How can I poll a serial for input?

Question

So I have a device than transmits integers at a set frame-rate (10 fps or something). It connects via a usb cable to my linux machine (ubuntu 20.04) where it is recognized as ttyACM0. I can cat this dev and see the input being received.

However, what I want to do is write a function/script, either in c or bash, which polls the device. So ideally 99% of the time, it would go and read if any new input has been received. If not, return nothing, however if you poll and one of the frame-integers has been received return that.

What would be the best way to go about this? Would an event-driven approach be better / more accurate, so have something trigger a callback whenever a frame is received or something?

Answer 1

You literally descriped the poll system call / libc wrapper function. You can use that directly from C/C++, or through the select module in Python. Use poll with a timeout of 0.

Bash does not have a poll or select functionality. You're doing things that don't really fit the idea of a shell script. (Which is why I mentioned Python above – nearly as easy as shell scripting for many use cases, makes such data handling much easier, without needing to resort to C++ or C (which I'd encourage you to avoid if all you're doing is handling data – exactly the thing where proper automatic lifetimes, type safety, actual container types and better flow control of C++ make your life not only easier, but also much safer)).