Contiki with Tmote data I/O - file

Here I have a Tmote Sky node. And I have printf the RSSI on the terminal. Now I want to store these RSSI data to my computer. I have tried cfs which is used to operate the external flash of a node. So how can I save the data to my computer with contiki.

/platform/sky/Makefile.common provides a target serialdump, which will also print the output to a file named serialdump-<current time>. Therefore you want to tun make serialdump TARGET=sky.
Or do you want to get the data from the external flash? In that case you need to add a function that dumps the file contents to the serial (e.g. when pushing the button or sending a special command via serial). You can then save that output to a file.

Related

How to allow simultaneous reading/writing of a file?

I am new in programming C language, but I have to do a project with three micro-controllers, each using a bluetooth device. The micro-controllers have to access a text file on my computer where they update their activity in order to have one of them measuring temperature (Activity1), another controlling a motor (Activity2) and the other waiting (Activity3) or doing something else (Activity4), but not two of them doing the same activity.
I need to program "something" to make this file available to all micro-controllers. For instance, the text file shows:
Line 1- Activity1 //for micro1
Line 2- Activity3 //for micro2
Line 3- Activity2 //for micro3
After some event, micro1 had to change its activity and update the file
Line 1- Activity4 //for micro1
Line 2- Activity3 //for micro2
Line 3- Activity2 //for micro3
Here, micro1 only have the Activity4 as a free choice to change, but it knew that through reading the file.
I need you tell me what is that "something"? Do I need a server?

Retrieve data from COM port using a batch file

I'm trying to automatically retrieve data from a COM port using a batch file.
I'm able to configure the com port and to send the command in other to ask my device for the info.
The problem is that I'm not able to capture the data that the device sends. I've tried with RealTerm and the device is working and sends the info back to the pc, but I really need the batch file to do it automatically, here is the code:
echo off
MODE COMxx ...
COPY retrievecommand.txt \\\\.\COMxx:
COPY \\\\.\COMxx: data.txt
Any suggestions?
Use the TYPE command in a recursive loop using the DOS GOTO command to a DOS LABEL. Use 'append output' to capture text like TYPE COM1:>>Data.txt The double > means continually concatenate (or append) to Data.txt. A single > or 'redirect output' would replace the text in Data.txt every loop (if com data present on port). Add a 2nd line that redirects to the monitor screen so you can watch activity too (i.e. TYPE COM1:>CON [CON means console or monitor screen but you can omit it as console is default anyway])
Control-Z is not needed by TYPE command. It will just dump text continually until operator does a Control-C and then a Y to break the loop. You really don't need to stop the loop unless you are done with the batch file all together. The Data.txt file will be available to other programs live and will not present a 'Sharing Violation' if you try to access it with another program like NOTEPAD.EXE while this batch file is still looping.
Also if you make a 3rd line in the batch file that says TYPE COM1:>Data1.txt [notice only one redirect], you will have a single line of instant text that will disappear with next iteration. But sometimes that is helpful if you need only one line of data. There are creative ways to extract one line of data to another text file using the DOS FIND command.
When reading, the COPY command will continue until it detects the end of file. As the source is a device (with a potentially infinite stream) it only knows to stop when it detects an end of file marker. This is the Ctrl-Z (0x1A) character.
The suggestion in the duplicate question of using the TYPE command to read is likely to result in the same problem.
There is no standard mechanism to read a single line. If you can port your application to PowerShell, you should be able to read single lines with the results you expect.

How to get modified data from a file in linux?

I am designing a logger plugin for my tool.I have a busybox syslog on a target board, and i want to get syslog data from it so i can forward to my host(not via remote port forwarding of syslog) via my own communication framework.Initially i had made use of syslog's ability to forward messages it receives to a named pipe but this only works via a patch addition which is not feasible in my case.So now my idea is to write a configuration file in syslog to forward all log messages it receives to a file and track the file to get my data.I can use tail function to monitor my file changes but my busybox tail does not support "--follow" option since syslog performs logrotate which causes "tail -f" to fail.And also i am not sure if this is a good method to do it.So what i wanted to ask is there another way in which i can get modified data from a file.I can use inotify, but that can only be used to track file changes.So is there a way to do this?
You could try the "diff" utility (or git-diff, which has more facilities).
You may write a script/program which can receive an inotify event. And the script reopens the file and starts to read till EOF, from the previously saved last read file position.

Safely writing to and reading from the same file with multiple processes on Linux and Mac OS X

I have three processes designed to run constantly in both Linux and Mac OS X environments. One process (the Downloader) downloads and stores a local copy of a large XML file every 30 seconds. Two other processes (the Workers) use the stored XML file for input. Each Worker starts and runs at random times. Since the XML file is big, it takes a long time to download. The Workers also take a long time to read and parse it.
What is the safest way to setup the processes so the Downloader doesn't clobber the stored file while the Workers are trying to read it?
For Linux and Mac OS X machines that use inode based file systems, use temporary files to store the data while its being downloaded (and is an incomplete state). Once the download is complete, move the temporary file into its final location with an atomic action.
For a little more detail, there are two main things to watch out for when one process (e.g. Downloader) writes a file that's actively read by other processes (e.g. Workers):
Make sure the Workers don't try to read the file before the Downloader has finished writing it.
Make sure the Downloader doesn't alter the file while the Workers are reading it.
Using temporary files accommodates both of these points.
For a more specific example, when the Downloader is actively pulling the XML file, have it write to a temporary location (e.g. 'data-storage.tmp') on the same device/disk* where the final file will be stored. Once the file is completely downloaded and written, have the Downloader move it to its final location (e.g. 'data-storage.xml') via an atomic (aka linearizable) rename command like bash's mv.
* Note that the reason the temporary file needs to be on the same device as the final file location is to ensure the inode number stays the same and the rename can be done atomically.
This methodology ensures that while the file is being downloaded/written the Workers won't see it since it's in the .tmp location. Because of the way renaming works with inodes, it also make sure that any Worker that opened the file continues to see the old content even if a new version of the data-storage file is put in place.
Downloader will point 'data-storage.xml' to a new inode number when it does the rename, but the Worker will continue to access 'data-storage.xml' from the previous inode number thereby continuing to work with the file in that state. At the same time, any Worker that opens a new copy 'data-storage.xml' after Downloader has done the rename will see contents from the new inode number since it's now what is referenced directly in the file system. So, two Workers can be reading from the same filename (data-storage.xml) but each will see a different (and complete) version of the contents of the file based on which inode the filename was pointed to when the file was first opened.
To see this in action, I created a simple set of example scripts that demonstrate this functionality on github. They can also be used to test/verify that using a temporary file solution works in your environment.
An important note is that it's the file system on the particular device that matters. If you are using a Linux or Mac machine but working with a FAT file system (for example, a usb thumb drive), this method won't work.

Fake directory containing png informations

As we all know we can have /dev/video0 as a directory for receiving the output of a webcam.
Is it possible to create a fake /dev/something directory through a C program and continuously output there the contents of some created png files in order to create a fake webcam for example?
I will then read the live stream for an other application.
Thanks.
If all you need is a place in the filesystem where some application can read some specific data, use mkfifo to create it.
Then you can write a producer that writes whatever you need at whatever bitrate to it and have a consumer reading from it. If you output what the consumer expects, you might be able to get something that resembles a "live stream" of faked data.

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