sigrok-bridge-server

A Rust bridge that connects libsigrok-compatible hardware to ngscopeclient via the SigrokOscilloscope driver in scopehal, using the twinlan transport (text SCPI command socket + binary waveform data socket).

This project specifically adds support for Sipeed SLogic and its derivatives through the upstream sipeed-slogic-analyzer libsigrok driver.

Note: End-to-end support requires both halves of the pipeline:

1. This Rust bridge server (the contents of this directory)
2. The C++ SigrokOscilloscope driver in scopehal — shipped as a patch against scopehal-apps/lib/scopehal under patches/.

See patches/README.md for how to apply, refresh, and rebase the patch.

Supported Hardware

Sipeed SLogic Combo and derivatives — libsigrok is built with --disable-all-drivers --enable-sipeed-slogic-analyzer, so only the Sipeed family is compiled in. (To enable other drivers, edit the configure flags in libsigrok-sys/build/deps.rs.)

Workspace Layout

sigrok-bridge-server/
├── libsigrok-sys/              # -sys crate: FFI + native bootstrap
│   ├── build.rs                #   target dispatcher (linux / windows / macos)
│   └── build/
│       ├── common.rs           #   cache, fetch, extract, tool check
│       ├── deps.rs             #   per-library build fns, shared by all platforms
│       ├── linux.rs            #   Linux platform entry
│       ├── windows.rs          #   Windows MSYS2 UCRT64 platform entry
│       └── macos.rs            #   macOS platform entry
├── sigrok-bridge-common/       # SCPI parser, twinlan transport, wire protocol
├── sigrok-bridge/              # Production bridge
├── fake/                       # Fake bridge (no hardware)
├── patches/                    # scopehal C++ patch for the client side
└── docs/
    ├── ARCHITECTURE.md
    ├── BUILD.md                # Deep dive: link order, deps, post-install surgery
    ├── DEVELOPMENT.md
    └── SCPI-PROTOCOL.md

libsigrok-sys is the single source of truth for native linkage (links = "sigrok" in Cargo.toml). On any supported host, cargo build downloads and compiles libffi, zlib, libusb, libzip, pcre2, libiconv (Windows only), glib2, and libsigrok from source into $OUT_DIR/prefix/, then statically links them. The resulting binary depends only on the host OS baseline (glibc on Linux, UCRT + Win32 on Windows, libSystem + frameworks on macOS).

Build matrix

cargo build --release -p sigrok-bridge on any of the supported hosts, or cross-compile from Linux to Windows.

Host / Target	How	Output
Linux host → Linux	cargo build --release -p sigrok-bridge	target/release/sigrok-bridge — ~5 MB, glibc-only
Windows host → Windows (MSYS2)	inside UCRT64 shell: cargo build --release -p sigrok-bridge	target/release/sigrok-bridge.exe — Win32 + UCRT only
macOS host → macOS	cargo build --release -p sigrok-bridge	target/release/sigrok-bridge — libSystem + frameworks
Linux host → Windows (cross)	cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm -p sigrok-bridge	target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm/release/sigrok-bridge.exe — ~7 MB, Win32 + UCRT only

Native builds compile every C dep (libffi / zlib / libusb / libzip / pcre2 / glib2 / libsigrok) from source — fully self-contained binaries.

Cross-build uses MSYS2 ucrt64 prebuilt packages (downloaded via pacman) + compiles only libsigrok from source. Faster than full source cross, produces the same UCRT-based .exe.

First build takes ~5–10 min. Subsequent builds are seconds; compiled .a files cache in $OUT_DIR, source tarballs + MSYS2 packages live at ~/.cache/libsigrok-sys/ (survives cargo clean).

Build — Linux

# One-time prereqs (pick one)
sudo pacman -S base-devel cmake ninja meson curl tar xz bzip2 \
                autoconf automake libtool pkgconf                        # Arch
sudo apt install build-essential cmake ninja-build meson curl tar \
                xz-utils bzip2 autoconf automake libtool pkg-config      # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf groupinstall 'Development Tools'
sudo dnf install cmake ninja-build meson curl tar xz bzip2 \
                autoconf automake libtool pkgconf-pkg-config              # Fedora

cargo build --release -p sigrok-bridge

Verify static linking:

$ ldd target/release/sigrok-bridge
        linux-vdso.so.1
        libm.so.6, libgcc_s.so.1, libc.so.6, ld-linux-x86-64.so.2

Build — Windows (native, via MSYS2)

1. Install MSYS2 (official installer).

2. Open the UCRT64 shell (mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64 environment).

3. Install toolchain:

   pacman -S --needed \
       mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc \
       mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-rust \
       mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-cmake \
       mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-ninja \
       mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-meson \
       mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-pkgconf \
       mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-python \
       autoconf automake libtool make \
       curl tar xz bzip2 sed git patch

4. Build:

   cd path/to/sigrok-bridge-server
   cargo build --release -p sigrok-bridge

Output: target\release\sigrok-bridge.exe. Verify no non-system DLL deps via objdump -p sigrok-bridge.exe | grep 'DLL Name'.

