# of Bytes at Serial Port Input Buffer - c

Question

New to C programming here so bear with me.. I wrote a program to write/read data to and from the serial port. Everything appears to be working except when I try to read the number of bytes available at the port that have been received. Here's my code (see the read_port function):
#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 */
#include <sys/ioctl.h> /* Serial Port IO Controls */
int fd; /* File descriptor for the port */
struct termios options_original; /* Original Serial Port Options */
int main()
{
fd = open_port();
flush_port();
write_port();
printf("FIONBIO value %d\n", FIONBIO);
usleep(2);
printf("FIONREAD value %d\n", FIONREAD);
read_port();
close_port();
}
/*
* open_port() - Open serial port 1.
*
* Returns the file descriptor on success or -1 on error
*/
int open_port(void)
{
struct termios options;
fd = open("/dev/ttyUSB0", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_NDELAY | O_NONBLOCK);
if (fd != -1)
{
printf("Serial Port Open\n");
fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, 0);
tcgetattr(fd, &options_original);
tcgetattr(fd, &options);
cfsetispeed(&options, B115200);
cfsetospeed(&options, B115200);
options.c_cflag |= (CLOCAL | CREAD); /* Enable the receiver and set local mode */
options.c_lflag &= ~(ICANON | ECHO | ECHOE | ISIG); /* Raw Input Mode */
tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &options); /* Set the new options for the port */
}
else
{
/* Could not open the port */
perror("open_port: Unable to open /dev/ttyUSB0 - ");
}
return (fd);
}
int close_port(void)
{
tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &options_original);
printf("Serial Port Closed\n");
close(fd);
}
int flush_port(void)
{
usleep(2); // required to make flush work, for some reason
printf("Flushing IO Buffers\n");
tcflush(fd, TCIOFLUSH);
}
int write_port(void)
{
int n = write(fd, "DSC", 3);
if (n < 0)
fputs("write() of 1 byte failed!\n", stderr);
else
printf("Wrote %0d bytes to serial port\n", n);
}
int read_port(void)
{
int chars_read = 3;
int bytes;
char read_buffer[3] = {0};
int i;
fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, 0);
ioctl(fd, FIONBIO, &bytes);
printf("Number of bytes = %d\n", bytes);
int n = read(fd, read_buffer, chars_read);
printf("Character at Port: %s\n", read_buffer);
printf("Number of chars read = %0d\n", n);
}
Here's the output:
Serial Port Open
Flushing IO Buffers
Wrote 3 bytes to serial port
FIONBIO value 21537
FIONREAD value 21531
Number of bytes = 0
Character at Port: DSC
Number of chars read = 3
Serial Port Closed
For some reason 'Number of bytes' always equals 0. I have no idea why. Is there something wrong with doing this?
int bytes;
ioctl(fd, FIONBIO, &bytes);
printf("Number of bytes = %d\n", bytes);
It's pretty much verbatim from this site:
http://www.cmrr.umn.edu/~strupp/serial.html#config
Am I missing or not understanding something?
BTW I'm just doing a simple loopback test here.

Answer 1

ioctl(fd, FIONBIO, ...) sets a file descriptor (e.g. a socket) into blocking or
non-blocking mode. What you probably meant is
ioctl(fd, FIONREAD, &bytes);
to get the number of bytes available in the input buffer (i.e. the number of bytes
that can be read without blocking.)