NAME¶
rotctld - Hamlib TCP rotator control daemon
SYNOPSIS¶
rotctld [
OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION¶
The
rotctld program is an NEW
Hamlib rotator control daemon ready
for testing that handles client requests via TCP sockets. This allows multiple
user programs to share one rotator (this needs testing), except on Win32 where
pthreads are not available. Multiple rotators can be controlled on different
TCP ports by use of multiple
rotctld processes. The syntax of the
commands are the same as
rotctl. It is hoped that
rotctld will
be especially useful for client authors using languages such as Perl, Python,
PHP, and others.
rotctld communicates to a client through a TCP socket using text commands
shared with
rotctl. The protocol is simple, commands are sent to
rotctld on one line and
rotctld responds to "get"
commands with the requested values, one per line, when successful, otherwise,
it responds with one line "RPRT x", where x is a negative number
indicating the error code. Commands that do not return values respond with the
line "RPRT x", where x is zero when successful, otherwise is a
regative number indicating the error code. Each line is terminated with a
newline '\n' character. This protocol is primarily for use by the
NET
rotctl (rot model 2) backend.
A separate
Extended Response protocol extends the above behavior by
echoing the received command string as a header, any returned values as a key:
value pair, and the "RPRT x" string as the end of response marker
which includes the
Hamlib success or failure value. See the
PROTOCOL section for details. Consider using this protocol for clients
that will interact with
rotctld directly through a TCP socket.
Keep in mind that
Hamlib is BETA level software. While a lot of backend
libraries lack complete rotator support, the basic functions are usually well
supported. The API may change without publicized notice, while an advancement
of the minor version (e.g. 1.1.x to 1.2.x) indicates such a change.
Please report bugs and provide feedback at the e-mail address given in the
REPORTING BUGS section. Patches and code enhancements are also welcome.
OPTIONS¶
This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options
starting with two dashes ('-').
Here is a summary of the supported options:
- -m, --model=id
- Select rotator model number. See -l, "list" option below.
- -r, --rot-file=device
- Use device as the file name of the port the rotator is connected.
Often a serial port, but could be a USB to serial adapter or USB port
device. Typically /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1, /dev/ttyUSB0, etc. on Linux or
COM1, COM2, etc. on Win32.
- -s, --serial-speed=baud
- Set serial speed to baud rate. Uses maximum serial speed from rotor
backend capabilities (set by -m above) as the default.
- -T, --listen-addr=IPADDR
- Use IPADDR as the listening IP address. The default is ANY.
N.B.: This option seems mandatory on Win32, eg: -T 127.0.0.1
- -t, --port=number
- Use number as the TCP listening port. The default is 4533.
N.B.: As rigctld's default port is 4532, it is advisable to
use odd numbered ports for rotctld, e.g. 4533, 4535, 4537, etc.
N.B.: This option seems mandatory on Win32, eg: -t 4533
- -L, --show-conf
- List all config parameters for the rotator defined with -m above.
- -C, --set-conf=parm=val[,parm=val]*
- Set config parameter. e.g. --set-conf=stop_bits=2
Use -L option for a list.
- -l, --list
- List all model numbers defined in Hamlib and exit. As of 1.2.15.1
the list is sorted by model number.
N.B. In Linux the list can be scrolled back using Shift-PageUp/
Shift-PageDown, or using the scrollbars of a virtual terminal in X or the
cmd window in Windows. The output can be piped to 'more' or 'less', e.g.
'rotctld -l | more'.
- -u, --dump-caps
- Dump capabilities for the radio defined with -m above and exit.
- -e, --end-marker
- Use END marker in rotctld protocol.
N.B.: This option should be considered obsolete. Please consider using the
Extended Response protocol instead (see PROTOCOL below). This
option will be removed in a future Hamlib release.
- -v, --verbose
- Set verbose mode, cumulative (see DIAGNOSTICS below).
- -h, --help
- Show a summary of these options and exit.
- -V, --version
- Show the version of rotctld and exit.
N.B. Some options may not be implemented by a given backend and will
return an error. This is most likely to occur with the
--set-conf and
--show-conf options.
Please note that the backend for the rotator to be controlled, or the rotator
itself may not support some commands. In that case, the operation will fail
with a
Hamlib error code.
COMMANDS¶
Commands can be sent over the TCP socket either as a single char, or as a long
command name plus the value(s) space separated on one '\n' terminated line.
See
PROTOCOL.
Since most of the
Hamlib operations have a
set and a
get
method, an upper case letter will be used for
set methods whereas the
corresponding lower case letter refers to the
get method. Each
operation also has a long name; prepend a backslash to send a long command
name.
Example (Perl): `print $socket "\\dump_caps\n";' to see what the
rotor's backend can do (NOTE: In Perl and many other languages a '\' will need
to be escaped with a preceding '\' so that even though two backslash
characters appear in the code, only one will be passed to
rotctld. This
is a possible bug, beware!).
Please note that the backend for the rotator to be controlled, or the rotator
itself may not support some commands. In that case, the operation will fail
with a
Hamlib error message.
