xenial (1) zoneminder.1.gz

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NAME

       zoneminder - ZoneMinder Documentation

USER GUIDE

   Introduction
       Welcome to ZoneMinder, the all-in-one Linux GPL'd security camera solution.

       Most  commercial  "security  systems"  are  designed as a monitoring system that also records.  Recording
       quality can vary from bad to unusable,  locating  the  relevant  video  can  range  from  challenging  to
       impractical,  and  exporting  can  often  only  be done with the manual present.  ZoneMinder was designed
       primarily to record, and allow easy searches and exporting.  Recordings are of the best possible quality,
       easy to filter and find, and simple to export using any system with a web browser.  It also monitors.

       ZoneMinder  is  designed  around  a  series  of  independent components that only function when necessary
       limiting any wasted resource and maximising the efficiency of your machine. A fairly ancient  Pentium  II
       PC should be able to track one camera per device at up to 25 frames per second with this dropping by half
       approximately for each additional camera on the same device. Additional cameras on other devices  do  not
       interact so can maintain this frame rate. Even monitoring several cameras still will not overload the CPU
       as frame processing is designed to synchronise with capture and not stall it.

       As well as being fast ZoneMinder is designed to be friendly and even more than that, actually useful.  As
       well  as the fast video interface core it also comes with a user friendly and comprehensive PHP based web
       interface allowing you to control and monitor your cameras from home, at work, on the road, or even a web
       enabled cell phone. It supports variable web capabilities based on available bandwidth. The web interface
       also allows you to view events that your cameras have captured and archive them or review them  time  and
       again,  or  delete  the  ones  you  no longer wish to keep. The web pages directly interact with the core
       daemons ensuring full co-operation at all times. ZoneMinder can even be installed  as  a  system  service
       ensuring it is right there if your computer has to reboot for any reason.

       The  core  of  ZoneMinder is the capture and analysis of images and there is a highly configurable set of
       parameters that allow you to ensure that you can eliminate false positives whilst ensuring that  anything
       you  don't  want to miss will be captured and saved. ZoneMinder allows you to define a set of 'zones' for
       each camera of varying sensitivity and functionality. This allows you to eliminate regions that you don't
       wish  to  track  or  define  areas that will alarm if various thresholds are exceeded in conjunction with
       other zones.

       ZoneMinder  is  free,  but  if   you   do   find   it   useful   then   please   feel   free   to   visit
       http://www.zoneminder.com/donate.html and help to fund future improvements to ZoneMinder.

   Components
       ZoneMinder is not a single monolithic application but is formed from several components. These components
       primarily include executable compiled binaries which do the main  video  processing  work,  perl  scripts
       which  usually  perform helper and/or external interface tasks and php web scripts which are used for the
       web interface.

   System Overview
       Depicted below is a high level diagram of the ZoneMinder system with key components [image]

       A brief description of each of the principle components follows.

   Binaries
       zmc    This is the ZoneMinder Capture daemon. This binary's job is to sit on  a  video  device  and  suck
              frames off it as fast as possible, this should  run at more or less constant speed.

       zma    This  is  the  ZoneMinder  Analysis  daemon.  This is the component that goes through the captured
              frames and checks them for motion which might generate an alarm or event. It  generally  keeps  up
              with the Capture daemon but if very busy may skip some frames to prevent it falling behind.

       zmf    This  is  the ZoneMinder Frame daemon. This is an optional daemon that can run in concert with the
              Analysis daemon and whose function it is to actually write captured frames to disk. This frees  up
              the  Analysis  daemon to do more analysis (!) and so keep up with the Capture daemon better. If it
              isn’t running or dies then the Analysis daemon just writes them itself.

       zms    This is the ZoneMinder Streaming server. The web interface connects with this to get real-time  or
              historical  streamed  images.  It runs only when a live monitor stream or event stream is actually
              being viewed and dies when the event finishes or the associate web page is closed. If you find you
              have several zms processes running when nothing is being viewed then it is likely you need a patch
              for apache (see the Troubleshooting section). A non-parsed header version of zms, called  nph-zms,
              is also installed and may be used instead depending on your web server configuration.

       zmu    This  is  the  ZoneMinder Utility. It's basically a handy command line interface to several useful
              functions. It’s not really meant to be used by anyone except the web page  (there's  only  limited
              'help' in it so far) but can be if necessary, especially for debugging video problems.

   PHP
       As  well  as this there are the web PHP files in the web directory. Currently these consist of 4 possible
       skins.

       Classic
              Original ZoneMinder skin

       Flat   An updated version of classic skin, retaining the same layout with a more modern style

       XML    Displays certain views as XML. Used by eyeZM as an interfacing skin (Note  that  eyeZM  no  longer
              seems  to  work with later versions of Zoneminder). New developers of 3rd party clients should use
              the API instead (../api)

       Mobile A skin that displays views in a more condensed and single page format, likely suitable for smaller
              mobile  devices,  should one choose to access the ZoneMinder console using such devices. Note that
              there are also third party mobile clients one could use (mobile)

   Perl
       Finally some perl scripts in the scripts directory. These scripts all have some configuration at the  top
       of the files which should be viewed and amended if necessary and are as follows.

       zmpkg.pl
              This  is  the  ZoneMinder  Package  Control  script. This is used by the web interface and service
              scripts to control the execution of the system as a whole.

       zmdc.pl
              This is the ZoneMinder Daemon Control script. This is used by the web interface and  the  zmpkg.pl
              script  to control and maintain the execution of the capture and analysis daemons, amongst others.
              You should not need to run this script yourself.

       zmfilter.pl
              This script controls the execution of saved filters and will be started and  stopped  by  the  web
              interface  based on whether there are filters that have been defined to be autonomous. This script
              is also responsible for the automatic uploading of events to a 3rd party server.

       zmaudit.pl
              This script is used to check the consistency of the event file system and database. It can  delete
              orphaned  events, i.e. ones that appear in one location and not the other as well as checking that
              all the various event related tables are in line. It can be run interactively  or  in  batch  mode
              either  from  the  command line or a cron job or similar. In the zmconfig.pl there is an option to
              specify fast event deletes where the web interface only deletes the event entry from the  database
              itself. If this is set then it is this script that tidies up the rest.

       zmwatch.pl
              This  is a simple script purely designed to keep an eye on the capture daemons and restart them if
              they lockup. It has been known for sync problems in the video drivers to cause this so this script
              makes sure that nothing important gets missed.

       zmupdate.pl
              Currently this script is responsible for checking whether a new version of ZoneMinder is available
              and other miscellaneous actions related to upgrades and migrations. It is also intended  to  be  a
              ‘one stop shop’ for any upgrades and will execute everything necessary to update your installation
              to a new version.

       zmvideo.pl
              This script is used from the web interface to generate video files in various formats in a  common
              way.  You  can  also use it from the command line in certain circumstances but this is not usually
              necessary.

       zmx10.pl
              This is an optional script that can be used to initiate and  monitor  X10  Home  Automation  style
              events  and  interface  with an alarm system either by the generation of X10 signals on ZoneMinder
              events or by initiating  ZoneMinder  monitoring  and  capture  on  receipt  of  X10  signals  from
              elsewhere,  for  instance  the  triggering  of an X10 PIR. For example I have several cameras that
              don’t do motion detection until I arm my alarm system whereupon they switch to active mode when an
              X10 signal is generated by the alarm system and received by ZoneMinder.

       zmtrigger.pl
              This  is  an  optional script that is a more generic solution to external triggering of alarms. It
              can handle external connections via either internet socket, unix socket or file/device interfaces.
              You  can  either  use  it  ‘as  is’  if  you  can  interface with the existing format, or override
              connections and channels  to  customise  it  to  your  needs.  The  format  of  triggers  used  by
              zmtrigger.pl is as follows "<id>|<action>|<score>|<cause>|<text>|<showtext>" where

              • 'id' is the id number or name of the ZM monitor.

              • 'action'  is  'on',  'off',  'cancel'  or  ‘show’ where 'on' forces an alarm condition on, 'off'
                forces an alarm condition off and 'cancel' negates the previous 'on' or 'off'. The ‘show’ action
                merely  updates  some auxiliary text which can optionally be displayed in the images captured by
                the monitor. Ordinarily you would use 'on' and 'cancel', 'off' would tend to be used to suppress
                motion  based events. Additionally 'on' and 'off' can take an additional time offset, e.g. on+20
                which automatically 'cancel's the previous action after that number of seconds.

              • 'score' is the score given to the alarm, usually to indicate it's importance. For 'on'  triggers
                it should be non-zero, otherwise it should be zero.

              • 'cause'  is a 32 char max string indicating the reason for, or source of the alarm e.g. 'Relay 1
                open'. This is saved in the ‘Cause’ field of the event. Ignored for 'off' or 'cancel' messages.

              • 'text' is a 256 char max additional info field, which is saved in the ‘Description’ field of  an
                event. Ignored for 'off' or 'cancel' messages.

              • 'showtext'  is  up to 32 characters of text that can be displayed in the timestamp that is added
                to images. The ‘show’ action is designed to update this text without affecting  alarms  but  the
                text is updated, if present, for any of the actions. This is designed to allow external input to
                appear on the images captured, for instance temperature or personnel identity etc.

              Note that multiple messages can be sent at once and should be LF or CRLF delimited. This script is
              not  necessarily intended to be a solution in itself, but is intended to be used as ‘glue’ to help
              ZoneMinder interface with other systems. It  will  almost  certainly  require  some  customisation
              before  you can make any use of it. If all you want to do is generate alarms from external sources
              then using the ZoneMinder::SharedMem perl module is likely to be easier.

       zmcamtool.pl
              This optional script is new for the upcoming 1.27 release of ZoneMinder. It is intended to make it
              easy  to do the following: bring in new ptz controls and camera presets, convert existing monitors
              into presets, and export custom ptz controls and presets. For the initial release, this script  is
              not integrated into the UI and must be called from the command line.  Type ''zmcamtool.pl --help''
              from the command line to get an explanation of the different arguments one can pass to the script.

       zmcontrol-*.pl
              These are a set of example scripts which can be used to control Pan/Tilt/Zoom class cameras.  Each
              script  converts  a  set  of  standard parameters used for camera control into the actual protocol
              commands sent to the camera. If you are using a camera control protocol that is not in the shipped
              list  then  you  will have to create a similar script though it can be created entirely separately
              from ZoneMinder and does not need to named as these scripts are. Although the scripts are used  to
              action  commands  originated  from  the web interface they can also be used directly or from other
              programs or scripts, for instance to implement periodic scanning to different presets.

       zmtrack.pl
              This script is used to manage the experimental motion tracking  feature.  It  is  responsible  for
              detecting  that  an  alarm is taking place and moving the camera to point to the alarmed location,
              and then subsequently returning it to a defined standby location. As well as moving the camera  it
              also  controls  when  motion  detection is suspended and restored so that the action of the camera
              tracking does not trigger endless further alarms which are not justified.

       zm     This is the (optional) ZoneMinder init script, see below for details.

       Finally, there are also a number of ZoneMinder perl modules included.  These  are  used  by  the  scripts
       above,  but  can  also  be  used by your own or 3rd party scripts. Full documentation for most modules is
       available in ‘pod’ form via ‘perldoc’ but the general purpose of each module is as follows.

       ZoneMinder.pm
              This is a general ZoneMinder container  module.  It  includes  the  Base.pm,  Config.pm  Debug.pm,
              Database.pm,  and  SharedMem.pm  modules  described below. It also exports all of their symbols by
              default. If you use the other modules directly you have request which symbol tags to import.

       ZoneMinder/Base.pm
              This is the base ZoneMinder perl module. It contains only simple data such as version information.
              It is included by all other ZoneMinder perl modules

       ZoneMinder/Config.pm
              This module imports the ZoneMinder configuration from the database.

       ZoneMinder/Debug.pm
              This  module  contains  the  defined  Debug  and  Error functions etc, that are used by scripts to
              produce diagnostic information in a standard format.

       ZoneMinder/Database.pm
              This module contains database access definitions and functions. Currently not a  lot  is  in  this
              module but it is included as a placeholder for future development.

       ZoneMinder/SharedMem.pm
              This  module  contains  standard  shared  memory access functions. These can be used to access the
              current state of monitors etc as well as issuing commands to the monitors to switch things on  and
              off. This module effectively provides a ZoneMinder API.

       ZoneMinder/ConfigAdmin.pm
              This module is a specialised module that contains the definition, and other information, about the
              various configuration options. It is not intended for use by 3rd parties.

       ZoneMinder/Trigger/*.pm
              These modules contain definitions of trigger channels and connections  used  by  the  zmtrigger.pl
              script.  Although  they  can  be  used  ‘as  is’, they are really intended as examples that can be
              customised or specialised for different  interfaces.  Contributed  modules  for  new  channels  or
              connections will be welcomed and included in future versions of ZoneMinder.

   Getting Started
       After  installation  of Zoneminder you should now be able to load the ZoneMinder web frontend. By default
       this will be with the Classic skin, below is an example of the page you should now see.  [image]

   Enabling Authentication
       We strongly recommend enabling authentication right away. There are some situations where  certain  users
       don't  enable  authentication, such as instances where the server is in a LAN not directly exposed to the
       Internet, and is only accessible via VPN etc., but in most cases, authentication should  be  enabled.  So
       let's do that right away.

