How to config ip address in embedded Linux? - c

I'm working on an embedded device running Linux (with BusyBox). I need to provide a command line tool to config static ip address. There are some limitations.
Using ifconfig won't do the job because it will get lost when
system rebooted.
With very limited resource, there's no GUI.
There is a vi text editor to modify Linux config file. But somehow that's not accepted either. Because the assumption is that the customers have no knowledge of how to use vi or deeper understanding to Linux. I need to provide a tool so that they can just press something like "ConfigMyIP 192.168.0.1 255.255.255.0" and the job is done.
Any idea how this can be done? (Using shell or C or both)

I came up with another solution myself. The general idea is to create a shell script that can config IP address in the system init directory. Here's the code:
#include <stdio>
#define MAXBUF 100
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
FILE* f;
char content[MAXBUF];
f = fopen("/etc/init.d/configip", "w+");
strcat("#!/bin/sh\n", content);
strcat("ifconfig ", content);
strcat(argv[1], content);
strcat(" ", content);
strcat(argv[2], content);
strcat(" up", content);
fwrite(content, 1, strlen(content) + 1, f);
fclose(f);
return 0;
}
When this program was executed with arguments like "192.168.0.1 255.255.255.0", it will generate a shell script in etc/init.d:
#!/bin/sh
ifconfig 192.168.0.1 255.255.255.0 up
The script will be loaded every time Linux boots up.

If I understand it well, the target runs BusyBox.
So why not add a custom applet to provide this "simple interface" allowing the user to modify permanently the corresponding configuration files?
I think this option could fit better than an external program with the very constrained environment you describe.

Why not write a program in the language of your choice that prompts the user to enter the required IP address? Then, copy the existing configuration file to a backup version and create a new configuration file by reading the backup version a line at a time.
If the line specifies the IP address, then discard it and write a new line the specifies the new IP address, otherwise just write the existing line.
If it's important that your customers enter the parameters from the command line, as shown in your question, then have a look at the documentation of the language of your choice to see haw to access command line arguments. If you're using C, then have look at the argc and argv arguments that are passed to main.

Related

How to open files from a NaCl Dev Environment application?

I'm trying to get a simple command line application to run in the NaCl Development Environment. But I don't understand why it doesn't want to open files:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ppapi_simple/ps_main.h>
int my_main (int argc, char ** argv) {
FILE * f = fopen ("out.txt","w");
if (f) {
fputs ("output to the file", f);
fclose(f);
} else {
puts("could not open file");
}
}
PPAPI_SIMPLE_REGISTER_MAIN(my_main)
Running:
bash.nmf-4.3$ gcc -I"$NACL_SDK_ROOT/include" test.c -lppapi_simple -lnacl_io -lppapi
bash.nmf-4.3$ ./a.out
could not open file
bash.nmf-4.3$
It's clearly possible for an application to open files in arbitrary locations within the dev environment - I'm using nano to edit the test code! But the naclports version of nano doesn't look like it's been changed in ways that are immediately connected to file manipulation..?
Lua is another app that appears to have only been modified very slightly. It falls somewhere in between, in that it can run test files but only if they're placed in /mnt/html5, and won't load them from the home folder. My test program shows no difference in behaviour if I change it to look in /mnt/html5 though.
NB. my goal here is to build a terminal application I can use within the dev environment alongside Lua and nano and so on, not a browser-based app - I assume that makes some difference to the file handling rules.
Programs run in the NaCl Dev Environment currently need to linked with -lcli_main (which in turn depends on -lnacl_spawn) for an entry point which understands how to communicate with the javascript "kernel" in naclprocess.js. They need this to know what current working directory they were run from, as well as to heard about mounted file systems.
Programs linked against just ppapi_simple can be run, but will not setup all the mount points the dev environment may expect.
There is a linker script in the dev env that simplifies linking a command line program -lmingn. For example the test program from the question can be compiled with:
gcc test.c -o test -lmingn
NOTE: This linker script had a recently resolved issue, a new version with the fix was published to the store on 5/5/2015.
In the near future, we have plans to simplify things further, by allowing main to be the entry point.
Thanks for pointing out the lua port lacks the new entry point!
I've filed an issue and will look into fixing it soon:
https://code.google.com/p/naclports/issues/detail?id=215
I found a solution to this, although I don't fully understand what it's doing. It turns out that the small changes made to nano are important, because they cause some other functions elsewhere in the NaCl libraries to get pulled in that correctly set up the environment for file handling.
If the above file is changed to:
#include <stdio.h>
int nacl_main (int argc, char ** argv) {
FILE * f = fopen ("out.txt","w");
if (f) {
fputs ("output to the file", f);
fclose(f);
} else {
puts("could not open file");
}
}
...and compiled with two more libraries:
gcc -I"$NACL_SDK_ROOT/include" test.c -lppapi_simple -lnacl_io -lppapi -lcli_main -lnacl_spawn
...then it will work as expected and write the file.
Instead of registering our own not-main function with PPAPI_SIMPLE_REGISTER_MAIN, pulling in cli_main causes it to do so with an internal function that sets some things up, presumably including what is needed for file writing to work, and expects to then be able to call nacl_main, which is left to the program to define with external visibility (several layers of fake-main stacking going on). This is why the changes to nano look so minimal.
nacl_spawn needs to be linked because cli_main uses it for ...something.

