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Video4Linux

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Also known as v4l, v4l2

Video4Linux (V4L for short) is a collection of device drivers and an API for supporting realtime video capture on Linux systems. It supports USB webcams, TV tuners, CSI cameras, and related devices, standardizing their output, so programmers can easily add video support to their applications.

Key facts

Software.name
Video4Linux
Software.title
Video4Linux
Software.programming language
C
Software.operating system
Linux
Software.platform
Linux kernel
Software.license
GNU General Public License

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Official website
www.linuxtv.org
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via Wikidata · CC0

~3 min read

Article

6 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Software support
  • Criticism
  • See also
  • References
  • External links

Video4Linux (V4L for short) is a collection of device drivers and an API for supporting realtime video capture on Linux systems. It supports USB webcams, TV tuners, CSI cameras, and related devices, standardizing their output, so programmers can easily add video support to their applications.

Video4Linux is responsible for creating V4L2 device nodes aka a device file (/dev/videoX, /dev/vbiX and /dev/radioX) and tracking data from these nodes. The device node creation is handled by V4L device drivers using the video_device struct (v4l2-dev.h) and it can either be allocated dynamically or embedded in another larger struct.

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