NAME

       sane-v4l - SANE interface for Video for Linux API

DESCRIPTION

       The  sane-v4l  library  implements  a SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) backend that provides
       generic access to video cameras and similar equipment using the V4L (Video for Linux) API.

       This is ALPHA software. Really! Important features are missing and there are lots of bugs.
       The code is currently only tested on a Linux 2.4 system with a Hauppauge WinTV video card.

DEVICE NAMES

       This backend expects device names of the form:

              special

       Where  special  is  the  UNIX path-name for the special device that corresponds to the v4l
       device.  The special device name must be a v4l device or a symlink to such a device.   For
       example, such a device name could be /dev/video0 or /dev/bttv0.

CONFIGURATION

       The  contents  of  the  v4l.conf  file  is  a  list of device names that correspond to v4l
       devices.  Empty lines and lines starting with a hash  mark  (#)  are  ignored.   A  sample
       configuration file is shown below:

              /dev/bttv0
              # this is a comment
              /dev/video3

FILES

       /etc/sane.d/v4l.conf
              The backend configuration file (see also description of SANE_CONFIG_DIR below).

       /usr/lib/arch_triplet/sane/libsane-v4l.a
              The static library implementing this backend.

       /usr/lib/arch_triplet/sane/libsane-v4l.so
              The  shared  library  implementing  this  backend  (present on systems that support
              dynamic loading).

ENVIRONMENT

       SANE_CONFIG_DIR
              This environment variable specifies the list of directories that  may  contain  the
              configuration  file.   Under  UNIX, the directories are separated by a colon (`:'),
              under OS/2, they are separated by a semi-colon (`;').  If this variable is not set,
              the  configuration  file is searched in two default directories: first, the current
              working directory (".") and then in /etc/sane.d.  If the value of  the  environment
              variable  ends with the directory separator character, then the default directories
              are searched after the explicitly  specified  directories.   For  example,  setting
              SANE_CONFIG_DIR  to  "/tmp/config:"  would result in directories "tmp/config", ".",
              and "/etc/sane.d" being searched (in this order).

       SANE_DEBUG_V4L
              If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this  environment  variable
              controls the debug level for this backend.  E.g., a value of 128 requests all debug
              output to be printed.  Smaller levels reduce verbosity.

AUTHOR

       Juergen G. Schimmer, Henning Meier-Geinitz

BUGS:

       If more than one video card  is  present,  a  crash  may  occur.  Frequency  and  geometry
       selection is missing.
       Send  bug  reports to the SANE mailing list: sane-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org.  You must
       be subscribed to the list to send mail. See http://www.sane-project.org/mailing-lists.html
       for details.

SEE ALSO

       sane(7), xcam(1).

                                           14 Jul 2008                                sane-v4l(5)