Michael R.

Sweet

Serial Programming Guide for POSIX

Operating Systems
5th Edition, 6th Revision

Michael R. Sweet
Copyright 1994-2005

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free
Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in Appendix C, GNU Free Documentation License.
Index
Introduction ..............................................................................................................................4
License ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Organization ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Chapter 1, Basics of Serial Communications............................................................................ 5
What Are Serial Communications? .................................................................................................. 5
What Is RS-232? ................................................................................................................................. 5
Signal Definitions ........................................................................................................................... 6
Asynchronous Communications....................................................................................................... 7
What Are Full Duplex and Half Duplex? ....................................................................................... 8
Flow Control ................................................................................................................................... 8
What Is a Break? ............................................................................................................................ 9
Synchronous Communications ......................................................................................................... 9
Accessing Serial Ports........................................................................................................................ 9
Serial Port Files .............................................................................................................................10
Opening a Serial Port ....................................................................................................................10
Writing Data to the Port ................................................................................................................11
Reading Data from the Port .......................................................................................................... 12
Closing a Serial Port ...................................................................................................................... 12
Chapter 2, Configuring the Serial Port ................................................................................... 12
The POSIX Terminal Interface ........................................................................................................ 12
Control Options ............................................................................................................................ 13
Local Options ................................................................................................................................ 17
Input Options ................................................................................................................................19
Output Options ............................................................................................................................. 21
Control Characters....................................................................................................................... 22
Chapter 3, MODEM Communications .................................................................................... 24
What Is a MODEM? ........................................................................................................................ 24
Communicating With a MODEM................................................................................................... 24
Standard MODEM Commands .................................................................................................... 26
Common MODEM Communication Problems ............................................................................ 27
Chapter 4, Advanced Serial Programming ............................................................................. 27

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 Serial Port IOCTLs........................................................................................................................... 27
Getting the Control Signals .......................................................................................................... 28
Setting the Control Signals .......................................................................................................... 29
Getting the Number of Bytes Available ........................................................................................ 30
Selecting Input from a Serial Port................................................................................................... 30
The SELECT System Call .............................................................................................................. 30
Using the SELECT System Call ..................................................................................................... 31
Using SELECT with the X Intrinsics Library ................................................................................ 32
Appendix A, Pinouts ............................................................................................................... 33
RS-232 Pinouts ................................................................................................................................. 33
RS-422 Pinouts................................................................................................................................. 34
RS-574 (IBM PC/AT) Pinouts .......................................................................................................... 35
SGI Pinouts ...................................................................................................................................... 35
Appendix B, ASCII Control Codes .......................................................................................... 37
Control Codes .................................................................................................................................. 37
Appendix C, GNU Free Documentation License.................................................................... 38
How to use this License for your documents ................................................................................. 44
Appendix D, Change History .................................................................................................. 46
Edition 5, Revision 6 ........................................................................................................................ 46
Edition 5, Revision 5 ........................................................................................................................ 46
Edition 5, Revision 4 ........................................................................................................................ 46
Edition 5, Revision 3 ........................................................................................................................ 46
Source ...................................................................................................................................... 47

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Introduction
The Serial Programming Guide for POSIX Operating Systems will teach you how to
successfully, efficiently, and portably program the serial ports on your UNIX® workstation or
PC. Each chapter provides programming examples that use the POSIX (Portable Standard for
UNIX) terminal control functions and should work with very few modifications under IRIX®,
HP-UX, SunOS®, Solaris®, Digital UNIX®, Linux®, and most other UNIX operating systems.
The biggest difference between operating systems that you will find is the filenames used for
serial port device and lock files.

License

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free
Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in Appendix C, GNU Free Documentation License.

Organization

This guide is organized into the following chapters and appendices:

 Chapter 1, Basics of Serial Programming

 Chapter 2, Configuring the Serial Port

 Chapter 3, Talking to MODEMs

 Chapter 4, Advanced Serial Programming

 Appendix A, RS-232 Pinouts

 Appendix B, ASCII Control Codes

 Appendix C, GNU Free Documentation License

 Appendix D, Change History

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Chapter 1, Basics of Serial
Communications
This chapter introduces serial communications, RS-232 and other standards that are used on most
computers as well as how to access a serial port from a C program.

What Are Serial Communications?

Computers transfer information (data) one or more bits at a time. Serial refers to the transfer of
data one bit at a time. Serial communications include most network devices, keyboards, mice,
MODEMs, and terminals.

When doing serial communications each word (i.e. byte or character) of data you send or receive
is sent one bit at a time. Each bit is either on or off. The terms you'll hear sometimes are mark for
the on state and space for the off state.

The speed of the serial data is most often expressed as bits-per-second ("bps") or baudot rate
("baud"). This just represents the number of ones and zeroes that can be sent in one second. Back
at the dawn of the computer age, 300 baud was considered fast, but today computers can handle
RS-232 speeds as high as 430,800 baud! When the baud rate exceeds 1,000, you'll usually see
the rate shown in kilo baud, or kbps (e.g. 9.6k, 19.2k, etc). For rates above 1,000,000 that rate is
shown in megabaud, or Mbps (e.g. 1.5Mbps).

When referring to serial devices or ports, they are either labeled as Data Communications
Equipment ("DCE") or Data Terminal Equipment ("DTE"). The difference between these is
simple - every signal pair, like transmit and receive, is swapped. When connecting two DTE or
two DCE interfaces together, a serial null-MODEM cable or adapter is used that swaps the signal
pairs.

What Is RS-232?

RS-232 is a standard electrical interface for serial communications defined by the Electronic
Industries Association ("EIA"). RS-232 actually comes in 3 different flavors (A, B, and C) with
each one defining a different voltage range for the on and off levels. The most commonly used
variety is RS-232C, which defines a mark (on) bit as a voltage between -3V and -12V and a
space (off) bit as a voltage between +3V and +12V. The RS-232C specification says these
signals can go about 25 feet (8m) before they become unusable. You can usually send signals a
bit farther than this as long as the baud is low enough.

