Lsquaredc: accessing I²C in Linux

2014-05-20

It might seem that writing I2C libraries is my favorite activity, but it really isn't. This library is not something I expected to write, but since I had to, I'm releasing it in the hope that it will save others time and frustration.

Lsquaredc is a tiny Linux library that allows you to access I2C (IIC, I²C, or I squared C) from userspace without causing excessive pain and suffering.

When I tried accessing I2C on my BeagleBone Black, I was sure it would be obvious. Well, I was wrong. It turned out that the usual way is to read/write data using read() and write() calls, which doesn't support restarts. And if one needs repeated start, there is an ioctl with an entirely different and difficult to use interface.

For more information, see the Lsquaredc page and its Github repository.