Here is a summary of the supported commands (In the case of "set"
commands the quoted string is replaced by the value in the description. In the
case of "get" commands the quoted string is the key name of the
value returned.):
- P, set_pos 'Azimuth' 'Elevation'
- Set position: Azimuth and Elevation as double precision floating point
values.
- p, get_pos
- Get position: 'Azimuth' and 'Elevation' as double precision floating point
values.
- M, move 'Direction' 'Speed'
- Move the rotator in a specific direction at the given rate.
Values are integers where Direction is defined as 2 = Up, 4 = Down, 8 =
Left, and 16 = Right. Speed is an integer between 1 and 100. Not all
backends that implement the move command use the Speed value. At this time
only the gs232a utilizes the Speed parameter.
- S, stop
- Stop the rotator.
- K, park
- Park the antenna.
- C, set_conf 'Token' 'Value'
- Set Token to Value.
Backend dependent. Needs testing.
- R, reset 'Reset'
- Reset the rotator.
Integer value of '1' for Reset All.
- _, get_info
- Get misc information about the rotator.
At the moment returns 'Model Name'.
- w, send_cmd 'Cmd'
- Send raw command string to rotator.
For binary protocols enter values as \0xAA\0xBB. Expect a 'Reply' from the
rotator which will likely be a binary block or an ASCII string.
Locator Commands
These commands offer conversions of Degrees Minutes Seconds to other formats,
Maidenhead square locator conversions and distance and azimuth conversions.
- L, lonlat2loc 'Longitude' 'Latitude' 'Loc Len [2-12]'
- Returns the Maidenhead locator for the given 'Longitude' and 'Latitude'.
Both are floating point values. The precision of the returned square is
controlled by 'Loc Len' which should be an even numbered integer value
between 2 and 12.
For example, "+L -170.000000 -85.000000 12\n" returns
"Locator: AA55AA00AA00\n".
- l, loc2lonlat 'Locator'
- Returns 'Longitude' and 'Latitude' in decimal degrees at the approximate
center of the requested grid square (despite the use of double precision
variables internally, some rounding error occurs). West longitude is
expressed as a negative value. South latitude is expressed as a negative
value. Locator can be from 2 to 12 characters in length.
For example, "+l AA55AA00AA00\n" returns "Longitude:
-169.999983\nLatitude: -84.999991\n".
- D, dms2dec 'Degrees' 'Minutes' 'Seconds' 'S/W'
- Returns 'Dec Degrees', a signed floating point value.
Degrees and Minutes are integer values and Seconds is a floating point
value. S/W is a flag with '1' indicating South latitude or West longitude
and '0' North or East (the flag is needed as computers don't recognize a
signed zero even though only the Degrees value only is typically signed in
DMS notation).
- d, dec2dms 'Dec Degrees'
- Returns 'Degrees' 'Minutes' 'Seconds' 'S/W'.
Values are as in dms2dec above.
- E, dmmm2dec 'Degrees' 'Dec Minutes' 'S/W'
- Returns 'Dec Degrees', a signed floating point value.
Degrees is an integer value and Minutes is a floating point value. S/W is a
flag with '1' indicating South latitude or West longitude and '0' North or
East (the flag is needed as computers don't recognize a signed zero even
though only the Degrees value only is typically signed in DMS
notation).
- e, dec2dmmm 'Dec Deg'
- Returns 'Degrees' 'Minutes' 'S/W'.
Values are as in dmmm2dec above.
- B, qrb 'Lon 1' 'Lat 1' 'Lon 2' 'Lat 2'
- Returns 'Distance' 'Azimuth' where Distance is in km and Azimuth is in
degrees.
All Lon/Lat values are signed floating point numbers.
- A, a_sp2a_lp 'Short Path Deg'
- Returns 'Long Path Deg' or -RIG_EINVAL upon input error..
Both are floating point values within the range 0.00 to 360.00.
- a, d_sp2d_lp 'Short Path km'
- Returns 'Long Path km'.
Both are floating point values.
PROTOCOL¶
Default Protocol
The
rotctld protocol is intentionally simple. Commands are entered on a
single line with any needed values. In Perl, reliable results are obtained by
terminating each command string with a newline character, '\n'.
Example
set (Perl code):
print $socket "P 135 10\n";
print $socket "\\set_pos 135 10\n"; # escape leading '\'
A one line response will be sent as a reply to
set commands, "RPRT
x\n" where
x is the Hamlib error code with '0' indicating
success of the command.
Responses from
rotctld get commands are text values and match the
same tokens used in the
set commands. Each value is returned on its own
line. On error the string "RPRT
x\n" is returned where
x is the Hamlib error code.
Example
get (Perl code):
print $socket "p\n";
"135"
"10"
Most
get functions return one to three values. A notable exception is the
\dump_caps function which returns many lines of key:value pairs.
This protocol is primarily used by the
NET rotctl (rotctl model 2)
backend which allows applications already written for Hamlib's C API to take
advantage of
rotctld without the need of rewriting application code. An
application's user can select rotor model 2 ("NET rotctl") and then
set rot_pathname to "localhost:4533" or other network host:port (set
by the
-t option above).
