readme

scope is a very good software with source for using as base for tty debug

Scope: A Serial Line Analyser/Logger for Linux 
    (and possibly other UNIX systems)
==============================================

(C) 1999-2005 Matt J Gumbley
http://www.gumbley.me.uk/scope.html



Introduction
============
Scope is a general-purpose serial line monitor, capable of recording the traffic
on an RS232 cable (if provided with a suitable cable and recording computer).


Tested On...
------------
It was written for:
 Red Hat Linux 4.2/Sparc,
 Red Hat Linux 6.0/Sparc,
 Red Hat Linux 6.2/Intel
 Red Hat Linux 9/Intel
 Ubuntu Linux 5.04/Intel
although it should also compile on other UNIXes. You may need to make changes to
asy.c.


Licensing
---------
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA




Building and Installing
=======================
The program now uses GNU autoconf, thanks to Warren Young.
To build, use the usual configure invocations; a 'configure --help' will show
you what is supported.

Typically, you may wish to place the program in a location other than its
default. So, './configure --prefix=/wherever/you/want' is all that's needed.

Once configuration is done, type 'make', and then 'make install'.

For further information, refer to the file INSTALL, which is ripped verbatim
from some other package which uses autoconf ;-)

(Note to developers: the configure script supplied was generated with autoconf
2.13-5 on a Red Hat 6.2/Intel system)

Specific configure options for this program
-------------------------------------------
There are none, yet.


How to Use Scope
================
Basically, scope will monitor /dev/ttyS0 and /dev/ttyS1, with output on 
standard out, at 19200 bps. Use the -d option to suppress the control/status 
line data (since that's not 100% working), and use other options to control
speed, different ports, verbosity etc. 

scope -h will give a short help file; there is no man page.

Capture the output in a file, and use this as input to some of my other
programs, such as ncpscope.


The Special Serial Cable
------------------------
Scope works best when used in conjunction with a special serial cable. 

This cable goes inline between the two devices that you want to monitor, and
splits signals on the "main" line into two serial ports which are monitored
simultaneously to provide a composite view of the current line status. 

The cable I use connects to a Sun SparcStation 5, which has two serial ports,
both D25's - similar to a PC. On a Sparc 10, the two ports (A/B) are housed in a
single socket - the cable is wired as follows:

SUN PORT A      FEMALE        MALE      SUN PORT B
                  D25          D25       MALE D25
                   1 - FG ----- 1 
                   2 - TD ----- 2  ------ SRD 16
 3 - RD ---------  3 - RD ----- 3
                   4 - RTS ---- 4  ----- SCTS 13
 5 - CTS --------  5 - CTS ---- 5
 6 - DSR --------  6 - DSR ---- 6
 7 - GND --------  7 - GND ---- 7
 8 - DCD --------  8 - DCD ---- 8
                  20 - DTR ---- 20 ----- SDCD 12
                  22 - RI ----- 22

Basically, the first port is used to read most lines, and the second port is
used to read TD, RTS and DTR, which are read on the input lines RD, CTS and DCD

So wire the second plug:
                                2 ----------- 3
                                4 ----------- 5
                               20 ----------- 8



DISCLAIMER
==========
Standard disclaimer applies. If you blow up your systems
with this, don't blame me - it works fine (ish) for me.



TODO
====

* Make it work properly on Intel Linux (CRTSCTS undeclared for some reason)
  - this ioctl option is not used on Intel. Add #define CONFIG_M386 in global.h
    to make this work.
* Use select(), don't poll.
* Add pass-through mode (for Charlie Stross) - anything coming in on one port is
  echoed to another.