How to call same file as different name for different method?

I was recently at a presentation where one of the speakers stated that he'd used a single CGI file, written in C, that is called by the webserver, but the webserver calls the file by using different names, the CGI file would run a different method.
How can I have a single C file execute different functions within when it is called by different names? Also how do I re-direct the calls for differently named files back to this single file?
Is this possible or was he just full of himself?
If you create the executable with different names but with the same code base, you can take a different branch of the code based the name of the executable used to invoke the program.
Simple example file:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
int main1(int argc, char** argv)
{
printf("Came to main1.\n");
return 0;
}
int main2(int argc, char** argv)
{
printf("Came to main2.\n");
return 0;
}
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
// If the program was invoked using main1, go to main1
if (strstr(argv[0], "main1") != NULL )
{
return main1(argc-1, argv+1);
}
// If the program was invoked using main2, go to main2
if (strstr(argv[0], "main2") != NULL )
{
return main2(argc-1, argv+1);
}
// Don't know what to do.
return -1;
}
Create two different executables from the file.
cc test-262.c -o main1
cc test-262.c -o main2
Then, invoke the program by using the two different executables:
./main1
Output:
Came to main1.
and...
./main2
Output:
Came to main2.
Unix filesystems support the concept of hard and soft links. To create them just type:
ln origfile newfile
to create a hard link, or:
ln -s origfile newfile
to create a soft link.
Soft links are just a special kind of file that contains the path of another file. Most operations in the link transparently result in operating on the target file.
Hard links are lower level. In effect, all files are a link from the pathname to the content. In Unix you can link more than one pathname to the same content. In effect, there's no "original" and "links", all are links. When you delete a file, you're just removing a link, and when the link count goes to zero, the content is removed.
Many unix utilities do this trick. Since the running shell includes the name used to invoque the executable, it's handled just like the 0'th argument of the command line.
When a CGI script is being called by a web server, it receives a considerable amount of information in its environment to let it know how it was called, including:
SCRIPT_NAME, the path to the script from the document root
SCRIPT_FILENAME, the filesystem path to the script (usually the same as argv[0])
REQUEST_URI, the path that was requested by the browser (usually similar to SCRIPT_NAME in the absence of URL rewriting)
QUERY_STRING and PATH_INFO, which contain URL parameters following the script's name
HTTP_*, which contain most of the HTTP headers that were passed in the request
Point is, the script gets a lot of information about how it was called. It could be using any of those to make its decision.
It's possible and actually pretty common.
The first element in the argv array passed to the main function is the "name" of the executable. This can be the full path, or it can be just the last component of the path, or -- if the executable is started with an exec* function call, it can be an arbitrary string. (And Posix allows it to be a null string, as well, but in practice that's pretty rare.)
So there is nothing stopping the executable from looking at argv[0] (having first checked to make sure that argc > 0) and parsing it.
The most typical way to introduce a different name for the executable is to insert a filesystem link with the alternate name (which could be either a hard or a soft-link, but for maintainability soft links are more useful.)
For CGIs, it is not even necessary to examine argv[0], since there are various useful environment variables, including (at least): SCRIPT_NAME.

