Provided by: libhamlib-utils_1.2.15.3-3.1build1_amd64 bug

NAME

       rotctld - Hamlib TCP rotator control daemon

SYNOPSIS

       rotctld [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION

       The rotctld program is an NEW Hamlib rotator control daemon ready for testing that handles
       client requests via TCP sockets. This allows multiple user programs to share  one  rotator
       (this  needs testing), except on Win32 where pthreads are not available. Multiple rotators
       can be controlled on different TCP ports by use of multiple rotctld processes.  The syntax
       of the commands are the same as rotctl. It is hoped that rotctld will be especially useful
       for client authors using languages such as Perl, Python, PHP, and others.

       rotctld communicates to a client through a TCP socket  using  text  commands  shared  with
       rotctl.  The  protocol  is  simple,  commands  are sent to rotctld on one line and rotctld
       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
       zero 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 rotctl (rot 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 rotctld directly through a TCP socket.

       Keep  in  mind  that Hamlib is BETA level software.  While a lot of backend libraries lack
       complete rotator support, the basic functions are usually well  supported.   The  API  may
       change without publicized notice, while an advancement of the minor version (e.g. 1.1.x to
       1.2.x) indicates such a change.

       Please report bugs and provide feedback at the e-mail address given in the REPORTING  BUGS
       section.  Patches and code enhancements are also welcome.

OPTIONS

       This  program  follows  the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with
       two dashes ('-').

       Here is a summary of the supported options:

       -m, --model=id
              Select rotator model number. See -l, "list" option below.

       -r, --rot-file=device
              Use device as the file name of the port the rotator is connected.  Often  a  serial
              port,  but  could  be  a  USB  to  serial  adapter  or  USB port device.  Typically
              /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1, /dev/ttyUSB0, etc. on Linux or COM1, COM2, etc. on Win32.

       -s, --serial-speed=baud
              Set serial speed to baud  rate.  Uses  maximum  serial  speed  from  rotor  backend
              capabilities (set by -m above) as the default.

       -T, --listen-addr=IPADDR
              Use IPADDR as the listening IP address. The default is ANY.

              N.B.: This option seems mandatory on Win32, eg: -T 127.0.0.1

       -t, --port=number
              Use number as the TCP listening port. The default is 4533.

              N.B.:  As rigctld's default port is 4532, it is advisable to use odd numbered ports
              for rotctld, e.g. 4533, 4535, 4537, etc.

              N.B.: This option seems mandatory on Win32, eg: -t 4533

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

       -C, --set-conf=parm=val[,parm=val]*
              Set config parameter.  e.g. --set-conf=stop_bits=2

              Use -L option for a list.

       -l, --list
              List all model numbers defined in Hamlib and exit.  As  of  1.2.15.1  the  list  is
              sorted by model number.

              N.B.  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' or 'less', e.g. 'rotctld -l | more'.

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

       -e, --end-marker
              Use END marker in rotctld protocol.

              N.B.:  This  option  should  be  considered  obsolete.   Please  consider using the
              Extended Response protocol instead (see  PROTOCOL  below).   This  option  will  be
              removed in a future Hamlib release.

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

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

       -V, --version
              Show the version of rotctld and exit.

       N.B.  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 rotator to be controlled, or the rotator  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 rotor'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 rotctld.  This is a possible bug, beware!).

       Please note that the backend for the rotator to be controlled, or the rotator  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
       string  is  replaced  by  the value in the description.  In the case of "get" commands the
       quoted string is the key name of the value returned.):

       P, set_pos 'Azimuth' 'Elevation'
              Set position: Azimuth and Elevation as double precision floating point values.

       p, get_pos
              Get position: 'Azimuth' and 'Elevation' as double precision floating point values.

       M, move 'Direction' 'Speed'
              Move the rotator in a specific direction at the given rate.

              Values are integers where Direction is defined as 2 = Up, 4 = Down, 8 =  Left,  and
              16  =  Right.   Speed  is  an  integer  between  1  and 100.  Not all backends that
              implement the move command use the Speed value.   At  this  time  only  the  gs232a
              utilizes the Speed parameter.

       S, stop
              Stop the rotator.

       K, park
              Park the antenna.

       C, set_conf 'Token' 'Value'
              Set Token to Value.

              Backend dependent.  Needs testing.

       R, reset 'Reset'
              Reset the rotator.

              Integer value of '1' for Reset All.

       _, get_info
              Get misc information about the rotator.

              At the moment returns 'Model Name'.

       w, send_cmd 'Cmd'
              Send raw command string to rotator.

              For binary protocols enter values as \0xAA\0xBB.  Expect a 'Reply' from the rotator
              which will likely be a binary block or an ASCII string.

       Locator Commands

       These commands offer conversions of Degrees Minutes Seconds to other  formats,  Maidenhead
       square locator conversions and distance and azimuth conversions.

       L, lonlat2loc 'Longitude' 'Latitude' 'Loc Len [2-12]'
              Returns the Maidenhead locator for the given 'Longitude' and 'Latitude'.

              Both are floating point values.  The precision of the returned square is controlled
              by 'Loc Len' which should be an even numbered integer value between 2 and 12.

              For example, "+L -170.000000 -85.000000 12\n" returns "Locator: AA55AA00AA00\n".

       l, loc2lonlat 'Locator'
              Returns 'Longitude' and 'Latitude' in decimal degrees at the approximate center  of
              the   requested  grid  square  (despite  the  use  of  double  precision  variables
              internally, some rounding error occurs).  West longitude is expressed as a negative
              value.   South latitude is expressed as a negative value.  Locator can be from 2 to
              12 characters in length.

              For  example,  "+l  AA55AA00AA00\n"  returns   "Longitude:   -169.999983\nLatitude:
              -84.999991\n".

