How can I implement timeout for read() when reading from a serial port (C/C++)

Question

I am reading bytes from a serial port in C++ using a file descriptor and the posix/unix read() function. In this example, I am reading 1 byte from the serial port (baud rate settings and similiar are omitted for clarity):

#include <termios.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main(void)
{
   int fd = open("/dev/ttyS0", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY);
   char buf[1];
   int bytesRead = read(fd, buf, 1);
   close(fd);
   return 0;
}

If the device connected to /dev/ttyS0 does not send any information, the program will hang. How can I set a timeout?

I have tried setting a time out like this:

struct termios options;
tcgetattr(fd, &options);
options.c_cc[VMIN] = 0;
options.c_cc[VTIME] = 10;
tcsetattr(fd, TCSANOW, &options);

I thought it was supposed to give 1 second timeout, but it makes no difference. I think I have misunderstood VMIN and VTIME. What is VMIN and VTIME used for?

Then I searched the web and found somebody talking about the select() function. Is that the solution and if so, how would one apply that to the program above to make 1 second timeout?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance :-)

Answer 1

What is VMIN and VTIME used for?

If MIN > 0 and TIME = 0, MIN sets the number of characters to receive before the read is satisfied. As TIME is zero, the timer is not used.

If MIN = 0 and TIME > 0, TIME serves as a timeout value. The read will be satisfied if a single character is read, or TIME is exceeded (t = TIME *0.1 s). If TIME is exceeded, no character will be returned.

If MIN > 0 and TIME > 0, TIME serves as an inter-character timer. The read will be satisfied if MIN characters are received, or the time between two characters exceeds TIME. The timer is restarted every time a character is received and only becomes active after the first character has been received.

If MIN = 0 and TIME = 0, read will be satisfied immediately. The number of characters currently available, or the number of characters requested will be returned. According to Antonino (see contributions), you could issue a fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, FNDELAY); before reading to get the same result.

Source : http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Serial-Programming-HOWTO/x115.html

Answer 2

Yes, use select(2). Pass in a file descriptor set containing just your fd in the read set and empty write/exception sets, and pass in an appropriate timeout. For example:

int fd = open(...);

// Initialize file descriptor sets
fd_set read_fds, write_fds, except_fds;
FD_ZERO(&read_fds);
FD_ZERO(&write_fds);
FD_ZERO(&except_fds);
FD_SET(fd, &read_fds);

// Set timeout to 1.0 seconds
struct timeval timeout;
timeout.tv_sec = 1;
timeout.tv_usec = 0;

// Wait for input to become ready or until the time out; the first parameter is
// 1 more than the largest file descriptor in any of the sets
if (select(fd + 1, &read_fds, &write_fds, &except_fds, &timeout) == 1)
{
    // fd is ready for reading
}
else
{
    // timeout or error
}

Answer 3

You can attempt capture signal to stop read operation. use alarm(1) before read, and if read function did not returned, alarm will send SIGALRM signal, then you can create signal processing function to capture this signal, like this:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <setjmp.h>

static jmp_buf env_alarm;

static void sig_alarm(int signo)
{
    longjmp(env_alarm, 1);
}

int main(void)
{
   int fd = open("/dev/ttyS0", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY);
   char buf[1];

   if (signal(SIGALRM, sig_alarm) == SIG_ERR)
   {
       exit(0);
   }

   if (setjmp(env_alarm) != 0)
   {
      close(fd);
      printf("Timeout Or Error\n");
      exit(0);
   }

   alarm(1);
   int bytesRead = read(fd, buf, 1);
   alarm(0);

   close(fd);
   return 0;
}

But use select or poll or epoll will be better if your program is big.