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tio(1) User Commands tio(1)

NAME

tio - a simple serial device I/O tool

SYNOPSIS

tio [<options>] <tty-device|sub-config>

DESCRIPTION

tio is a simple serial device tool which features a straightforward command-line and configuration file interface to easily connect to serial TTY devices for basic I/O operations.

OPTIONS

Set baud rate [bps] (default: 115200).

Set data bits (default: 8).

Set flow control (default: none).

Set stop bits (default: 1).

Set parity (default: none).

Note: With mark parity the parity bit is always 0. With space parity the parity bit is always 1. Not all platforms support mark and space parity.

Set output delay [ms] inserted between each sent character (default: 0).

Set output delay [ms] inserted between each sent line (default: 0).

Set the pulse duration [ms] of each serial port line using the following key value pair format in the duration field: <key>=<value>

Each key represents a serial line. The following keys are available:

Data Terminal Ready
Request To Send
Clear To Send
Data Set Ready
Data Carrier Detect
Ring Indicator

If defining more than one key value pair, the pairs must be comma separated.

The default pulse duration for each line is 100 ms.

Disable automatic connect.

By default tio automatically connects to the provided device if present. If the device is not present, it will wait for it to appear and then connect. If the connection is lost (eg. device disconnects), it will wait for the device to reappear and then reconnect.

However, if the --no-autoconnect option is provided, tio will exit if the device is not present or an established connection is lost.

Enable local echo.

Enable line timestamp.

--timestamp-format <format>

Set timestamp format to any of the following timestamp formats:

24hour
24-hour format ("hh:mm:ss.sss")
24hour-start
24-hour format relative to start time
24hour-delta
24-hour format relative to previous timestamp
ISO8601 format ("YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sss")

Default format is 24hour

List available serial devices by ID.

Enable log to file.

If no filename is provided the filename will be automatically generated.

--log-file <filename>

Set log filename.

--log-strip

Strip control characters and escape sequences from log.

Map (replace, translate) characters on input or output. The following mapping flags are supported:

Map CR to NL on input (unless IGNCR is set)
Ignore CR on input
Map NL to CR on input
Map NL to CR-NL on input
Map CR to NL on output
Map DEL to BS on output
Map NL to CR-NL on output
Map lowercase characters to uppercase on output
Map MSB bit order to LSB on output

If defining more than one flag, the flags must be comma separated.

Enable hexadecimal mode.

Colorize tio text using ANSI color code value ranging from 0 to 255 or use "none" for no color or use "bold" to apply bold formatting to existing system color.

Use "list" to print a list of available ANSI color codes.

Default value is "bold".

Redirect I/O to socket.

Any input from clients connected to the socket is sent on the serial port as if entered at the terminal where tio is running (except that ctrl-t sequences are not recognized), and any input from the serial port is multiplexed to the terminal and all connected clients.

Sockets remain open while the serial port is disconnected, and writes will block.

Various socket types are supported using the following prefixes in the socket field:

Unix Domain Socket (file)
Internet Socket (network)
Internet IPv6 Socket (network)

If port is 0 or no port is provided default port 3333 is used.

At present there is a hardcoded limit of 16 clients connected at one time.

Wait for line response then quit. A line is considered any string ending with either CR or NL character. If no line is received tio will quit after response timeout.

Any tio text is automatically muted when piping a string to tio while in response mode to make it easy to parse the response.

Set timeout [ms] of line response (default: 100).

Enable RS-485 mode.

Set the RS-485 configuration using the following key or key value pair format in the configuration field:

Set logical level (0 or 1) for RTS pin when sending
Set logical level (0 or 1) for RTS pin after sending
Set RTS delay (ms) before sending
Set RTS delay (ms) after sending
Receive data even while sending data

If defining more than one key or key value pair, they must be comma separated.

--alert none|bell|blink

Set alert action on connect/disconnect.

It will sound the bell once or blink once on successful connect. Likewise it will sound the bell twice or blink twice on disconnect.

Default value is "none".

Display program version.

Display help.

