/gattlib

Library to access GATT information from BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) devices

Primary LanguageC

Build Status

GattLib is a library used to access Generic Attribute Profile (GATT) protocol of BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) devices. It has been introduced to allow to build applications that could easily communicate with BLE devices.

It supports Bluez v4 and v5. On Bluez versions prior to v5.42, gattlib used Bluez source code while it uses D-Bus API from v5.42. D-Bus API can be used on version prior to Bluez v5.42 by using the CMake flag -DGATTLIB_FORCE_DBUS=TRUE:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DGATTLIB_FORCE_DBUS=TRUE ..
make

Latest GattLib Release packages

Build GattLib

  • Gattlib requires the following packages: libbluetooth-dev, libreadline-dev.
    On Debian based system (such as Ubuntu), you can installed these packages with the following command: sudo apt-install libbluetooth-dev libreadline-dev
cd <gattlib-src-root>
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make

Cross-Compilation

To cross-compile GattLib, you must provide the following environment variables:

  • CROSS_COMPILE: prefix of your cross-compile toolchain
  • SYSROOT: an existing system root that contains the libraries and include files required by your application

Example:

cd <gattlib-src-root>
mkdir build && cd build
export CROSS_COMPILE=~/Toolchains/gcc-linaro-4.9-2015.05-x86_64_arm-linux-gnueabihf/bin/arm-linux-gnueabihf-
export SYSROOT=~/Distributions/debian-wheezy
cmake ..
make

Package GattLib

From the build directory: cpack ..

Note: It generates DEB, RPM and ZIP packages. Ensure you have the expected dependencies installed on your system (eg: to generate RPM package on Debian-based Linux distribution you must have rpm package installed).

Default install directory is defined as /usr by CPack variable CPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY.
To change the install directory to /usr/local run: cpack -DCPACK_PACKAGE_INSTALL_DIRECTORY=/usr/local ..

Examples

Note: examples/gatttool has been partially ported to gattlib. There are two reasons: the laziness (some of the GATT functions could be replaced by their gattlib equivalent) and the completeness (there are still some missing functions in gattlib).

  • Notification is also supported. Example:
void notification_cb(uint16_t handle, const uint8_t* data, size_t data_length, void* user_data) {
	printf("Notification on handle 0x%02x\n", handle);
}

main() {
	uint16_t status_handle; // Handle of the 'status' characteristic
	uint16_t enable_notification = 0x0001;

	// Enable Status Notification
	gattlib_write_char_by_handle(connection, status_handle + 1, &enable_notification, sizeof(enable_notification));
	// Register notification handler
	gattlib_register_notification(connection, notification_cb, NULL);
}

Known limitations

  • gattlib and BLE: gattlib requires at least Bluez v4.100 to work with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) devices. Bluez does not allow to connect to BLE device prior to this version. But gattlib can still work with Bluetooth Classic (BR/EDR) prior to Bluez v4.100.
    Debian 7 "Wheezy" (supported until 31st of May 2018) relies on Bluez v4.99 while Debian 8 "Jessie" (supported until April/May 2020) uses Bluez v5.23.

TODO List

  • Complete examples/gatttool port to GattLib to demonstrate the completeness of GattLib.
  • Remove GLib dependencies to GattLib (mainly replacing GLib IO Channels by Unix Domain Socket).