GPIO "interrupts" using Qt

[mfcexpert]

This isn't a problem I'm seeking an answer to; I just thought it might be of interest. I can't find any reference to this anywhere else but if it's common knowledge accept my apologies. Note it doesn't require the use of sudo.

GPIO pins can be accessed and manipulated using the /sys/class/gpio/ pseudo-directory. So the command lines:

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echo  5  > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio5/direction
echo true > /sys/class/gpio/gpio5/value
cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio5/value

will "open" pin 5, set it as output, set it to true and confirm this.

I thought I could use the class QFileSytemWatcher to monitor input pins by using the kernel's notify system to tell a program that a switch has changed rather than continually monitoring it. To this end I created a program using Qt Creator by selecting New Project->Qt Widgets Application and putting a QLabel widget on the GUI.

I then modified mainwindow.h and mainwindow.cpp as follows

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ifndef MAINWINDOW_H
#define MAINWINDOW_H

#include <QMainWindow>
#include <QFileSystemWatcher>
namespace Ui {
class MainWindow;
}

class MainWindow : public QMainWindow
{
    Q_OBJECT

public:
    QFileSystemWatcher watcher;
    explicit MainWindow(QWidget *parent = 0);
    ~MainWindow();
public slots:
void   switchChanged(QString);
private:
    Ui::MainWindow *ui;
};

#endif // MAINWINDOW_H

and

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#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"
#include <QFileSystemWatcher>

MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
    QMainWindow(parent),
    ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
    watcher.addPath ("/sys/class/gpio/gpio5/value");
    QObject::connect(&watcher, SIGNAL (fileChanged(QString)),\
                         this, SLOT   (switchChanged(QString)));
    ui->setupUi(this);
}

void MainWindow::switchChanged(QString str)
{
    ui->label->setText(str);
}

MainWindow::~MainWindow()
{
    delete ui;
}

After executing the command line:

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echo in > /sys/class/gpio/gpio5/direction

I expected that the program would show "/sys/class/gpio/gpio5/value" when I pressed the switch connected to pin 5. It didn't work.
However when I executed the command line:

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echo both > /sys/class/gpio/gpio5/edge

it did work. It took me some time to find the "edge" pseudo-file (it's hard to find when you don't know it exists). It takes the values "none" (the default), "rising", "falling" or "both".

[ParkerSnable]

Hey, thank you for this great example code.
I actually managed to change the label, but I cant for the sake of... manage to trigger a second interrupt when the value changes from 1 to 0.
I mean reading and using the value to compare and debounce a button input using QFile.readAll() and such.

Would you mind giving me a lil something of your other code which turns this example into a viable option instead of trying to get a QSocketNotifier to work with a filedescriptor? You would be my hero.

Thanks in advance,
Erwin Rompe