Talking to 3G USB Sierra Modem Under Linux

[root@GsnCommsModule root]# cat /dev/ttyUSB4 &
[1] 601
[root@GsnCommsModule root]# cat > /dev/ttyUSB4
AT!SELRAT?



OK

AT!SELRAT=?



OK

AT!GETBAND?



OK

remount file system as read only

mount -oremount,rw /\0D
mount -oremount,ro /\0D

Hard drive health check

[1] How To Geek
[2] PC Support About

Is your hard drive healthy or need to be replaced in case of losing your precious data?

i would use ddrescue to ghost it to a new hard drive [1].

CHAP vs PAP

[1] PAP intro on WiKi
[2] CHAP intro on WiKi

[3]

PAP transmits unencrypted ASCII passwords over the network and is therefore considered insecure. It is used as a last resort when the remote server does not support a stronger authentication protocol, like CHAP or EAP (the latter is actually a framework). [1]

CHAP requires that both the client and server know the plaintext of the secret, although it is never sent over the network.[2]

C Call C++

[1] ParaShift.com
     isocpp.org/wiki/faq/mixing-c-and-cpp
[2] Bytes.com
[3] research.att.com


From [3]
------------------------

 // C++ code:
 extern "C" void f(int);
 void f(int i){
  // ...
 }

 /* C code: */
 void f(int);
 void cc(int i){
  f(i);
  /* ... */
 }

// C++ code:
 class C {
  // ...
  virtual double f(int);
 };

 extern "C" double call_C_f(C* p, int i) // wrapper function
 {
  return p->f(i);
 }

 /* C code: */
 double call_C_f(struct C* p, int i);
 void ccc(struct C* p, int i){
  double d = call_C_f(p,i);
  /* ... */
 }

 // C++ code:
 void f(int);
 void f(double);

 extern "C" void f_i(int i) { f(i); }
 extern "C" void f_d(double d) { f(d); }

 /* C code: */
 void f_i(int);
 void f_d(double);

 void cccc(int i,double d){
  f_i(i);
  f_d(d);
  /* ... */
 }

From [1]
-----------------------------
main.cpp

// This is C++ code
#include "Fred.h"
int main()
{
  Fred fred;
  c_function(&fred);
} 

c-function.c

/* This is C code */
#include "Fred.h"

void c_function(Fred* fred){
   unsigned char lc;

   cplusplus_callback_function(fred);
   lc=Cplusplus_CallbackFunction_Wilma(456,fred);
   printf("return of C++ Wilma: %d\n",lc);
} 

Fred.cpp

// This is C++ code
#include "Fred.h"
#include  /*std::cout<<*/

//Fred::Fred() : a_(0) { }
Fred::Fred() { }

void Fred::wilma(int a) { std::cout<<"wilma(arg) print arg "<        

Fred* cplusplus_callback_function(Fred* fred){
  fred->wilma(123);
  return fred;
} 

//Provide access of C++ methods from C code.
unsigned char Cplusplus_CallbackFunction_Wilma(int a, Fred* fred){
  fred->wilma(a);
  return(0);
} 

Fred.h

 
/* This header can be read by both C and C++ compilers */
 #ifndef FRED_H
 #define FRED_H

 #ifdef __cplusplus
   class Fred {
   public:
     Fred();
     void wilma(int);
   private:
     int a_;
   };
 #else
   typedef struct Fred  Fred;

 #endif


 #ifdef __cplusplus
 extern "C" {
 #endif


 #if defined(__STDC__) || defined(__cplusplus)
   extern void c_function(Fred*);   /* ANSI C prototypes */
   extern Fred* cplusplus_callback_function(Fred*);
   extern unsigned char Cplusplus_CallbackFunction_Wilma(int a, Fred* fred);
 #else
   extern void c_function();        /* K&R style */
   extern Fred* cplusplus_callback_function();
 #endif