Besides wires for incoming and outgoing data, there are others that provide timing, status, and
handshaking:

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Pin Description Pin Description Pin Description Pin Description Pin Description
1 Earth 6 DSR - Data 11 Unassigned 16 Secondary 21 Signal
Ground Set Ready RXD Quality
Detect

2 TXD - 7 GND - 12 Secondary 17 Receiver 22 Ring

Transmitted Logic DCD Clock Detect
Data Ground

3 RXD - 8 DCD - 13 Secondary 18 Unassigned 23 Data Rate

Received Data CTS Select
Data Carrier
Detect
4 RTS - 9 Reserved 14 Secondary 19 Secondary 24 Transmit
Request To TXD RTS Clock
Send

5 CTS - Clear 10 Reserved 15 Transmit 20 DTR - Data 25 Unassigned

To Send Clock Terminal
Ready

Table 1 - RS-232 Pin Assignments

Two standards for serial interfaces you may also see are RS-422 and RS-574. RS-422 uses lower
voltages and differential signals to allow cable lengths up to about 1000ft (300m). RS-574
defines the 9-pin PC serial connector and voltages.

Signal Definitions

The RS-232 standard defines some 18 different signals for serial communications. Of these, only
six are generally available in the UNIX environment.

GND - Logic Ground

Technically the logic ground is not a signal, but without it none of the other signals will operate.
Basically, the logic ground acts as a reference voltage so that the electronics know which
voltages are positive or negative.

TXD - Transmitted Data

The TXD signal carries data transmitted from your workstation to the computer or device on the
other end (like a MODEM). A mark voltage is interpreted as a value of 1, while a space voltage
is interpreted as a value of 0.

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RXD - Received Data

The RXD signal carries data transmitted from the computer or device on the other end to your
workstation. Like TXD, mark and space voltages are interpreted as 1 and 0, respectively.

DCD - Data Carrier Detect

The DCD signal is received from the computer or device on the other end of your serial cable. A
space voltage on this signal line indicates that the computer or device is currently connected or
on line. DCD is not always used or available.

DTR - Data Terminal Ready

The DTR signal is generated by your workstation and tells the computer or device on the other
end that you are ready (a space voltage) or not-ready (a mark voltage). DTR is usually enabled
automatically whenever you open the serial interface on the workstation.

CTS - Clear To Send

The CTS signal is received from the other end of the serial cable. A space voltage indicates that
it is alright to send more serial data from your workstation.

CTS is usually used to regulate the flow of serial data from your workstation to the other end.

RTS - Request To Send

The RTS signal is set to the space voltage by your workstation to indicate that more data is ready
to be sent.

Like CTS, RTS helps to regulate the flow of data between your workstation and the computer or
device on the other end of the serial cable. Most workstations leave this signal set to the space
voltage all the time.

Asynchronous Communications

For the computer to understand the serial data coming into it, it needs some way to determine
where one character ends and the next begins. This guide deals exclusively with asynchronous
serial data.

In asynchronous mode the serial data line stays in the mark (1) state until a character is
transmitted. A start bit preceeds each character and is followed immediately by each bit in the
character, an optional parity bit, and one or more stop bits. The start bit is always a space (0) and
tells the computer that new serial data is available. Data can be sent or received at any time, thus
the name asynchronous.

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 Figure 1- Asynchronous Data Transmission

The optional parity bit is a simple sum of the data bits indicating whether or not the data contains
an even or odd number of 1 bits. With even parity, the parity bit is 0 if there is an even number of
1's in the character. With odd parity, the parity bit is 0 if there is an odd number of 1's in the data.
You may also hear the terms space parity, mark parity, and no parity. Space parity means that
the parity bit is always 0, while mark parity means the bit is always 1. No parity means that no
parity bit is present or transmitted.

The remaining bits are called stop bits. There can be 1, 1.5, or 2 stop bits between characters and
they always have a value of 1. Stop bits traditionally were used to give the computer time to
process the previous character, but now only serve to synchronize the receiving computer to the
incoming characters.

Asynchronous data formats are usually expressed as "8N1", "7E1", and so forth. These stand for
"8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit" and "7 data bits, even parity, 1 stop bit" respectively.

What Are Full Duplex and Half Duplex?

Full duplex means that the computer can send and receive data simultaneously - there are two
separate data channels (one coming in, one going out).

Half duplex means that the computer cannot send or receive data at the same time. Usually this
means there is only a single data channel to talk over. This does not mean that any of the RS-232
signals are not used. Rather, it usually means that the communications link uses some standard
other than RS-232 that does not support full duplex operation.

Flow Control

It is often necessary to regulate the flow of data when transferring data between two serial
interfaces. This can be due to limitations in an intermediate serial communications link, one of
the serial interfaces, or some storage media. Two methods are commonly used for asynchronous
data.

The first method is often called "software" flow control and uses special characters to start (XON
or DC1, 021 octal) or stop (XOFF or DC3, 023 octal) the flow of data. These characters are
defined in the American Standard Code for Information Interchange ("ASCII"). While these
codes are useful when transferring textual information, they cannot be used when transferring
other types of information without special programming.

8|Page
The second method is called "hardware" flow control and uses the RS-232 CTS and RTS signals
instead of special characters. The receiver sets CTS to the space voltage when it is ready to
receive more data and to the mark voltage when it is not ready. Likewise, the sender sets RTS to
the space voltage when it is ready to send more data. Because hardware flow control uses a
separate set of signals, it is much faster than software flow control which needs to send or
receive multiple bits of information to do the same thing. CTS/RTS flow control is not supported
by all hardware or operating systems.

What Is a Break?

Normally a receive or transmit data signal stays at the mark voltage until a new character is
transferred. If the signal is dropped to the space voltage for a long period of time, usually 1/4 to
1/2 second, then a break condition is said to exist.

A break is sometimes used to reset a communications line or change the operating mode of
communications hardware like a MODEM. Chapter 3, Talking to MODEMs covers these
applications in more depth.

Synchronous Communications

Unlike asynchronous data, synchronous data appears as a constant stream of bits. To read the
data on the line, the computer must provide or receive a common bit clock so that both the
sender and receiver are synchronized.

Even with this synchronization, the computer must mark the beginning of the data somehow. The
most common way of doing this is to use a data packet protocol like Serial Data Link Control
("SDLC") or High-Speed Data Link Control ("HDLC").

Each protocol defines certain bit sequences to represent the beginning and end of a data packet.
Each also defines a bit sequence that is used when there is no data. These bit sequences allow the
computer to see the beginning of a data packet.

Because synchronous protocols do not use per-character synchronization bits they typically
provide at least a 25% improvement in performance over asynchronous communications and are
suitable for remote networking and configurations with more than two serial interfaces.

Despite the speed advantages of synchronous communications, most RS-232 hardware does not
support it due to the extra hardware and software required.

Accessing Serial Ports

Like all devices, UNIX provides access to serial ports via device files. To access a serial port you
simply open the corresponding device file.

