Looking for a hal component

OK, so far, so good.

I think I've successfully used Halcompile to make my 64 output demulitplexer.

It installed it to this path:
/usr/lib/linuxcnc/modules

The file extension was .so

In tutorials I've seen them talk about .ko files for hal components, so what's the difference between a .so file and a .ko file ?

On a sidenote I did a search from the root directory for "and2.*" and only got and2.so in the above mentioned directory which was full of what appeared to be all the hal components, as .so type files.
I could not find any directory with and2.ko

beefy wrote:

The file extension was .so

In tutorials I've seen them talk about .ko files for hal components, so what's the difference between a .so file and a .ko file ?

 

".so" means "shared object" file, ".ko" is the ending usually used for kernel modules. Depending on your realtime system, either .so is generated for userspace RT Preempt, or kernel modules for RTAI.

Thanks very much Rmu.

Mine is the RT Preempt so that all makes sense now.

On the main online docs page of the version you are running, you will find a Heading called man pages. Under that is a button called expand man pages. Be sure you click on it and always leave it expanded.

That will display a copy of all of the man pages that you can access from the command line (eg man and2). This documentation is generated from the source code of each component. Happy reading!

 

Thanks Rod, got a tab permanently open with that now. Very handy.

I tested my 64 output demultiplexer with halcmd and it seemed to work great so I'm over the moon.
I feel like I'm well on the way to designing my super pendant.