       • Click on the Options link on the top right corner of the web interface

       • You will now be presented with a screen full of options. Click on the "System" tab
       [image]

       • The relevant portions to change are marked in red above

       • Enable  OPT_USE_ATH  -  this automatically switches to authentication mode with a default user (more on
         that later)

       • Select a random string for AUTH_HASH_SECRET - this is  used  to  make  the  authentication  logic  more
         secure, so please generate your own string and please don't use the same value in the example.

       • The other options highlighed above should already be set, but if not, please make sure they are

       • Click  on  Save  at  the  bottom  and  that's  it! The next time you refresh that page, you will now be
         presented with a login screen. Job well done!
       [image]

       NOTE:
          The default login/password is "admin/admin"

   Switching to flat theme
       What you see is what is called a "classic" skin. Zoneminder has a host of configuration options that  you
       can  customize over time. This guide is meant to get you started the easiest possible way, so we will not
       go into all the details. However, it is worthwhile to note that Zoneminder also has a 'flat'  theme  that
       depending on your preferences may look more modern. So let's use that as an example of introducing you to
       the Options menu

       • Click on the Options link on the top right of the web interface in the image above

       • This will bring you to the options window as shown below. Click on the "System" tab and then select the
         "flat" option for CSS_DEFAULT as shown below
       [image]

       • Click Save at the bottom

       Now, switch to the "Display" tab and also select "Flat" there like so: [image]

       Your screen will now look like this:

       Congratulations! You now have a modern looking interface.  [image]

   Understanding the Web Console
       Before  we proceed, lets spend a few minutes understanding the key functions of the web console.  For the
       sake of illustration, we are going to use a populated zoneminder configuration with several monitors  and
       events.   Obviously,  this  does  not reflect your current web console - which is essentially void of any
       useful information till now, as we are yet to add things. Let's take a small break  and  understand  what
       the various functions are before we configure our own empty screen.  [image]

       • A: This is the username that is logged in. You are logged in as 'admin' here

       • B:  Click here to explore the various options of ZoneMinder and how to configure them. You already used
         this to enable authentication and change style above. Over time, you will find this to have many  other
         things you will want to customize.

       • C:  This  link,  when  clicked, opens up a color coded log window of what is going on in Zoneminder and
         often gives you good insight into what is going wrong or right. Note that the color here is red -  that
         is an indication that some error occurred in ZoneMinder. You should click it and investigate.

       • D:  This  is  the  core  of ZoneMinder - recording events. It gives you a count of how many events were
         recorded over the hour, day, week, month.

       • E: These are the "Zones". Zones are areas within the camera that you  mark  as  'hotspots'  for  motion
         detection. Simply put, when you first configure your monitors (cameras), by default Zoneminder uses the
         entire field of view of the camera to detect motion. You may not want this.  You  may  want  to  create
         "zones"  specifically  for detecting motion and ignore others. For example, lets consider a room with a
         fan that spins. You surely don't want to consider the fan moving continuously a reason for triggering a
         record? Probably not - in that case, you'd leave the fan out while making your zones.

       • F:  This  is  the  "source"  column  that tells you the type of the camera - if its an IP camera, a USB
         camera or more. In this example, they are all IP cameras. Note the color red on  item  F  ?  Well  that
         means  there is something wrong with that camera. No wonder the log also shows red. Good indication for
         you to tap on logs and investigate

       • G: This defines how Zoneminder will record events. There are various modes. In brief Modect  ==  record
         if  a  motion  is  detected,Record  =  always  record  24x7, Mocord = always record PLUS detect motion,
         Monitor = just provide a live view but don't record anytime, Modect =  Don't  record  till  an  externa
         entity via zmtrigger tells Zoneminder to (this is advanced usage).

       • H:  If  you  click  on  these  links  you can view a "Montage" of all your configured monitors or cycle
         through each one

   Adding Monitors
       Now that we have a basic understanding of the web console, lets go about adding a new  camera  (monitor).
       For this example, lets assume we have an IP camera that streams RTSP at LAN IP address 192.168.1.33.

       The  first thing we will need to know is how to access that camera's video feed. You will need to consult
       your camera's manual or check their forum. Zoneminder community users also have a frequently updated list
       right here that lists information about many cameras. If you don't find your list there and can't seem to
       find it elsewhere, feel free to register and ask in the user foums.

       The camera we are using as an example here is a Foscam 9831W which is a 1280x960 RTSP camera, and the URL
       to access it's feed is username:password@IPADDRESS:PORT/videoMain

       Let's get started:

       Click on the "Add new monitor" button below: [image]

       This brings up the new monitor window: [image]

       • We've  given  it  a  name  of  'Garage', because, well, its better than Monitor-1 and this is my Garage
         camera.

       • There are various source types. As a brief introduction you'd want to use 'Local'  if  your  camera  is
         physically  attached to your ZM server (like a USB camera, for example), and one of 'Remote', 'FFMpeg',
         'Libvlc' or 'cURL' for a remote camera (not necessarily, but usually). For this example, let's go  with
         'Remote'.

       NOTE:
          As  a  thumb rule, if you have a camera accessible via IP and it does HTTP or RTSP, start with Remote,
          then try FFMpeg and libvlc if it doesn't work (/userguide/definemonitor covers  other  modes  in  more
          details).  If  you  are  wondering  what 'File' does, well, ZoneMinder was built with compatibility in
          mind. Take a look at this post  to see how file can be used for leisure reading.

       • Let's leave the Function as 'Monitor' just so we can use this as an example to change it later  another
         way.  Practically,  feel  free to select your mode right now - Modect, Record etc depending on what you
         want ZoneMinder to do with this camera

       • We've put in MaxFPS and AlarmFPS as 20 here. You can leave this empty too. Whatever you do  here,  it's
         important  to  make  sure  these values are higher than the FPS of the camera. The reason we've added a
         value here is that as of Aug 2015, if a camera goes offline, ZoneMinder eats up a lot of CPU  trying to
         reach it and putting a larger value here than the actual FPS helps in that specific situation.

       NOTE:
          We  strongly  recommend  not  putting  in a lower FPS here that the one configured inside your camera.
          Zoneminder should not be used to manage camera frame rate. That always causes many problems. It's much
          better  you set the value directly in-camera and either leave this blank or specify a higher FPS here.
          In this case, our actual camera FPS is 3 and we've set this value here to 10.

       • We are done for the General tab. Let's move to the next tab
       [image]

       • Let's select a protocol of RTSP and a remote method of RTP/RTSP (this is an RTSP camera)

       • The other boxes are mostly self-explanatory

       That's pretty much it. Click on Save. We are not going to explore the other tabs in this simple guide.

       You now have a configured monitor: [image]

       If you want to change its mode from Monitor to say, Modect (Motion Detect), later all you need to  do  is
       click on the Function column that says 'Monitor' and change it to 'Modect' like so: [image]

       and we now have: [image]

       And  then, finally, to see if everything works, lets click on the monitor name ('Garage' in this example)
       and that should bring up a live feed just like this: [image]

   Conclusion
       This was a quick 'Getting Started' guide where you were introduced to the very basics of  how  to  add  a
       monitor   (camera).   We've   skipped   many   details   to   keep   this   concise.   Please   refer  to
       /userguide/definemonitor for many other customization details.

   Defining Monitors
       To use ZoneMinder properly you need to define at least one Monitor. Essentially, a monitor is  associated
       with a camera and can continually check it for motion detection and such like.

       You  can  access  the  monitor  window by clicking on the "Add New Monitor" button, or by clicking on the
       "Source" column of a predefined monitor.  [image]

       There are a small number of camera setups that ZoneMinder knows  about  and  which  can  be  accessed  by
       clicking  on the ‘Presets’ link. Selecting one of the presets will fill in the monitor configuration with
       appropriate values but you will still need to enter others and confirm the preset settings.  Here  is  an
       example of the presets window: [image]

       The options are divided into a set of tabs to make it easier to edit. You do not have to ‘save’ to change
       to different tab so you can make all the changes you require and  then  click  ‘Save’  at  the  end.  The
       individual options are explained in a little more detail below,

   Monitor Tab
       Name   The  name  for  your  monitor. This should be made up of alphanumeric characters (a-z,A-Z,0-9) and
              hyphen (-) and underscore(_) only. Whitespace is not allowed.

       Server Multi-Server implementation allows the ability to define multiple  ZoneMinder  servers  sharing  a
              single  database. When servers are configured this setting allows you nominate the server for each
              monitor.

       Source Type
              This determines whether the camera is a local one attached to a physical video or USB port on your
              machine,  a  remote  network camera or an image source that is represented by a file (for instance
              periodically downloaded from a alternate location). Choosing one or the other affects which set of
              options are shown in the Source tab.

       Function
              This essentially defines what the monitor is doing. This can be one of the following;

                 • None  –  The  monitor  is  currently  disabled. No streams can be viewed or events generated.
                   Nothing is recorded.

                 • Monitor – The monitor is only available for live streaming. No image analysis is done  so  no
                   alarms or events will be generated, and nothing will be recorded.

                 • Modect – or MOtion DEteCTtion. All captured images will be analysed and events generated with
                   recorded video where motion is detected.

                 • Record – The monitor will  be  continuously  recorded.  Events  of  a  fixed-length  will  be
                   generated  regardless  of  motion,  analogous to a conventional time-lapse video recorder. No
                   motion detection takes place in this mode.

                 • Mocord – The monitor will be continuously recorded, with any motion being highlighted  within
                   those events.

                 • Nodect – or No DEteCTtion. This is a special mode designed to be used with external triggers.
                   In Nodect no motion detection takes place  but  events  are  recorded  if  external  triggers
                   require it.

              Generally speaking it is best to choose ‘Monitor’ as an initial setting here.

       Enabled
              The  enabled  field indicates whether the monitor should be started in an active mode or in a more
              passive state. You will nearly always want to check this box, the only exceptions being  when  you
              want the camera to be enabled or disabled by external triggers or scripts. If not enabled then the
              monitor will not create any events in response to motion or any other triggers.

       Linked Monitors
              This field allows you to select other monitors on your  system  that  act  as  triggers  for  this
              monitor. So if you have a camera covering one aspect of your property you can force all cameras to
              record while that camera detects motion or other events. You can either  directly  enter  a  comma
              separated  list  of monitor ids or click on ‘Select’ to choose a selection. Be very careful not to
              create circular dependencies with this feature however you will have infinitely persisting  alarms
              which is almost certainly not what you want! To unlink monitors you can ctrl-click.

       Maximum FPS
              On some occasions you may have one or more cameras capable of high capture rates but find that you
              generally do not require this performance at all times and would prefer to  lighten  the  load  on
              your  server. This option permits you to limit the maximum capture rate to a specified value. This
              may allow you to have more cameras supported on your  system  by  reducing  the  CPU  load  or  to
              allocate  video  bandwidth  unevenly  between cameras sharing the same video device. This value is
              only a rough guide and the lower the value you set the less close the actual FPS may  approach  it
              especially  on  shared  devices  where  it  can  be difficult to synchronise two or more different
              capture rates precisely. This option controls the maximum FPS in the circumstance where  no  alarm
              is  occurring  only.  (Note for IP cameras: ZoneMinder has no way to set or limit the mjpeg stream
              the camera passes, some cams you can set this through the url string, others do not. So if  you're
              using  mjpeg  feeds you must NOT throttle here at the server end, only the cam end. If you want to
              use this feature, the server to throttle, then you MUST use jpeg instead of mjpeg  method  to  get
              picture from the camera)

       Alarm Maximum FPS
              If  you  have  specified a Maximum FPS it may be that you don’t want this limitation to apply when
              your monitor is recording motion or other event. This setting allows you to override  the  Maximum
              FPS  value if this circumstance occurs. As with the Maximum FPS setting leaving this blank implies
              no limit so if you have set a maximum fps in the previous option then when an  alarm  occurs  this
              limit  would  be  ignored and ZoneMinder would capture as fast as possible for the duration of the
              alarm, returning to the limited value after the alarm has concluded. Equally you could set this to
              the  same,  or  higher  (or  even  lower) value than Maximum FPS for more precise control over the
              capture rate in the event of an alarm.

       Reference Image Blend %ge
              Each analysed image in ZoneMinder is a composite of previous images and is formed by applying  the
              current  image  as  a  certain percentage of the previous reference image. Thus, if we entered the
              value of 10 here, each image’s part in the reference image will diminish by a factor of  0.9  each
              time  round.  So  a typical reference image will be 10% the previous image, 9% the one before that
              and then 8.1%, 7.2%, 6.5% and so on of the rest of the  way.  An  image  will  effectively  vanish
              around  25  images later than when it was added. This blend value is what is specified here and if
              higher will make slower progressing events less detectable as the  reference  image  would  change
              more quickly. Similarly events will be deemed to be over much sooner as the reference image adapts
              to the new images more quickly. In signal processing terms the higher this value the  steeper  the
              event  attack  and  decay  of  the  signal.  It  depends  on your particular requirements what the
              appropriate value would be for you but start with 10 here and adjust it (usually  down)  later  if
              necessary.

