# wjwwood/serial

Cross-platform, Serial Port library written in C++

Repository: https://github.com/wjwwood/serial
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/serial
Homepage: http://wjwwood.github.com/serial/
Language: C++
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-08-21T05:20:23+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5647, "days_push": 742, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2433, forks 1170 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:51.262209+00:00)

## What it is
A cross-platform C++ library for interfacing with RS-232 serial ports, offering a modern C++ API modeled after PySerial. It supports open/close/read/write operations, timeouts, and handshaking line control with no extra runtime dependencies.

## Use cases
- communicate with arduino over serial port from c++
- read data from a serial sensor in a robotics project
- write to rs-232 devices cross-platform
- control serial port timeouts and handshake lines
- replace pyserial with a faster c++ equivalent
- integrate serial communication into a ros/catkin workspace

## When to choose
- you need serial port access in C++ on Linux, macOS, or Windows
- you want a PySerial-like API with C++ performance
- you're building ROS or catkin-based robotics projects
- you need fine control over timeouts and handshaking lines

## When to avoid
- you need a high-level protocol layer on top of raw serial
- your project is not C++ or doesn't use CMake/catkin
- you need actively developed features or frequent updates
- you need modern async I/O abstractions

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: sdk, developer-tools
- domain: hardware, robotics, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cpp, cross-platform
- tags: serial-port, rs-232, hardware-communication, pyserial-like, catkin, ros, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- wjwwood/serial (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:51.262209+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:31:10.495095+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/wjwwood/serial (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:51.262209+00:00, sha afe0c3dc3c19)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.