SocketCAN for GNU/Linux in Ada

This project provides an Ada language binding to SocketCAN for GNU/Linux systems.

Motivation

I created this Ada language binding to gain some experience using SocketCAN on GNU/Linux systems. I based this implementation upon the CAN documentation in the Linux kernel and followed the style of the GNAT.Sockets binding. I did so with the goal to one day submit it as a patch to the GNAT sources as a GNU/Linux-specific addition.

Obtaining

You can get the source code directly from github. Alternatively, you can get the library from Alire using the command:

alr get socketcan

Building

The code in this area may be built using the GNAT project builder (gprbuild). To build:

cd src
gprbuild

Tests

TODO

Examples & Documentation

The examples cover what I feel are the most important use-cases of the SocketCAN feature. These bindings, especially the broadcast manager, are not comprehensive. I only coded the features that I thought would be most useful. Patches and comments are welcome.

Documentation is limited, but is intentional. I feel that it's better to have a trove of examples with a few comments as guidance rather than API documentation, or worse, soiling the code with Doxygen madness.

This library comes with the following simple examples:

Directory	Description
simple	Send and receive raw CAN frames.
streams	Simple use of Ada streams capability.
filtered_reader	Use the kernel to filter inbound CAN messages.

The Broadcast Manager (BCM) examples:

Directory	Description
bcm_cyclic_writer	Use the broadcast manager to send periodic messages.
bcm_filtered_reader	Use the broadcast manager to filter and down-sample incoming messages.
bcm_simple_writer	Use the broadcast manager to send individual CAN frames.

Using

The Linux kernel must be compiled with support for SocketCAN ("can" and "can_raw" modules) with a driver for your specific CAN controller interface. There is a virtual CAN driver for testing purposes which can be loaded and created in Linux with the commands below (as root).

modprobe can
modprobe can_raw
modprobe vcan
ip link add dev vcan0 type vcan
ip link set up vcan0
ip link show vcan0

To build the examples, type the following:

cd examples/<subdir>
gprbuild

Note: substitute "<subdir>" with any of the subdirectory names.

Authors

• Glen Cornell - Initial contribution

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details

TODO

• Incorporate this as a patch to GCC/GNAT.