-----------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
libserialport: cross-platform library for accessing serial ports
-----------------------------------------------------------------
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
libserialport is a minimal library written in C that is intended to take care
of the OS-specific details when writing software that uses serial ports.
The operations that are supported are:
- Port enumeration (obtaining a list of serial ports on the system).
+- Obtaining port metadata (USB device information, Bluetooth address, etc).
- Opening and closing ports.
- Setting port parameters (baud rate, parity, etc).
- Reading, writing and flushing data.
The library should build and work on any Windows or Unix-based system. If it
does not, please submit a bug.
-Enumeration is currently only implemented on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. On
-other systems enumeration will return no results, but ports can still be opened
+Enumeration is currently implemented on Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Linux.
+On other systems enumeration is not supported, but ports can still be opened
by name and then used.
If you know how to enumerate available ports on another OS, please submit a bug
with this information, or better still a patch implementing it.
-Future
-======
-
-Future versions will add additional API calls for obtaining metadata about a
-port, e.g. for USB devices the USB VID and PID of the underlying device.
-
Dependencies
============
-On Linux, libudev is required. On other systems no other libraries are required.
-
-The libudev dependency could be eliminated in favour of direct sysfs queries at
-the cost of some brevity. This is not currently a priority but if you feel like
-doing this feel free to submit a patch.
+No other libraries are required.
Building
========
-The package uses a GNU style build system and requires a Unix style shell.
-On Windows it can be built with the MinGW toolchain and MSYS environment.
+On Windows, libserialport can be built with Visual Studio 2019 or with
+the standalone MSBuild tool, using the solution and project files provided.
+
+For other environments, the package uses a GNU style build based on autotools.
Run "./autogen.sh" to generate the build system, "./configure" to setup, then
"make" to build the library and "make install" to install it.
-API
-===
-
-The API is simple, and designed to be a minimal wrapper around the serial port
-support in each OS.
-
-Most functions take a pointer to a struct sp_port, which represents an serial
-port. This structure is obtained from the array returned by sp_list_ports().
-
-All functions can return only three possible error values. SP_ERR_ARG indicates
-the function was called with invalid arguments. SP_ERR_FAIL indicates that the
-OS reported a failure. SP_ERR_MEM indicates that a memory allocation failed.
-All of these error values are negative.
-
-When SP_ERR_FAIL is returned, an error code or string description of the error
-can be obtained by calling sp_last_error_code() or sp_last_error_message(). The
-error code or message is that provided by the OS; libserialport does not define
-any error codes or messages of its own.
-
-Functions calls that succeed return SP_OK, which is equal to zero, or where
-otherwise documented a positive value.
-
-The available functions are as follows:
-
-Enumeration
------------
-
-int sp_get_port_by_name(const char *portname, struct sp_port **port_ptr);
-
- Obtains a pointer to a new sp_port structure representing the named port. The
- user should allocate a variable of type "struct sp_port *" and pass a pointer
- to this to receive the result.
-
- The result should be freed after use by calling sp_free_port().
-
- Returns: SP_OK on success, SP_ERR_FAIL on failure, SP_ERR_MEM on allocation
- failure, or SP_ERR_ARG if an invalid pointer is passed. If any error
- is returned, the variable pointed to by port_ptr will be set to NULL.
- Otherwise, it will be set to point to the newly allocated port.
-
-void sp_free_port(struct sp_port *port);
-
- Frees a port structure obtained from sp_get_port_by_name().
-
-int sp_list_ports(struct sp_port ***list_ptr);
-
- Lists the serial ports available on the system. The result obtained is an
- array of pointers to sp_port structures, terminated by a NULL. The user should
- allocate a variable of type "struct sp_port **" and pass a pointer to this to
- receive the result.
-
- The result should be freed after use by calling sp_free_port_list().
-
- Returns: SP_OK on success, SP_ERR_FAIL on failure, SP_ERR_MEM on allocation
- failure, or SP_ERR_ARG if an invalid pointer is passed. If any error
- is returned, the variable pointed to by list_ptr will be set to NULL.
- Otherwise, it will be set to point to the newly allocated array.
-
-void sp_free_port_list(struct sp_port **list);
-
- Frees a port list obtained from sp_list_ports().
-
-Opening and closing ports
--------------------------
-
-int sp_open(struct sp_port *port, int flags);
-
- Opens the specified serial port.
+Windows builds can also be created using the autotools build system, using the
+MinGW-w64 toolchain from http://mingw-w64.sourceforge.net/ - either natively
+in Windows with the MSYS2 environment, or cross-compiling from another system.
