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)