Raspberry Pi GPIO using plain C and SysFS

I recently gave a talk on the Raspberry Pi during which I mentioned using the GPIO sysfs interface instead of something like the WiringPi library, I was asked if I could provide a small example… I can.
Example
I’m about to unleash the electronic world’s version of the “Hello World!” program, a blinking LED. Remember, this example requires no special libraries since it uses the sysfs interface.
blink.c
/* blink.c
*
* Raspberry Pi GPIO example using sysfs interface.
* Guillermo A. Amaral B. <[email protected]>
*
* This program blinks GPIO 4 (P1-07) while reading GPIO 24 (P1_18).
*/
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#define IN 0
#define OUT 1
#define LOW 0
#define HIGH 1
#define PIN 24 /* P1-18 */
#define POUT 4 /* P1-07 */
static int GPIOExport(int pin);
static int GPIOUnexport(int pin);
static int GPIODirection(int pin, int dir);
static int GPIORead(int pin);
static int GPIOWrite(int pin, int value);
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int repeat = 9;
/*
* Enable GPIO pins
*/
if (-1 == GPIOExport(POUT) || -1 == GPIOExport(PIN))
return(1);
/*
* Set GPIO directions
*/
if (-1 == GPIODirection(POUT, OUT) || -1 == GPIODirection(PIN, IN))
return(2);
do {
/*
* Write GPIO value
*/
if (-1 == GPIOWrite(POUT, repeat % 2))
return(3);
/*
* Read GPIO value
*/
printf("I'm reading %d in GPIO %d\n", GPIORead(PIN), PIN);
usleep(500 * 1000);
}
while (repeat--);
/*
* Disable GPIO pins
*/
if (-1 == GPIOUnexport(POUT) || -1 == GPIOUnexport(PIN))
return(4);
return(0);
}
int
GPIOExport(int pin)
{
#define BUFFER_MAX 3
char buffer[BUFFER_MAX];
ssize_t bytes_written;
int fd;
fd = open("/sys/class/gpio/export", O_WRONLY);
if (-1 == fd) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open export for writing!\n");
return(-1);
}
bytes_written = snprintf(buffer, BUFFER_MAX, "%d", pin);
write(fd, buffer, bytes_written);
close(fd);
return(0);
}
int
GPIOUnexport(int pin)
{
char buffer[BUFFER_MAX];
ssize_t bytes_written;
int fd;
fd = open("/sys/class/gpio/unexport", O_WRONLY);
if (-1 == fd) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open unexport for writing!\n");
return(-1);
}
bytes_written = snprintf(buffer, BUFFER_MAX, "%d", pin);
write(fd, buffer, bytes_written);
close(fd);
return(0);
}
int
GPIODirection(int pin, int dir)
{
static const char s_directions_str[] = "in\0out";
#define DIRECTION_MAX 35
char path[DIRECTION_MAX];
int fd;
snprintf(path, DIRECTION_MAX, "/sys/class/gpio/gpio%d/direction", pin);
fd = open(path, O_WRONLY);
if (-1 == fd) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open gpio direction for writing!\n");
return(-1);
}
if (-1 == write(fd, &s_directions_str[IN == dir ? 0 : 3], IN == dir ? 2 : 3)) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to set direction!\n");
return(-1);
}
close(fd);
return(0);
}
int
GPIORead(int pin)
{
#define VALUE_MAX 30
char path[VALUE_MAX];
char value_str[3];
int fd;
snprintf(path, VALUE_MAX, "/sys/class/gpio/gpio%d/value", pin);
fd = open(path, O_RDONLY);
if (-1 == fd) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open gpio value for reading!\n");
return(-1);
}
if (-1 == read(fd, value_str, 3)) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to read value!\n");
return(-1);
}
close(fd);
return(atoi(value_str));
}
int
GPIOWrite(int pin, int value)
{
static const char s_values_str[] = "01";
char path[VALUE_MAX];
int fd;
snprintf(path, VALUE_MAX, "/sys/class/gpio/gpio%d/value", pin);
fd = open(path, O_WRONLY);
if (-1 == fd) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to open gpio value for writing!\n");
return(-1);
}
if (1 != write(fd, &s_values_str[LOW == value ? 0 : 1], 1)) {
fprintf(stderr, "Failed to write value!\n");
return(-1);
}
close(fd);
return(0);
}
You can download the source by clicking here.