oracular (1) ampctld.1.gz

Provided by: libhamlib-utils_4.5.5-4_amd64 bug

NAME

       ampctld - TCP amplifier control daemon

SYNOPSIS

       ampctld [-hlLuV] [-m id] [-r device] [-s baud] [-T IPADDR] [-t number] [-C parm=val] [-v[-Z]]

DESCRIPTION

       The  ampctld  program  is an amplifier control daemon that handles client requests via TCP sockets.  This
       allows multiple user programs to share one amplifier (this needs more development).  Multiple  amplifiers
       can  be  controlled  on  different  TCP  ports  by use of multiple ampctld processes.  Note that multiple
       processes/ports are also necessary if some clients use extended responses and/or vfo mode.  So  up  to  4
       processes/ports  may  be  needed  for  each combination of extended response/vfo mode.  The syntax of the
       commands are the same as ampctl(1).  It is hoped that  ampctld  will  be  especially  useful  for  client
       authors using languages such as Perl, Python, PHP, and others.

       ampctld  communicates  to  a  client  through  a  TCP socket using text commands shared with ampctl.  The
       protocol is simple, commands are sent to ampctld on one line and ampctld responds to  get  commands  with
       the requested values, one per line, when successful, otherwise, it responds with one line “RPRT x”, where
       ‘x’ is a negative number indicating the error code.  Commands that do not return values respond with  the
       line  “RPRT  x”,  where  ‘x’  is ‘0’ when successful, otherwise is a regative number indicating the error
       code.  Each line is terminated with a newline ‘\n’ character.  This protocol is primarily for use by  the
       NET ampctl (amplifier model 2) backend.

       A  separate  Extended Response Protocol extends the above behavior by echoing the received command string
       as a header, any returned values as a key: value pair, and the “RPRT x” string as  the  end  of  response
       marker  which  includes  the  Hamlib  success  or  failure  value.  See the PROTOCOL section for details.
       Consider using this protocol for clients that will interact with ampctld directly through a TCP socket.

       Keep in mind that Hamlib is BETA level  software.   While  a  lot  of  backend  libraries  lack  complete
       amplifier support, the basic functions are usually well supported.

       Please  report  bugs and provide feedback at the e-mail address given in the BUGS section below.  Patches
       and code enhancements sent to the same address are welcome.

OPTIONS

       This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax.  Short options that take an argument may have the
       value follow immediately or be separated by a space.  Long options starting with two dashes (‘-’) require
       an ‘=’ between the option and any argument.

       Here is a summary of the supported options:

       -m, --model=id
              Select amplifier model number.

              See model list (use “ampctl -l”).

              Note: ampctl (or third party software using the C API) will use amplifier model 2 for  NET  ampctl
              (communicating with ampctld).

       -r, --amp-file=device
              Use device as the file name of the port connected to the amplifier.

              Often  a  serial  port,  but  could be a USB to serial adapter.  Typically /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1,
              /dev/ttyUSB0, etc. on Linux, COM1, COM2, etc. on MS Windows.  The BSD flavors and  Mac  OS/X  have
              their own designations.  See your system's documentation.

       -s, --serial-speed=baud
              Set serial speed to baud rate.

              Uses maximum serial speed from amplifier backend capabilities (set by -m above) as the default.

       -t, --port=number
              Use number as the TCP listening port.

              The default is 4531.

              Note:  As  rigctld's default port is 4532 and rotctld's default port is 4533, it is recommended to
              use DESCENDING odd numbered ports for multiple ampctld instances, e.g. 4529, 4527, 4525, etc.

       -T, --listen-addr=IPADDR
              Use IPADDR as the listening IP address.

              The default is ANY.

       -L, --show-conf
              List all config parameters for the amplifier defined with -m above.

       -C, --set-conf=parm=val[,parm=val]
              Set amplifier configuration parameter(s), e.g.  stop_bits=2.

              Use the -L option above for a list of configuration parameters for a given model number.

       -u, --dump-caps
              Dump capabilities for the amplifier defined with -m above and exit.

       -l, --list
              List all amplifier model numbers defined in Hamlib and exit.

              The list is sorted by model number.

              Note: In Linux the list can be scrolled  back  using  Shift-PageUp/Shift-PageDown,  or  using  the
              scrollbars  of  a  virtual terminal in X or the cmd window in Windows.  The output can be piped to
              more(1) or less(1), e.g. “ampctl -l | more”.

       -v, --verbose
              Set verbose mode, cumulative (see DIAGNOSTICS below).

       -Z, --debug-time-stamps
              Enable time stamps for the debug messages.

              Use only in combination with the -v option as it generates no output on its own.

       -h, --help
              Show a summary of these options and exit.

       -V, --version
              Show version of ampctl and exit.

       Note: Some options may not be implemented by a given backend and will return  an  error.   This  is  most
       likely to occur with the --set-conf and --show-conf options.

       Please  note that the backend for the amplifier to be controlled, or the amplifier itself may not support
       some commands.  In that case, the operation will fail with a Hamlib error code.

