Using 9P to communicate with various sensors, actuators, devices, appliances, and industrial equipment is something a few people have worked on, myself included. I also use Void Linux, however, all my work happens on Plan 9 and I have not bothered to mount 9P on my Void machine.
IMO, Linux is a poor platform for dynamic file systems like 9P so I would not waste my time on it. Though, a few people here have done similar projects using Go on Linux and so on. They might be able to point you in the right direction. On Mon, Aug 10, 2026 at 2:11 PM rsykora via 9fans <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear list, > > > I have been contemplating using a 9p protocol as a means of > providing access to some real-time measurements. Namely, I > have a set of devices that measure electric currents at > various places of our laboratory. Those devices speak over > serial line, and are physically attached over USB to a USB > hub connected to a Raspberry Pi 3. At the moment the Pi runs > Void linux. I thought I would create a synthetic filesystem > on the Pi with various devices appearing as folders, and > would serve this filesystem over network with 9p protocol. > However, I found out that > > -- There is no support for 9p in my void linux kernel, > CONFIG_NET_9P_TCP is disabled, so I either have to recompile > the kernel, or use a user-space utility, or use a different > operating system. > > -- As far as user-space utilities go, I found only some > >10y-old programs that invariably failed for me (both > servers and clients). Possibly I can compile plan9port on > the Pi (and install plan9port on other linux clients) to provide > 9pfuse. If I was successful with that, this would allow me > to mount the 'measurement data' on linuxes, but, eventually, > a client program should also run on MS Windows... > > I spent hours talking with (free) google AI to find some > nice solution, but has not managed to converge. At this > moment on the Pi I have neither a reliable 9p server [AI > built some from the ground up, but plan9port 9pfuse does not > speak to it without issues], nor means of serving it locally > on the Pi, nor means of mounting it over the network. > > Perhaps 9p is not the right tool for the job. Still it would > nicely seperate the individual tasks and make the filesystem > the interface. > > AI suggested to use sshfs instead of 9p (and serve an > in-memory filesystem in a cacheless way [the data are > constantly changing] and atomic change of the files). > Alternatively, AI suggested setting up a web server and > build the communication based on json. > > Can somebody here perhaps have something to say about such a > task? Have you built a similar system before and can you > share experience? > > Thank you for any comments! > > > Best regards > Ruda > ------------------------------------------ 9fans: 9fans Permalink: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/T14e2df9c5f8b4cfd-Ma8a1e34135f656a8e489a45d Delivery options: https://9fans.topicbox.com/groups/9fans/subscription