       Triggers
              This  small  section  lets  you  select  which triggers will apply if the run mode has been set to
              ‘triggered’ above. The most common trigger is X10 and this will appear here if you indicated  that
              your  system  supported  it  during  installation. Only X10 is supported as a shipped trigger with
              ZoneMinder at present but it is possible that other triggers will become available  as  necessary.
              You can also just use ‘cron’ jobs or other mechanisms to actually control the camera and keep them
              completely outside of the ZoneMinder settings.  The  zmtrigger.pl  script  is  also  available  to
              implement custom external triggering.

   Source Tab
   FFmpeg
       Source Path
              Use  this  field to enter the full URL of the stream or file. Look in Supported Hardware > Network
              Cameras section, how to obtain these strings that may apply to your camera. RTSP  streams  may  be
              specified here.

       Source Colours
              Specify  the  amount of colours in the captured image. Unlike with local cameras changing this has
              no controlling effect on the remote camera itself so ensure that your camera is actually capturing
              to this palette beforehand.

       Capture Width/Height
              Make sure you enter here the same values as they are in the remote camera's internal setting.

       Keep aspect ratio
              As per local devices.

       Orientation
              As per local devices.

   LibVLC
   cURL
   Local
       Device Path/Channel
              Enter  the  full  path  to the device file that your camera is attached to, e.g. /dev/video0. Some
              video devices, e.g. BTTV cards support multiple cameras on one device so in this  case  enter  the
              channel  number  in  the  Channel box or leave it at zero if you're using a USB camera or one with
              just one channel. Look in Supported Hardware section, how to see  if  your  capture  card  or  USB
              webcam is supported or not, and what extra settings you may have to do, to make it work.

       Device Format
              Enter  the  video  format  of  the  video  stream.  This  is defined in various system files (e.g.
              /usr/include/linux/videodev.h) but the two most common are 0 for PAL and 1 for NTSC.

       Capture Palette
              Finally for the video part of the configuration enter the  colour  depth.  ZoneMinder  supports  a
              handful  of  the most common palettes, so choose one here. If in doubt try grey first, and then 24
              bit colour. If neither of these work very well then YUV420P or one of the  others  probably  will.
              There  is  a slight performance penalty when using palettes other than grey or 24 bit colour as an
              internal conversion is involved. These other formats are intended to be supported  natively  in  a
              future version but for now if you have the choice choose one of grey or 24 bit colour.

       Capture Width/Height
              The  dimensions  of the video stream your camera will supply. If your camera supports several just
              enter the one you'll want to use for this application, you can always change it later.  However  I
              would  recommend  starting  with no larger than 320x240 or 384x288 and then perhaps increasing and
              seeing how performance is affected. This size should be adequate in most cases. Some  cameras  are
              quite  choosy  about the sizes you can use here so unusual sizes such as 197x333 should be avoided
              initially.

       Keep aspect ratio
              When typing in the dimensions of monitors you can click this checkbox to  ensure  that  the  width
              stays  in  the  correct  ratio  to  the  height,  or vice versa. It allows height to be calculated
              automatically from width (or vice versa) according to preset aspect ratio. This is preset  to  4:3
              but  can  be amended globally via the Options->Config->ZM_DEFAULT_ASPECT_RATIO setting. Aside from
              4:3 which is the usual for network and analog cameras another  common  setting  is  11:9  for  CIF
              (352x288) based sources.

       Orientation
              If  your  camera  is  mounted  upside  down or at right angles you can use this field to specify a
              rotation that is applied to the image as it is captured.  This  incurs  an  additional  processing
              overhead  so  if possible it is better to mount your camera the right way round if you can. If you
              choose one of the rotation options remember to switch the height and width  fields  so  that  they
              apply,  e.g.  if  your  camera captures at 352x288 and you choose ‘Rotate Right’ here then set the
              height to be 352 and width to be 288. You can also choose to  ‘flip’  the  image  if  your  camera
              provides mirrored input.

   Remote
       Remote Host/Port/Path
              Use  these  fields  to  enter  the  full  URL  of  the  camera.  Basically  if  your  camera is at
              http://camserver.home.net:8192/cameras/camera1.jpg then these fields will  be  camserver.home.net,
              8192  and  /cameras/camera1.jpg  respectively.  Leave  the  port at 80 if there is no special port
              required. If you require authentication to access your camera then add this onto the host name  in
              the  form  <username>:<password>@<hostname>.com.  This  will  usually be 24 bit colour even if the
              image looks black and white. Look in Supported Hardware > Network Cameras section, how  to  obtain
              these strings that may apply to your camera.

       Remote Image Colours
              Specify  the  amount of colours in the captured image. Unlike with local cameras changing this has
              no controlling effect on the remote camera itself so ensure that your camera is actually capturing
              to this palette beforehand.

       Capture Width/Height
              Make sure you enter here the same values as they are in the remote camera's internal setting.

       Keep aspect ratio
              As per local devices.

       Orientation
              As per local devices.

       For an example to setup a MPEG-4 camera see: How_to_Setup_an_Axis211A_with_MPEG-4_streaming

   File
       File Path
              Enter the full path to the file to be used as the image source.

       File Colours
              Specify the amount of colours in the image. Usually 24 bit colour.

       Capture Width/Height
              As per local devices.

       Keep aspect ratio
              As per local devices.

       Orientation
              As per local devices.

   Timestamp Tab
       Timestamp Label Format
              This  relates to the timestamp that is applied to each frame. It is a ‘strftime’ style string with
              a few extra tokens. You can add %f to add  the  decimal  hundredths  of  a  second  to  the  frame
              timestamp,  so  %H:%M:%S.%f will output time like 10:45:37.45. You can also use %N for the name of
              the monitor and %Qwhich will be filled by any of the ‘show text’  detailed  in  the  zmtriggers.pl
              section.

       Timestamp Label X/Y
              The  X and Y values determine where to put the timestamp. A value of 0 for the X value will put it
              on the left side of the image and a Y value of 0 will place it at the top of the image.  To  place
              the timestamp at the bottom of the image use a value eight less than the image height.

   Buffers Tab
       Image Buffer Size
              This  option  determines  how  many  frames  are held in the ring buffer at any one time. The ring
              buffer is the storage space where the last ‘n’ images are kept, ready  to  be  resurrected  on  an
              alarm or just kept waiting to be analysed. It can be any value you like with a couple of provisos,
              (see next options). However it is stored in shared memory and making it too large  especially  for
              large  images  with  a  high  colour  depth can use a lot of memory. A value of no more than 50 is
              usually ok. If you find that your system will not let you use the value you want  it  is  probably
              because  your  system  has  an  arbitrary limit on the size of shared memory that may be used even
              though you may have plenty of free memory available. This limit is usually fairly easy to  change,
              see the Troubleshooting section for details.

       Warm-up Frames
              This  specifies how many frames the analysis daemon should process but not examine when it starts.
              This allows it to generate an accurate reference image from a series of images before looking  too
              carefully  for  any  changes.  I  use a value of 25 here, too high and it will take a long time to
              start, too low and you will get false alarms when the analysis daemon starts up.

       Pre/Post Event Image Buffer
              These options determine how many frames from before and after an event should  be  preserved  with
              it.  This  allows you to view what happened immediately prior and subsequent to the event. A value
              of 10 for both of these will get you started but if you get a lot of short events and would prefer
              them  to  run  together  to  form  fewer longer ones then increase the Post Event buffer size. The
              pre-event buffer is a true buffer and should not really exceed half the ring buffer size.  However
              the  post-event  buffer  is  just a count that is applied to captured frames and so can be managed
              more flexibly. You should also bear in mind the frame rate  of  the  camera  when  choosing  these
              values.  For instance a network camera capturing at 1FPS will give you 10 seconds before and after
              each event if you chose 10 here. This may well be too much and pad out events more than necessary.
              However  a  fast  video  card  may  capture at 25FPS and you will want to ensure that this setting
              enables you to view a reasonable time frame pre and post event.

       Stream Replay Image Buffer
              This option ...

       Alarm Frame Count
              This option allows you to specify how many consecutive alarm frames must  occur  before  an  alarm
              event  is  generated.  The  usual, and default, value is 1 which implies that any alarm frame will
              cause or participate in an event. You can enter any value up to 16 here to eliminate bogus  events
              caused  perhaps  by  screen  flickers  or  other transients. Values over 3 or 4 are unlikely to be
              useful however. Please  note  that  if  you  have  statistics  recording  enabled  then  currently
              statistics  are not recorded for the first ‘Alarm Frame Count’-1 frames of an event. So if you set
              this value to 5 then the first 4 frames will be missing statistics whereas the more usual value of
              1 will ensure that all alarm frames have statistics recorded.

   Control Tab
       Note:  This  tab  and  its  options  will  only  appear if you have selected the ZM_OPT_CONTROL option to
       indicate that your system contains cameras which are able to be controlled  via  Pan/Tilt/Zoom  or  other
       mechanisms.  See  the  Camera  Control  section  elsewhere in this document for further details on camera
       control protocols and methods.

       Controllable
              Check this box to indicate your camera can be controlled.

       Control Type
              Select the control type that is appropriate for your camera. ZoneMinder ships with a small  number
              of  predefined control protocols which will works with some cameras without modification but which
              may have to amended to function with others, Choose the edit link to create new control  types  or
              to edit the existing ones.

       Control Device
              This  is the device that is used to control your camera. This will normally be a serial or similar
              port. If your camera is a network camera, you will generally not need to specify a control device.

       Control Address
              This is the address of your camera. Some control protocols require that each camera is  identified
              by  a  particular,  usually  numeric, id. If your camera uses addressing then enter the id of your
              camera here. If your camera is a network camera then you will usually need to enter  the  hostname
              or IP address of it here. This is ordinarily the same as that given for the camera itself.

       Auto Stop Timeout
              Some  cameras  only support a continuous mode of movement. For instance you tell the camera to pan
              right and then when it is aligned correctly you tell it to stop. In some cases it is difficult  to
              time this precisely over a web interface so this option allows you to specify an automatic timeout
              where the command will be automatically stopped. So a value of 0.25 here can tell  the  script  to
              stop  moving  a  quarter  of  a  second  after starting. This allows a more precise method of fine
              control. If this value is left blank or at zero it will be ignored, if set then it will be used as
              the  timeout  however it will only be applied for the lower 25% of possible speed ranges. In other
              words if your camera has a pan speed range of 1 to 100 then selecting to move at 26 or  over  will
              be  assumed  to imply that you want a larger movement that you can control yourself and no timeout
              will be applied. Selecting motion at lower speeds will be interpreted as requiring  finer  control
              and the automatic timeout will be invoked.

       Track Motion
              This and the following four options are used with the experimental motion function. This will only
              work if your camera supports mapped movement modes where a point on an image can be  mapped  to  a
              control  command.  This  is generally most common on network cameras but can be replicated to some
              degree on other cameras that support relative movement modes. See the Camera Control  section  for
              more details. Check this box to enable motion tracking.

       Track Delay
              This  is  the  number  of  seconds to suspend motion detection for following any movement that the
              camera may make to track motion.

       Return Location
              If you camera supports a ‘home’ position or presets you can choose which preset the camera  should
              return to after tracking motion.

       Return Delay
              This  is  the delay, in seconds, once motion has stopped being detected, before the camera returns
              to any defined return location.

   X10 Tab
       Note: This tab and its options will only appear if you have indicated that your system supports  the  X10
       home automation protocol during initial system configuration.

       X10 Activation String
              The  contents of this field determine when a monitor starts and/or stops being active when running
              in ‘Triggered; mode and with X10 triggers. The format of this string is as follows,

                 • n : If you simply enter a number then the monitor will be activated when an X10 ON signal for
                   that unit code is detected and will be deactivated when an OFF signal is detected.

                 • !n  : This inverts the previous mode, e.g. !5 means that the monitor is activated when an OFF
                   signal for unit code 5 is detected and deactivated by an ON.

                 • n+ : Entering a unit code followed by + means that the monitor is activated on receipt  of  a
                   ON  signal  for  that  unit  code  but  will  ignore  the  OFF signal and as such will not be
                   deactivated by this instruction. If you prepend a '!'  as  per  the  previous  definition  it
                   similarly inverts the mode, i.e. the ON signal deactivates the monitor.

                 • n+<seconds>  :  As per the previous mode except that the monitor will deactivate itself after
                   the given number of seconds.

                 • n- : Entering a unit code followed by - means that the monitor is deactivated on receipt of a
                   OFF signal for that unit code but will ignore the ON signal and as such will not be activated
                   by this instruction. If you prepend a '!' as per the previous definition it similarly inverts
                   the mode, i.e. the OFF signal activates the monitor.

                 • n-<seconds> : As per the previous mode except that the monitor will activate itself after the
                   given number of seconds.

              You can also combine several of these expressions to by separating them with  a  comma  to  create
              multiple circumstances of activation. However for now leave this blank.