program doesnt work if called from another folder

In Command Prompt, this works: whatever\folder> bezier.exe
but this doesn't: whatever> folder\bezier.exe
My bezier program loads some settings from a local file, so I believe the problem is that the program thinks its directory is whatever\ when it is actually whatever\folder\. I'm calling it from within a C program using CreateProcess(). If I am correct in guessing the problem, is there any way to ensure the program has the right directory for itself?
the main method of bezier.exe:
int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
char buf[200];
FILE* f = fopen("out.txt","w");
GetCurrentDirectory(200,buf);
fprintf(f,buf);
fclose(f);
SDL_Surface* screen;
SDL_Event e;
SDL_Init(SDL_INIT_VIDEO);
screen = SDL_SetVideoMode(WIDTH, HEIGHT, 32, SDL_FULLSCREEN|SDL_HWSURFACE);
if (screen == NULL)
exit(-1);
SDL_ShowCursor(SDL_DISABLE);
srand(time(NULL));
loadColors(COLOR_FILE);
fill(screen, backColor);
initialiseVars();
while (e.type != SDL_KEYDOWN)
{
//do stuff
}
SDL_Quit();
return 0;
}
Here's the crazy part. With "..> folder\bezier.exe" it doesn't write its path, but it does start a new window. That doesn't make any sense to me, because SDL_SetVideoMode is after writing the path.
You can use GetModuleHandle and GetModuleFileName to find out where your execuatble file is, then use that information to create a file specification for your local settings file.
GetModuleHandle with a NULL argument will give you the handle for the current executable. Then, passing that to GetModuleFileName will give you the fully qualified name of that executable. Just strip off the executable filename from the end and add your configuration file name.
However, that's been a bad idea for a long time now, since Windows provides per-application and per-user settings areas for this sort of stuff - you can generally get those locations with SHGetFolderLocation() and its brethren.
Use the first method only if this is for a personal project. If you plan to release your software to the wild, you should separate executable and configuration information as per Microsoft guidelines.
Regardless of that, it appears you now have the problem that you think the file is not being written to. You need to check that. When you open that file out.txt for write, it does so in the current directory. If you're running in the parent directory (with folder\bezier.exe), it will create it in the parent directory and looking for it in the folder directory is a waste of time.
If you are looking in the directory where you're running the program from, and it's still not being created, there are possible reasons for this. For a start, you should check (ie, capture and output) the return codes from all those f* functions, fopen, fprintf and fclose.

Using popen() to open a program in command line?

