The thingsd OpenBSD proxy daemon provides a mechanism for clients and client processes to communicate with an array of serial and IoT things. At its core, thingsd is primarily a data aggregator and repeater, in that it waits for packets to swap between subscriber clients and things. However, thingsd also provides password control over those connections, including client limits.
On the client side, thingsd sets up TCP/IP sockets to transmit packets to and from things. On the server side, thingsd can connect to any serial device which has a viable file descriptor, create a persistent connection to the IP address of a device transmitting packets on the same network, or setup a UDP listener on the network to receive broadcasted packets. Devices tested include: ESP8266/ESP32 modules, on both the serial and network sides, XBee Series 2 coordinators connected in a mesh network, and NF24 devices. To transmit to an IP address, which does not allow persistence, thingsd will create an ad hoc connection, transmit a packet, and detach. The thingsd proxy daemon is agnostic about packet data.
- OpenBSD 6.4 or higher
/usr/local/sbin/thingsd/usr/local/man/man8/thingsd.8/etc/examples/thingsd.conf/usr/local/man/man5/thingsd.conf.5/etc/rc.d/thingsd/usr/local/sbin/thingsctl/usr/local/man/man8/thingsctl.8
Compile and install.
make
doas make install
doas addgroup _thingsd
doas useradd -d /var/empty -L daemon -g _thingsd -s /sbin/nologin _thingsd
doas cp examples/etc/rc.d/thingsd /etc/rc.d/
doas chown _thingsd /dev/[thingsd.conf devices]
Edit thingsd.conf according to man thingsd.conf. Your settings will depend
on your machine and the things you have setup.
Once the thingsd.conf is edited, run rcctl enable thingsd and
rcctl start thingsd. The thingsd daemon can also be run manually from the
command line. To keep thingsd from daemonizing, run thingsd -d from the
command line.
To test your setup, connect to your machine running thingsd with netcat:
nc SERVERNAME PORT
Then paste in a subscription packet for your setup:
~~~subscribe{{name,"CLIENT"},{things{thing{"dev","passwd"}}}}
You should start receiving packets from your setup thing.
See the examples for more testing options.
Further examples can be found in the src/examples directory above.
See the License file for more information.