       X10 Input Alarm String
              This  has  the  same  format as the previous field but instead of activating the monitor with will
              cause a forced alarm to be generated and an event recorded if the  monitor  is  Active.  The  same
              definition  as  above  applies  except  that  for  activated read alarmed and for deactivated read
              unalarmed(!). Again leave this blank for now.

       X10 Output Alarm String
              This X10 string also has the same format as the two above options. However it works in a  slightly
              different  way.  Instead  of ZoneMinder reacting to X10 events this option controls how ZoneMinder
              emits X10 signals when the current monitor goes into or comes out of the alarm  state.  Thus  just
              entering  a  number  will  cause the ON signal for that unit code to be sent when going into alarm
              state and the OFF signal when coming out of alarm state. Similarly 7+30 will send the unit code  7
              ON signal when going into alarm state and the OFF signal 30 seconds later regardless of state. The
              combination of the X10 instruction allows ZoneMinder to react intelligently to,  and  also  assume
              control  of,  other  devices when necessary. However the indiscriminate use of the Input Alarm and
              Output Alarm signals can cause some horrendous race  conditions  such  as  a  light  going  on  in
              response  to  an  alarm  which  then causes an alarm itself and so on. Thus some circumspection is
              required here. Leave this blank for now anyway.

   Misc Tab
       Event Prefix
              By default events are named ‘Event-<event id>’, however you are free to rename  them  individually
              as  you  wish.  This  option lets you modify the event prefix, the ‘Event-‘ part, to be a value of
              your choice so that events are named differently as they are generated. This allows  you  to  name
              events according to which monitor generated them.

       Section Length
              This  specifies  the  length  (in  seconds)  of  any fixed length events produced when the monitor
              function is ‘Record’ or ‘Mocord’. Otherwise it is ignored. This should not be so long that  events
              are difficult to navigate nor so short that too many events are generated. A length of between 300
              and 900 seconds I recommended.

       Frame Skip
              This setting also applies only to the ‘Record’ or ‘Mocord’ functions and specifies how many frames
              should  be  skipped  in the recorded events. The default setting of zero results in every captured
              frame being saved. Using a value of one would mean that one frame is skipped between  each  saved,
              two  means  that two frames are skipped between each saved frame etc. An alternate way of thinking
              is that one in every ‘Frame Skip + 1’ frames is saved. The point of this is to ensure  that  saved
              events  do not take up too much space unnecessarily whilst still allowing the camera to capture at
              a fairly high frame rate. The alternate approach is to limit the capture  frame  rate  which  will
              obviously affect the rate at which frames are saved.

       FPS Report Interval
              How  often  the current performance in terms of Frames Per Second is output to the system log. Not
              used in any functional way so set it to  maybe  1000  for  now.  If  you  watch  /var/log/messages
              (normally)  you  will  see  this  value  being emitted at the frequency you specify both for video
              capture and processing.

       Default Scale
              If your monitor has been defined with a particularly large or small image size then you can choose
              a  default  scale here with which to view the monitor so it is easier or more visible from the web
              interface.

       Web Colour
              Some elements of ZoneMinder now use colours to identify monitors on certain views. You can  select
              which  colour  is  used for each monitor here. Any specification that is valid for HTML colours is
              valid here, e.g. ‘red’ or ‘#ff0000’. A small swatch next to the input box displays the colour  you
              have chosen.

   Defining Zones
       The  next  important  thing  to  do  with  a new monitor is set up Zones for it to use. By default you'll
       already have one generated for you when you created your monitor (the  default  zone  is  the  full  area
       captured by the monitor) but you might want to modify it or add others.

       Click  on the Zones column for your monitor and you should see a small popup window appear which contains
       an image from your camera overlain with a stippled pattern representing your zone. In  the  default  case
       this  will  cover the whole image. The colour of the zones appearing here is determined by what type they
       are. The default zone is Active and so will be red, Inclusive  zones  are  orange,  exclusive  zones  are
       purple, preclusive zones are blue and inactive zones are white.

       Beneath  the  zones  image  will  be  a  table containing a listing of your zones. Clicking on either the
       relevant bit of the image or on the Id or Name in the table will bring up another window  where  you  can
       edit  the  particulars  for  your Zones. For more information on defining or editing a zone, see Defining
       Zones.

       Zone configuration and tuning are important when running in the motion detection modes to avoid  storing,
       sorting  through, or being alerted on uninteresting video data.  Configuring a zone involves setting some
       basic parameters, as well as choosing an  alarm  check  method  and  tuning  their  associated  detection
       parameters.

       The  Zone  view is split into two main areas, on the left is the options are area and on the right is the
       zone drawing area. A default or new zone will cover the whole drawing area and  will  overlay  any  other
       zones  you  already  have  on there. Unlike the previous zones image, the current zone is coloured green,
       other zones will be orange regardless of type. The smaller the zone, the less processing time it takes to
       examine it.

   Basic parameters
       Name   Each  Zone  can  be named for reference purposes.  It is used for logging and debugging.  Choose a
              name that helps you identify your zones.

       Type   This is one of the more important concepts in ZoneMinder and there are six to choose from.

              • Active Triggers an alarm when motion is detected within it.  This is the zone  type  you'll  use
                most  often,  and  which will be set for your default zone.  Only Active and Exclusive zones can
                trigger an alarm.

              • Inclusive This zone type can be used for any zones that you want to trigger an alarm only if  at
                least  one  other  Active  zone has already triggered one. This might be for example to cover an
                area of the image like a plant or tree which moves a lot and which would trigger lots of alarms.
                Perhaps this is behind an area you'd like to monitor though, in this case you'd create an active
                zone covering the non-moving parts and an inclusive zone covering the  tree  perhaps  with  less
                sensitive  detection  settings also. If something triggered an alarm in the Active zone and also
                in the Inclusive zone they would both be registered and the resulting alarm would be  that  much
                bigger than if you had blanked it out altogether.

              • Exclusive Triggers an alarm when motion is detected within it, as long as no alarms have already
                been triggered in an Active zone.  This is the most specialized of the zone types. For  instance
                in  the camera covering my garden I keep watch for a hedgehog that visits most nights and scoffs
                the food out of my cats bowls. By creating a sensitive Exclusive zone in that area I can  ensure
                that  a  hedgehog  alarm will only trigger if there is activity in that small area. If something
                much bigger occurs, like someone walking by it will trigger a regular alarm and not one from the
                Exclusive  zone. Thus I can ensure I get alarms for big events and also special small events but
                not the noise in between.

              • Preclusive This zone type is relatively recent. It is called a Preclusive zone because if it  is
                triggered  it  actually  precludes  an  alarm being generated for that image frame. So motion or
                other changes that occur in a Preclusive zone will have the effect of  ensuring  that  no  alarm
                occurs  at  all.  The  application  for  this zone type is primarily as a shortcut for detecting
                general large-scale lighting or other changes. Generally this may be achieved  by  limiting  the
                maximum  number  of  alarm pixels or other measure in an Active zone. However in some cases that
                zone may cover an area where the area of variable illumination occurs in different places as the
                sun  and/or  shadows  move  and  it  thus  may  be  difficult  to  come  up with general values.
                Additionally, if the sun comes out rapidly then although the initial change may  be  ignored  in
                this  way  as  the  reference image catches up an alarm may ultimately be triggered as the image
                becomes less different. Using  one  or  more  Preclusive  zones  offers  a  different  approach.
                Preclusive  zones are designed to be fairly small, even just a few pixels across, with quite low
                alarm thresholds. They should be situated in areas of the image that are  less  likely  to  have
                motion  occur  such as high on a wall or in a corner. Should a general illumination change occur
                they would be triggered at least as early as any Active zones and prevent any other  zones  from
                generating  an  alarm. Obviously careful placement is required to ensure that they do not cancel
                any genuine alarms or that they are not so close together that any motion  just  hops  from  one
                Preclusive  zone  to  another.   Preclusive  zones may also be used to reduce processing time by
                situating one over an Active zone.  The Preclusive zone is processed first; if it is small,  and
                is triggered, the rest of the zone/image will not be processed.

              • Inactive  Suppresses the detection of motion within it.  This can be layered on top of any other
                zone type, preventing motion within the Inactive zone from being effective for  any  other  zone
                type.   Use inactive zones to cover areas in which nothing notable will ever happen or where you
                get false alarms that don't relate to what you are trying to monitor.   Inactive  zones  may  be
                overlaid  on  other  zones  to  blank  out areas, and are processed first (with the exception of
                Privacy zones, see below).  As a general practice, you should try and make zones abut each other
                instead of overlapping to avoid repeated duplicate processing of the same area.

              • Privacy  Blackens the pixels within it. This can be used if you want to hide some regions in the
                image if the situation does not allow another solution. This zone type is different to  all  the
                others  in  that it gets processed as soon as possible during capture (even before the timestamp
                gets into the image) and not in the analyzing process. So if you add, change or delete a Privacy
                zone, you don't see the changes in the image until the capture process gets restarted. This will
                be done automatically, but needs a few seconds.

       Preset The preset chooser sets sensible default values based on computational needs (fast  v.  best)  and
              sensitivity  (low,  medium, high.)  It is not required that you select a preset, and you can alter
              any of the parameters after choosing a preset.  For a small number  of  monitors  with  ZoneMinder
              running on modern equipment, Best, high sensitivity can be chosen as a good starting point.

       Units

              • Pixels - Selecting this option will allow many of the following values to be entered (or viewed)
                in units of pixels.

              • Percentage -  Selecting this option will allow may of the following values  to  be  entered  (or
                viewed)  as a percentage.  The sense of the percentage values refers to the area of the zone and
                not the image as a whole. This makes trying to work out necessary sizes rather easier.

       Region points [image]

       The sample region shown to the right shows a region defined by 6 control points.  The shape of the region
       causes  the  check  methods  to  ignore  the  sidewalk  and areas of the porch wall that receive changing
       sunlight; two conditions that are not of interest in this zone.
          A region is a part of the captured image that is of interest for this zone.  By default, a  region  is
          configured  to cover the whole captured image.  Depending on the selected type of this zone, the shape
          of the region can be adjusted to accommodate multiple effects.  This  can  be  done  by  dragging  the
          control  points  in  the  reference image around, or by altering the coordinates found in the controls
          below the reference image.  Clicking on  a  control  point  in  the  reference  image  highlights  the
          coordinates  in  the  table  below.  Clicking the + button in a point row adds a control point between
          this point and the next; clicking the -  button  removes  this  control  point.   It  is  possible  to
          accidentally  place  a control point outside of the valid coordinates of the image.  This will prevent
          the monitor from working properly.  You can make zones almost any shape you like;  except  that  zones
          may not self-intersect (i.e. edges crossing over each other).

       Alarm Colour
              These  parameters  can  be used to individually colorize the zone overlay pattern.  Alarms in this
              zone will be highlighted in the alarm colour.   This  option  is  irrelevant  for  Preclusive  and
              Inactive zones and will be disabled.

       Alarm Check Methods
              There  are  3  Alarm Check Methods.  They are sequential, and are layered:  In AlarmedPixels mode,
              only the AlarmedPixel analysis is performed.  In FilteredPixels mode, the AlarmedPixel analysis is
              performed first, followed by the AlarmedPixel analysis.  In the Blobs mode, all 3 analysis methods
              are performed in order.  An alarm is only triggered if all  of  the  enabled  analysis  modes  are
              triggered.   For performance reasons, as soon as the criteria for one of the analysis modes is not
              met, the alarm checking for the frame is  complete.   Since  the  subsequent  modes  each  require
              progressively more computations, it is a good idea to tune the parameters in each of the activated
              layers.

              For reference purposes, the Zone Area box shows the area of the entire  region  of  interest.   In
              percent  mode, this is 100.  In Pixels mode, this is the pixel count of the region.  All 3 Min/Max
              Area parameter groups are based on the Zone Area as the maximum sensible  value,  and  all  3  are
              interpreted in the units specified in the Units input.

       AlarmedPixels
              Alarmed  pixels  is  the first layer of analysis, and is always enabled.  Its recommended that you
              start with this method and move on to the  subsequent  methods  once  the  effects  of  the  basic
              parameters  are  understood.   In the AlarmedPixels mode, 2 parameter categories are available for
              tuning: Min/Max Pixel Threshold, and Min/Max Alarmed Area.

       Min/Max Pixel Threshold (0-255)
              In the AlarmedPixel layer of analysis, each individual pixel of  the  image  is  compared  to  the
              current  reference  image.   Pixels  that  are  different  from the reference image are considered
              alarmed pixels.  However, small aberrations in lighting or auto exposure  camera  adjustments  may
              cause  the explicit value of a pixel to vary by small amounts from image to image.  This parameter
              allows you to set the limits of what will be considered a changed pixel.   For  example,  if  your
              camera points to a blank white wall, and you raise a black colored item into view, then the change
              in any one pixel will be great, indeed, extreme.  If however, you raise a white  piece  of  paper,
              then the change in an individual pixel will be less.