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Serial Port Files

Each serial port on a UNIX system has one or more device files (files in the /dev directory)
associated with it:

System Port 1 Port 2

IRIX® /dev/ttyf1 /dev/ttyf2

HP-UX /dev/tty1p0 /dev/tty2p0

Solaris®/SunOS® /dev/ttya /dev/ttyb

Linux® /dev/ttyS0 /dev/ttyS1

Digital UNIX® /dev/tty01 /dev/tty02

Table 2 - Serial Port Device Files

Opening a Serial Port

Since a serial port is a file, the open(2) function is used to access it. The one hitch with UNIX is
that device files are usually not accessible by normal users. Workarounds include changing the
access permissions to the file(s) in question, running your program as the super-user (root), or
making your program set-userid so that it runs as the owner of the device file (not recommended
for obvious security reasons...)

For now we'll assume that the file is accessible by all users. The code to open serial port 1 on a
PC running Linux is show in Listing 1.

#include <stdio.h> /* Standard input/output definitions */

#include <string.h> /* String function definitions */
#include <unistd.h> /* UNIX standard function definitions */
#include <fcntl.h> /* File control definitions */
#include <errno.h> /* Error number definitions */
#include <termios.h> /* POSIX terminal control definitions */

/*
* 'open_port()' - Open serial port 1.
*
* Returns the file descriptor on success or -1 on error.
*/

int
open_port(void)
{
int fd; /* File descriptor for the port */

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 fd = open("/dev/ttyS0", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NDELAY);
if (fd == -1)
{
/*
* Could not open the port.
*/

perror("open_port: Unable to open /dev/ttyS0 - ");

}
else
fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, 0);

return (fd);
}

Listing 1 - Opening a serial port.

Other systems would require the corresponding device file name, but otherwise the code is the
same.

Open Options

You'll notice that when we opened the device file we used two other flags along with the
read+write mode:

fd = open("/dev/ttyS0", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NDELAY);

The O_NOCTTY flag tells UNIX that this program doesn't want to be the "controlling terminal"
for that port. If you don't specify this then any input (such as keyboard abort signals and so forth)
will affect your process. Programs like getty(1M/8) use this feature when starting the login
process, but normally a user program does not want this behavior.

The O_NDELAY flag tells UNIX that this program doesn't care what state the DCD signal line is
in - whether the other end of the port is up and running. If you do not specify this flag, your
process will be put to sleep until the DCD signal line is the space voltage.

Writing Data to the Port

Writing data to the port is easy - just use the write(2) system call to send data it:

n = write(fd, "ATZ\r", 4);

if (n < 0)
fputs("write() of 4 bytes failed!\n", stderr);

The write function returns the number of bytes sent or -1 if an error occurred. Usually the only
error you'll run into is EIO when a MODEM or data link drops the Data Carrier Detect (DCD)
line. This condition will persist until you close the port.

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Reading Data from the Port

Reading data from a port is a little trickier. When you operate the port in raw data mode, each
read(2) system call will return the number of characters that are actually available in the serial
input buffers. If no characters are available, the call will block (wait) until characters come in, an
interval timer expires, or an error occurs. The read function can be made to return immediately
by doing the following:

fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, FNDELAY);

The FNDELAY option causes the read function to return 0 if no characters are available on the
port. To restore normal (blocking) behavior, call fcntl() without the FNDELAY option:

fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, 0);

This is also used after opening a serial port with the O_NDELAY option.

Closing a Serial Port

To close the serial port, just use the close system call:

close(fd);

Closing a serial port will also usually set the DTR signal low which causes most MODEMs to
hang up.

Chapter 2, Configuring the Serial Port

This chapter discusses how to configure a serial port from C using the POSIX termios interface.

The POSIX Terminal Interface

Most systems support the POSIX terminal (serial) interface for changing parameters such as
baud rate, character size, and so on. The first thing you need to do is include the file
<termios.h>; this defines the terminal control structure as well as the POSIX control functions.

The two most important POSIX functions are tcgetattr(3) and tcsetattr(3). These get and set
terminal attributes, respectively; you provide a pointer to a termios structure that contains all of
the serial options available:

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 Member Description

c_cflag Control options

c_lflag Line options

c_iflag Input options

c_oflag Output options

c_cc Control characters

c_ispeed Input baud (new interface)

c_ospeed Output baud (new interface)

Table 3 - Termios Structure Members

Control Options
The c_cflag member controls the baud rate, number of data bits, parity, stop bits, and hardware
flow control. There are constants for all of the supported configurations.

Constant Description
CBAUD Bit mask for baud rate

B0 0 baud (drop DTR)

B50 50 baud

B75 75 baud

B110 110 baud

B134 134.5 baud

B150 150 baud

B200 200 baud

B300 300 baud

B600 600 baud

B1200 1200 baud

B1800 1800 baud

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 B2400 2400 baud

B4800 4800 baud

B9600 9600 baud

B19200 19200 baud

B38400 38400 baud

B57600 57,600 baud

B76800 76,800 baud

B115200 115,200 baud

EXTA External rate clock

EXTB External rate clock

CSIZE Bit mask for data bits

CS5 5 data bits

CS6 6 data bits

CS7 7 data bits

CS8 8 data bits

CSTOPB 2 stop bits (1 otherwise)

CREAD Enable receiver

PARENB Enable parity bit

PARODD Use odd parity instead of even

HUPCL Hangup (drop DTR) on last close

CLOCAL Local line - do not change "owner" of port

LOBLK Block job control output

CNEW_RTSCTS Enable hardware flow control (not supported on all platforms)

CRTSCTS
Table 4 - Constants for the c_cflag Member

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The c_cflag member contains two options that should always be enabled, CLOCAL and CREAD.
These will ensure that your program does not become the 'owner' of the port subject to sporatic
job control and hangup signals, and also that the serial interface driver will read incoming data
bytes.
The baud rate constants (CBAUD, B9600, etc.) are used for older interfaces that lack the
c_ispeed and c_ospeed members. See the next section for information on the POSIX functions
used to set the baud rate.
Never initialize the c_cflag (or any other flag) member directly; you should always use the
bitwise AND, OR, and NOT operators to set or clear bits in the members. Different operating
system versions (and even patches) can and do use the bits differently, so using the bitwise
operators will prevent you from clobbering a bit flag that is needed in a newer serial driver.
Setting the Baud Rate
The baud rate is stored in different places depending on the operating system. Older interfaces
store the baud rate in the c_cflag member using one of the baud rate constants in table 4, while
newer implementations provide the c_ispeed and c_ospeed members that contain the actual baud
rate value.
The cfsetospeed(3) and cfsetispeed(3) functions are provided to set the baud rate in the termios
structure regardless of the underlying operating system interface. Typically you'd use the code in
Listing 2 to set the baud rate.

struct termios options;

/*
* Get the current options for the port...
*/

tcgetattr(fd, &options);

/*
* Set the baud rates to 19200...
*/

cfsetispeed(&options, B19200);
cfsetospeed(&options, B19200);

/*
* Enable the receiver and set local mode...
*/

options.c_cflag |= (CLOCAL | CREAD);

/*
* Set the new options for the port...
*/

tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &options);

Listing 2 - Setting the baud rate.

