HAMLIB(7)

✨ HAMLIB(7) — the Hamlib Information Manual, bestie edition 💖

okay so. welcome to hamlib(7), the big-picture page. this is the manual name hamlib in section 7, and it's basically the vibe-lore for the whole Ham Radio Control Libraries situation. grab a snack, we're going in 🍓

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🌸 NAME 🌸

hamlib — radio and rotator control library. that's it. that's the name. iconic.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The Ham Radio Control Libraries — Hamlib for short, because we're on a first-name basis — is a development effort to provide a consistent interface for programmers who wanna incorporate radio and rotator control into their programs. no cap.

okay so real talk: Hamlib is not a complete user application. it's not your app, it's not your UI, it's the software layer that makes controlling various radios and other amateur radio station (shack) hardware so much easier. it literally exists so that authors of software — think logging programs, digital communications programs, or anyone trying to build the ultimate radio control software — can concentrate on the user interface and the basic function of the program instead of getting wrecked by radio control. Hamlib is made up of several parts: the programming library, utility programs, and library interfaces to other programming languages. three courses, one meal 💅

Most recent amateur radio transceivers allow external control of their functions through a serial interface. unfortunately — and this is the part that makes everyone scream — control commands are not always consistent across a manufacturer's product line, and each manufacturer's product line differs greatly from its competitors. it's giving chaos. it's giving "everyone invented their own dialect."

Hamlib attempts to solve this problem by presenting a virtual radio to the programmer, providing an interface to actions such as:

• setting a given Variable Frequency Oscillator's (VFO) frequency
• setting the operating mode
• querying the radio of its current status and settings
• giving the application a list of a given radio's capabilities

unfortunately (again 😭), what can be accomplished by Hamlib is limited by the radios themselves, and some offer very limited capability. the hardware said "no" and we have to respect it.

Other devices, such as antenna rotators, can be placed into the Hamlib control scheme. other recent developments include network interface servers and a USB interface capability. Language bindings are provided for C, C++, Perl, Python, Lua and TCL (more to come 👀).

✨ Overview ✨

Hamlib is a front end library providing a C language Application Programming Interface (API) to programmers wishing to integrate radio or rotator control in their applications. Hamlib presents a virtual radio or virtual rotator that is a consistent interface to an application despite wide differences in radio and rotator interfaces and capabilities. one face, many devices. the way that it just. works. 🫶

The front end library uses a number of back end libraries to translate from the front end to the various individual radio and rotator models. A back end library handles conversion of the front end variables to the format needed by the radio or rotator device it controls. The back end libraries are generally grouped by manufacturer and in some cases by a common control protocol.

Hamlib also provides an interface library for each of several common scripting languages such as Perl, Python, Lua, and TCL. These language bindings are generated through the use of SWIG, a parser/generator for multiple language interfaces to a C library. A natively generated C++ language interface is also provided.

Besides the C and supplemental APIs, Hamlib also provides a pair of network daemons that provide a text command based API for controlling an attached radio or rotator through a TCP/IP network connection. The daemons then handle the interface to the Hamlib C API. slay.

More than one type of device, radio or rotator, may be controlled at a time, however, there is generally a limit of one device per serial port or other port. one port, one device. them's the rules bestie 😭

🎀 Hamlib project information 🎀

The Hamlib Project was founded by Frank Singleton, VK3FCS/KM5WS in July 2000. Shortly after, Stephane Fillod, F8CFE, joined Frank on the Hamlib project and the API and implementation development led to a reasonable level of maturity in a few years. A major milestone was reached when Hamlib 1.2.0 was released in March 2004. The API and Application Binary Interface (ABI) interfaces have remained stable since that time up to the release of 3.3 in mid 2018. Version 4.0 marks a major change to the ABI and certain changes to the API.