              The  minimum  pixel  threshold  setting should be high enough to cause minor lighting, imaging, or
              compression changes to be ignored.  Setting the minimum value too high, may allow a white  cat  to
              walk  undetected  across  the view of the white wall.  A good starting point for the minimum pixel
              threshold is 40, meaning that the difference in pixel value from must be greater than 40.  A  good
              default  for  the  maximum pixel threshold is 0 (indicating that all differences above the minimum
              threshold are considered a change.)

       Min/Max Alarmed Area
              The count of alarmed pixels (or percentage of alarmed pixels relative to the  pixel  area  of  the
              region  if  in  percent  mode) is used in this first layer of analysis to determine if an alarm is
              triggered.  If the count or percentage is above the  minimum  alarmed  area,  but  less  than  the
              maximum  alarmed area, an alarm is triggered.  These settings depend on the size of the object you
              are trying to capture: a value too low may cause false alarms, while a value too  high  might  not
              detect  small  objects.   A  good  starting  point  for  both the minimum and maximum are 0 and 0,
              indicating that any number of alarmed pixels (or any percentage) greater than 0  will  trigger  an
              alarm.   The  frame  scores  from  logged  events  can  then  be used to bring the minimum up to a
              reasonable value.  An alternative starting point for the minimum alarmed area (in percent) is  25%
              of  the  area  that an object of interest takes up in the region.  For example, if you approximate
              that a subject moving through the frame takes up 30% of the frame, then a  good  starting  minimum
              area is about 7.5%.

       FilteredPixels
              Selecting  the  FilteredPixels  Alarm  Check  Method  adds  an additional layer of analysis to the
              AlarmedPixels check along with 2 additional parameter categories for tuning.  This layer works  by
              analyzing  the  alarmed  pixels identified in the first layer.  Alarmed pixels are disregarded, in
              this and future layers if enabled, if they are not in groups  of  a  minimum  small  square  size.
              Primarily,  this  filtering  removes  isolated alarmed pixels that may be artifacts of the camera,
              lens, or compression.

       Filter Width/Height (pixels)
              This parameter is always specified in Pixels, even when Percentages are the  selected  units.   It
              specifies the size of the group of pixels surrounding a given pixel that must be in alarmed pixels
              for the pixel itself to be considered an alarmed pixel.  The width and height should always be  an
              odd  number.   3  x 3 is the default value, and 5 x 5 is also suggested as a sensible alternative.
              Avoid using large numbers for the width and height of the filter area.  When using the Blobs Alarm
              Check  Method, FilteredPixels can be effectively disabled by setting either the width or height to
              a value less than 1.

       Min/Max Filtered Area
              Applying the filtering analysis results in an area that is less than or equal to the alarmed area.
              Thus  the  minimum  and maximum filtered area parameters for alarm should be equal to or less than
              the corresponding alarm area parameters, or the FilteredPixels  analysis  will  never  trigger  an
              alarm.  In particular, it is useful to raise the minimum alarmed area parameter until false events
              from image artifacts disappear, and setting a minimum filtered area  parameter  less  the  minimum
              alarmed area parameter by enough to capture small events of interest.

       Blobs [image]

       This  image  shows  an  image with 1 identified blob.  The blob is outlined in the Alarm Colour specified
       above.

       When two or more Filtered areas touch or share a boundary, it is sensible to evaluate the regions as  one
       contiguous  area  instead of separate entities.  A Blob is a contiguous area made up of multiple filtered
       areas.  Whereas FilteredPixes is useful for excluding parts of the image that are not part of the  actual
       scene,  Blob  filtering  is  better  suited  to  disregarding  areas  of the actual scene that are not of
       interest.
          Selecting the Blobs Alarm Check Method opens up all of the available parameters.  Enabling Blobs  adds
          one  more  layer  of  analysis  to the AlarmedPixel and FilteredPixel checks in the determination of a
          valid alarm along along with 2 additional parameter categories for tuning: the size of the blobs,  and
          the  number  of  blobs.   A  Blob is not necessarily the whole object that may be of interest.  In the
          example image, the subject is moving, but only a portion of him is marked as a blob.  This is  because
          as  the  subject  moves,  many pixels of the image do not change in value beyond the set threshold.  A
          pixel that is representing the subject's shoulder in one frame may be representing  his  back  in  the
          next, however, the value of the pixel remains nearly the same.

       Min/Max Blob Area
              The  blob  area  parameters  control  the  smallest  and  largest  contiguous areas that are to be
              considered a blob.  A good value for the maximum area is the default of  0.  (There  is  no  upper
              bound for the size of a contiguous area that will still be considered a blob.)

       Min/Max Blobs
              Normally, you would want any positive number of blobs to trigger an event, so the default value of
              1 should suffice.  In some circumstances, it may benefit to have only  one  blob  NOT  trigger  an
              event,  in  which  case, setting this value to 2 or higher may serve some special purpose.  A good
              value for the maximum blobs is the default of 0. (There is no upper bound for the number of  blobs
              that  will  trigger an event.  Use the maximum blobs parameter can be used to tune out events that
              show a high number of blobs.

       Overload Frame Ignore Count
              This setting specifies the number of frames to NOT raise an  alarm  after  an  overload.  In  this
              context,  overload  is  defined  as  a detected change too big to raise an alarm. Depending on the
              alarm check method that could be * Number of alarmed pixels > Max Alarmed  Area  or  *  Number  of
              filtered  pixels  >  Max  Filtered  Area or * Number of Blobs > Max Blobs The idea is that after a
              change like a light going on that is considered too big to count as an  alarm,  it  could  take  a
              couple of frames for things to settle down again.

   Other information
       Refer to this user contributed Zone guide for additional information will illustrations if you are new to
       zones and need more help.

   Viewing Monitors
       ZoneMinder allows you to view a live feed of your configured monitors.  Once  can  access  this  view  by
       clicking on the "Name" column of any of the monitors [image]

       Clicking on the name produces a view similar to this: [image]

       The  image  should  be  self-explanatory  but  if  it  looks  like  garbage it is possible that the video
       configuration is wrong so look in your system error log and check for or  report  anything  unusual.  The
       centre  of the window will have a tiny frame that just contains a status; this will be 'Idle', 'Alarm' or
       'Alert' depending on the function of the Monitor and what's going on in the field  of  view.  Idle  means
       nothing  is  happening,  Alarm  means  there  is  an  alarm in progress and Alert means that an alarm has
       happened and the monitor is ‘cooling down’, if another alarm is generated  in  this  time  it  will  just
       become part of the same event. These indicators are colour coded in green, red and amber.

       By default if you have minimised this window or opened other windows in front it will pop up to the front
       if it goes to Alarm state. This behaviour can be turned off  in  ‘options’  if  required.  You  can  also
       specify  a sound file in the configuration, which will be played when an alarm occurs to alert you to the
       fact if you are not in front of your computer. This should be a short sound of only a couple  of  seconds
       ideally.  Note that as the status is refreshed every few seconds it is possible for this not to alert you
       to every event that takes place, so you shouldn't rely on it for this purpose if you  expect  very  brief
       events.  Alternatively  you can decrease the refresh interval for this window in the configuration though
       having too frequent refreshing may impact on performance.

       Below the status is a list of recent events that have occurred, by default this is a listing of just  the
       last  10 but clicking on 'All' will give you a full list and 'Archive' will take you to the event archive
       for this monitor, more on this later. Clicking on any  of  the  column  headings  will  sort  the  events
       appropriately.

       From here you can also delete events if you wish. The events themselves are listed with the event id, and
       event name (which you can change), the time that the event occurred, the length of  the  event  including
       any  preamble  and  postamble  frames,  the  number  of  frames comprising the event with the number that
       actually contain an alarm in brackets and finally a score. This column lists the average score per  alarm
       frame as well as the maximum score that any alarm frame had.

       The score is an arbitrary value that essentially represents the percentage of pixels in the zone that are
       in blobs divided by the square root of the number of blobs and then divided by the size of the zone. This
       gives  a  nominal maximum of 100 for a zone and the totals for each zone are added together, Active zones
       scores are added unchanged, Inclusive zones are halved first and Exclusive zones are doubled. In  reality
       values  are  likely  to be much less than 100 but it does give a simple indication of how major the event
       was.

   Filtering Events
       Filters allow you to define complex conditions with associated  actions  in  ZoneMinder.  Examples  could
       include:

       • Send an email each time a new event occurs for a specific monitor

       • Delete events  that are more than 10 days old

       And many more.

       The  filter window can be accessed from various views, one of which is to simply tap on the filter button
       in the main web view: [image]

       You can use the filter window to create your own filters or to modify existing ones. You  can  even  save
       your  favourite  filters  to re-use at a future date. Filtering itself is fairly simple; you first choose
       how many expressions you'd like your filter to contain. Changing this value  will  cause  the  window  to
       redraw  with  a corresponding row for each expression. You then select what you want to filter on and how
       the expressions relate by choosing whether they are 'and' or 'or' relationships. For filters comprised of
       many expressions you will also get the option to bracket parts of the filter to ensure you can express it
       as desired. Then if you like choose how you want your results sorted and whether you want  to  limit  the
       amount of events displayed.

       Here is what the filter window looks like [image]

       • A:  This  is  a dropdown list where you can select pre-defined filters. You will notice that ZoneMinder
         comes with a PurgeWhenFull filter that is configured to delete events if you reach 95% of disk space.

       • B and C: This is where you specify conditions that need to match before the filter is executed. You use
         the "+" and "-" buttons to add/delete conditions

       •

         D: This is where you specify what needs to happen when the conditions match:

                • Archive  all  matches:  sets  the  archive  field to 1 in the Database for the matched events.
                  Think of 'archiving' as grouping them under a special category - you can view archived  events
                  later and also make sure archived events don't get deleted, for example

                • Email  details of all matches: Sends an email to the configured address with details about the
                  event.  The email can be customized as per TBD

                • Execute command on all matches: Allows you to execute any arbitrary  command  on  the  matched
                  events

                • Delete all matches: Deletes all the matched events

       • E:  Use  'Submit'  to  'test'  your matching conditions. This will just match and show you what filters
         match. Use 'Execute' to actually execute the action after matching your conditions. Use 'Save' to  save
         the filter for future use and 'Reset' to clear your settings

       NOTE:
          More details on filter conditions:

          There are several different elements to an event that you can filter on, some of which require further
          explanation. These are as follows, * 'Date/Time' which must evaluate to a date and a time together,  *
          'Date'  and 'Time' which are variants which may only contain the relevant subsets of this, * 'Weekday'
          which as expected is a day of the week.

          All of the preceding elements take a very flexible free format of dates and  time  based  on  the  PHP
          strtotime  function  (http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php). This allows values such as
          'last Wednesday' etc to be entered. We recommend acquainting yourself with this function to  see  what
          the  allowed  formats  are.  However  automated  filters  are  run  in  perl  and so are parsed by the
          Date::Manip package. Not all date formats are available in both so if you are saved your filter to  do
          automatic  deletions  or  other  tasks  you  should make sure that the date and time format you use is
          compatible with both methods. The safest type of format to use is ‘-3  day’  or  similar  with  easily
          parseable numbers and units are in English.

          The  other  things  you  can  filter on are all fairly self explanatory, except perhaps for 'Archived'
          which you can use to include or exclude Archived events. In general you'll probably do most  filtering
          on  un-archived events. There are also two elements, Disk Blocks and Disk Percent which don’t directly
          relate to the events themselves but to the disk partition on which the events are stored. These  allow
          you  to  specify  an  amount  of  disk usage either in blocks or in percentage as returned by the ‘df’
          command. They relate to the amount of disk space used and not the amount left free. Once  your  filter
          is  specified,  clicking  'submit' will filter the events according to your specification. As the disk
          based elements are not event related directly if you create a filter and include the term ‘DiskPercent
          >  95’  then if your current disk usage is over that amount when you submit the filter then all events
          will be listed whereas if it is less then none at all will. As such the disk related terms  will  tend
          to  be  used  mostly for automatic filters (see below). If you have created a filter you want to keep,
          you can name it and save it by clicking 'Save'.

          If you do this then the subsequent dialog will also allow you specify whether  you  want  this  filter
          automatically  applied  in  order to delete events or upload events via ftp to another server and mail
          notifications of events to one or more email accounts. Emails and messages (essentially  small  emails
          intended  for  mobile phones or pagers) have a format defined in the Options screen, and may include a
          variety of tokens that can be substituted for various details of the  event  that  caused  them.  This
          includes  links to the event view or the filter as well as the option of attaching images or videos to
          the email itself. Be aware that tokens that represent links may require you to log in  to  access  the
          actual  page,  and  sometimes  may  function differently when viewed outside of the general ZoneMinder
          context. The tokens you can use are as follows.

