Greetings. I was playing with my “transfer the file over the serial port”
software for my embedded thingie, and I ran into something that I guess you
guys should know about. In the name of efficiency I decided to read/write 4k
packets of data. However the raw input buffer size by default is 2k, and I did
verify that creeping up on 2k sized packets did eventually choke as I got close
enough. It’s not so much that you can’t read an entire 4k packet in one
readcond() call if you only have a 2k buffer, it’s that if you try it, it
apparently locks up devc-ser8250 tight as a drum. When you’ve only got one
serial port tied to your embedded thingie, this means you have to reset the
system. If impossible requests like that are presented, shouldn’t something
complain at you or only return 2k or something instead of giving up the ghost?
Hopefully it won’t be a major deal to add something to protect us from
ourselves.
-Warren “my buffer runneth over” Peece