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Date: Fri, 17 Apr 2015 12:04:22 -0700
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Subject: BLE device GATT service discovery without pairing?
From: Tony DiCola <tony@tonydicola.com>
To: linux-bluetooth@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Kevin Townsend <kevin@ktownsend.com>
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Hi all, I'm using bluez 5.3's dbus API (also running bluetoothd with
the --experimental option) and wanted to check is it possible to
connect to a BLE device and discover its GATT services without pairing
to the device?

I'm using the dbus APIs and see that the device Pair() function docs
call out that it will perform GATT service discovery.  This matches
what I see in practice--when I turn on an adapter's discovery with
StartDiscovery() I start to see nearby BLE devices added to the bluez
dbus root (with the org.bluez.Device1 interface).  I can connect to
those devices, but only when I call the device Pair() function do I
see all the GATT services, characteristics, descriptors, etc. added to
the bluez dbus root (using the org.bluez.GattService1,
org.bluez.GattCharacteristic1, etc. interfaces).

However using just the dbus interface is it possible to trigger the
discovery of all those GATT service, characteristic, etc. objects
without pairing with a device?  I.e. is there an explicit GATT service
discovery command for a connected device?

Let me know if the question isn't clear, and thanks for any help foks
can provide.

-Tony