          • %EI%           Id of the event

          • %EN%          Name of the event

          • %EC%          Cause of the event

          • %ED%          Event description

          • %ET%          Time of the event

          • %EL%          Length of the event

          • %EF%          Number of frames in the event

          • %EFA%        Number of alarm frames in the event

          • %EST%        Total score of the event

          • %ESA%       Average score of the event

          • %ESM%       Maximum score of the event

          • %EP%          Path to the event

          • %EPS%       Path to the event stream

          • %EPI%         Path to the event images

          • %EPI1%       Path to the first alarmed event image

          • %EPIM%      Path to the (first) event image with the highest score

          • %EI1%         Attach first alarmed event image

          • %EIM%        Attach (first) event image with the highest score

          • %EV%          Attach event mpeg video

          • %MN%         Name of the monitor

          • %MET%       Total number of events for the monitor

          • %MEH%       Number of events for the monitor in the last hour

          • %MED%       Number of events for the monitor in the last day

          • %MEW%      Number of events for the monitor in the last week

          • %MEM%      Number of events for the monitor in the last month

          • %MEA%       Number of archived events for the monitor

          • %MP%         Path to the monitor window

          • %MPS%       Path to the monitor stream

          • %MPI%        Path to the monitor recent image

          • %FN%          Name of the current filter that matched

          • %FP%          Path to the current filter that matched

          • %ZP%          Path to your ZoneMinder console

          Finally you can also specify a script which is run on  each  matched  event.  This  script  should  be
          readable  and executable by your web server user. It will get run once per event and the relative path
          to  the  directory  containing  the  event  in  question.  Normally  this  will   be   of   the   form
          <MonitorName>/<EventId>  so  from  this  path  you  can  derive both the monitor name and event id and
          perform any action you wish. Note that arbitrary commands are not  allowed  to  be  specified  in  the
          filter,  for  security  the  only  thing  it  may contain is the full path to an executable. What that
          contains is entirely up to you however.

          Filtering is a powerful mechanism you can use to eliminate events that fit a certain  pattern  however
          in many cases modifying the zone settings will better address this. Where it really comes into its own
          is generally in applying time filters, so for instance  events  that  happen  during  weekdays  or  at
          certain  times  of the day are highlighted, uploaded or deleted. Additionally using disk related terms
          in your filters means you can automatically create filters that delete the  oldest  events  when  your
          disk  gets  full.  Be  warned however that if you use this strategy then you should limit the returned
          results to the amount of events you want deleted in each pass until the disk usage is at an acceptable
          level.  If  you  do  not  do this then the first pass when the disk usage is high will match, and then
          delete, all events unless you have used other criteria inside  of  limits.  ZoneMinder  ships  with  a
          sample  filter  already installed, though disabled. The PurgeWhenFull filter can be used to delete the
          oldest events when your disk starts filling up. To use it you should select and load it in the  filter
          interface,  modify it to your requirements, and then save it making you sure you check the ‘Delete all
          matches’ option. This will then run in the background and ensure that your disk does not fill up  with
          events.

   Saving filters
       [image]

       When saving filters, if you want the filter to run in the background make sure you select the "Run filter
       in background" option. When checked, ZoneMinder will make sure  the  filter  is  checked  regularly.  For
       example, if you want to be notified of new events by email, you should make sure this is checked. Filters
       that are configured to run in the background have a "*" next to it.

       For example: [image]

   How filters actually work
       It is useful to know how filters actually work behind the scenes in ZoneMinder, in  the  event  you  find
       your filter not functioning as intended:

       • the primary filter processing process in ZoneMinder is a perl file called zmfilter.pl

       • zmfilter.pl   runs   every   FILTER_EXECUTE_INTERVAL  seconds  (default  is  20s,  can  be  changed  in
         Options->System)

       • in each run, it goes through all the filters which are  marked  as  "Run  in  Background"  and  if  the
         conditions match performs the specified action

       •

         zmfilter.pl  also reloads all the filters every FILTER_RELOAD_DELAY seconds (default is 300s/5mins, can
         be changed in Options->System)

                • So if you  have  just  created  a  new  filter,  zmfilter  will  not  see  it  till  the  next
                  FILTER_RELOAD_DELAY cycle

                • This is also important if you are using "relative times" like 'now' - see Caveat with Relative
                  items

   Relative items in date strings
       Relative items adjust a date (or the current date if none) forward or backward. The effects  of  relative
       items accumulate. Here are some examples:

          * 1 year
          * 1 year ago
          * 3 years
          * 2 days

       The  unit  of time displacement may be selected by the string ‘year’ or ‘month’ for moving by whole years
       or months. These are fuzzy units, as years and months are not all of equal duration. More  precise  units
       are  ‘fortnight’  which  is  worth  14  days,  ‘week’ worth 7 days, ‘day’ worth 24 hours, ‘hour’ worth 60
       minutes, ‘minute’ or ‘min’ worth 60 seconds, and ‘second’ or ‘sec’ worth one second.  An  ‘s’  suffix  on
       these units is accepted and ignored.

       The  unit of time may be preceded by a multiplier, given as an optionally signed number. Unsigned numbers
       are taken as positively signed. No number at all implies 1 for a multiplier. Following a relative item by
       the string ‘ago’ is equivalent to preceding the unit by a multiplier with value -1.

       The  string  ‘tomorrow’  is  worth one day in the future (equivalent to ‘day’), the string ‘yesterday’ is
       worth one day in the past (equivalent to ‘day ago’).

       The strings ‘now’ or ‘today’ are relative items corresponding to  zero-valued  time  displacement,  these
       strings come from the fact a zero-valued time displacement represents the current time when not otherwise
       changed by previous items. They may be used to stress other items, like  in  ‘12:00  today’.  The  string
       ‘this’  also  has  the  meaning of a zero-valued time displacement, but is preferred in date strings like
       ‘this thursday’.

       When a relative item causes the resulting date to cross  a  boundary  where  the  clocks  were  adjusted,
       typically for daylight saving time, the resulting date and time are adjusted accordingly.

       The  fuzz  in  units  can  cause  problems  with relative items. For example, ‘2003-07-31 -1 month’ might
       evaluate to 2003-07-01, because 2003-06-31 is an invalid date.  To  determine  the  previous  month  more
       reliably, you can ask for the month before the 15th of the current month. For example:

          $ date -R

          Thu, 31 Jul 2003 13:02:39 -0700

          $ date --date='-1 month' +'Last month was %B?'

          Last month was July?

          $ date --date="$(date +%Y-%m-15) -1 month" +'Last month was %B!'

          Last month was June!

       As this applies to ZoneMinder filters, you might want to search  for events in a period of time, or maybe
       for example create a purge filter that removes events older than 30 days.  For the later you  would  want
       at least two lines in your filter. The first line should be:
          [<Archive Status> <equal to> <Unarchived Only>]

       as you don't want to delete your archived events.

       Your second line to find events older than 30 days would be:
          [and <Date><less than> -30 days]

       You  use "less than" to indicate that you want to match events before the specified date, and you specify
       "-30 days" to indicate a date 30 days before the time the filter is run. Of course you could use 30  days
       ago as well(?).

       You  should  always  test  your  filters  before  enabling  any  actions  based on them to make sure they
       consistently return the results you want. You can use the submit button to see what events  are  returned
       by your query.

   Caveat with Relative items
       One thing to remember if you specify relative dates like "now" or "1 minute ago", etc, they are converted
       to a specific date and time by Zoneminder's filtering process (zmfilter.pl) when the filters are  loaded.
       They  are  _NOT_  recomputed  each  time  the  filter  runs. Filters are re-loaded depending on the value
       specified by FILTER_RELOAD_DELAY variable in  the Zoneminder Web Console->Options->System

       This may cause confusion in the following cases, for example: Let's say a user specifies that he wants to
       be  notified  of  events  via  email  the  moment  the  event "DateTime" is "less than" "now" as a filter
       criteria. When the filter first gets loaded by zmfilter.pl, this will translate to  "Match  events  where
       Start  Time < " + localtime() where local time is the time that is resolved when this filter gets loaded.
       Now till the time the filter gets reloaded after FILTER_RELOAD_DELAY seconds (which is usually set to 300
       seconds,  or 5 minutes), that time does not get recomputed, so the filter will not process any new events
       that occur after that computed date till another 5 minutes, which is probably not what you want.

   Troubleshooting tips
       If your filter is not working, here are some useful tips:

       • Look at Info and Debug logs in Zoneminder

       • Run sudo zmfilter.pl -f <yourfiltername> from command line and see the log output

       • Check how long your action is taking - zmfilter.pl will wait for  the  action  to  complete  before  it
         checks again

       • If  you  are  using relative times like 'now' or '1 year ago' etc. remember that zmfilter converts that
         relative  time  to  an  absolute  date  only  when  it  reloads  filters,  which  is  dictated  by  the
         FILTER_RELOAD_DELAY  duration.  So,  for  example,  if  you are wondering why your events are not being
         detected before intervals of 5 minutes and you have used such a relative condition, this is why

       • In the event that you see your new filter is working great when you try it out  from  the  Web  Console
         (using the Submit or Execute button) but does not seem to work when its running in background mode, you
         might have just chanced upon a compatibility issue between how Perl and PHP translate free form text to
         dates/times. When you test it via the "Submit" or "Execute" button, you are invoking a PHP function for
         time conversion. When the filter runs in background mode, zmfilter.pl calls a perl equivalent function.
         In  some  cases,  depending  on the version of Perl and PHP you have, the results may vary. If you face
         this situation, the best thing to do is to run sudo zmfilter.pl -f <yourfiltername> from a terminal  to
         make sure the filter actually works in Perl as well.

   Viewing Events
       From the monitor or filtered events listing you can now click on an event to view it in more detail.

       This is an example view that shows events for a specific monitor: [image]

       If  you  have streaming capability you will see a series of images that make up the event. Under that you
       should also see a progress bar. Depending on your configuration this will either be  static  or  will  be
       filled  in to indicate how far through the event you are. By default this functionality is turned off for
       low bandwidth settings as the image delivery tends to not be able to  keep  up  with  real-time  and  the
       progress bar cannot take this into account. Regardless of whether the progress bar updates, you can click
       on it to navigate to particular points in the events.

       You will also see a link to allow you to view the still images themselves. If you  don't  have  streaming
       then  you  will be taken directly to this page. The images themselves are thumbnail size and depending on
       the configuration and bandwidth you have chosen will either be the full images scaled in your browser  of
       actual  scaled  images.  If  it  is  the latter, if you have low bandwidth for example, it may take a few
       seconds to generate the images. If thumbnail images are required to be generated, they will be  kept  and
       not  re-generated  in  future.  Once  the images appear you can mouse over them to get the image sequence
       number and the image score.

       Here is an example of viewing an event stream: [image]

       • A: Administrative Event options on the event including viewing individual frames

       • B: The actual image stream

       • C: Navigation control

       • D: You can switch between watching a single event or Continuous mode (where it  advances  to  the  next
         event after playback is complete)

       • E: Event progress bar - how much of the current event has been played back

       You  will  notice  for  the  first time that alarm images now contain an overlay outlining the blobs that
       represent the alarmed area. This outline is in the colour defined for that zone and lets you see what  it
       was  that  caused  the alarm. Clicking on one of the thumbnails will take you to a full size window where
       you can see the image in all its detail and scroll through the various images that make up the event.  If
       you  have  the  ZM_RECORD_EVENT_STATS  option on, you will be able to click the 'Stats' link here and get
       some analysis of the cause of the event.

   More details on the Administrative Event options (A)
       Should you determine that you don't wish to keep the event, clicking on Delete will  erase  it  from  the
       database  and  file  system.  Returning to the event window, other options here are renaming the event to
       something more meaningful, refreshing the  window  to  replay  the  event  stream,  deleting  the  event,
       switching between streamed and still versions of the event (if supported) and generating an MPEG video of
       the event (if supported).

       These last two options require further explanation. Archiving an event means that it is kept to one  side
       and  not  displayed in the normal event listings unless you specifically ask to view the archived events.
       This is useful for keeping events that you think may be important or just wish to protect. Once an  event
       is  archived  it  can  be deleted or unarchived but you cannot accidentally delete it when viewing normal
       unarchived events.

       The final option of generating an MPEG video is still somewhat experimental and its usefulness may  vary.
       It  uses  the  open  source  ffmpeg  encoder  to  generate short videos, which will be downloaded to your
       browsing machine or viewed in place. When using the ffmpeg encoder, ZoneMinder will attempt to match  the
       duration  of  the video with the duration of the event. Ffmpeg has a particularly rich set of options and
       you can specify during configuration which additional options you  may  wish  to  include  to  suit  your
       preferences.  In particular you may need to specify additional, or different, options if you are creating
       videos of events with particularly slow frame rates as some codecs only support certain ranges  of  frame
       rates.  A  common  value for FFMPEG_OUTPUT_OPTIONS under Options > Images might be '-r 25 -b 800k' for 25
       fps and 800 kbps.  Details of these options can be found in the documentation for  the  encoders  and  is
       outside the scope of this document.

       Building  an  MPEG  video,  especially for a large event, can take some time and should not be undertaken
       lightly as the effect on your host box of many CPU intensive encoders will not be good.  However  once  a
       video  has  been created for an event it will be kept so subsequent viewing will not incur the generation
       overhead. Videos can also be included in notification emails, however care should  be  taken  when  using
       this option as for many frequent events the penalty in CPU and disk space can quickly mount up.

   Options
       The various options you can specify are displayed in a tabbed dialog with each group of options displayed
       under a different heading. Each option is displayed with its name, a short description  and  the  current
       value.  You  can  also click on the ‘?’ link following each description to get a fuller explanation about
       each option. This is the same as you would get from zmconfig.pl. A number of option groups have a  master
       option near the top which enables or disables the whole group so you should be aware of the state of this
       before modifying options and expecting them to make any difference.

