Controller Area Network utilities (CAN utils)

can-utils-rs

can-utils-rs is a Rust library and CLI utility for working with Linux SocketCAN interfaces. It provides an interactive workflow for creating CAN interfaces and inspecting CAN traffic with a colorized CAN dump.

The tool currently supports:

Creating and managing Linux CAN interfaces
Automatic installation of required system prerequisites
Pretty, colorized CAN frame dumping
Easy CAN frame sending once or cyclically

The goal of this project is to provide a friendlier and more visual alternative to common Linux CAN tools such as candump, while still integrating seamlessly with the standard SocketCAN ecosystem.

Features

CAN Interface Setup

The interactive wizard helps configure CAN interfaces without needing to remember the exact Linux commands.

Supported interface types:

Native CAN (can0, can1, …)
SLCAN serial adapters (slcan0 via slcand)
Virtual CAN (vcan0) for development and simulation

The tool previews the commands before executing them so users can see exactly what will happen.

Example native CAN configuration:

sudo ip link set can0 up type can bitrate 500000

Pretty CAN Dump

The project includes a colorized CAN dump utility similar to Linux candump, but optimized for readability.

Example output:

(1773430351.545039) vcan0 7FF#00 11 22 33 44 55 66

Enhancements include:

colored timestamps
highlighted interface name
colored CAN IDs
per-byte coloring of payload data

This makes it significantly easier to visually scan CAN traffic.

Automatic Prerequisite Detection

On startup the tool checks whether required system utilities exist.

Missing prerequisites are detected automatically and the user is offered an option to install them.

Example prompt:

Missing prerequisites:
  - can-utils / slcand

? Some required tools are missing. What do you want to do?
❯ Install prerequisites
  Continue anyway
  Exit

Installation currently supports APT-based systems (Debian / Ubuntu).

Supported CAN Interface Types

Native CAN

Configures a hardware CAN controller via SocketCAN.

sudo ip link set can0 up type can bitrate 500000

Typical hardware:

PCI CAN adapters
USB SocketCAN adapters
Raspberry Pi CAN HATs
embedded CAN controllers

SLCAN (Serial CAN)

Serial CAN adapters using the slcand daemon.

Example command sequence:

sudo slcand -c -o -f -s6 -t hw -S 3000000 /dev/ttyUSB0 slcan0
sudo ip link set up slcan0

Virtual CAN

Virtual CAN interfaces are extremely useful for development, testing, and CI environments.

sudo ip link add dev vcan0 type vcan
sudo ip link set up vcan0

CLI

Installation

Install the CLI locally with Cargo:

cargo install --path .

Or install it from crates.io without needing to build from source:

cargo install can-utils-rs

Then run:

can-utils-rs

Demo

Set-up and CAN dump

can-utils-rs dump demo

CAN send and CAN dump

can-utils-rs send and dump demo

CLI Usage

Running the binary launches an interactive menu.

$ can-utils-rs

? What do you want to do?
❯ Create or manage a CAN interface
  Start pretty CAN dump
  Create/manage CAN interface then start dump
  Send CAN frame(s)

The setup workflow asks for:

interface type
interface name
CAN bitrate
serial device (for SLCAN)

Before applying changes the tool prints the commands that will run.

Use as a Library

Import

cargo add anyhow
cargo add can-utils-rs

Example

Example for native CAN interface can0

use can_utils_rs::{CanConfig, NativeConfig, CanBitrate, setup};

fn main() -> anyhow::Result<()> {
   let config = CanConfig::Native(NativeConfig::new("can0".to_string(), CanBitrate::B500K));
   setup::setup(config)?;
   Ok(())

   // Use your CAN interface with SocketCAN via socketcan crate
}

Interface Safety

If an interface already exists the user is asked how to proceed:

Interface 'can0' already exists.

❯ Replace existing interface
  Enter another interface name
  Keep existing and skip setup
  Cancel

When using this crate as a library an existing interface with the same name will be replaced.

When replacing an interface the tool will:

bring the interface down
remove it if necessary (vcan or slcan)
recreate the interface with the selected configuration

Linux Requirements

The following system packages are required:

iproute2
can-utils
kmod

For virtual CAN interfaces:

sudo modprobe vcan

The tool can optionally install these automatically on supported systems.

Design

The project is structured into modular subsystems:

setup::models   - shared configuration types
setup::prompt   - interactive setup wizard
setup::plan     - command planning / preview generation
setup::exec     - command execution helpers
setup::prereqs  - prerequisite detection and installation

dump::format    - colored frame formatting
dump::live      - live SocketCAN frame reader
dump::mod       - dump orchestration and interface selection

This architecture keeps setup logic, CAN traffic handling, and CLI interaction clearly separated.

License

MIT

can-utils-rs 0.4.1