libmodbus
- Software
- Robot arms and industry
- Library
A C library for talking to devices over the Modbus protocol, using either a serial port or an Ethernet connection.
Source on GitHub: github.com/stephane/libmodbus (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit a9b025d (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- LGPL-2.1-only (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from COPYING.LESSER (opens in a new tab) (LGPL-2.1-only) at commit a9b025d (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
Copyleft: Modified source must be published.
What it does
- Sends and receives data with Modbus devices over a serial port or Ethernet.
- Its functions are derived from the Modicon Modbus Protocol Reference Guide.
- Written in C and designed to run on Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Embox, QNX and Windows.
- Can be used on MCUs with the Embox RTOS.
- Installed with a standard configure and make sequence, and provides a libmodbus.pc file for pkg-config.
- Includes test programs (unit-test-server and unit-test-client) and a make check target.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit a9b025d.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Hardware it needs, as the project states it
- A C compiler (gcc or clang) with automake, autoconf and libtool to build it; MCUs are supported via the Embox RTOS.
- How to start
- The project's README (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Maintained: a commit in the last 12 months
- Newest commit
- 2 Jul 2026 on master
- Latest release
- v3.2.0 (2 Jul 2026)
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots that can run it
No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.
Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.