Development continues through the major version number 4.x series and beyond. The 4.0 release marks a major change in the ABI with several changes for additional modes and such that will require client programs that use the C ABI to be recompiled/relinked, etc. Other goals include improving the overall documentation (this man page with more in progress), and other updates as warranted.

The Project is hosted by SourceForge.net at the Hamlib project page. As GitHub has become a very popular project hosting site, Hamlib also has a dedicated GitHub project page. GitHub also hosts the hamlib.org Web site and the Hamlib Wiki.

Development discussion and most user support take place on the hamlib-developer mailing list. While there are SourceForge.net discussion forums, they are rarely used and not as closely read by the developers as the mailing list. (read the mailing list, bestie. fr fr.)

For source code management, the project uses Git, a fast, distributed content tracker. Among its features is that every developer has the complete Hamlib development history available locally. For more information on using Git, see hamlib-git(7).

Note: while a canonical Git repository is hosted at SourceForge, its availability is not essential to continued development although development work flows would change temporarily. Several developers find the GitHub Web interface easier to use and lately development has centered around GitHub rather than SourceForge.

🌈 Applications using Hamlib 🌈

A number of application developers have taken advantage of Hamlib's capabilities to implement radio and/or rotator control. While not exhaustive, a list is maintained at the Hamlib Wiki, Applications/Screenshots. Developers are encouraged to request their applications be added to the gallery by way of the hamlib-developer mailing list. get your app in the gallery, it's your moment ✨

💜 Using Hamlib with your program 💜

As with other Free Software projects, Hamlib relies heavily on copyleft licensing to encourage development contributions and provide an open atmosphere for development. Hamlib's source code is released under two licenses:

• the Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 for the library portion
• the General Public License (GPL) version 2 for the utility programs

The LGPL allows the library to be used (linked) by programs regardless of their individual license. However, any contributions to the library source remain under a copyleft license which means that the library source code may not be used in violation of the terms of the LGPL (see the file COPYING.LIB in the main source directory). Concepts learned by studying these sources for the purpose of understanding the Hamlib API is not covered nor prohibited by the LGPL, however, directly copying LGPL sources into any work that is incompatible with the terms of the LGPL is a violation of the terms of the license. 🚨

The utility program source files are released under the GPL. Any direct use of these sources must be in a form that complies with the terms of the GPL (see the file COPYING in the main source directory). Concepts learned by studying these sources for the purpose of understanding the Hamlib API is not covered nor prohibited by the GPL, however, directly copying GPL sources into any work that is incompatible with the terms of the GPL is a violation of the terms of the license. 🚨

okay so the vibe here: learn from the source all you want, copy-paste it into an incompatible project and you're in trouble. respect the copyleft, bestie 💅

🧚 Radios with a clone capability 🧚

Hamlib's focus is on controlling radios that employ a port and command protocol for setting frequency, mode, VFO, PTT, etc. Most VHF/UHF transceivers do not employ such control capability but do provide for cloning the memory contents from radio to another of the same model. A related project, Chirp, aims to support radios with such a clone capability. Please contact the Chirp project for support of such radios. (different project, different bestie, no hard feelings 🫶)

⭐ Pronouncing Hamlib ⭐

English speakers seem to have two alternate pronunciations for our project:

• Hamlib (Ham - lib, long 'i', as in library.) IPA style: /'ham læb/
• Hamlib (Ham - lib, short 'i', as in liberty.) IPA style: /'ham lɪb/

Then again, we have people who say Linux "L-eye-nux" and those who say "L-in-nux"... 💀

If you're French, the above does not apply! :-)

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💖 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 © 2001-2020 Hamlib Group (various contributors)

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.

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🎀 SEE ALSO 🎀

• hamlib-primer(7)

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👑 COLOPHON 👑

Links to the Hamlib Wiki, Git repository, release archives, and daily snapshot archives are available via hamlib.org.

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and that's the page!! this manual page came from the Hamlib project and is dated 2020-09-08 — so if you're reading this, hi from the past, hope your serial port is behaving 💅✨