Sample Bluetooth RFCOMM Client App in C

I recently worked with a client who wanted a Bluetooth RFCOMM client-server application. The server would sit on an android phone, while the client will run on an embedded linux device. The rfcomm client portion was just sample code that he wanted to base his implementation on. I wrote a quick app for the same. The code you are about to see is ugly and can be rewritten to look more pleasing to the eye. Also includes a horrible goto hack. But it works and can be used to base rfcomm implementations on.

Functionality:

  1. Scan for all discoverable bluetooth devices
  2. Connect to the SDP servers of each one of these and search for a particular service identified by a unique UUID
  3. The first possible match is blasted with dummy data
  4. If the bluetooth device stops advertising the server, the app will wait till the bluetooth device’s sdp server is unreachable
  5. Go to the next device in list if any, or go back to step 1
  6. Ctrl – C to exit

Find a link to the dot C file at the bottom of the post.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <getopt.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <sys/param.h>
#include <sys/ioctl.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>

#include <bluetooth/bluetooth.h>
#include <bluetooth/hci.h>
#include <bluetooth/hci_lib.h>
#include <bluetooth/sdp.h>
#include <bluetooth/sdp_lib.h>
#include <bluetooth/rfcomm.h>




int str2uuid( const char *uuid_str, uuid_t *uuid ) 
{
    uint32_t uuid_int[4];
    char *endptr;

    if( strlen( uuid_str ) == 36 ) {
        // Parse uuid128 standard format: 12345678-9012-3456-7890-123456789012
        char buf[9] = { 0 };

        if( uuid_str[8] != '-' && uuid_str[13] != '-' &&
            uuid_str[18] != '-'  && uuid_str[23] != '-' ) {
            return 0;
        }
        // first 8-bytes
        strncpy(buf, uuid_str, 8);
        uuid_int[0] = htonl( strtoul( buf, &endptr, 16 ) );
        if( endptr != buf + 8 ) return 0;

        // second 8-bytes
        strncpy(buf, uuid_str+9, 4);
        strncpy(buf+4, uuid_str+14, 4);
        uuid_int[1] = htonl( strtoul( buf, &endptr, 16 ) );
        if( endptr != buf + 8 ) return 0;

        // third 8-bytes
        strncpy(buf, uuid_str+19, 4);
        strncpy(buf+4, uuid_str+24, 4);
        uuid_int[2] = htonl( strtoul( buf, &endptr, 16 ) );
        if( endptr != buf + 8 ) return 0;

        // fourth 8-bytes
        strncpy(buf, uuid_str+28, 8);
        uuid_int[3] = htonl( strtoul( buf, &endptr, 16 ) );
        if( endptr != buf + 8 ) return 0;

        if( uuid != NULL ) sdp_uuid128_create( uuid, uuid_int );
    } else if ( strlen( uuid_str ) == 8 ) {
        // 32-bit reserved UUID
        uint32_t i = strtoul( uuid_str, &endptr, 16 );
        if( endptr != uuid_str + 8 ) return 0;
        if( uuid != NULL ) sdp_uuid32_create( uuid, i );
    } else if( strlen( uuid_str ) == 4 ) {
        // 16-bit reserved UUID
        int i = strtol( uuid_str, &endptr, 16 );
        if( endptr != uuid_str + 4 ) return 0;
        if( uuid != NULL ) sdp_uuid16_create( uuid, i );
    } else {
        return 0;
    }

    return 1;
}

int main(void) {
    int i, j, err, sock, dev_id = -1;
    struct hci_dev_info dev_info;
    inquiry_info *info = NULL;
    int num_rsp, length, flags;
    bdaddr_t ba;
    char addr[19] = { 0 };
    char name[248] = { 0 };
    uuid_t uuid = { 0 };
    //Change this to your apps UUID
    char *uuid_str="66841278-c3d1-11df-ab31-001de000a901";
    uint32_t range = 0x0000ffff;
    sdp_list_t *response_list = NULL, *search_list, *attrid_list;
    int s, loco_channel = -1, status;
    struct sockaddr_rc loc_addr = { 0 };

