Eclipse Paho MQTT C++ Client Library

This repository contains the source code for the Eclipse Paho MQTT C++ client library on memory-managed operating systems such as Linux/Posix and Windows.

This code builds a library which enables C++11 applications to connect to an MQTT broker, publish messages to the broker, and to subscribe to topics and receive published messages.

The library has the following features:

• Support for MQTT v3.1, v3.1.1, and v5.
• Network Transports:
  • Standard TCP
  • Secure sockets with SSL/TLS
  • WebSockets
    • Secure and insecure
    • Proxy support
• Message persistence
  • User configurable
  • Built-in File persistence
  • User-defined key/value persistence easy to implement
• Automatic Reconnect
• Offline Buffering
• High Availability
• Blocking and non-blocking API's
• Modern C++ interface (C++11 and better)

This code requires the Paho C library by Ian Craggs, et al., specifically version 1.3.8 or possibly later.

Latest News

To keep up with the latest announcements for this project, or to ask questions:

Twitter: @eclipsepaho and @fmpagliughi

EMail: Eclipse Paho Mailing List

Mattermost: Eclipse Mattermost Paho Channel

Unreleased features in this branch

• Added Session Expiry Interval to v5 chat sample
• Minor tweaks to prepare for C++20
• Minor cleanup of the tests #317 String constructor using just len instead of end iterator. #337 Copy and move constructors/assignment of ssl_options not handling CA path.

What's new in Version 1.2.0

This release brings in some missing MQTT v5 features, support for websocket headers and proxies, ALPN protocol lists, adds the builder pattern for options, and fixes a number of bugs in both the C++ library and the underlying C lib.

Requires Paho C v1.3.8

• Missing MQTT v5 features:
  • Ability to add properties to Subscribe and Unsubscribe packets (i.e. subscription identifiers)
  • "Disconnected" callback gives reason code and properties for server disconnect
• New create_options that can be used to construct a client with new features:
  • Send while disconnected before the 1st successful connection
  • Output buffer can delete oldest messages when full
  • Can choose to clear the persistence store on startup
  • Select whether to persist QoS 0 messages
• Started classes to create options using the Builder Pattern, with the create_options_builder, connect_options_builder, message_ptr_builder, etc.
• User-defined websocket HTTP headers.
• HTTP/S proxy support
• Added ALPN protocol support to SSL/TLS options
• SSL/TLS error and PSK callback support
• Update connection callback support (change credentials when using auto-reconnect)
• Updates to the sample apps:
  • Overall cleanup with better consistency
  • Example of using websockets and a proxy
  • User-based file persistence with simple encoding/encryption
  • Sharing a client between multiple threads
• Converted the unit tests to use Catch2
• All library exceptions are now properly derived from the mqtt::exception base class.
• [#231] Added on_disconnected callback to handle receipt of disconnect packet from server.
• [#211, #223, #235] Removed use of Log() function from the Paho C library.
• [#227] Fixed race condition in thread-safe queue
• [#224] & [#255] Subscribing to MQTT v3 broker with array of one topic causes segfault.
• [#282] Ability to build Debian/Ubuntu package
• [#300] Calling reconnect() was hanging forever, even when successful. In addition several of the synchronous client calls were hanging forever on failure. They now properly throw a timeout_error exception.
• Several memory issues and bug fixes from updated Paho C library support.

Catch2 Unit Tests

Unit tests were converted to use Catch2 for the test framework.

Catch2 can be found here: Catch2

Contributing

Contributions to this project are gladly welcomed and appreciated Before submitting a Pull Request, please keep three things in mind:

• This is an official Eclipse project, so it is required that all contributors sign an Eclipse Contributor Agreement (ECA)
• Please submit all Pull Requests against the develop branch (not master).
• Please sign all commits.

For full details, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Building from source

CMake is a cross-platform build system suitable for Unix and non-Unix platforms such as Microsoft Windows. It is now the only supported build system.

The Paho C++ library requires the Paho C library, v1.3.8 or greater, to be built and installed first. More information below.