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The tcgetattr(3) function fills the termios structure you provide with the current serial port
configuration. After we set the baud rates and enable local mode and serial data receipt, we select
the new configuration using tcsetattr(3). The TCSANOW constant specifies that all changes
should occur immediately without waiting for output data to finish sending or input data to finish
receiving. There are other constants to wait for input and output to finish or to flush the input and
output buffers.

Most systems do not support different input and output speeds, so be sure to set both to the same
value for maximum portability.

Constant Description

TCSANOW Make changes now without waiting for data to complete

TCSADRAIN Wait until everything has been transmitted

TCSAFLUSH Flush input and output buffers and make the change

Table 5 - Constants for tcsetattr

Setting the Character Size

Unlike the baud rate, there is no convienience function to set the character size. Instead you must
do a little bitmasking to set things up. The character size is specified in bits:

options.c_cflag &= ~CSIZE; /* Mask the character size bits */

options.c_cflag |= CS8; /* Select 8 data bits */

Setting Parity Checking

Like the character size you must manually set the parity enable and parity type bits. UNIX serial
drivers support even, odd, and no parity bit generation. Space parity can be simulated with clever
coding.

 No parity (8N1):

 options.c_cflag &= ~PARENB

 options.c_cflag &= ~CSTOPB
 options.c_cflag &= ~CSIZE;
 options.c_cflag |= CS8;

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  Even parity (7E1):

 options.c_cflag |= PARENB
 options.c_cflag &= ~PARODD
 options.c_cflag &= ~CSTOPB
 options.c_cflag &= ~CSIZE;
 options.c_cflag |= CS7;

 Odd parity (7O1):

 options.c_cflag |= PARENB
 options.c_cflag |= PARODD
 options.c_cflag &= ~CSTOPB
 options.c_cflag &= ~CSIZE;
 options.c_cflag |= CS7;

 Space parity is setup the same as no parity (7S1):

 options.c_cflag &= ~PARENB

 options.c_cflag &= ~CSTOPB
 options.c_cflag &= ~CSIZE;
 options.c_cflag |= CS8;

Setting Hardware Flow Control

Some versions of UNIX support hardware flow control using the CTS (Clear To Send) and RTS
(Request To Send) signal lines. If the CNEW_RTSCTS or CRTSCTS constants are defined on
your system then hardware flow control is probably supported. Do the following to enable
hardware flow control:

options.c_cflag |= CNEW_RTSCTS; /* Also called CRTSCTS */

Similarly, to disable hardware flow control:

options.c_cflag &= ~CNEW_RTSCTS;

Local Options

The local modes member c_lflag controls how input characters are managed by the serial driver.
In general you will configure the c_lflag member for canonical or raw input.

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 Constant Description

ISIG Enable SIGINTR, SIGSUSP, SIGDSUSP, and SIGQUIT signals

ICANON Enable canonical input (else raw)

XCASE Map uppercase \lowercase (obsolete)

ECHO Enable echoing of input characters

ECHOE Echo erase character as BS-SP-BS

ECHOK Echo NL after kill character

ECHONL Echo NL

NOFLSH Disable flushing of input buffers after interrupt or quit characters

IEXTEN Enable extended functions

ECHOCTL Echo control characters as ^char and delete as ~?

ECHOPRT Echo erased character as character erased

ECHOKE BS-SP-BS entire line on line kill

FLUSHO Output being flushed

PENDIN Retype pending input at next read or input char

TOSTOP Send SIGTTOU for background output

Table 6- Constants for the c_lflag Member

Choosing Canonical Input

Canonical input is line-oriented. Input characters are put into a buffer which can be edited
interactively by the user until a CR (carriage return) or LF (line feed) character is received.

18 | P a g e
When selecting this mode you normally select the ICANON, ECHO, and ECHOE options:

options.c_lflag |= (ICANON | ECHO | ECHOE);

Choosing Raw Input

Raw input is unprocessed. Input characters are passed through exactly as they are received, when
they are received. Generally you'll deselect the ICANON, ECHO, ECHOE, and ISIG options
when using raw input:

options.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO | ECHOE | ISIG);

A Note About Input Echo

Never enable input echo (ECHO, ECHOE) when sending commands to a MODEM or other
computer that is echoing characters, as you will generate a feedback loop between the two serial
interfaces!

Input Options

The input modes member c_iflag controls any input processing that is done to characters
received on the port. Like the c_cflag field, the final value stored in c_iflag is the bitwise OR of
the desired options.

Constant Description
INPCK Enable parity check
IGNPAR Ignore parity errors

PARMRK Mark parity errors

ISTRIP Strip parity bits

IXON Enable software flow control (outgoing)

IXOFF Enable software flow control (incoming)

IXANY Allow any character to start flow again

IGNBRK Ignore break condition

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 BRKINT Send a SIGINT when a break condition is detected

INLCR Map NL to CR

IGNCR Ignore CR

ICRNL Map CR to NL

IUCLC Map uppercase to lowercase

IMAXBEL Echo BEL on input line too long

Table 7 - Constants for the c_iflag Member

Setting Input Parity Options

You should enable input parity checking when you have enabled parity in the c_cflag member
(PARENB). The revelant constants for input parity checking are INPCK, IGNPAR, PARMRK ,
and ISTRIP. Generally you will select INPCK and ISTRIP to enable checking and stripping of
the parity bit:

options.c_iflag |= (INPCK | ISTRIP);

IGNPAR is a somewhat dangerous option that tells the serial driver to ignore parity errors and
pass the incoming data through as if no errors had occurred. This can be useful for testing the
quality of a communications link, but in general is not used for practical reasons.