 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }

 #endif
 #endif /*FRED_H*/

Makefile

DESTDIR  = ./
PROGRAM = $(DESTDIR)/CCallCplusplus
SRCDIR = ./
INCL = -I ./
CP = g++
C = gcc
#C = arm-none-linux-gnueabi-g++

OBJS := $(addprefix $(DESTDIR)/,main.o Fred.o c-function.o)
DEBUG = -g
CFLAGS = -Wall $(DEBUG)

all:$(PROGRAM)

$(PROGRAM): $(OBJS)
 $(CP) -o $(PROGRAM) $(OBJS) -lpthread

$(DESTDIR)/%.o:$(SRCDIR)/%.cpp
 $(CP) -c $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@ $(INCL)

$(DESTDIR)/%.o:$(SRCDIR)/%.c
 $(C) -c $(CFLAGS) $< -o $@ $(INCL)

clean :
 rm -f $(OBJS)
 rm -f $(PROGRAM)

Result:

wilma(arg) print arg 123
wilma(arg) print arg 456
return of C++ Wilma: 0

Shell exit on Error

[1] A little madness
[2] Fvue.nl WiKi

Bash Tip: Exit on Error

Back in my post Your Next Programming Language I mentioned I would post occassional tips about bash scripting. As soon as I started writing my next script, it occured to me: the first thing I always do when writing a new bash script is set the errexit option:

set -e

This option makes your script bail out when it detects an error (a command exiting with a non-zero exit code). Without this option the script will plough on, and mayhem often ensues. In all the noise generated it can be a pain to found the root cause of the problem. So I make it a rule to set this option and fail as early as possible.


[2]
----------------------
Exit on error

Bash can be told to exit immediately if a command fails. From the bash manual ("set -e"):

"Exit immediately if a simple command (see SHELL GRAMMAR above) exits with a non-zero status. The shell does not exit if the command that fails is part of the command list immediately following a while or until keyword, part of the test in an if statement, part of a && or || list, or if the command's return value is being inverted via !. A trap on ERR, if set, is executed before the shell exits."

To let bash exit on error, different notations can be used:

Specify `bash -e' as shebang interpreter
Start shell script with `bash -e'
Use `set -e' in shell script
Use `set -o errexit' in shell script
Use `trap exit ERR' in shell script

Specify `bash -e' as the shebang interpreter

How to generate patch under Linux

[1] Linux byexamples


First, how to create patch file?
------------------------------------
Patch file is a readable file that created by diff with -c (context output format). It doesn’t matter and if you wanna know more, man diff. To patch the entire folder of source codes(as usually people do)I do as bellow:

Assume Original source code at folder Tb01, and latest source code at folder Tb02. And there have multiple sub directories at Tb01 and Tb02 too.

diff -crB Tb01 Tb02 > Tb02.patch


-c context, -r recursive (multiple levels dir), -B is to ignore Blank Lines.
I put -B because blank lines is really useless for patching, sometimes I need to manually read the patch file to track the changes, without -B is really headache.

How to patch?
-------------------------
First of all, please do a dry-run before really patch it. Bare in mind, patch will be working very specifically. Let say the version 3 Tb03.patch is use to patch from Tb02, if you apply patch on Tb01, sometimes it will corrupt your source code. So, to make sure it works, do a dry run. Dry-run means a fake-test, do it at the directory of the source code targeted to patch.

Doing dry-run like this:

patch --dry-run -p1 -i Tb02.patch

The success output looks like this:

patching file TbApi.cpp
patching file TbApi.h
patching file TbCard.cpp
...

The failure ouptut looks like this:

patching file TbCard.cpp
Hunk #2 FAILED at 585.
1 out of 2 hunks FAILED -- saving rejects to file TbCard.cpp.rej
patching file TbCard.h
Hunk #1 FAILED at 57.
Hunk #2 FAILED at 77.
Hunk #3 succeeded at 83 with fuzz 1 (offset -21 lines).
....

At last, if the dry-run is giving good result, do this and enjoy the compilation.

patch -p1 -i Tb02.patch

References:
1. Network Theory Ltd Patch Intro
2. How to create and use a patch in Linux