COMMANDS

       Commands can be sent over the TCP socket either as a single char, or as a  long  command  name  plus  the
       value(s) space separated on one ‘\n’ terminated line. See PROTOCOL.

       Since  most  of  the Hamlib operations have a set and a get method, an upper case letter will be used for
       set methods whereas the corresponding lower case letter refers to the get method.   Each  operation  also
       has a long name; prepend a backslash, ‘\’, to send a long command name.

       Example  (Perl):  “print  $socket  "\\dump_caps\n";” to see what the amplifier's backend can do (Note: In
       Perl and many other languages a ‘\’ will need to be escaped with a preceding ‘\’ so that even though  two
       backslash  characters  appear  in  the code, only one will be passed to ampctld.  This is a possible bug,
       beware!).

       Note: The backend for the amplifier to be controlled, or  the  amplifier  itself  may  not  support  some
       commands. In that case, the operation will fail with a Hamlib error message.

       Here  is a summary of the supported commands (In the case of set commands the quoted italicized string is
       replaced by the value in the description.  In the case of get commands the quoted  italicized  string  is
       the key name of the value returned.):

       F, set_freq 'Frequency'
              Set 'Frequency', in Hz.

              Frequency may be a floating point or integer value.

       f, get_freq
              Get 'Frequency', in Hz.

              Returns an integer value.

       l, get_level 'Level'
              Get 'Level Value'.

              Returns Level Value as a float or integer for the Level token given.

              Note:  Passing  a  ‘?’  (query) as the first argument instead of a Level token will return a space
              separated list of amplifier backend supported  get  level  tokens.   Use  this  to  determine  the
              supported levels of a given amplifier backend.

       dump_state
              Return certain state information about the amplifier backend.

       1, dump_caps
              Not a real amplifier remote command, it just dumps capabilities, i.e. what the backend knows about
              this model, and what it can do.

              TODO: Ensure this is in a consistent format so it can be read into a hash, dictionary,  etc.   Bug
              reports requested.

              Note:  This  command  will produce many lines of output so be very careful if using a fixed length
              array!  For example, running this command against the Dummy backend results in a number  of  lines
              of text output.

       _, get_info
              Return information from the amplifier backend.

       R, reset 'Reset'
              Perform amplifier 'Reset'.

              Reset  is  an  integer  value:  ‘0’ = None, ‘1’ = Memory reset, ‘2’ = Fault reset, ‘3’ = Amplifier
              reset.

       set_powerstat 'Power Status'
              Set 'Power Status'.

              Power Status is an integer value: ‘0’ = Power Off, ‘1’ = Power On,  ‘2’  =  Power  Standby  (enter
              standby), ‘4’ = Power Operate (leave standby).

       get_powerstat
              Get 'Power Status' as in set_powerstat above.

PROTOCOL

       There are two protocols in use by ampctld, the Default Protocol and the Extended Response Protocol.

       The  Default  Protocol  is  intended primarily for the communication between Hamlib library functions and
       ampctld (“NET ampctl”, available using amplifier model ‘2’).

       The Extended Response Protocol is intended to be used with scripts or other programs interacting directly
       with ampctld as consistent feedback is provided.

   Default Protocol
       The  Default  Protocol  is  intentionally  simple.  Commands are entered on a single line with any needed
       values.  In practice, reliable results are obtained by terminating each command  string  with  a  newline
       character, ‘\n’.

       Example set frequency and mode commands (Perl code (typed text shown in bold)):

           print $socket "F 14250000\n";
           print $socket "\\set_powerstat 1\n"; # escape leading '\'

       A  one line response will be sent as a reply to set commands, “RPRT x\n” where x is the Hamlib error code
       with ‘0’ indicating success of the command.

       Responses from ampctld get commands are text values and match the same tokens used in the  set  commands.
       Each value is returned on its own line.  On error the string “RPRT x\n” is returned where x is the Hamlib
       error code.

       Example get frequency (Perl code):

           print $socket "f\n";
           "14250000\n"

       Most get functions return one to three values. A notable exception is the dump_caps command which returns
       many lines of key:value pairs.

       This  protocol  is  primarily used by the “NET ampctl” (ampctl model 2) backend which allows applications
       already written for Hamlib's C API to take advantage of ampctld without the need of rewriting application
       code.   An  application's  user  can select amplifier model 2 (“NET ampctl”) and then set amp_pathname to
       “localhost:4531” or other network host:port (set by the -T/-t options, respectively, above).

   Extended Response Protocol
       The Extended Response protocol adds several rules to the strings returned by ampctld and adds a rule  for
       the command syntax.

       1. The command received by ampctld is echoed with its long command name followed by the value(s) (if any)
       received from the client terminated by the specified response  separator  as  the  first  record  of  the
       response.

       2.  The  last  record  of  each block is the string “RPRT x\n” where x is the numeric return value of the
       Hamlib backend function that was called by the command.

       3. Any records consisting of data values returned by the amplifier backend  are  prepended  by  a  string
       immediately  followed  by  a  colon then a space and then the value terminated by the response separator.
       e.g. “Frequency: 14250000\n” when the command was prepended by ‘+’.