PARMRK causes parity errors to be 'marked' in the input stream using special characters. If
IGNPAR is enabled, a NUL character (000 octal) is sent to your program before every character
with a parity error. Otherwise, a DEL (177 octal) and NUL character is sent along with the bad
character.

Setting Software Flow Control

Software flow control is enabled using the IXON, IXOFF, and IXANY constants:

options.c_iflag |= (IXON | IXOFF | IXANY);

To disable software flow control simply mask those bits:

options.c_iflag &= ~(IXON | IXOFF | IXANY);

The XON (start data) and XOFF (stop data) characters are defined in the c_cc array described
below.

20 | P a g e
Output Options

The c_oflag member contains output filtering options. Like the input modes, you can select
processed or raw data output.

Constant Description
OPOST Postprocess output (not set = raw output)

OLCUC Map lowercase to uppercase

ONLCR Map NL to CR-NL

OCRNL Map CR to NL

NOCR No CR output at column 0

ONLRET NL performs CR function

OFILL Use fill characters for delay

OFDEL Fill character is DEL

NLDLY Mask for delay time needed between lines

NL0 No delay for NLs

NL1 Delay further output after newline for 100 milliseconds

CRDLY Mask for delay time needed to return carriage to left column

CR0 No delay for CRs

CR1 Delay after CRs depending on current column position

CR2 Delay 100 milliseconds after sending CRs

CR3 Delay 150 milliseconds after sending CRs

TABDLY Mask for delay time needed after TABs

TAB0 No delay for TABs

TAB1 Delay after TABs depending on current column position

TAB2 Delay 100 milliseconds after sending TABs

21 | P a g e
 TAB3 Expand TAB characters to spaces

BSDLY Mask for delay time needed after BSs

BS0 No delay for BSs

BS1 Delay 50 milliseconds after sending BSs

VTDLY Mask for delay time needed after VTs

VT0 No delay for VTs

VT1 Delay 2 seconds after sending VTs

FFDLY Mask for delay time needed after FFs

FF0 No delay for FFs

FF1 Delay 2 seconds after sending FFs

Table 8 - Constants for the c_oflag Member

Choosing Processed Output

Processed output is selected by setting the OPOST option in the c_oflag member:

options.c_oflag |= OPOST;

Of all the different options, you will only probably use the ONLCR option which maps newlines
into CR-LF pairs. The rest of the output options are primarily historic and date back to the time
when line printers and terminals could not keep up with the serial data stream!

Choosing Raw Output

Raw output is selected by resetting the OPOST option in the c_oflag member:

options.c_oflag &= ~OPOST;

When the OPOST option is disabled, all other option bits in c_oflag are ignored.

Control Characters

The c_cc character array contains control character definitions as well as timeout parameters.
Constants are defined for every element of this array.

22 | P a g e
 Constant Description Key

VINTR Interrupt CTRL-C

VQUIT Quit CTRL-Z

VERASE Erase Backspace (BS)

VKILL Kill-line CTRL-U

VEOF End-of-file CTRL-D

VEOL End-of-line Carriage return (CR)

VEOL2 Second end-of-line Line feed (LF)

VMIN Minimum number of characters to read -

VSTART Start flow CTRL-Q (XON)

VSTOP Stop flow CTRL-S (XOFF)

VTIME Time to wait for data (tenths of seconds) -

Table 9 - Control Characters in the c_cc Member

Setting Software Flow Control Characters

The VSTART and VSTOP elements of the c_cc array contain the characters used for software
flow control. Normally they should be set to DC1 (021 octal) and DC3 (023 octal) which
represent the ASCII standard XON and XOFF characters.

Setting Read Timeouts

UNIX serial interface drivers provide the ability to specify character and packet timeouts. Two
elements of the c_cc array are used for timeouts: VMIN and VTIME. Timeouts are ignored in
canonical input mode or when the NDELAY option is set on the file via open or fcntl.

VMIN specifies the minimum number of characters to read. If it is set to 0, then the VTIME value
specifies the time to wait for every character read. Note that this does not mean that a read call
for N bytes will wait for N characters to come in. Rather, the timeout will apply to the first
character and the read call will return the number of characters immediately available (up to the
number you request).

If VMIN is non-zero, VTIME specifies the time to wait for the first character read. If a character
is read within the time given, any read will block (wait) until all VMIN characters are read. That

23 | P a g e
is, once the first character is read, the serial interface driver expects to receive an entire packet of
characters (VMIN bytes total). If no character is read within the time allowed, then the call to
read returns 0. This method allows you to tell the serial driver you need exactly N bytes and any
read call will return 0 or N bytes. However, the timeout only applies to the first character read,
so if for some reason the driver misses one character inside the N byte packet then the read call
could block forever waiting for additional input characters.

VTIME specifies the amount of time to wait for incoming characters in tenths of seconds. If
VTIME is set to 0 (the default), reads will block (wait) indefinitely unless the NDELAY option is
set on the port with open or fcntl.

Chapter 3, MODEM Communications

This chapter covers the basics of dialup telephone Modulator/Demodulator (MODEM)
communications. Examples are provided for MODEMs that use the defacto standard "AT"
command set.

What Is a MODEM?

MODEMs are devices that modulate serial data into frequencies that can be transferred over an
analog data link such as a telephone line or cable TV connection. A standard telephone MODEM
converts serial data into tones that can be passed over the phone lines; because of the speed and
complexity of the conversion these tones sound more like loud screeching if you listen to them.

Telephone MODEMs are available today that can transfer data across a telephone line at nearly
53,000 bits per second, or 53kbps. In addition, most MODEMs use data compression technology
that can increase the bit rate to well over 100kbps on some types of data.

Communicating With a MODEM

The first step in communicating with a MODEM is to open and configure the port for raw input
as shown in Listing 3.

int fd;
struct termios options;

/* open the port */

fd = open("/dev/ttyS0", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NDELAY);
fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, 0);

24 | P a g e
 /* get the current options */
tcgetattr(fd, &options);

/* set raw input, 1 second timeout */

options.c_cflag |= (CLOCAL | CREAD);
options.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO | ECHOE | ISIG);
options.c_oflag &= ~OPOST;
options.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;
options.c_cc[VTIME] = 10;

/* set the options */

tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &options);

Listing 3 - Configuring the port for raw input.