       If you have changed the value of an option you should then ‘save’ it. A number of the option groups  will
       then  prompt  you to let you know that the option(s) you have changed will require a system restart. This
       is not done automatically in case you will be changing many values in the same session, however once  you
       have  made  all of your changes you should restart ZoneMinder as soon as possible. The reason for this is
       that web and some scripts will pick up the new changes immediately but some of the daemons will still  be
       using the old values and this can lead to data inconsistency or loss.

   Options - Display
       [image]

       This option screen allows user to select the skin for ZoneMinder. Currently available skins are:

       • Classic

       • Flat

       • XML (Deprecated in favour of web/API)

       • Mobile (Deprecated)

   Options - System
       [image]

       LANG_DEFAULT - ZoneMinder allows the web interface to use languages other than English if the appropriate
       language file has been created and is present. This option allows you to change the default language that
       is used from the shipped language, British English, to another language.

       OPT_USE_AUTH  -  ZoneMinder  can run in two modes. The simplest is an entirely unauthenticated mode where
       anyone can access ZoneMinder and perform all tasks. This is most suitable for installations where the web
       server  access  is  limited  in  other  ways.  The  other mode enables user accounts with varying sets of
       permissions. Users must login or authenticate to access ZoneMinder  and  are  limited  by  their  defined
       permissions. Authenticated mode alone should not be relied up for securing Internet connected ZoneMinder.

       AUTH_TYPE  - ZoneMinder can use two methods to authenticate users when running in authenticated mode. The
       first is a builtin method where ZoneMinder provides facilities for users to log in and maintains track of
       their   identity.  The  second  method  allows  interworking  with  other  methods  such  as  http  basic
       authentication which passes an  independently  authentication  'remote'  user  via  http.  In  this  case
       ZoneMinder  would  use  the  supplied  user  without  additional  authentication  provided such a user is
       configured ion ZoneMinder.

       AUTH_RELAY - When ZoneMinder is running in authenticated mode it can pass user details  between  the  web
       pages  and  the  back  end  processes.  There are two methods for doing this. This first is to use a time
       limited hashed string which contains no direct username or password details, the second method is to pass
       the username and passwords around in plaintext. This method is not recommend except where you do not have
       the md5 libraries available on your system or you have a completely  isolated  system  with  no  external
       access. You can also switch off authentication relaying if your system is isolated in other ways.

       AUTH_HASH_SECRET  -  When  ZoneMinder is running in hashed authenticated mode it is necessary to generate
       hashed strings containing encrypted sensitive information such as usernames and password. Although  these
       string are reasonably secure the addition of a random secret increases security substantially.

       AUTH_HASH_IPS  -  When  ZoneMinder  is running in hashed authenticated mode it can optionally include the
       requesting IP address in the resultant hash. This adds an extra level of security as only  requests  from
       that  address  may use that authentication key. However in some circumstances, such as access over mobile
       networks, the requesting address can change for each request which will cause most requests to fail. This
       option allows you to control whether IP addresses are included in the authentication hash on your system.
       If you experience intermitent problems with authentication, switching this option off may help.

       AUTH_HASH_LOGINS - The normal process for logging into ZoneMinder is via the login screen  with  username
       and  password.  In  some circumstances it may be desirable to allow access directly to one or more pages,
       for instance from a third party application. If this option is enabled then adding an 'auth' parameter to
       any  request  will  include  a  shortcut  login  bypassing the login screen, if not already logged in. As
       authentication hashes are time and, optionally, IP limited this can allow short-term access to ZoneMinder
       screens  from  other web pages etc. In order to use this the calling application will hae to generate the
       authentication hash itself and ensure it is valid. If you use this option you should ensure that you have
       modified the ZM_AUTH_HASH_SECRET to somethign unique to your system.

       OPT_FAST_DELETE  - Normally an event created as the result of an alarm consists of entries in one or more
       database tables plus the various files associated with it. When deleting events in  the  browser  it  can
       take  a  long  time  to  remove  all  of  this  if  your  are trying to do a lot of events at once. It is
       recommended that you set this option which means that the browser client only deletes the key entries  in
       the  events  table,  which  means the events will no longer appear in the listing, and leaves the zmaudit
       daemon to clear up the rest later.

       FILTER_RELOAD_DELAY - ZoneMinder allows you to save filters to the database which allow events that match
       certain  criteria  to  be emailed, deleted or uploaded to a remote machine etc. The zmfilter daemon loads
       these and does the actual operation. This option determines how often in seconds the filters are reloaded
       from  the database to get the latest versions or new filters. If you don't change filters very often this
       value can be set to a large value.

       FILTER_EXECUTE_INTERVAL - ZoneMinder allows you to save filters to the database which allow  events  that
       match  certain  criteria  to be emailed, deleted or uploaded to a remote machine etc. The zmfilter daemon
       loads these and does the actual operation. This option determines how often the filters are  executed  on
       the  saved  event  in  the  database. If you want a rapid response to new events this should be a smaller
       value, however this may increase the overall load on the system and affect performance of other elements.

       MAX_RESTART_DELAY - The zmdc (zm daemon control) process controls when processeses are started or stopped
       and  will  attempt  to  restart  any  that  fail. If a daemon fails frequently then a delay is introduced
       between each restart attempt. If the daemon stills fails then this delay is increased  to  prevent  extra
       load being placed on the system by continual restarts. This option controls what this maximum delay is.

       WATCH_CHECK_INTERVAL  - The zmwatch daemon checks the image capture performance of the capture daemons to
       ensure that they have not locked up (rarely a sync error  may  occur  which  blocks  indefinitely).  This
       option determines how often the daemons are checked.

       WATCH_MAX_DELAY  -  The  zmwatch  daemon  checks  the image capture performance of the capture daemons to
       ensure that they have not locked up (rarely a sync error  may  occur  which  blocks  indefinitely).  This
       option  determines the maximum delay to allow since the last captured frame. The daemon will be restarted
       if it has not captured any images after this period though the actual restart may take slightly longer in
       conjunction with the check interval value above.

       RUN_AUDIT  -  The  zmaudit  daemon  exists to check that the saved information in the database and on the
       filesystem match and are consistent with each other. If an  error  occurs  or  if  you  are  using  'fast
       deletes' it may be that database records are deleted but files remain. In this case, and similar, zmaudit
       will remove redundant information to synchronise the  two  data  stores.  This  option  controls  whether
       zmaudit  is  run  in the background and performs these checks and fixes continuously. This is recommended
       for most systems however if you have a very large number of events the process of scanning  the  database
       and  filesystem  may  take  a  long  time and impact performance. In this case you may prefer to not have
       zmaudit running unconditionally and schedule occasional checks at other, more convenient, times.

       AUDIT_CHECK_INTERVAL - The zmaudit daemon exists to check that the saved information in the database  and
       on  the filesystem match and are consistent with each other. If an error occurs or if you are using 'fast
       deletes' it may be that database records are deleted but files remain. In this case, and similar, zmaudit
       will  remove  redundant information to synchronise the two data stores. The default check interval of 900
       seconds (15 minutes) is fine for most systems however if you have a  very  large  number  of  events  the
       process of scanning the database and filesystem may take a long time and impact performance. In this case
       you may prefer to make this interval much larger to  reduce  the  impact  on  your  system.  This  option
       determines how often these checks are performed.

       OPT_FRAME_SERVER - In some circumstances it is possible for a slow disk to take so long writing images to
       disk that it causes the analysis daemon to fall behind especially during high frame rate events.  Setting
       this  option  to  yes enables a frame server daemon (zmf) which will be sent the images from the analysis
       daemon and will do the actual writing of images itself freeing up the analysis  daemon  to  get  on  with
       other  things.  Should  this transmission fail or other permanent or transient error occur, this function
       will fall back to the analysis daemon.

       FRAME_SOCKET_SIZE - For large captured images it is possible for the writes from the analysis  daemon  to
       the  frame  server  to fail as the amount to be written exceeds the default buffer size. While the images
       are then written by the analysis daemon so no data is lost, it defeats the object  of  the  frame  server
       daemon  in the first place. You can use this option to indicate that a larger buffer size should be used.
       Note that you may have to change the existing maximum socket buffer size on your system via sysctl (or in
       /proc/sys/net/core/wmem_max)  to  allow this new size to be set. Alternatively you can change the default
       buffer size on your system in the same way in which case that will be used with no  change  necessary  in
       this option

       OPT_CONTROL  - ZoneMinder includes limited support for controllable cameras. A number of sample protocols
       are included and others can easily be added. If you wish to control  your  cameras  via  ZoneMinder  then
       select this option otherwise if you only have static cameras or use other control methods then leave this
       option off.

       OPT_TRIGGERS - ZoneMinder can interact with external systems which prompt or cancel alarms. This is  done
       via  the zmtrigger.pl script. This option indicates whether you want to use these external triggers. Most
       people will say no here.

       CHECK_FOR_UPDATES - From ZoneMinder version 1.17.0 onwards new versions are expected to be more frequent.
       To  save  checking  manually for each new version ZoneMinder can check with the zoneminder.com website to
       determine the most recent release. These checks are infrequent, about once per week, and no  personal  or
       system information is transmitted other than your current version number. If you do not wish these checks
       to take place or your ZoneMinder system has no internet access you can switch these check off  with  this
       configuration  variable  UPDATE_CHECK_PROXY  -  If you use a proxy to access the internet then ZoneMinder
       needs to know so it can access zoneminder.com to check for updates. If you do use a proxy enter the  full
       proxy url here in the form of http://<proxy host>:<proxy port>/

       SHM_KEY  - ZoneMinder uses shared memory to speed up communication between modules. To identify the right
       area to use shared memory keys are used. This option controls what the base key  is,  each  monitor  will
       have  it's Id or'ed with this to get the actual key used. You will not normally need to change this value
       unless it clashes with another instance of ZoneMinder on the same machine. Only the first four hex digits
       are used, the lower four will be masked out and ignored.

   Options - Config
       [image]

       TIMESTAMP_ON_CAPTURE  -  ZoneMinder  can  add a timestamp to images in two ways. The default method, when
       this option is set, is that each image is timestamped immediately when captured and so the image held  in
       memory  is marked right away. The second method does not timestamp the images until they are either saved
       as part of an event or accessed over the web. The timestamp used in both methods will  contain  the  same
       time  as  this  is  preserved along with the image. The first method ensures that an image is timestamped
       regardless of any other circumstances but will result in all images being timestamped  even  those  never
       saved or viewed. The second method necessitates that saved images are copied before being saved otherwise
       two timestamps perhaps at different scales may be applied. This has the (perhaps) desirable  side  effect
       that  the  timestamp  is  always applied at the same resolution so an image that has scaling applied will
       still have a legible and correctly scaled timestamp.

       CPU_EXTENSIONS - When advanced processor extensions such as SSE2 or SSSE3 are available,  ZoneMinder  can
       use  them,  which  should increase performance and reduce system load. Enabling this option on processors
       that do not support the advanced processors extensions used by ZoneMinder is harmless and  will  have  no
       effect.

       FAST_IMAGE_BLENDS  -  To  detect  alarms  ZoneMinder  needs  to  blend the captured image with the stored
       reference image to update it for comparison with the next image. The reference blend percentage specified
       for  the  monitor controls how much the new image affects the reference image. There are two methods that
       are available for this. If this option is set then fast calculation which does not use any multiplication
       or division is used. This calculation is extremely fast, however it limits the possible blend percentages
       to 50%, 25%, 12.5%, 6.25%, 3.25% and 1.5%. Any other blend percentage will  be  rounded  to  the  nearest
       possible  one.  The  alternative is to switch this option off and use standard blending instead, which is
       slower.

       OPT_ADAPTIVE_SKIP - In previous versions of ZoneMinder the analysis daemon would attempt to keep up  with
       the  capture  daemon  by  processing  the last captured frame on each pass. This would sometimes have the
       undesirable side-effect of missing a chunk of the initial activity that  caused  the  alarm  because  the
       pre-alarm  frames would all have to be written to disk and the database before processing the next frame,
       leading to some delay between the first and second event frames. Setting  this  option  enables  a  newer
       adaptive  algorithm  where  the  analysis daemon attempts to process as many captured frames as possible,
       only skipping frames when in danger of the capture daemon overwriting yet to be  processed  frames.  This
       skip  is  variable  depending on the size of the ring buffer and the amount of space left in it. Enabling
       this option will give you much better coverage of the beginning of alarms whilst biasing out any  skipped
       frames towards the middle or end of the event. However you should be aware that this will have the effect
       of making the analysis daemon run somewhat behind the capture daemon during events and  for  particularly
       fast  rates  of  capture it is possible for the adaptive algorithm to be overwhelmed and not have time to
       react to a rapid build up of pending frames and thus for a buffer overrun condition to occur.