CMake allows for options to direct the build. The following are specific to Paho C++:

In addition, the C++ build might commonly use CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to help the build system find the location of the Paho C library.

Unix and Linux

On *nix systems CMake creates Makefiles.

The build process currently supports a number of Unix and Linux flavors. The build process requires the following tools:

• CMake v3.5 or newer
• GCC v4.8 or newer or Clang v3.9 or newer
• GNU Make

On Debian based systems this would mean that the following packages have to be installed:

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc make cmake cmake-gui cmake-curses-gui

If you will be using secure sockets (and you probably should):

$ sudo apt-get install libssl-dev 

Building the documentation requires doxygen and optionally graphviz to be installed:

$ sudo apt-get install doxygen graphviz

Unit tests are being built using Catch2.

Catch2 can be found here: Catch2. You must download and install Catch2 to build and run the unit tests locally.

Building the Paho C library

Before building the C++ library, first, build and install the Paho C library, if not already present. Note, this version of the C++ library requires Paho C v1.3.8 or greater.

$ git clone https://github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.c.git
$ cd paho.mqtt.c
$ git checkout v1.3.8

$ cmake -Bbuild -H. -DPAHO_ENABLE_TESTING=OFF -DPAHO_BUILD_STATIC=ON \
    -DPAHO_WITH_SSL=ON -DPAHO_HIGH_PERFORMANCE=ON
$ sudo cmake --build build/ --target install
$ sudo ldconfig

This builds with SSL/TLS enabled. If that is not desired, omit the -DPAHO_WITH_SSL=ON.

It also uses the "high performace" option of the C library to disable more extensive internal memory checks. Remove the PAHO_HIGH_PERFORMANCE option (i.e. turn it off) to debug memory issues, but for most production systems, leave it on for better performance.

To install the library to a non-standard location, use the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to specify a location. For example, to install into under the build directory, perhaps for local testing, do this:

$ cmake -Bbuild -H. -DPAHO_ENABLE_TESTING=OFF -DPAHO_BUILD_STATIC=ON \
    -DPAHO_WITH_SSL=ON -DPAHO_HIGH_PERFORMANCE=ON \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=./build/_install

Building the Paho C++ library

An example CMake build session might look like this:

$ git clone https://github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.cpp
$ cd paho.mqtt.cpp

$ cmake -Bbuild -H. -DPAHO_BUILD_STATIC=ON \
    -DPAHO_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION=TRUE -DPAHO_BUILD_SAMPLES=TRUE
$ sudo cmake --build build/ --target install
$ sudo ldconfig

If you did not install Paho C library to a default system location or you want to build against a different version, use the CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to specify its install location. Perhaps something like this:

$ cmake -Bbuild -H. -DPAHO_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION=ON -DPAHO_BUILD_SAMPLES=ON \
    -DPAHO_BUILD_STATIC=ON \
    -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$HOME/mqtt/paho.mqtt.c/build/_install

To use another compiler, either the CXX environment variable can be specified in the configuration step:

$ CXX=clang++ cmake ..

or the CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER flag can be used:

$ cmake -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++

Building a Debian/Ubuntu package

$ cmake -Bbuild -H. -DPAHO_WITH_SSL=ON -DPAHO_ENABLE_TESTING=OFF -DPAHO_BUILD_DEB_PACKAGE=ON
$ cmake --build build
$ (cd build && cpack)

will generate a .deb file.

Windows

On Windows systems CMake creates Visual Studio project files.

The build process currently supports a number Windows versions. The build process requires the following tools:

• CMake GUI v3.5 or newer
• Visual Studio 2015 or newer

First install and open the cmake-gui application. This tutorial is based on cmake-gui 3.5.2.

Second, select the path to the Paho MQTT C library (CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH) if not installed in a standard path. Remember that the Paho MQTT C must be installed on the system. Next, choose if it is supposed to build the documentation (PAHO_BUILD_DOCUMENTATION) and/or the sample applications (PAHO_BUILD_SAMPLES).

