Quote:
Reading Data from the Port
Reading data from a port is a little trickier. When you operate the port in raw data mode, each read(2) system call will return the number of characters that are actually available in the serial input buffers. If no characters are available, the call will block (wait) until characters come in, an interval timer expires, or an error occurs. The read function can be made to return immediately by doing the following:
fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, FNDELAY);
The FNDELAY option causes the read function to return 0 if no characters are available on the port. To restore normal (blocking) behavior, call fcntl() without the FNDELAY option:
fcntl(fd, F_SETFL, 0);
This is also used after opening a serial port with the O_NDELAY option.
Since the site refers to POSIX and Unix, I think you are using a Unix-like OS. My experience is in Windows, so I probably can't help any further, and I am not completely certain that my explanation here is even correct.