Build — Windows (cross from Linux)

Linux host compiling a Windows .exe via llvm-mingw + MSYS2 packages. Uses x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm (UCRT).

1. Install toolchain (Arch example):

   rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm
   sudo pacman -S mingw-w64-binutils pacman fakeroot autoconf automake libtool \
                  pkgconf make curl tar sed bash
   yay -S llvm-mingw-w64-toolchain-ucrt-bin     # AUR — provides /opt/llvm-mingw-ucrt/
   # or download github.com/mstorsjo/llvm-mingw releases and add bin/ to PATH

   On Debian/Ubuntu:

   sudo apt install mingw-w64 pacman-package-manager fakeroot \
                    autoconf automake libtool pkg-config make curl tar sed bash
   # llvm-mingw: download a release from github.com/mstorsjo/llvm-mingw

2. Build:

   cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm -p sigrok-bridge

How it works:

• build/msys2.rs runs fakeroot pacman -Syw to download MSYS2 ucrt64 .pkg.tar.zst files (glib2, libusb, libzip + transitive deps) into ~/.cache/libsigrok-sys/msys2/, then extracts them to a sysroot under $OUT_DIR/sysroot/.
• libsigrok is fetched from sipeed/libsigrok @ pinned commit and cross- compiled against the sysroot with llvm-mingw's clang.
• libtool's partial-link step (ld -r for libdrivers.o) uses Arch's GNU ld.bfd via the LD env var — llvm-mingw's ld.lld doesn't accept -r in PE/COFF mode.
• A static-shim/ dir with just libunwind.a (symlink) is prepended to rustc's link search so the final .exe has no libunwind.dll dep.

Output: target/x86_64-pc-windows-gnullvm/release/sigrok-bridge.exe (~7 MB). Only Win32 API + UCRT api-ms-win-crt-*.dll as runtime deps.

Build — macOS

1. Xcode command-line tools: xcode-select --install

2. Install build deps via Homebrew:

   brew install autoconf automake libtool pkg-config cmake ninja meson \
                curl xz bzip2

3. Build:

   cargo build --release -p sigrok-bridge

Output: target/release/sigrok-bridge (Mach-O). Verify with otool -L target/release/sigrok-bridge — should show only libSystem.B.dylib

• IOKit.framework + CoreFoundation.framework.

Environment overrides (optional)

• LIBSIGROK_COMMIT — pin libsigrok to a different upstream SHA (default: tracked in build/common.rs::LIBSIGROK_COMMIT_DEFAULT)
• LIBSIGROK_SYS_CACHE_DIR — tarball cache root (default: ~/.cache/libsigrok-sys/)
• LIBSIGROK_SYS_GITHUB_MIRROR=https://ghproxy.com — route GitHub URLs through a mirror (for networks with restricted github.com access)

Run

Fake bridge (no hardware, pure Rust)

cargo run -p fake-bridge

Production bridge

./target/release/sigrok-bridge                              # port 10101
./target/release/sigrok-bridge --pattern-mode Emulation     # test pattern

CLI options

Flag	Default	Description
-d, --driver <NAME>	sipeed-slogic-analyzer	libsigrok driver name
-p, --port <PORT>	10101	TCP port for twinlan transport (data port = port + 1)
--pattern-mode <MODE>	(unset)	Built-in test patterns: Normal, "USB connection test", Emulation

Connect from ngscopeclient

In the Add Instrument dialog:

• Driver: sigrok
• Transport: twinlan
• Path: localhost:10101

The bridge accepts a single client at a time. On disconnect, the device is released and the next client can connect.

Architecture (short)

ngscopeclient (C++)              sigrok-bridge (Rust)            libsigrok (C)
─────────────────              ──────────────────────            ─────────────
SigrokOscilloscope  ──SCPI──▶  scpi_handler  ──▶  SigrokDevice  ──▶  driver
                    ◀─binary── data thread  ◀──  acquire()     ◀──  hardware

Full details in docs/ARCHITECTURE.md; wire protocol in docs/SCPI-PROTOCOL.md.

Status of SLogic Support

• Device discovery via sipeed-slogic-analyzer driver
• Sample rate enumeration (handles a{sv} GVariant dict from the driver)
• Sample depth fallback (1 KS to 1 TS, 1/2/5 step)
• Acquisition state machine (start / single / stop / force / armed)
• Continuous and one-shot capture
• SR_CONF_PATTERN_MODE switching (Normal / USB connection test / Emulation)
• Digital channel data path (16-bit unit size)
• Graceful client disconnect (data thread shutdown flag)
• Cross-buffer edge trigger detection (software fallback keeps last state)