       D, dms2dec 'Degrees' 'Minutes' 'Seconds' 'S/W'
              Returns 'Dec Degrees', a signed floating point value.

              Degrees  and Minutes are integer values and Seconds is a floating point value.  S/W
              is a flag with '1' indicating South latitude or West longitude  and  '0'  North  or
              East  (the  flag  is  needed as computers don't recognize a signed zero even though
              only the Degrees value only is typically signed in DMS notation).

       d, dec2dms 'Dec Degrees'
              Returns 'Degrees' 'Minutes' 'Seconds' 'S/W'.

              Values are as in dms2dec above.

       E, dmmm2dec 'Degrees' 'Dec Minutes' 'S/W'
              Returns 'Dec Degrees', a signed floating point value.

              Degrees is an integer value and Minutes is a floating point value.  S/W is  a  flag
              with  '1'  indicating  South  latitude or West longitude and '0' North or East (the
              flag is needed as computers don't recognize a signed  zero  even  though  only  the
              Degrees value only is typically signed in DMS notation).

       e, dec2dmmm 'Dec Deg'
              Returns 'Degrees' 'Minutes' 'S/W'.

              Values are as in dmmm2dec above.

       B, qrb 'Lon 1' 'Lat 1' 'Lon 2' 'Lat 2'
              Returns 'Distance' 'Azimuth' where Distance is in km and Azimuth is in degrees.

              All Lon/Lat values are signed floating point numbers.

       A, a_sp2a_lp 'Short Path Deg'
              Returns 'Long Path Deg' or -RIG_EINVAL upon input error..

              Both are floating point values within the range 0.00 to 360.00.

       a, d_sp2d_lp 'Short Path km'
              Returns 'Long Path km'.

              Both are floating point values.

PROTOCOL

       Default Protocol

       The  rotctld  protocol is intentionally simple. Commands are entered on a single line with
       any needed values. In Perl, reliable results are  obtained  by  terminating  each  command
       string with a newline character, '\n'.

       Example set (Perl code):

       print $socket "P 135 10\n";

       print $socket "\\set_pos 135 10\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 rotctld 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 (Perl code):

       print $socket "p\n";
       "135"
       "10"

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

       This  protocol  is  primarily used by the NET rotctl (rotctl model 2) backend which allows
       applications already written for Hamlib's C API to take advantage of rotctld  without  the
       need  of rewriting application code.  An application's user can select rotor model 2 ("NET
       rotctl") and then set rot_pathname to "localhost:4533" or other network host:port (set  by
       the -t option above).

       Extended Response Protocol

       An EXPERIMENTAL Extended Response protocol has been introduced into rotctld as of February
       10, 2010.  This protocol adds several rules to the strings returned by rotctld and adds  a
       rule for the command syntax.

       1.  The  command  received by rotctld 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 rotor 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. "Azimuth: 90.000000\n" when the command was prepended by '+'.

       4. All commands received will be acknowledged by rotctld 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  +P  command   command  sent  from the shell prompt (note the
       prepended '+'):

       $ echo "+P 90 45" | nc -w 1 localhost 4533
       set_pos: 90 45
       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 rig backend return value
       indicating success.

       An example response to a +\get_pos query:

       $ echo "+\get_pos" | nc -w 1 localhost 4533
       get_pos:
       Azimuth: 90.000000
       Elevation: 45.000000
       RPRT 0

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

              Common record separators for text representations of spreadsheet data, etc.

       '?'
              Reserved for 'help' in rotctl short command

       '_'
              Reserved for \get_info short command

       '#'
              Reserved for comments when reading a command file script

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

       For example, invoking a ;\get_pos query with a leading ';' returns:

       get_pos:;Azimuth: 90.000000;Elevation: 45.000000;RPRT 0

       Or, using the pipe character '|' returns:

       get_pos:|Azimuth: 90.000000|Elevation: 45.000000|RPRT 0

       And a \set_pos command prepended with a '|' returns:

       set_pos: 135 22.5|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!

       All  commands  with the exception of \set_conf have been tested with the Extended Response
       protocol and the included testrotctld.pl script.

EXAMPLES

       Start rotctld for a Ham IV rotor with the RotorEZ installed using a USB-to-serial  adapter
       and backgrounding on Linux:

       $ rotctld -m 401 -r /dev/ttyUSB1 &

       Start rotctld for RotorEZ using COM3 on Win32:

       C:\> rotctld -m 401 -r COM3 -T 127.0.0.1 -t 4533

       Connect to the already running rotctld, and set position to 135.0 degrees azimuth and 30.0
       degrees elevation with a 1 second read timeout from the shell prompt:

       $ echo "\set_pos 135.0 30.0" | nc -w 1 localhost 4533

       Connect to a running rotctld with rotctl on the local host on POSIX:

       $ rotctl -m2

       and on Win32:

       C:\> rotctl -m 2 -r 127.0.0.1:4533

DIAGNOSTICS

       The -v, --version 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 rotator which is very useful for rotator backend library development and  may  be
       requested  by  the  developers.   See the README.betatester and README.developer files for
       more information.

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 an SSH tunnel.

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

BUGS

       The daemon is not detaching and backgrounding itself.

       Much testing needs to be done.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to <hamlib-developer@lists.sourceforge.net>.

       We are already aware of the bugs in the previous section :-)

AUTHORS

       Written by Stephane Fillod, Nate Bargmann, and the Hamlib Group

       <http://www.hamlib.org>.

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2000-2009 Stephane Fillod
       Copyright © 2011-2012 Nate Bargmann
       Copyright © 2000-2009 the Hamlib Group.

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

SEE ALSO

       rotctl(1), hamlib(3)