Next you need to establish communications with the MODEM. The best way to do this is by
sending the "AT" command to the MODEM. This also allows smart MODEMs to detect the
baud you are using. When the MODEM is connected correctly and powered on it will respond
with the response "OK".

int /* O - 0 = MODEM ok, -1 = MODEM bad */

init_modem(int fd) /* I - Serial port file */
{
char buffer[255]; /* Input buffer */
char *bufptr; /* Current char in buffer */
int nbytes; /* Number of bytes read */
int tries; /* Number of tries so far */

for (tries = 0; tries < 3; tries ++)

{
/* send an AT command followed by a CR */
if (write(fd, "AT\r", 3) < 3)
continue;

/* read characters into our string buffer until we get a CR or NL */

bufptr = buffer;
while ((nbytes = read(fd, bufptr, buffer + sizeof(buffer) - bufptr –

1)) > 0)
{
bufptr += nbytes;
if (bufptr[-1] == '\n' || bufptr[-1] == '\r')
break;
}

/* nul terminate the string and see if we got an OK response */

*bufptr = '\0';

if (strncmp(buffer, "OK", 2) == 0)
return (0);
}

25 | P a g e
 return (-1);
}

Listing 4 - Initializing the MODEM.

Standard MODEM Commands

Most MODEMs support the "AT" command set, so called because each command starts with the
"AT" characters. Each command is sent with the "AT" characters starting in the first column
followed by the specific command and a carriage return (CR, 015 octal). After processing the
command the MODEM will reply with one of several textual messages depending on the
command.

ATD - Dial A Number

The ATD command dials the specified number. In addition to numbers and dashes you can
specify tone ("T") or pulse ("P") dialing, pause for one second (","), and wait for a dialtone
("W"):

ATDT 555-1212
ATDT 18008008008W1234,1,1234
ATD T555-1212WP1234

The MODEM will reply with one of the following messages:

NO DIALTONE
BUSY
NO CARRIER
CONNECT
CONNECT baud

ATH - Hang Up

The ATH command causes the MODEM to hang up. Since the MODEM must be in "command"
mode you probably won't use it during a normal phone call.

Most MODEMs will also hang up if DTR is dropped; you can do this by setting the baud to 0 for
at least 1 second. Dropping DTR also returns the MODEM to command mode.

After a successful hang up the MODEM will reply with "NO CARRIER". If the MODEM is still
connected the "CONNECT" or "CONNECT baud" message will be sent.

ATZ - Reset MODEM

The ATZ command resets the MODEM. The MODEM will reply with the string "OK".

26 | P a g e
Common MODEM Communication Problems

First and foremost, don't forget to disable input echoing. Input echoing will cause a feedback
loop between the MODEM and computer.

Second, when sending MODEM commands you must terminate them with a carriage return (CR)
and not a newline (NL). The C character constant for CR is "\r".

Finally, when dealing with a MODEM make sure you use a baud that the MODEM supports.
While many MODEMs do auto-baud detection, some have limits (19.2kbps is common on older
MODEMs) that you must observe.

Chapter 4, Advanced Serial Programming

This chapter covers advanced serial programming techniques using the ioctl(2) and select(2)
system calls.

Serial Port IOCTLs

In Chapter 2, Configuring the Serial Port we used the tcgetattr and tcsetattr functions to
configure the serial port. Under UNIX these functions use the ioctl(2) system call to do their
magic.

The ioctl system call takes three arguments:

int ioctl(int fd, int request, ...);

The fd argument specifies the serial port file descriptor. The request argument is a constant
defined in the <termios.h> header file and is typically one of the constants listed in Table 10.

Request Description POSIX Function

TCGETS Gets the current serial port tcgetattr

settings.

TCSETS Sets the serial port settings tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &options)

immediately.

27 | P a g e
 TCSETSF Sets the serial port settings tcsetattr(fd, TCSAFLUSH, &options)
after flushing the input and
output buffers.

TCSETSW Sets the serial port settings tcsetattr(fd, TCSADRAIN, &options)

after allowing the input and
output buffers to
drain/empty.

TCSBRK Sends a break for the given tcsendbreak, tcdrain

time.
TCXONC Controls software flow tcflow
control.

TCFLSH Flushes the input and/or tcflush

output queue.

TIOCMGET Returns the state of the None

"MODEM" bits.

TIOCMSET Sets the state of the None

"MODEM" bits.

FIONREAD Returns the number of None

bytes in the input buffer.

Table 10 - IOCTL Requests for Serial Ports

Getting the Control Signals

The TIOCMGET ioctl gets the current "MODEM" status bits, which consist of all of the RS-232
signal lines except RXD and TXD, listed in Table 11.

To get the status bits, call ioctl with a pointer to an integer to hold the bits, as shown in Listing 5.

#include <unistd.h>

#include <termios.h>

int fd;
int status;

ioctl(fd, TIOCMGET, &status);

Listing 5 - Getting the MODEM status bits.

28 | P a g e
 Constant Description

TIOCM_LE DSR (data set ready/line enable)

TIOCM_DTR DTR (data terminal ready)

TIOCM_RTS RTS (request to send)

TIOCM_ST Secondary TXD (transmit)

TIOCM_SR Secondary RXD (receive)

TIOCM_CTS CTS (clear to send)

TIOCM_CAR DCD (data carrier detect)

TIOCM_CD Synonym for TIOCM_CAR

TIOCM_RNG RNG (ring)

TIOCM_RI Synonym for TIOCM_RNG

TIOCM_DSR DSR (data set ready)

Table 11 - Control Signal Constants

Setting the Control Signals

The TIOCMSET ioctl sets the "MODEM" status bits defined above. To drop the DTR signal you
can use the code in Listing 6.

#include <unistd.h>
#include <termios.h>

int fd;
int status;

ioctl(fd, TIOCMGET, &status);

status &= ~TIOCM_DTR;

ioctl(fd, TIOCMSET, &status);

Listing 6 - Dropping DTR with the TIOCMSET ioctl.

The bits that can be set depend on the operating system, driver, and modes in use. Consult your
operating system documentation for more information.

29 | P a g e
Getting the Number of Bytes Available

The FIONREAD ioctl gets the number of bytes in the serial port input buffer. As with TIOCMGET
you pass in a pointer to an integer to hold the number of bytes, as shown in Listing 7.

#include <unistd.h>
#include <termios.h>

int fd;
int bytes;

ioctl(fd, FIONREAD, &bytes);

Listing 7 - Getting the number of bytes in the input buffer.

This can be useful when polling a serial port for data, as your program can determine the number
of bytes in the input buffer before attempting a read.

