README: Document alsa (optional) library.

[libsigrok.git] / README

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README
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The sigrok project aims at creating a portable, cross-platform,
Free/Libre/Open-Source signal analysis software suite that supports various
device types (such as logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, multimeters, and more).

libsigrok is a shared library written in C which provides the basic API
for talking to hardware and reading/writing the acquired data into various
input/output file formats.


Status
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libsigrok is in a usable state and has had official tarball releases.

While the API can change from release to release, this will always be
properly documented and reflected in the package version number and
in the shared library / libtool / .so-file version numbers.

However, there are _NO_ guarantees at all for stable APIs in git snapshots!
Distro packagers should only use released tarballs (no git snapshots).


Requirements
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 - git
 - gcc (>= 4.0)
 - make
 - autoconf >= 2.63
 - automake >= 1.11
 - libtool
 - pkg-config >= 0.22
 - libglib >= 2.28.0
 - libzip >= 0.8
 - libusb-1.0 >= 1.0.9 (optional, used by most drivers)
 - libftdi >= 0.16 (optional, used by some drivers)
 - libudev >= 151 (optional, used by some drivers)
 - libasound / alsa-lib >= 1.0 (optional, only used by the alsa driver)


Building and installing
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In order to get the libsigrok source code and build it, run:

 $ git clone git://sigrok.org/libsigrok
 $ cd libsigrok
 $ ./autogen.sh
 $ ./configure
 $ make

For installing libsigrok:

 $ make install

Please see the following wiki pages for more detailed instructions:

 http://sigrok.org/wiki/Linux
 http://sigrok.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X
 http://sigrok.org/wiki/Windows
 http://sigrok.org/wiki/FreeBSD


Firmware
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Some devices supported by libsigrok need a firmware to be uploaded before the
device can be used. 

The default location where libsigrok expects the firmware files is:

  $prefix/share/sigrok-firmware

($prefix is usually /usr/local or /usr, depending on your ./configure options)

For further information see:

  http://sigrok.org/wiki/Firmware


Mailing lists
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There are two mailing lists for sigrok/libsigrok:

 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sigrok-devel
 https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/sigrok-commits


IRC
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You can find the sigrok developers in the #sigrok IRC channel on Freenode.


Website
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 http://sigrok.org/wiki/Libsigrok