName     *         (accept any pin code)

so here's the tea: if a pin file is in the mix, it checks the passkey of the pairing device against the key sitting in that file. if the key matches → it authorizes the device automatically, zero drama, slay. if it doesn't match → it comes back to you and asks for manual authorization. you're the final boss, congrats 🎀

• -d, --daemon — runs the agent as a background process (as a daemon) 🌙

in this mode the agent relies on a pin file and requests no manual user authorization at all. so any device that tries to pair without a valid passkey defined in the pin file? automatically rejected. no consultation, no asking, just a firm no thank you 💀

heads up bestie: --daemon means the human is officially out of the loop. the pin file is doing ALL the deciding. make sure it's right 🙈

👑 AUTHOR

Alexander Orlenko <zxteam@gmail.com>.

🌈 SEE ALSO

• bt-adapter(1)
• bt-device(1)
• bt-network(1)

okay that's the whole page, you ate that 🫶 this was bluez-tools bt-agent, dated 2014-08-03, and it remains lowkey iconic to this day. go forth and pair responsibly, bestie 💖✨🎀🦋