KEYS

List available key commands
Send serial break (triggers SysRq on Linux, etc.)
Show configuration (baudrate, databits, etc.)
Toggle local echo mode
Toggle log to file
Flush data I/O buffers (discard data written but not transmitted and data received but not read)
Toggle serial port line
Toggle hexadecimal mode
Clear screen
Show line states (DTR, RTS, CTS, DSR, DCD, RI)
Pulse serial port line
Quit
Show TX/RX statistics
Toggle line timestamp mode
Toggle conversion to uppercase on output
Show version
Send ctrl-t character

HEXADECIMAL MODE

In hexadecimal mode each incoming byte is printed out as a hexadecimal value.

Bytes can be sent in this mode by typing the two-character hexadecimal representation of the value, e.g.: to send 0xA you must type 0a or 0A.

CONFIGURATION FILE

Options can be set via configuration file using the INI format. tio uses the configuration file first found in the following locations in the order listed:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tio/config

$HOME/.config/tio/config

$HOME/.tioconfig

Labels can be used to group settings into named sub-configurations which can be activated from the command-line when starting tio.

tio will try to match the user input to a sub-configuration by name or by pattern to get the TTY device and other options.

Options without any label change the default options.

Any options set via command-line will override options set in the configuration file.

The following configuration file options are available:

Pattern matching user input. This pattern can be an extended regular expression with a single group.
TTY device to open. If it contains a "%s" it is substituted with the first group match.
Set baud rate
Set data bits
Set flow control
Set stop bits
Set parity
Set output character delay
Set output line delay
Set line pulse duration
Disable automatic connect
Enable log to file
Set log filename
Enable strip of control and escape sequences from log
Enable local echo
Enable line timestamp
Set timestamp format
Map characters on input or output
Colorize tio text using ANSI color code ranging from 0 to 255
Enable hexadecimal mode
Set socket to redirect I/O to
Set prefix ctrl key (a..z, default: t)
Enable wait for line response
Set line response timeout
Enable RS-485 mode
Set RS-485 configuration
Set alert action on connect/disconnect

CONFIGURATION FILE EXAMPLES

# Defaults
baudrate = 9600
databits = 8
parity = none
stopbits = 1
color = 10
line-pulse-duration = DTR=200,RTS=400

[rpi3]
device = /dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_TTL232R-3V3_FTGQVXBL-if00-port0
baudrate = 115200
color = 11

$ tio rpi3

$ tio -b 115200 -c 11 /dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_TTL232R-3V3_FTGQVXBL-if00-port0

[usb device]
pattern = usb([0-9]*)
device = /dev/ttyUSB%s
baudrate = 115200

$ tio usb12

$ tio -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB12

$ tio -l -t usb12

EXAMPLES

$ tio /dev/ttyUSB0

$ tio -b 115200 -d 8 -f none -s 1 -p none /dev/ttyUSB0

$ tio /dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_TTL232R-3V3_FTGQVXBL-if00-port0

Using serial devices by ID ensures that tio automatically reconnects to the correct serial device if it is disconnected and then reconnected.

$ tio -S unix:/tmp/tmux-socket0 /dev/ttyUSB0

$ echo "ls -la" | nc -UN /tmp/tmux-socket0 > /dev/null

#!/usr/bin/expect -f
set timeout -1
log_user 0
spawn nc -UN /tmp/tio-socket0
set uart $spawn_id
send -i $uart "date\n"
expect -i $uart "prompt> "
send -i $uart "ls -la\n"
expect -i $uart "prompt> "

$ tio --socket inet:4444 /dev/ttyUSB0

$ nc -N 10.0.0.42 4444

$ echo "ls -la" | tio /dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_TTL232R-3V3_FTGQVXBL-if00-port0

$ echo "*IDN?" | tio /dev/ttyACM0 --response-wait

$ cat data.bin | tio /dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_TTL232R-3V3_FTGQVXBL-if00-port0

$ tio --rs-485 --rs-485-config=RTS_ON_SEND=1,RX_DURING_TX /dev/ttyUSB0

WEBSITE

Visit https://tio.github.io

AUTHOR

Created by Martin Lund <martin.lund@keep-it-simple.com>.

2022-12-17 tio 2.5