/libnfc

Platform independent Near Field Communication (NFC) library

Primary LanguageCGNU Lesser General Public License v3.0LGPL-3.0

*-
* Free/Libre Near Field Communication (NFC) library
*
* Libnfc historical contributors:
* Copyright (C) 2009      Roel Verdult
* Copyright (C) 2009-2015 Romuald Conty
* Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Romain Tartière
* Copyright (C) 2010-2013 Philippe Teuwen
* Copyright (C) 2012-2013 Ludovic Rousseau
* Additional contributors:
* See AUTHORS file
-*

General Information

libnfc is a library which allows userspace application access to NFC devices.

The official web site is: http://www.nfc-tools.org/

The official forum site is: http://www.libnfc.org/community/

The official development site is: https://github.com/nfc-tools/libnfc

Important note: this file covers POSIX systems, for Windows please read README-Windows.md

Requirements

Some NFC drivers depend on third party software:

The regression test suite depends on the cutter framework: http://cutter.sf.net

Installation

See the file INSTALL for configure, build and install details.

Additionnally, you may need to grant permissions to your user to drive your device. Under GNU/Linux systems, if you use udev, you could use the provided udev rules. e.g. under Debian, Ubuntu, etc.

sudo cp contrib/udev/93-pn53x.rules /lib/udev/rules.d/

Under FreeBSD, if you use devd, there is also a rules file: contrib/devd/pn53x.conf.

Configuration

In order to change the default behavior of the library, the libnfc uses a configuration file located in sysconfdir (as provided to ./configure).

A sample commented file is available in sources: libnfc.conf.sample

If you have compiled using:

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc

you can make configuration directory and copy the sample file:

sudo mkdir /etc/nfc
sudo cp libnfc.conf.sample /etc/nfc/libnfc.conf

To configure multiple devices, you can either modify libnfc.conf or create a file per device in a nfc/devices.d directory:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/nfc/devices.d
printf 'name = "My first device"\nconnstring = "pn532_uart:/dev/ttyACM0"\n' | sudo tee /etc/nfc/devices.d/first.conf
printf 'name = "My second device"\nconnstring = "pn532_uart:/dev/ttyACM1"\n' | sudo tee /etc/nfc/devices.d/second.conf

How to report bugs

To report a bug, visit https://github.com/nfc-tools/libnfc/issues and fill out a bug report form.

If you have questions, remarks, we encourage you to post this in the developers community: http://www.libnfc.org/community

Please make sure to include:

  • The version of libnfc

  • Information about your system. For instance:

    • What operating system and version
    • For Linux, what version of the C library

    And anything else you think is relevant.

  • A trace with debug activated.

    Reproduce the bug with debug, e.g. if it was:

      $ nfc-list -v
    

    run it as:

      $ LIBNFC_LOG_LEVEL=3 nfc-list -v
    
  • How to reproduce the bug.

    Please include a short test program that exhibits the behavior. As a last resort, you can also provide a pointer to a larger piece of software that can be downloaded.

  • If the bug was a crash, the exact text that was printed out when the crash occured.

  • Further information such as stack traces may be useful, but is not necessary.

Patches

Patches can be posted to https://github.com/nfc-tools/libnfc/issues

If the patch fixes a bug, it is usually a good idea to include all the information described in "How to Report Bugs".

Building

It should be as simple as running these two commands:

./configure
make

Troubleshooting

Touchatag/ACR122:

If your Touchatag or ACR122 device fails being detected by libnfc, make sure that PCSC-lite daemon (pcscd) is installed and is running.

If your Touchatag or ACR122 device fails being detected by PCSC-lite daemon (pcsc_scan doesn't see anything) then try removing the bogus firmware detection of libccid: edit libccid_Info.plist configuration file (usually /etc/libccid_Info.plist) and locate <key>ifdDriverOptions</key>, turn <string>0x0000</string> value into 0x0004 to allow bogus devices and restart pcscd daemon.

ACR122:

Using an ACR122 device with libnfc and without tag (e.g. to use NFCIP modes or card emulation) needs yet another PCSC-lite tweak: You need to allow usage of CCID Exchange command. To do this, edit libccid_Info.plist configuration file (usually /etc/libccid_Info.plist) and locate <key>ifdDriverOptions</key>, turn <string>0x0000</string> value into 0x0001 to allow CCID exchange or 0x0005 to allow CCID exchange and bogus devices (cf previous remark) and restart pcscd daemon.

Warning: if you use ACS CCID drivers (acsccid), configuration file is located in something like: /usr/lib/pcsc/drivers/ifd-acsccid.bundle/Contents/Info.plist

SCL3711:

Libnfc cannot be used concurrently with the PCSC proprietary driver of SCL3711. Two possible solutions:

  • Either you don't install SCL3711 driver at all
  • Or you stop the PCSC daemon when you want to use libnfc-based tools

PN533 USB device on Linux >= 3.1:

Since Linux kernel version 3.1, a few kernel-modules must not be loaded in order to use libnfc : "nfc", "pn533" and "pn533_usb". To prevent kernel from loading automatically these modules, you can blacklist them in a modprobe conf file. This file is provided within libnfc archive:

sudo cp contrib/linux/blacklist-libnfc.conf /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-libnfc.conf

Proprietary Notes

FeliCa is a registered trademark of the Sony Corporation. MIFARE is a trademark of NXP Semiconductors. Jewel Topaz is a trademark of Innovision Research & Technology. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.