Extended Response Protocol
An
EXPERIMENTAL Extended Response protocol has been introduced into
rotctld as of February 10, 2010. This protocol adds several rules to
the strings returned by
rotctld and adds a rule for the command syntax.
1. The command received by
rotctld is echoed with its long command name
followed by the value(s) (if any) received from the client terminated by the
specified response separator as the first record of the response.
2. The last record of each block is the string "RPRT
x\n" where
x is the numeric return value of the Hamlib backend function that was
called by the command.
3. Any records consisting of data values returned by the rotor backend are
prepended by a string immediately followed by a colon then a space and then
the value terminated by the response separator. e.g. "Azimuth:
90.000000\n" when the command was prepended by '+'.
4. All commands received will be acknowledged by
rotctld with records
from rules 1 and 2. Records from rule 3 are only returned when data values
must be returned to the client.
An example response to a
+P command command sent from the shell prompt
(note the prepended '+'):
$ echo "+P 90 45" | nc -w 1 localhost 4533
set_pos: 90 45
RPRT 0
In this case the long command name and values are returned on the first line and
the second line contains the end of block marker and the numeric rig backend
return value indicating success.
An example response to a
+\get_pos query:
$ echo "+\get_pos" | nc -w 1 localhost 4533
get_pos:
Azimuth: 90.000000
Elevation: 45.000000
RPRT 0
In this case, as no value is passed to
rotctld, the first line consists
only of the long command name. The final line shows that the command was
processed successfully by the rotor backend.
Invoking the Extended Response protocol requires prepending a command with a
punctuation character. As shown in the examples above, prepending a '+'
character to the command results in the responses being separated by a newline
character ('\n'). Any other punctuation character recognized by the C
ispunct() function except '\', '?', or '_' will cause that character to
become the response separator and the entire response will be on one line.
Separator character summary:
- '+'
-
Each record of the response is appended with a newline ('\n').
- ';', '|', or ','
-
Each record of the response is appended by the given character resulting in
entire response on one line.
Common record separators for text representations of spreadsheet data,
etc.
- '?'
-
Reserved for 'help' in rotctl short command
- '_'
-
Reserved for \get_info short command
- '#'
-
Reserved for comments when reading a command file script
Other punctuation characters have not been tested! Use at your own
risk.
For example, invoking a
;\get_pos query with a leading ';' returns:
get_pos:;Azimuth: 90.000000;Elevation: 45.000000;RPRT 0
Or, using the pipe character '|' returns:
get_pos:|Azimuth: 90.000000|Elevation: 45.000000|RPRT 0
And a \set_pos command prepended with a '|' returns:
set_pos: 135 22.5|RPRT 0
Such a format will allow reading a response as a single event using a preferred
response separator. Other punctuation characters have not been tested!
All commands with the exception of
\set_conf have been tested with the
Extended Response protocol and the included
testrotctld.pl script.
EXAMPLES¶
Start
rotctld for a Ham IV rotor with the RotorEZ installed using a
USB-to-serial adapter and backgrounding on Linux:
$ rotctld -m 401 -r /dev/ttyUSB1 &
Start
rotctld for RotorEZ using COM3 on Win32:
C:\> rotctld -m 401 -r COM3 -T 127.0.0.1 -t 4533
Connect to the already running
rotctld, and set position to 135.0 degrees
azimuth and 30.0 degrees elevation with a 1 second read timeout from the shell
prompt:
$ echo "\set_pos 135.0 30.0" | nc -w 1 localhost 4533
Connect to a running
rotctld with
rotctl on the local host on
POSIX:
$ rotctl -m2
and on Win32:
C:\> rotctl -m 2 -r 127.0.0.1:4533
DIAGNOSTICS¶
The
-v,
--version option allows different levels of diagnostics to
be output to
stderr and correspond to -v for BUG, -vv for ERR, -vvv for
WARN, -vvvv for VERBOSE, or -vvvvv for TRACE.
A given verbose level is useful for providing needed debugging information to
the email address below. For example, TRACE output shows all of the values
sent to and received from the rotator which is very useful for rotator backend
library development and may be requested by the developers. See the
README.betatester and
README.developer files for more
information.
SECURITY¶
No authentication whatsoever; DO NOT leave this TCP port open wide to the
Internet. Please ask if stronger security is needed or consider using an SSH
tunnel.
As
rotctld does not need any greater permissions than
rotctl, it
is advisable to not start
rotctld as
root or another system user
account in order to limit any vulnerability.
BUGS¶
The daemon is not detaching and backgrounding itself.
Much testing needs to be done.
REPORTING BUGS¶
Report bugs to <hamlib-developer@lists.sourceforge.net>.
We are already aware of the bugs in the previous section :-)
AUTHORS¶
Written by Stephane Fillod, Nate Bargmann, and the Hamlib Group
<
http://www.hamlib.org>.
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright © 2000-2009 Stephane Fillod
Copyright © 2011-2012 Nate Bargmann
Copyright © 2000-2009 the Hamlib Group.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
SEE ALSO¶
rotctl(1),
hamlib(3)