Once the configuration is done, click on the Configure button, select the version of the Visual Studio, and then click on Generate button.

At the end of this process you have a Visual Studio solution.

Alternately, the libraries can be completely built at an MSBuild Command Prompt. Download the Paho C and C++ library sources, then open a command window and first compile the Paho C library:

> cd paho.mqtt.c
> cmake -Bbuild -H. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\mqtt\paho-c
> cmake --build build/ --target install

Then build the C++ library:

> cd ..\paho.mqtt.cpp
> cmake -Bbuild -H. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\mqtt\paho-cpp -DPAHO_BUILD_SAMPLES=ON -DPAHO_WITH_SSL=OFF -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:\mqtt\paho-c
> cmake --build build/ --target install

This builds and installs both libraries to a non-standard location under C:\mqtt. Modify this location as desired or use the default location, but either way, the C++ library will most likely need to be told where the C library was built using CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH.

It seems quite odd, but even on a 64-bit system using a 64-bit compiler, MSVC seems to default to a 32-bit build target.

The 64-bit target can be selected using tge CMake generator switch, -G, at configuration time. The full version must be provided. For Visual Studio 2015 which is v14 do this to first build the Paho C library:

> cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 Win64" -Bbuild -H. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\mqtt\paho-c
...

Then use it to build the C++ library:

> cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 Win64" -Bbuild -H. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=C:\mqtt\paho-cpp -DPAHO_WITH_SSL=OFF -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:\mqtt\paho-c
...

Note that it is very important that you use the same generator (target) to build BOTH libraries, otherwise you will get lots of linker errors when you try to build the C++ library.

Supported Network Protocols

The library supports connecting to an MQTT server/broker using TCP, SSL/TLS, and websockets (secure and unsecure). This is chosen by the URI supplied to the connect() call. It can be specified as:

"tcp://<host>:<port>"  - TCP (unsecure)
"ssl://<host>:<port>"  - SSL/TLS
"ws://<host>:<port>"   - Unsecure websockets
"wss://<host>:<port>"  - Secure websockets

Note that to use "ssl://" or "wss://" you must compile the library with OpenSSL, and you must supply a set of ssl_options with the connect_options.

Example

Sample applications can be found in the source repository at src/samples: https://github.com/eclipse/paho.mqtt.cpp/tree/master/src/samples

This is a partial example of what a typical example might look like:

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    sample_mem_persistence persist;
    mqtt::client cli(ADDRESS, CLIENT_ID, &persist);

    callback cb;
    cli.set_callback(cb);

    auto connOpts = mqtt::connect_options_builder() 
        .keep_alive_interval(20);
        .clean_session()
        .finalize();

    try {
        cli.connect(connOpts);

        // First use a message pointer.

        mqtt::message_ptr pubmsg = mqtt::make_message(PAYLOAD1);
        pubmsg->set_qos(QOS);
        cli.publish(TOPIC, pubmsg);

        // Now try with itemized publish.

        cli.publish(TOPIC, PAYLOAD2, strlen(PAYLOAD2)+1, 0, false);

        // Disconnect
        
        cli.disconnect();
    }
    catch (const mqtt::persistence_exception& exc) {
        cerr << "Persistence Error: " << exc.what() << " ["
            << exc.get_reason_code() << "]" << endl;
        return 1;
    }
    catch (const mqtt::exception& exc) {
        cerr << "Error: " << exc.what() << " ["
            << exc.get_reason_code() << "]" << endl;
        return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

The original API organization and documentation were adapted from:

The Paho Java library by Dave Locke et al. Copyright (c) 2012, IBM Corp

All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 which accompanies this distribution, and is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html

This code requires:

The Paho C library by Ian Craggs Copyright (c) 2013-2018, IBM Corp.

All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 and Eclipse Distribution License v1.0 which accompany this distribution.

The Eclipse Public License is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html and the Eclipse Distribution License is available at http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/edl-v10.php.