- Parameters:
+To build from MSYS2, the following packages must be installed: autoconf,
+automake-wrapper, libtool, make, and either mingw-w64-i686-gcc (for 32-bit)
+or mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc (for 64-bit). Open either the "MSYS2 MinGW 32-bit" or
+"MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit" command window from the Start menu and use this when
+configuring and building the package. Using the "MSYS2 MSYS" shell will build
+against the Cygwin compatibility layer; this works, but port enumeration and
+metadata will not be available, and binaries will depend on Cygwin. The builds
+produced by MinGW-w64 are normal Windows DLLs without additional dependencies.
- port: Pointer to port structure.
- flags: Flags to use when opening the serial port. Possible
- flags are: SP_MODE_RDWR, SP_MODE_RDONLY, and SP_MODE_NONBLOCK.
-
- Returns: SP_OK on success, SP_ERR_FAIL on failure, or SP_ERR_ARG
- if an invalid port is passed.
-
-int sp_close(struct sp_port *port);
-
- Closes the specified serial port.
-
- Returns: SP_OK on success, SP_ERR_FAIL on failure, or SP_ERR_ARG
- if an invalid port is passed.
-
-Setting port parameters
------------------------
-
-int sp_set_params(struct sp_port *port, int baudrate,
- int bits, int parity, int stopbits,
- int flowcontrol, int rts, int dtr);
-
- Sets serial parameters for the specified serial port.
-
- Parameters:
-
- port: Pointer to port structure.
- baudrate: Baud rate to set.
- bits: Number of data bits to use.
- parity: Parity setting to use
- (SP_PARITY_NONE, SP_PARITY_EVEN or SP_PARITY_ODD)
- stopbits: Number of stop bits to use (1 or 2).
- flowcontrol: Flow control setting to use
- (SP_FLOW_NONE, SP_FLOW_HARDWARE or SP_FLOW_SOFTWARE)
-
- Returns: SP_OK on success, SP_ERR_FAIL on failure, or SP_ERR_ARG
- for invalid arguments.
-
-Reading, writing and flushing data
-----------------------------------
-
-int sp_read(struct sp_port *port, const void *buf, size_t count)
-
- Reads bytes from the specified serial port. Note that this function may
- return after reading less than the specified number of bytes; it is the
- user's responsibility to iterate as necessary in this case.
-
- Parameters:
-
- port: Pointer to port structure.
- buf: Buffer in which to store the bytes read.
- count: Maximum number of bytes to read.
-
- Returns: The number of bytes read, SP_ERR_FAIL on failure,
- or SP_ERR_ARG for invalid arguments.
-
-int sp_write(struct sp_port *port, const void *buf, size_t count)
-
- Write bytes to the specified serial port. Note that this function may
- return after writing less than the specified number of bytes; it is the
- user's responsibility to iterate as necessary in this case.
-
- Parameters:
-
- port: Pointer to port structure.
- buf: Buffer containing the bytes to write.
- count: Maximum number of bytes to write.
-
- Returns: The number of bytes written, SP_ERR_FAIL on failure,
- or SP_ERR_ARG for invalid arguments.
-
-int sp_flush(struct sp_port *port);
-
- Flushes serial port buffers.
+API
+===
- Returns: SP_OK on success, SP_ERR_FAIL on failure, or SP_ERR_ARG
- if an invalid port is passed.
+Doxygen API documentation is included.
-Error handling
---------------
+It can also be viewed online at:
-int sp_last_error_code();
+ http://sigrok.org/api/libserialport/unstable/
- Gets the error code for a failed operation.
+Bug reports
+===========
- In order to obtain the correct result, this function should be called
- straight after the failure, before executing any other system operations.
+You can report bugs for libserialport at https://sigrok.org/bugzilla.
- Returns: The system's numeric code for the error that caused the last
- operation to fail.
+Mailing list
+============
-char *sp_last_error_message();
+ https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sigrok-devel
- Gets the error message for failed operation.
+IRC
+===
- In order to obtain the correct result, this function should be called
- straight after the failure, before executing other system operations.
+You can find the developers in the #sigrok IRC channel on Libera.Chat.
- Returns: The system's message for the error that caused the last
- operation to fail. This string may be allocated by the function,
- and should be freed after use by calling sp_free_error_message.
+Website
+=======
-void sp_free_error_message(char *message);
+http://sigrok.org/wiki/Libserialport
- Frees the error message returned by sp_last_error_message().
projects / libserialport.git / blobdiff