SLIP Drivers

The following C language functions send and receive SLIP packets. They depend on two functions, send_char() and recv_char(), which send and receive a single character over the serial line.

   /* SLIP special character codes
    */
   #define END             0300    /* indicates end of packet */
   #define ESC             0333    /* indicates byte stuffing */
   #define ESC_END         0334    /* ESC ESC_END means END data byte */
   #define ESC_ESC         0335    /* ESC ESC_ESC means ESC data byte */

   /* SEND_PACKET: sends a packet of length "len", starting at
    * location "p".
    */
   void send_packet(p, len)
           char *p;
           int len; {

     /* send an initial END character to flush out any data that may
      * have accumulated in the receiver due to line noise
      */
        send_char(END);

     /* for each byte in the packet, send the appropriate character
      * sequence
      */
           while(len--) {
                   switch(*p) {
                   /* if it's the same code as an END character, we send a
                    * special two character code so as not to make the
                    * receiver think we sent an END
                    */
                   case END:
                           send_char(ESC);
                           send_char(ESC_END);
                           break;

                   /* if it's the same code as an ESC character,
                    * we send a special two character code so as not
                    * to make the receiver think we sent an ESC
                    */
                   case ESC:
                           send_char(ESC);
                           send_char(ESC_ESC);
                           break;
                   /* otherwise, we just send the character
                    */
                   default:
                           send_char(*p);
                           }

                   p++;
                   }

           /* tell the receiver that we're done sending the packet
            */
           send_char(END);
           }

   /* RECV_PACKET: receives a packet into the buffer located at "p".
    *      If more than len bytes are received, the packet will
    *      be truncated.
    *      Returns the number of bytes stored in the buffer.
    */
   int recv_packet(p, len)
           char *p;
           int len; {
           char c;
           int received = 0;

           /* sit in a loop reading bytes until we put together
            * a whole packet.
            * Make sure not to copy them into the packet if we
            * run out of room.
            */
           while(1) {
                   /* get a character to process
                    */
                   c = recv_char();

                   /* handle bytestuffing if necessary
                    */
                   switch(c) {

                   /* if it's an END character then we're done with
                    * the packet
                    */
                   case END:
                           /* a minor optimization: if there is no
                            * data in the packet, ignore it. This is
                            * meant to avoid bothering IP with all
                            * the empty packets generated by the
                            * duplicate END characters which are in

                            * turn sent to try to detect line noise.
                            */
                           if(received)
                                   return received;
                           else
                                   break;

                   /* if it's the same code as an ESC character, wait
                    * and get another character and then figure out
                    * what to store in the packet based on that.
                    */
                   case ESC:
                           c = recv_char();

                           /* if "c" is not one of these two, then we
                            * have a protocol violation.  The best bet
                            * seems to be to leave the byte alone and
                            * just stuff it into the packet
                            */
                           switch(c) {
                           case ESC_END:
                                   c = END;
                                   break;
                           case ESC_ESC:
                                   c = ESC;
                                   break;
                                   }

                   /* here we fall into the default handler and let
                    * it store the character for us
                    */
                   default:
                           if(received < len)
                                   p[received++] = c;
                           }
                   }
           }