Is it possible to open a program using another program? For example:
I want to make a command line application in C that will prompt the user to type in the name of a program (lets say Microsoft Word.app), and that program will launch. Would I do something like this:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
char programName[1000];
printf("Type in the name of the program you would like to open: ");
scanf("%s", programName);
popen(programName);
}
However, popen() asks me for another char. How would I go about using popen() to open the program?
EDIT: The following code works!
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
char programName[1000];
char app[100] = ".app";
char openApp[100] = "open /Applications/";
printf("Type in the name of the program you would like to open: ");
scanf("%s", programName);
strcat(openApp, programName);
strcat(openApp, app);
system(openApp);
}
popen lets you launch a program and get a file descriptor to its input or output, much like fopen works for files. For instance, if you wanted to read the output of your program, you'd use popen("program", "r"). On the other hand, if you want to write to its input, you would use popen("program", "w"). Mac OS X also allows for r+, which lets you read the output and write to the input but this capability isn't standard and shouldn't be relied on for cross-platform code.
If you just want to launch a program, you might as well use the system function, which does that and waits until the program exits, at which point it returns the status code. system actually invokes the shell to work, so arguments will undergo expansion (environment variables, ~, etc).
EDIT Following your comment that system("Microsoft Word.app") doesn't work as you'd expect: there are several reasons for this, actually. Starting with the message you get: this is because what you wrote is equivalent to opening a terminal window and typing Microsoft Word.app. In other words, it tries to find a program called "Microsoft", then pass it the argument "Word.app". You would need to either quote the program name or escape spaces to have the shell understand it's a whole program name and not a program name then an argument: system("Microsoft\ Word.app")
Now, this should complain saying that the shell can't find the program "Microsoft Word.app", which is already a step forward.
This is because on Mac OS, app files aren't executable files: they're folders that the Finder displays as a single file. You can verify that by ctrl+clicking (or right-clicking) an app and selecting "Show package contents" (this will open the app folder). The actual executable for Microsoft Word.app must be somewhere along the path of Microsoft Word.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Word.
As you can see, this is getting kind of complex. Luckily enough, Apple provides the open executable, which can use a bunch of OS services to figure out those details. It allows to launch applications in the following fashion:
open -a Microsoft\ Word
This should launch Word. (Notice how you still need to escape the spaces.) In pure C code, that would get you something like this:
system("open -a Microsoft\\ Word");
If you choose to use Objective-C and Cocoa, however, there is a very simple way to open applications:
NSString* appName = #"Microsoft Word"; // no escape!
[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchApplication:appName];
NSString objects can be created from C string easily enough:
NSString* appName = [[NSString alloc] initWithCString:programName encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchApplication:appName];
[appName release];
It would be better to use system(3) for this purpose.
The popen(3) function establishes a pipeline that can be read or written by the caller. But GUI applications do not use standard input and standard output, they connect to the graphical interface server, sometimes called the "window server". This server is already running and already has decided what its keyboard input will be, and it is always writing its output to the video device.
To start a .app you should actually run the open(1) program, so try something like:
system("open /Applications/MacVim.app");

Determine UID that last modified a file in Linux?

I'm writing a program that will be monitoring select files and directories for changes. Some of the files are world writeable, some owner, some group.
What I need to do is be able to figure out the last person to modify (not just access) a file. Somehow I thought this would be simple, given that we know the inode of the file .. however I can not seem to find any way of obtaining this. I thought there was a practical way of correlating any given inode to the uid last accessing it.
I think I've squeezed google for all its going to give me on the topic.
Any help is appreciated. I'm writing the program in C.
Edit:
I need to be able to do this after the PID of whatever program modified the file is long gone.
If you are on a 2.6 kernel, you can take advantage of kernel's auditd daemon. Check this URL out. It might give you some hint on how to accomplish what you are trying to. I'm sure there is an API you could use in C.
To my knowledge, this information is not stored by any of the common filesystems, but you should by able to hook into inotify and keep an audit trail of which processes touch which files.
Okay, using straight old standard Linux with normal file systems, you're not going to be able to do it. That information isn't stored anywhere (see man lstat for what is stored.)
As #pablo suggests, you can do this with security auditing turned on. The link he notes is a good start, but the gist of it is this:
you turn on the audit daemon, which enables auditing form the kernel
you configure the rules file to capture what you want
you search the audit files for the events you want.
The difficulty here is that if you start auditing all file operations for all files, the audit is going to get big.
So what is the actual need you want to fil?
very basic , but it works:
you can easily write a little c-program that does what you want
this example retrieves the UID of file or directory or link,
just try to find the properties that you want.
compile with:
gcc -x c my-prog.c -o my-prog
then:
./my-prog /etc
a lot of other information can be obtained like this
it's not robust. but whatever, i know how to use it,
and do the checking in a bash shell :-)
[ -x /etc ] && my-prog /etc
source code:
# retrieve the uid of a file
# source code: my-prog.c
#
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
struct stat buffer;
int status;
char *fname;
fname=argv[1];
status = stat(fname, &buffer);
printf("%i",buffer.st_uid);
return 0;
}

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