Linux serial port buffer not empty when opening device

Question

I have a system where I am seeing strange behavior with the serial ports that I don\'t expect. I\'ve previously seen this on occasion with usb-to-serial adapters, but now I\

Answer 1

The Linux terminal driver buffers input even if it is not opened. This can be a useful feature, especially if the speed/parity/etc. are set appropriately.

To replicate the behavior of lesser operating systems, read all pending input from the port as soon as it is open:

...
int fd = open ("/dev/ttyS0", O_RDWR | O_NOCTTY | O_SYNC);
if (fd < 0)
        exit (1);

set_blocking (fd, 0);   // disable reads blocked when no input ready

char buf [10000];
int n;
do {
        n = read (fd, buf, sizeof buf);
} while (n > 0);

set_blocking (fd, 1);  // enable read blocking (if desired)

...  // now there is no pending input



void set_blocking (int fd, int should_block)
{
        struct termios tty;
        memset (&tty, 0, sizeof tty);
        if (tcgetattr (fd, &tty) != 0)
        {
                error ("error %d getting term settings set_blocking", errno);
                return;
        }

        tty.c_cc[VMIN]  = should_block ? 1 : 0;
        tty.c_cc[VTIME] = should_block ? 5 : 0; // 0.5 seconds read timeout

        if (tcsetattr (fd, TCSANOW, &tty) != 0)
                error ("error setting term %sblocking", should_block ? "" : "no");
}