Selecting Input from a Serial Port

While simple applications can poll or wait on data coming from the serial port, most applications
are not simple and need to handle input from multiple sources.

UNIX provides this capability through the select(2) system call. This system call allows your
program to check for input, output, or error conditions on one or more file descriptors. The file
descriptors can point to serial ports, regular files, other devices, pipes, or sockets. You can poll to
check for pending input, wait for input indefinitely, or timeout after a specific amount of time,
making the select system call extremely flexible.

Most GUI Toolkits provide an interface to select; we will discuss the X Intrinsics ("Xt") library
later in this chapter.

The SELECT System Call

The select system call accepts 5 arguments:

int select(int max_fd, fd_set *input, fd_set *output, fd_set *error,

struct timeval *timeout);

The max_fd argument specifies the highest numbered file descriptor in the input, output, and
error sets. The input, output, and error arguments specify sets of file descriptors for pending
input, output, or error conditions; specify NULL to disable monitoring for the corresponding
condition. These sets are initialized using three macros:

FD_ZERO(&fd_set);

30 | P a g e
 FD_SET(fd, &fd_set);
FD_CLR(fd, &fd_set);

The FD_ZERO macro clears the set entirely. The FD_SET and FD_CLR macros add and remove
a file descriptor from the set, respectively.

The timeout argument specifies a timeout value which consists of seconds (timeout.tv_sec) and
microseconds (timeout.tv_usec ). To poll one or more file descriptors, set the seconds and
microseconds to zero. To wait indefinitely specify NULL for the timeout pointer.

The select system call returns the number of file descriptors that have a pending condition, or -1
if there was an error.

Using the SELECT System Call

Suppose we are reading data from a serial port and a socket. We want to check for input from
either file descriptor, but want to notify the user if no data is seen within 10 seconds. To do this
we'll need to use the select system call, as shown in Listing 8.

#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/select.h>

int n;
int socket;
int fd;
int max_fd;
fd_set input;
struct timeval timeout;

/* Initialize the input set */

FD_ZERO(&input);
FD_SET(fd, &input);
FD_SET(sock, &input);

max_fd = (sock > fd ? sock : fd) + 1;

/* Initialize the timeout structure */

timeout.tv_sec = 10;
timeout.tv_usec = 0;

/* Do the select */
n = select(max_fd, &input, NULL, NULL, &timeout);

/* See if there was an error */

if (n < 0)
perror("select failed");

31 | P a g e
 else if (n == 0)
puts("TIMEOUT");
else
{
/* We have input */
if (FD_ISSET(fd, &input))
process_fd();
if (FD_ISSET(sock, &input))
process_socket();
}

Listing 8 - Using SELECT to process input from more than one source.

You'll notice that we first check the return value of the select system call. Values of 0 and -1
yield the appropriate warning and error messages. Values greater than 0 mean that we have data
pending on one or more file descriptors.

To determine which file descriptor(s) have pending input, we use the FD_ISSET macro to test
the input set for each file descriptor. If the file descriptor flag is set then the condition exists
(input pending in this case) and we need to do something.

Using SELECT with the X Intrinsics Library

The X Intrinsics library provides an interface to the select system call via the XtAppAddInput(3x)
and XtAppRemoveInput(3x) functions:

int XtAppAddInput(XtAppContext context, int fd, int mask,

XtInputProc proc, XtPointer data);
void XtAppRemoveInput(XtAppContext context, int input);

The select system call is used internally to implement timeouts, work procedures, and check for
input from the X server. These functions can be used with any Xt-based toolkit including Xaw,
Lesstif, and Motif.

The proc argument to XtAppAddInput specifies the function to call when the selected condition
(e.g. input available) exists on the file descriptor. In the previous example you could specify the
process_fd or process_socket functions.

Because Xt limits your access to the select system call, you'll need to implement timeouts
through another mechanism, probably via XtAppAddTimeout(3x).

32 | P a g e
Appendix A, Pinouts
This appendix provides pinout information for many of the common serial ports you will find.

RS-232 Pinouts

RS-232 comes in three flavors (A, B, C) and uses a 25-pin D-Sub connector:

Figure 2 - RS-232 Connector

Pin Description Pin Description

1 Earth Ground 14 Secondary TXD

2 TXD - Transmitted Data 15 Transmit Clock

3 RXD - Received Data 16 Secondary RXD

4 RTS - Request To Send 17 Receiver Clock

5 CTS - Clear To Send 18 Unassigned

6 DSR - Data Set Ready 19 Secondary RTS

7 GND - Logic Ground 20 DTR - Data Terminal Ready

8 DCD - Data Carrier Detect 21 Signal Quality Detect

9 Reserved 22 Ring Detect

10 Reserved 23 Data Rate Select

11 Unassigned 24 Transmit Clock

12 Secondary DCD 25 Unassigned

13 Secondary CTS

Table 12 - RS-232 Signals

33 | P a g e
RS-422 Pinouts

RS-422 also uses a 25-pin D-Sub connector, but with differential signals:

Figure 3 - RS-422 Connector

Pin Description Pin Description

1 Earth Ground 14 TXD+

2 TXD- - Transmitted Data 15 Transmit Clock-

3 RXD- - Received Data 16 RXD+

4 RTS- - Request To Send 17 Receiver Clock-

5 CTS- - Clear To Send 18 Unassigned

6 DSR - Data Set Ready 19 RTS+

7 GND - Logic Ground 20 DTR- - Data Terminal Ready

8 DCD- - Data Carrier Detect 21 Signal Quality Detect

9 Reserved 22 Unassigned

10 Reserved 23 DTR+

11 Unassigned 24 Transmit Clock+

12 DCD+ 25 Receiver Clock+

13 CTS+

Table 13 - RS-422 Signals

34 | P a g e
RS-574 (IBM PC/AT) Pinouts

The RS-574 interface is used exclusively by PC manufacturers and uses a 9-pin male D-Sub
connector:

Figure 4 - RS-574 Connector

Pin Description Pin Description

1 DCD - Data Carrier Detect 6 Data Set Ready

2 RXD - Received Data 7 RTS - Request To Send

3 TXD - Transmitted Data 8 CTS - Clear To Send

4 DTR - Data Terminal Ready 9 Ring Detect

5 GND - Logic Ground

Table 14 - RS-574 (IBM PC/AT) Signals

SGI Pinouts

Older SGI equipment uses a 9-pin female D-Sub connector. Unlike RS-574, the SGI pinouts
nearly match those of RS-232:

Figure 5 - SGI 9-Pin Connector

Pin Description Pin Description

1 Earth Ground 6 DSR - Data Set Ready

2 TXD - Transmitted Data 7 GND - Logic Ground

3 RXD - Received Data 8 DCD - Data Carrier Detect

35 | P a g e
 4 RTS - Request To Send 9 DTR - Data Terminal Ready

5 CTS - Clear To Send

Table 15 - SGI 9-Pin DSUB Signals

The SGI Indigo, Indigo2, and Indy workstations use the Apple 8-pin MiniDIN connector for
their serial ports:

Figure 6 - SGI 8-Pin Connector

Pin Description Pin Description

1 DTR - Data Terminal Ready 5 RXD - Received Data

2 CTS - Clear To Send 6 RTS - Request To Send

3 TXD - Transmitted Data 7 DCD - Data Carrier Detect

4 GND - Logic Ground 8 GND - Logic Ground

Table 16 - SGI 8-Pin MiniDIN Signals

36 | P a g e
Appendix B, ASCII Control Codes
This chapter lists the ASCII control codes and their names.

Control Codes
The following ASCII characters are used for control purposes:

Name Binary Octal Decimal Hexadecimal

NUL 00000000 000 0 00
SOH 00000001 001 1 01
STX 00000010 002 2 02
ETX 00000011 003 3 03
EOT 00000100 004 4 04
ENQ 00000101 005 5 05
ACK 00000110 006 6 06
BEL 00000111 007 7 07
BS 00001000 010 8 08
HT 00001001 011 9 09
NL 00001010 012 10 0A
VT 00001011 013 11 0B
NP, FF 00001100 014 12 0C
Table 17 - ASCII Control Codes tabs 1

Name Binary Octal Decimal Hexadecimal

CR 00001101 015 13 0D
SO 00001110 016 14 0E
SI 00001111 017 15 0F
DLE 00010000 020 16 10
XON, DC1 00010001 021 17 11
DC2 00010010 022 18 12
XOFF, DC3 00010011 023 19 13
DC4 00010100 024 20 14
NAK 00010101 025 21 15
SYN 00010110 026 22 16
ETB 00010111 027 23 17
CAN 00011000 030 24 18
EM 00011001 031 25 19
SUB 00011010 032 26 1A
ESC 00011011 033 27 1B
FS 00011100 034 28 1C
GS 00011101 035 29 1D
RS 00011110 036 30 1E
US 00011111 037 31 1F
Table 18 - ASCII Control Codes tabs 2

37 | P a g e
Appendix C, GNU Free Documentation
License
Version 1.2, November 2002

Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

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38 | P a g e
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39 | P a g e
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copying in other respects.

If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first
ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent
pages.

If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must
either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or
with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using
public has access to download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent
copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take
reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure
that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year
after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of
that edition to the public.

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It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before
redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated
version of the Document.

4. MODIFICATIONS

You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of
sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this
License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution
and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you
must do these things in the Modified Version:

 A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the
Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed
in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version
if the original publisher of that version gives permission.

 B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for
authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the
principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five),
unless they release you from this requirement.

 C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the
publisher.

 D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.

 E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other
copyright notices.

 F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public
permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown
in the Addendum below.

 G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover
Texts given in the Document's license notice.

 H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.

 I. Preserve the section Entitled "History", Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at
least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the
Title Page. If there is no section Entitled "History" in the Document, create one stating the
title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an
item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.

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  J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a
Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the
Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the "History"
section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years
before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives
permission.

 K. For any section Entitled "Acknowledgements" or "Dedications", Preserve the Title of

the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the
contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.

 L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their
titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.

 M. Delete any section Entitled "Endorsements". Such a section may not be included in the
Modified Version.

 N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled "Endorsements" or to conflict in title

with any Invariant Section.

 O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as
Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option
designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of
Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice. These titles must be distinct from any
other section titles.

You may add a section Entitled "Endorsements", provided it contains nothing but endorsements
of your Modified Version by various parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the
text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.

You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25
words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only
one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through
arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the
same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting
on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission
from the previous publisher that added the old one.

The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use
their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

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5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the
terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the
combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list
them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve
all their Warranty Disclaimers.

The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant
Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the
same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end
of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else
a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections
in the license notice of the combined work.

In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled "History" in the various original
documents, forming one section Entitled "History"; likewise combine any sections Entitled
"Acknowledgements", and any sections Entitled "Dedications". You must delete all sections
Entitled "Endorsements."

6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this
License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single
copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for
verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.

You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under
this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow
this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents
or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an "aggregate" if the
copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation's
users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate,
this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves
derivative works of the Document.

If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if
the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be
placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of
covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that
bracket the whole aggregate.

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8. TRANSLATION

Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the

Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires
special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all
Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may
include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any
Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License
and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the
translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version
will prevail.

If a section in the Document is Entitled "Acknowledgements", "Dedications", or "History", the

requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual
title.

9. TERMINATION

You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided
for under this License. Any other attempt to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document
is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties who
have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will not have their licenses
terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance.

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free
Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the
present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.

Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies
that a particular numbered version of this License "or any later version" applies to it, you have
the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later
version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the
Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever
published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.

How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the
document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

Copyright (c) YEAR YOUR NAME.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;

44 | P a g e
 with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled
"GNU
Free Documentation License".

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the
"with...Texts." line with this:

with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the
Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three,
merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these
examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public
License, to permit their use in free software.

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Appendix D, Change History
This appendix lists the changes that have been made in this edition.

Edition 5, Revision 6
The following changes were made for the 6th revision:
 The select() example did not correctly use the FD macros.
 The title page and this appendix were not properly updated.

Edition 5, Revision 5
The following changes were made for the 5th revision:
 The select() documentation did not correctly describe the FD macros.
 Appendix C was missing the "how to use" part of the GNU FDL.

Edition 5, Revision 4
The following changes were made for the 4th revision:
 Changed the description of the read() system call semantics in chapter 1.
 Added descriptions for VSTART and VSTOP to chapter 2.

Edition 5, Revision 3
The following changes were made for the 3rd revision:
 Now use the GNU Free Documentation License for the guide.
 Changed the examples to use the Linux serial port filenames.
 Put the infrastructure in place to allow for easier translations of the guide.
 The guide text is now fully justified.

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Source
The above document was found at: http://www.easysw.com/%7Emike/serial/serial.html

For the layout please contact: [email protected]

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