linbar version 0.4, Copyright (C) 1998,1999 Ioannis Ioannou <roryt@hol.gr>

DESCRIPTION
-----------
This program is a driver for barcode readers connected to serial ports. 
It reads from the specified device and put any characters to the keyboard 
buffer of the current console. It works only for the console ttys. 
Of course you can use it for other uses (control the console thru a 
serial line for example), but its primary usage is for barcode readers.
You can use any serial port , and you can also have multiply readers 
the same time. 
You can force it to ignore the cr's or/and nl's with a command line parameter.
Also you can log any messages thru syslog.
(For the history : I wrote linbar because I had about 10 POS diskless Linux 
terminals - boot to Linux with a bootdisk, rlogin to server - with barcode 
readers on them. What a speed !!!!)

Send comments, patches etc to me (I.Ioannou <roryt@hol.gr>)
PLS don't ask me to recomment barcode readers. linbar works with all 
readers that are connected to a serial port (as far as I know).
Notice that linbar DOESN'T make any decoding.


LATEST VERSION
--------------
You can find the latest version at :

http://www.cs-net.gr/linbar/ 
or
ftp://argeas.cs-net.gr/Linux/linbar/
or 
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/serial
or to the nearest to you sunsite mirror.


WARRANTY
--------
linbar comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; See COPYING for details.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; See COPYING for details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA

USAGE
------
usage: linbar [parameters] [&]
        Optional parameters are :
                 -T ouput tty           default /dev/tty0		  	
                 -t input tty           default /dev/ttyS0		  		 
		 -s speed          	default 9600
		 -d data bits      	default 8
		 -p parity         	default N
		 -b stop bits      	default 1
		 -c cut off cr     	default no
		 -n cut off nl     	default no
		 -l log messages   	default no
		 -V print version and exit
		 -D enable debug messages
		 -h this help screen


NOTES
-----
It uses the TIOCSTI kernel call to pass the characters into 
the keyboard buffer. I have test it with 2.0.x, and 2.2.1 kernels 
with libc5 (Slackware). If you port it to another platform 
(let say FreeBSD) pls let me know about.

I haven't search for any security flaws. The program MUST be run as root
in order to use TIOCSTI, so be carefull.

It uses a modified version of linSerial library made by 
Linas Vepstas <linas@linas.org>. The library sources are included.

BTW we all thank you Linus :-)

I.Ioannou <roryt@hol.gr>