    (void) signal(SIGINT, SIG_DFL);

    dev_id = hci_get_route(NULL);
    if (dev_id < 0) {
        perror("No Bluetooth Adapter Available");
        exit(1);
    }

    if (hci_devinfo(dev_id, &dev_info) < 0) {
        perror("Can't get device info");
        exit(1);
    }



    sock = hci_open_dev( dev_id );
    if (sock < 0) {
        perror("HCI device open failed");
        free(info);
        exit(1);
    }

    
    if( !str2uuid( uuid_str, &uuid ) ) {
        perror("Invalid UUID");
        free(info);
        exit(1);
  }

    do {
        printf("Scanning ...\n");
        info = NULL;
        num_rsp = 0;
        flags = 0;
        length = 8; /* ~10 seconds */
        num_rsp = hci_inquiry(dev_id, length, num_rsp, NULL, &info, flags);
        if (num_rsp < 0) {
            perror("Inquiry failed");
            exit(1);
        }

        printf("No of resp %d\n",num_rsp);

        for (i = 0; i < num_rsp; i++) {
            sdp_session_t *session;
            int retries;
            int foundit, responses;
            ba2str(&(info+i)->bdaddr, addr);
            memset(name, 0, sizeof(name));
            if (hci_read_remote_name(sock, &(info+i)->bdaddr, sizeof(name), 
                    name, 0) < 0)
            strcpy(name, "[unknown]");
            printf("Found %s  %s, searching for the the desired service on it now\n", addr, name);
            // connect to the SDP server running on the remote machine
sdpconnect:
            session = 0; retries = 0;
            while(!session) {
                session = sdp_connect( BDADDR_ANY, &(info+i)->bdaddr, SDP_RETRY_IF_BUSY );
                if(session) break;
                if(errno == EALREADY && retries < 5) {
                    perror("Retrying");
                    retries++;
                    sleep(1);
                    continue;
                }
                break;
            }
            if ( session == NULL ) {
                perror("Can't open session with the device");
                free(info);
                continue;
            }
            search_list = sdp_list_append( 0, &uuid );
            attrid_list = sdp_list_append( 0, &range );
            err = 0;
            err = sdp_service_search_attr_req( session, search_list, SDP_ATTR_REQ_RANGE, attrid_list, &response_list);
            sdp_list_t *r = response_list;
            sdp_record_t *rec;
            // go through each of the service records
            foundit = 0;
            responses = 0;
            for (; r; r = r->next ) {
                    responses++;
                    rec = (sdp_record_t*) r->data;
                    sdp_list_t *proto_list;
                    
                    // get a list of the protocol sequences
                    if( sdp_get_access_protos( rec, &proto_list ) == 0 ) {
                    sdp_list_t *p = proto_list;

                        // go through each protocol sequence
                        for( ; p ; p = p->next ) {
                                sdp_list_t *pds = (sdp_list_t*)p->data;

                                // go through each protocol list of the protocol sequence
                                for( ; pds ; pds = pds->next ) {

                                        // check the protocol attributes
                                        sdp_data_t *d = (sdp_data_t*)pds->data;
                                        int proto = 0;
                                        for( ; d; d = d->next ) {
                                                switch( d->dtd ) { 
                                                        case SDP_UUID16:
                                                        case SDP_UUID32:
                                                        case SDP_UUID128:
                                                                proto = sdp_uuid_to_proto( &d->val.uuid );
                                                                break;
                                                        case SDP_UINT8:
                                                                if( proto == RFCOMM_UUID ) {
                                                                        printf("rfcomm channel: %d\n",d->val.int8);
                                                                        loco_channel = d->val.int8;
                                                                        foundit = 1;
                                                                }
                                                                break;
                                                }
                                        }
                                }
                                sdp_list_free( (sdp_list_t*)p->data, 0 );
                        }
                        sdp_list_free( proto_list, 0 );

                    }
                    if (loco_channel > 0)
                        break;

            }
            printf("No of Responses %d\n", responses);
            if ( loco_channel > 0 && foundit == 1 ) {
                printf("Found service on this device, now gonna blast it with dummy data\n");
                s = socket(AF_BLUETOOTH, SOCK_STREAM, BTPROTO_RFCOMM);
                loc_addr.rc_family = AF_BLUETOOTH;
                loc_addr.rc_channel = loco_channel;
                loc_addr.rc_bdaddr = *(&(info+i)->bdaddr);
                status = connect(s, (struct sockaddr *)&loc_addr, sizeof(loc_addr));
                if( status < 0 ) {
                    perror("uh oh");
                }
                do {
                    status = write(s, "hello!", 6);
                    printf ("Wrote %d bytes\n", status);
                    sleep(1);
                } while (status > 0);
                close(s);
                sdp_record_free( rec );
            }

            sdp_close(session);
            if (loco_channel > 0) {
                goto sdpconnect;
                //break;
            }
        }
    } while (1);

    printf("Exiting...\n");
}

Use the below command to compile the code.

make bluetooth LDFLAGS=-lbluetooth

Let me know in comments if anyone needs more explanation.

3 comments

  1. Hey, it would be nice to see the whole android project part, as when I start up my app, it just closes right away when using this code.

    (It doesn’t show a force close message, it just closes.)

    1. Look for an app called locomessage on the market, however the UUID may not match with the UUID I have posted online. You will have to scan using the sdptool to find the UUID and then change that in the C Code.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.