       4. All commands received will be acknowledged by ampctld
        with records from rules 1 and 2.  Records from rule 3  are  only  returned  when  data  values  must  be
       returned to the client.

       4.  All  commands received will be acknowledged by ampctld with records from rules 1 and 2.  Records from
       rule 3 are only returned when data values must be returned to the client.

       An example response to a set_frequency command sent from the shell prompt (note the prepended ‘+’):

           $ echo "+F 14250000" | nc -w 1 localhost 4531
           set_freq: 14250000
           RPRT 0

       In this case the long command name and values are returned on the first line and the second line contains
       the end of block marker and the numeric amplifier backend return value indicating success.

       An example response to a get_freq query:

           $ echo "+\get_freq" | nc -w 1 localhost 4531
           get_freq:
           Frequency(Hz): 14250000
           RPRT 0

              Note: The ‘\’ is still required for the long command name even with the ERP character.

       In  this  case,  as no value is passed to ampctld, the first line consists only of the long command name.
       The final line shows that the command was processed successfully by the amplifier backend.

       Invoking the Extended Response Protocol requires prepending a command with a punctuation  character.   As
       shown  in  the  examples  above, prepending a ‘+’ character to the command results in the responses being
       separated by a newline character (‘\n’).  Any other punctuation character recognized by the  C  ispunct()
       function  except  ‘\’,  ‘?’,  or  ‘_’  will cause that character to become the response separator and the
       entire response will be on one line.

       Separator character summary:

       ‘+’    Each record of the response is appended with a newline (‘\n’).

       ‘;’, ‘|’, or, ‘,’
              Each record of the response is appended by the given character resulting in entire response on one
              line.

              These are common record separators for text representations of spreadsheet data, etc.

       ‘?’    Reserved for help in ampctl.

       ‘_’    Reserved for get_info short command

       ‘#’    Reserved for comments when reading a command file script.

              Note: Other punctuation characters have not been tested!  Use at your own risk.

       For example, invoking a get_freq query with a leading ‘;’ returns:

           get_freq:;Frequency(Hz): 14250000;RPRT 0

       Or, using the pipe character ‘|’ returns:

           get_freq:|Frequency(Hz): 14250000|RPRT 0

       And a set_freq command prepended with a ‘|’ returns:

           set_freq: 14250000|RPRT 0

       Such  a  format  will  allow  reading  a response as a single event using a preferred response separator.
       Other punctuation characters have not been tested!

DIAGNOSTICS

       The -v, --verbose option allows different levels of diagnostics to be output to stderr and correspond  to
       -v for BUG, -vv for ERR, -vvv for WARN, -vvvv for VERBOSE, or -vvvvv for TRACE.

       A  given  verbose  level is useful for providing needed debugging information to the email address below.
       For example, TRACE output shows all of the values sent to and received from the amplifier which  is  very
       useful for amplifier backend library development and may be requested by the developers.

EXAMPLES

       Start ampctld for an Elecraft KPA-1500 using a USB-to-serial adapter and backgrounding:

           $ ampctld -m 201 -r /dev/ttyUSB1 &

       Start ampctld for an Elecraft KPA-1500 using COM2 on MS Windows:

           $ ampctld -m 201 -r COM2

       Connect  to  the already running ampctld and set the frequency to 14.266 MHz with a 1 second read timeout
       using the default protocol from the shell prompt:

           $ echo "\set_freq 14266000" | nc -w 1 localhost 4531

       Connect to a running ampctld with ampctl on the local host:

           $ ampctl -m2

SECURITY

       No authentication whatsoever; DO NOT leave this TCP port open  wide  to  the  Internet.   Please  ask  if
       stronger security is needed or consider using a Secure Shell (ssh(1)) tunnel.

       As  ampctld  does  not  need any greater permissions than ampctl, it is advisable to not start ampctld as
       “root” or another system user account in order to limit any vulnerability.

BUGS

       The daemon is not detaching and backgrounding itself.

       No method to exit the daemon so the kill(1) command must be used to terminate it.

       Multiple clients using the daemon may experience contention with the connected amplifier.

       Report bugs to:

              Hamlib Developer mailing list
              ⟨hamlib-developer@lists.sourceforge.net

COPYING

       This file is part of Hamlib, a project to develop a library that simplifies radio, rotator, and amplifier
       control functions for developers of software primarily of interest to radio amateurs and those interested
       in radio communications.

       Copyright © 2000-2010 Stephane Fillod
       Copyright © 2000-2018 the Hamlib Group (various contributors)
       Copyright © 2011-2020 Nate Bargmann

       This is free software; see the file COPYING for copying conditions.  There is NO warranty; not  even  for
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

SEE ALSO

       kill(1), ampctl(1), ssh(1), hamlib(7)

COLOPHON

       Links to the Hamlib Wiki, Git repository, release archives, and daily snapshot archives are available via
       hamlib.org ⟨http://www.hamlib.org⟩.