Serial Board API Installation and Setup


Windows 95/98/NT4/2000

     To install the serial board API, you must simply copy the ser_sr24.dll file into your system directory.  The system directory is usually C:\Windows\System on Windows 95/98 or C:\Winnt\System32 on NT4 or 2000. The ser_sr24.dll file is included with the API
 

Linux

System Requirements:

The Serial API requires only two extra system libraries for use, both of which should be present on a modern Linux system:
  1. libm - Math library; present on almost all systems
  2. libpthread - POSIX multithreading library; present on all modern systems
The included already-compiled binary libraries should work on most Linux systems. However, sometimes differences in gcc versions and shared library versions cause problems on different systems. If you have any kind of problems when compiling your applications, such as strange undefined symbols, then you should recompile and install the serial library on your own system, instead of using the included binary. If your applications do compile correctly, but your application segmentation faults right away, or you are having other strange problems, you may also want to recompile the library on your own system. There is a COMPILING.txt file in the library source directory to help you through this simple process.

In order to use the library, the system must have an available serial port, whose device file (example: /dev/ttyS1) is both readable and writable by the application. If the file permissions are incorrect, they can be modified with the chmod command.

Installation:

The linux version of the Serial API includes both a static library and a shared library. The static library is the file libser_sr24.a and the shared library is the file libser_sr24.so. Both files contain the identical serial board API; the only difference is how your program is linked with the library. The static library is generally easier to use (link with), because it only requires that the programmer's application is linked with libser_sr24.a as well as the support libraries used by libser_sr24.a. So, there is no actual "installation" necessary to use the static library. Just link your application with the static library, as described on the Languages page. The shared library is a little more complicated and should be installed onto the system if it is going to be used (this requires root privileges). To install the shared library, follow these installation steps:
  1. Copy the file libser_sr24.so into /usr/lib/
  2. Run ldconfig (just type ldconfig at your shell prompt and you're done)
Now you can compile your application(s) as described in the Languages page.


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