Mercurial > vloopback

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	Video4Linux loopback API
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    <H1>
        Video4Linux loopback API
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    <P>
	Author: Jeroen Vreeken (pe1rxq@amsat.org)<BR>
	Version: 0.90<BR>
	Date: 31-01-2001<BR>
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    <P>
        <H2>
    	    Introduction:
	</H2>
	This document describes the API for the Video4Linux loopback driver.
	The driver implements a video pipe using two video4linux devices.
	The first device is used by the program supplying the data,
	from now on this program will be refered to with <I>'pusher'</I>.<BR>
	The second device acts as if it were a normall video4linux device,
	it should be usable by any application that honours the video4linux
	specifications. This application will from now on be refered to as
	<I>'client'</I>.<BR>
	The calls and ioctls mentioned in this document refer to those
	as described in the Video4Linux API.
	<BR>
	The loopback device has two operating modes:
	<UL>
	    <LI>
		A simple one-copy mode in which <I>pusher</I> specifies the
		size of the images and the used palette and uses write to
		push its images to the pipe.<BR>
		This mode is mostly for feeding fixed size images without any
		knowledge about <I>client</I>.
	    </LI>
	    <LI>
		A zero-copy mode in which <I>pusher</I> regularly polls the
		device if <I>client</I> does an ioctl.<BR>
		In this mode <I>pusher</I> has almost complete control over the
		devices behaviour and it will be mainly used to implement
		complex multiple tuner/channel/size configurations.
		With this mode it should be possible to use the Xvideo
		extensions as normal video4linux capture devices.
	    </LI>
	</UL>
    </P>
    <P align=left>
	<H2>
	    Locating a free pipe
	</H2>
	In order to find an unused pipe <I>pusher</I> will have to scan
	the contents of /proc/video/vloopback/<BR>
	Each pipe will have its own entry in the form of <I>vloopback0</I> to
	<I>vloopbackN</I>, N being the total number of available pipes-1.<BR>
	There will also be a general <I>vloopbacks</I> file which will contain
	information on all entries.
	<BR>
	Each of these files will have references to the input and output
	video device and will also indicate if either of them is currently
	in use.<BR>
	<BR>
	Once <I>pusher</I> has found a free pipe it can claim it by simply
	opening the input device.
    </P>
    <P align=left>
	<H2>
	    One-copy mode
	</H2>
	In this mode <I>pusher</I> only has to provide images using the
	<B>write()</B> call,
	the driver will handle the communication with <I>client</I> or
	will drop the images if the output is unused.
	To <I>client</I> the device will closely resemble a webcam driver.<BR>
	<BR>
	In order to use it <I>pusher</I> will open the input device.
	Before writing it will first have to set the palette it is going to use
	by calling <B>VIDIOCSPICT</B>, and the size by calling
	<B>VIDIOCSWIN</B>.
	After this it can call <B>write()</B> for each frame it wants to send
	to the pipe.<BR>
	<BR>
	When there is no application using the device the driver will simply
	drop the frames which will result in a 'no-copy' situation while
	writing to an unused pipe.<BR>
	<I>Note: when client is using read() instead of mmap() the driver will
	actually use a double copy.</I>
    </P>
    <P align=left>
	<H2>
	    Zero-copy mode
	</H2>
	In this mode the driver will forward nearly all ioctls to
	<I>pusher</I>.<BR>
	<BR>
	To initiate this mode <I>pusher</I> will have to call <B>mmap()</B>
	with the size of the requested buffer.
	The driver will allocate memory for this buffer and <I>pusher</I> will
	gain access to it.<BR>
	<I>Note: as the allocated memory might be in use by client, pusher is
	NOT allowed to touch it under any circumstances with the only exeption
	being between <B>VIDIOCMCAPTURE</B> and <B>VIDIOCSYNC</B>.</I><BR>
	<BR>
	<B>
	    Handling ioctls
	</B><BR>
	<BR>
	When <I>client</I> has issued an ioctl <I>pusher</I> will receive a
	<B>SIGIO</B> signal.
	Pusher may check to see if it is comming from vloopback by calling
	<B>poll()</B> first.
	It then has to respond by calling <B>read()</B>
	with a large enough buffer for the largest possible ioctl data
	structure plus <B>sizeof(unsigned long int)</B>. <I>(The largest ioctl data structure is 280 bytes
	in linux kernel 2.4.0-test10pre1, a buffer of 1024 bytes is recommended)
	</I><BR>
	The first bytes of this buffer will be the ioctl number.
	This number is an unsigned long int, the remaining data is the data supplied by <I>client</I>.
	<I>Pusher</I> will now have to handle this ioctl.<BR>
	<BR>
	If it is an ioctl requesting data <I>pusher</I> will answer it by
	calling the ioctl with the requested data.<BR>
	If it is an ioctl setting data <I>pusher</I> will call the ioctl with
	the exact same data to accept it.<BR>
	<BR>
	<B>
	    Handling read
	</B><BR>
	<BR>
	<I>Pusher</I> will not need to handle any read requests because the
	kernel module will fake an mmap and sync call for it.<BR>
	<BR>
	<B>
	    Starting and stopping capture
	</B><BR>
	<BR>
	The first time <B>VIDIOCMCAPTURE</B> is called <I>pusher</I> should
	initialize capture and start capturing of the requested frames into
	the mmapped buffer.<BR>
	When <I>client</I> closes its device an 'ioctl' 0 will be send with
	no data, <I>pusher</I> will tell the hardware to stop.
	<BR>
    </P>
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author	KennethLavrsen
date	Sun, 01 Apr 2007 05:22:43 +0000
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