# Elixircom
[](https://circleci.com/gh/mattludwigs/elixircom)
A serial port terminal emulator for IEx.
This is useful if you are using Elixir projects that
involve communicating with serial port devices that need
a terminal like environment. Inspired by `picocom`.
To use it, add this project to your deps:
```elixir
def deps do
[
{:elixircom, "~> 0.1.0"}
]
end
```
After rebuilding and starting a new `IEx` prompt, run:
```elixir
iex(1)> Elixircom.run("/dev/tty.usbmodem14103")
```
Note that the serial port name will be different on different
platforms.
This will connect your current `IEx` session with the serial port.
This example connects to a raspberry pi zero running nerves:
```elixir
Erlang/OTP 21 [erts-10.0.8] [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [ds:8:8:10] [async-threads:1] [hipe]
Interactive Elixir (1.7.3) - press Ctrl+C to exit (type h() ENTER for help)
iex(1)> Elixircom.run "/dev/tty.usbmodem14103"
nil
iex(pi@pi.local)107>
nil
iex(pi@pi.local)108> 1 + 1
2
iex(pi@pi.local)109>
```
To exit out of the serial port terminal, press `Ctrl+B`.
```elixir
iex(1)> Elixircom.run "/dev/tty.usbmodem14103"
nil
iex(pi@pi.local)158>
nil
iex(pi@pi.local)159>
nil
iex(pi@pi.local)160> 1 + 1
2
iex(pi@pi.local)161> :ok
iex(2)>
nil
iex(3)>
nil
iex(4)>
```
## Known Issues
Currently if you hit a runtime error when connecting to an `IEx` prompt over serial, for
example a device running nerves, the next line waiting for input will be red along with the
error message. To break the red coloring of the text just press enter/return.
We are waiting for a resolution on [ERL-768](https://bugs.erlang.org/browse/ERL-768) to fix this.
