This repository contains the source code for the Eclipse Paho MQTT C client library.
This code builds libraries which enable applications to connect to an MQTT broker to publish messages, and to subscribe to topics and receive published messages.
Both synchronous and asynchronous modes of operation are supported.
There build process currently supports a number of Linux "flavors" including ARM and s390, OS X, AIX and Solaris as well as the Windows operating system. The build process requires the following tools:
- CMake (http://cmake.org)
- Ninja (https://martine.github.io/ninja/; preferred) or GNU Make (https://www.gnu.org/software/make/), and
- gcc (https://gcc.gnu.org/).
On Debian based systems this would mean that the following packages have to be installed:
apt-get install build-essential gcc make cmake cmake-gui cmake-curses-gui
Ninja can be downloaded from its github project page in the "releases" section. Optionally it is possible to build binaries with SSL support. This requires the OpenSSL libraries and includes to be available. E. g. on Debian:
apt-get install libssl-dev
The documentation requires doxygen and optionally graphviz:
apt-get install doxygen graphviz
Before compiling, determine the value of some variables in order to configure features, library locations, and other options:
| Variable | Default Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| PAHO_BUILD_STATIC | FALSE | Build a static version of the libraries |
| PAHO_WITH_SSL | FALSE | Flag that defines whether to build ssl-enabled binaries too. |
| OPENSSL_INC_SEARCH_PATH | "" (system default) | Directory containing OpenSSL includes |
| OPENSSL_LIB_SEARCH_PATH | "" (system default) | Directory containing OpenSSL libraries |
| PAHO_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION | FALSE | Create and install the HTML based API documentation (requires Doxygen) |
| PAHO_BUILD_SAMPLES | FALSE | Build sample programs |
Using these variables CMake can be used to generate your Ninja or Make files. Using CMake, building out-of-source is the default. Therefore it is recommended to invoke all build commands inside your chosen build directory but outside of the source tree.
An example build session targeting the build platform could look like this:
mkdir /tmp/build.paho
cd /tmp/build.paho
cmake -GNinja -DPAHO_WITH_SSL=TRUE -DPAHO_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION=TRUE -DPAHO_BUILD_SAMPLES=TRUE ~/git/org.eclipse.paho.mqtt.c
Invoking cmake and specifying build options can also be performed using cmake-gui or ccmake (see https://cmake.org/runningcmake/). For example:
ccmake -GNinja ~/git/org.eclipse.paho.mqtt.c
To compile/link the binaries and to generate packages, simply invoke ninja package or make -j <number-of-cores-to-use> package after CMake. To simply compile/link invoke ninja or make -j <number-of-cores-to-use>.
Debug builds can be performed by defining the value of the CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE option to Debug. For example:
cmake -GNinja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug git/org.eclipse.paho.mqtt.c
Cross compilation using CMake is performed by using so called "toolchain files" (see: http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/CMake_Cross_Compiling).
The path to the toolchain file can be specified by using CMake's -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE option. In case no toolchain file is specified, the build is performed for the native build platform.
For your convenience toolchain files for the following platforms can be found in the cmake directory of Eclipse Paho:
- Linux x86
- Linux ARM11 (a.k.a. the Raspberry Pi)
- Windows x86_64
- Windows x86
The provided toolchain files assume that required compilers/linkers are to be found in the environment, i. e. the PATH-Variable of your user or system. If you prefer, you can also specify the absolute location of your compilers in the toolchain files.
Example invocation for the Raspberry Pi:
cmake -GNinja -DPAHO_WITH_SSL=TRUE -DPAHO_BUILD_SAMPLES=TRUE -DPAHO_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION=TRUE -DOPENSSL_LIB_SEARCH_PATH=/tmp/libssl-dev/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf -DOPENSSL_INC_SEARCH_PATH="/tmp/libssl-dev/usr/include/openssl;/tmp/libssl-dev/usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf" -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=~/git/org.eclipse.paho.mqtt.c/cmake/toolchain.linux-arm11.cmake ~/git/org.eclipse.paho.mqtt.c
Compilers for the Raspberry Pi can be obtained from e. g. Linaro (see: http://releases.linaro.org/15.06/components/toolchain/binaries/4.8/arm-linux-gnueabihf/). This example assumes that OpenSSL-libraries and includes have been installed in the /tmp/libssl-dev directory.
Example invocation for Windows 64 bit:
cmake -GNinja -DPAHO_BUILD_SAMPLES=TRUE -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=~/git/org.eclipse.paho.mqtt.c/cmake/toolchain.win64.cmake ~/git/org.eclipse.paho.mqtt.c
In this case the libraries and executable are not linked against OpenSSL Libraries. Cross compilers for the Windows platform can be installed on Debian like systems like this:
apt-get install gcc-mingw-w64-x86-64 gcc-mingw-w64-i686
The provided GNU Makefile is intended to perform all build steps in the build directory within the source-tree of Eclipse Paho. Generated binares, libraries, and the documentation can be found in the build/output directory after completion.
Options that are passed to the compiler/linker can be specified by typical Unix build variables:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| CC | Path to the C compiler |
| CFLAGS | Flags passed to compiler calls |
| LDFLAGS | Flags passed to linker calls |
The Paho C client comprises four shared libraries:
- libmqttv3a.so - asynchronous
- libmqttv3as.so - asynchronous with SSL
- libmqttv3c.so - "classic" / synchronous
- libmqttv3cs.so - "classic" / synchronous with SSL
Optionally, you can build static version of those libraries.
Detailed API documentation is available by building the Doxygen docs in the doc directory. A snapshot is also available online.
Samples are available in the Doxygen docs and also in src/samples for reference.
Note that using the C headers from a C++ program requires the following declaration as part of the C++ code:
extern "C" {
#include "MQTTClient.h"
#include "MQTTClientPersistence.h"
}
A number of environment variables control runtime tracing of the C library.
Tracing is switched on using MQTT_C_CLIENT_TRACE (a value of ON traces to stdout, any other value should specify a file to trace to).
The verbosity of the output is controlled using the MQTT_C_CLIENT_TRACE_LEVEL environment variable - valid values are ERROR, PROTOCOL, MINIMUM, MEDIUM and MAXIMUM (from least to most verbose).
The variable MQTT_C_CLIENT_TRACE_MAX_LINES limits the number of lines of trace that are output.
export MQTT_C_CLIENT_TRACE=ON
export MQTT_C_CLIENT_TRACE_LEVEL=PROTOCOL
Please report bugs under the "MQTT-C" Component in Eclipse Bugzilla for the Paho Technology project.
Discussion of the Paho clients takes place on the Eclipse paho-dev mailing list.
General questions about the MQTT protocol are discussed in the MQTT Google Group.
There is much more information available via the MQTT community site.