       MAX_SUSPEND_TIME - ZoneMinder allows monitors to have motion detection  to  be  suspended,  for  instance
       while  panning  a  camera. Ordinarily this relies on the operator resuming motion detection afterwards as
       failure to do so can leave a monitor in a permanently suspended state. This setting allows you to  set  a
       maximum  time  which a camera may be suspended for before it automatically resumes motion detection. This
       time can be extended by subsequent suspend indications after the first so continuous camera movement will
       also occur while the monitor is suspended.

       STRICT_VIDEO_CONFIG  -  With  some  video  devices  errors  can  be reported in setting the various video
       attributes when in fact the operation was successful. Switching this option off will  still  allow  these
       errors  to  be reported but will not cause them to kill the video capture daemon. Note however that doing
       this will cause all errors to be ignored including those which are genuine and which may cause the  video
       capture to not function correctly. Use this option with caution.

       SIGNAL_CHECK_POINTS  - For locally attached video cameras ZoneMinder can check for signal loss by looking
       at a number of random points on each captured image. If all of these points are set  to  the  same  fixed
       colour then the camera is assumed to have lost signal. When this happens any open events are closed and a
       short one frame signal loss event is generated, as is  another  when  the  signal  returns.  This  option
       defines how many points on each image to check. Note that this is a maximum, any points found to not have
       the check colour will abort any further checks so in most cases on a couple of points  will  actually  be
       checked. Network and file based cameras are never checked.

       V4L_MULTI_BUFFER  -  Performance when using Video 4 Linux devices is usually best if multiple buffers are
       used allowing the next image to be captured while the previous  one  is  being  processed.  If  you  have
       multiple  devices  on  a  card sharing one input that requires switching then this approach can sometimes
       cause frames from one source to be mixed up with frames from another. Switching this option off  prevents
       multi  buffering  resulting in slower but more stable image capture. This option is ignored for non-local
       cameras or if only one input is present on a capture chip. This option addresses a similar problem to the
       ZM_CAPTURES_PER_FRAME  option  and  you  should normally change the value of only one of the options at a
       time.  If you have different capture cards that need different values  you  can  ovveride  them  in  each
       individual monitor on the source page.

       CAPTURES_PER_FRAME  -  If  you  are  using cameras attached to a video capture card which forces multiple
       inputs to share one capture chip, it  can  sometimes  produce  images  with  interlaced  frames  reversed
       resulting  in  poor  image quality and a distinctive comb edge appearance. Increasing this setting allows
       you to force additional image captures before one is selected as the  captured  frame.  This  allows  the
       capture hardware to 'settle down' and produce better quality images at the price of lesser capture rates.
       This option has no effect on (a) network cameras, or (b) where multiple inputs do  not  share  a  capture
       chip.  This  option addresses a similar problem to the ZM_V4L_MULTI_BUFFER option and you should normally
       change the value of only one of the options at a time.  If you have different  capture  cards  that  need
       different values you can ovveride them in each individual monitor on the source page.

       FORCED_ALARM_SCORE - The 'zmu' utility can be used to force an alarm on a monitor rather than rely on the
       motion detection algorithms. This option determines what score to give these alarms to  distinguish  them
       from regular ones. It must be 255 or less.

       BULK_FRAME_INTERVAL  -  Traditionally  ZoneMinder writes an entry into the Frames database table for each
       frame that is captured and saved. This works well in  motion  detection  scenarios  but  when  in  a  DVR
       situation ('Record' or 'Mocord' mode) this results in a huge number of frame writes and a lot of database
       and disk bandwidth for very little additional information. Setting this to a non-zero value will  enabled
       ZoneMinder to group these non-alarm frames into one 'bulk' frame entry which saves a lot of bandwidth and
       space. The only disadvantage of this is that timing information for individual  frames  is  lost  but  in
       constant  frame  rate  situations this is usually not significant. This setting is ignored in Modect mode
       and individual frames are still written if an alarm occurs in Mocord mode also.

       EVENT_CLOSE_MODE - When a monitor is running in a continuous recording mode (Record or Mocord) events are
       usually  closed  after a fixed period of time (the section length). However in Mocord mode it is possible
       that motion detection may occur near the end of a section. This option  controls  what  happens  when  an
       alarm  occurs  in  Mocord  mode. The 'time' setting means that the event will be closed at the end of the
       section regardless of alarm activity. The 'idle' setting means that the event will be closed at  the  end
       of  the  section if there is no alarm activity occurring at the time otherwise it will be closed once the
       alarm is over meaning the event may end up being longer than  the  normal  section  length.  The  'alarm'
       setting  means  that if an alarm occurs during the event, the event will be closed once the alarm is over
       regardless of when this occurs. This has the effect of limiting the number of alarms to one per event and
       the events will be shorter than the section length if an alarm has occurred.

       CREATE_ANALYSIS_IMAGES  -  By  default during an alarm ZoneMinder records both the raw captured image and
       one that has been analysed and had areas where motion was detected outlined.  This  can  be  very  useful
       during  zone  configuration or in analysing why events occurred. However it also incurs some overhead and
       in a stable system may no longer be necessary. This parameter allows you  to  switch  the  generation  of
       these images off.

       WEIGHTED_ALARM_CENTRES  - ZoneMinder will always calculate the centre point of an alarm in a zone to give
       some indication of where on the screen it is. This can  be  used  by  the  experimental  motion  tracking
       feature  or  your own custom extensions. In the alarmed or filtered pixels mode this is a simple midpoint
       between the extents of the detected pxiesl. However in the blob method this  can  instead  be  calculated
       using  weighted  pixel  locations  to  give  more accurate positioning for irregularly shaped blobs. This
       method, while more precise is also slower and so is turned off by default.

       EVENT_IMAGE_DIGITS - As event images are captured they are stored to  the  filesystem  with  a  numerical
       index.  By  default  this  index has three digits so the numbers start 001, 002 etc. This works works for
       most scenarios as events with more than 999 frames are rarely captured. However  if  you  have  extremely
       long events and use external applications then you may wish to increase this to ensure correct sorting of
       images in listings etc. Warning, increasing this value on  a  live  system  may  render  existing  events
       unviewable  as the event will have been saved with the previous scheme. Decreasing this value should have
       no ill effects.

       DEFAULT_ASPECT_RATIO - When specifying the dimensions of monitors you can click a checkbox to ensure that
       the  width  stays  in the correct ratio to the height, or vice versa. This setting allows you to indicate
       what the ratio of these settings should be. This should be specified in the format <width  value>:<height
       value>  and the default of 4:3 normally be acceptable but 11:9 is another common setting. If the checkbox
       is not clicked when specifying monitor dimensions this setting has no effect.

       USER_SELF_EDIT - Ordinarily only users with system edit privilege  are  able  to  change  users  details.
       Switching this option on allows ordinary users to change their passwords and their language settings

   Options - Paths
       [image]

       ZM_DIR_EVENTS  -  This  is  the  path  to  the  events  directory  where  all  the event images and other
       miscellaneous files are stored. CAUTION: The directory you specify here cannot be outside the  web  root.
       This  is a common mistake. Most users should never change this value. If you intend to record events to a
       second disk or network share, then you should mount the drive or share directly to the ZoneMinder  events
       folder or follow the instructions in the ZoneMinder Wiki titled Using a dedicated Hard Drive.

       USE_DEEP_STORAGE  -  Traditionally  ZoneMinder  stores all events for a monitor in one directory for that
       monitor. This is simple and efficient except when you have very large amounts of events. Some filesystems
       are  unable to store more than 32k files in one directory and even without this limitation, large numbers
       of files in a directory can slow creation and deletion of files. This option  allows  you  to  select  an
       alternate  method  of storing events by year/month/day/hour/min/second which has the effect of separating
       events out into more directories, resulting in less per directory, and also making it easier to  manually
       navigate to any events that may have happened at a particular time or date.

       DIR_IMAGES  -  ZoneMinder  generates  a myriad of images, mostly of which are associated with events. For
       those that aren't this is where they go. CAUTION: The directory you specify here cannot  be  outside  the
       web  root.  This  is  a  common mistake. Most users should never change this value. If you intend to save
       images to a second disk or network share, then you should mount  the  drive  or  share  directly  to  the
       ZoneMinder  images folder or follow the instructions in the ZoneMinder Wiki titled Using a dedicated Hard
       Drive.

       DIR_SOUNDS - ZoneMinder can optionally play a sound file when an alarm is detected. This indicates  where
       to look for this file. CAUTION: The directory you specify here cannot be outside the web root. Most users
       should never change this value.

       PATH_ZMS - The ZoneMinder streaming server is required to send streamed images to your browser.  It  will
       be  installed into the cgi-bin path given at configuration time. This option determines what the web path
       to the server is rather than the local path on your machine. Ordinarily  the  streaming  server  runs  in
       parser-header   mode  however  if  you  experience  problems  with  streaming  you  can  change  this  to
       non-parsed-header (nph) mode by changing 'zms' to 'nph-zms'.

       PATH_MAP - ZoneMinder has historically used IPC shared memory for shared data between processes. This has
       it's  advantages  and limitations. This version of ZoneMinder can use an alternate method, mapped memory,
       instead with can be enabled with the --enable--mmap directive to configure.  This  requires  less  system
       configuration  and is generally more flexible. However it requires each shared data segment to map onto a
       filesystem file. This option indicates where those mapped files go. You should ensure that this  location
       has  sufficient  space  for  these files and for the best performance it should be a tmpfs file system or
       ramdisk otherwise disk access may render this method slower than the regular shared memory one.

       PATH_SOCKS - ZoneMinder generally uses Unix domain sockets where possible. This reduces the need for port
       assignments  and prevents external applications from possibly compromising the daemons. However each Unix
       socket requires a .sock file to be created. This option indicates where those socket files go.

       PATH_LOGS - There are various daemons that are used by ZoneMinder to perform various tasks. Most generate
       helpful log files and this is where they go. They can be deleted if not required for debugging.

       PATH_SWAP  -  Buffered  playback  requires  temporary  swap  images to be stored for each instance of the
       streaming daemons. This option determines where these images will be stored. The images will actually  be
       stored  in  sub  directories beneath this location and will be automatically cleaned up after a period of
       time.

   Options - Web
       [image]

       WEB_TITLE_PREFIX - If you have more than one installation of ZoneMinder it  can  be  helpful  to  display
       different  titles for each one. Changing this option allows you to customise the window titles to include
       further information to aid identification.

       WEB_RESIZE_CONSOLE - Traditionally the main ZoneMinder web console window has resized itself to shrink to
       a  size  small  enough  to list only the monitors that are actually present. This is intended to make the
       window more unobtrusize but may not be to everyones tastes, especially if opened in  a  tab  in  browsers
       which  support  this  kind  if layout. Switch this option off to have the console window size left to the
       users preference

       WEB_POPUP_ON_ALARM - When viewing a live monitor stream you can specify whether you want  the  window  to
       pop  to  the front if an alarm occurs when the window is minimised or behind another window. This is most
       useful if your monitors are over doors for example when they can pop up if someone comes to the doorway.

       WEB_SOUND_ON_ALARM - When viewing a live monitor stream you can specify whether you want  the  window  to
       play a sound to alert you if an alarm occurs.

       WEB_ALARM_SOUND  - You can specify a sound file to play if an alarm occurs whilst you are watching a live
       monitor stream. So long as your browser understands the format it does not  need  to  be  any  particular
       type. This file should be placed in the sounds directory defined earlier.

       WEB_COMPACT_MONTAGE  -  The  montage  view shows the output of all of your active monitors in one window.
       This include a small menu and status information for each one. This can increase the web traffic and make
       the window larger than may be desired. Setting this option on removes all this extraneous information and
       just displays the images.

       WEB_EVENT_SORT_FIELD - Events in lists can be initially ordered in any way you want. This option controls
       what  field is used to sort them. You can modify this ordering from filters or by clicking on headings in
       the lists themselves. Bear in mind however that the 'Prev'  and  'Next'  links,  when  scrolling  through
       events, relate to the ordering in the lists and so not always to time based ordering.

       WEB_EVENT_SORT_ORDER - Events in lists can be initially ordered in any way you want. This option controls
       what order (ascending or descending) is used to sort them. You can modify this ordering from  filters  or
       by  clicking  on headings in the lists themselves. Bear in mind however that the 'Prev' and 'Next' links,
       when scrolling through events, relate to the ordering in the lists  and  so  not  always  to  time  based
       ordering.

       WEB_EVENTS_PER_PAGE  -  In  the  event list view you can either list all events or just a page at a time.
       This option controls how many events are listed per page in paged mode and how often to repeat the column
       headers in non-paged mode.

       WEB_LIST_THUMBS  -  Ordinarily  the event lists just display text details of the events to save space and
       time. By switching this option on you can also display small thumbnails to help you  identify  events  of
       interest. The size of these thumbnails is controlled by the following two options.

       WEB_LIST_THUMB_WIDTH  -  This options controls the width of the thumbnail images that appear in the event
       lists. It should be fairly small to fit in with the rest of the table. If you prefer you  can  specify  a
       height instead in the next option but you should only use one of the width or height and the other option
       should be set to zero. If both width and height are specified then width will be used and height ignored.

       WEB_LIST_THUMB_HEIGHT - This options controls the height of the thumbnail images that appear in the event
       lists.  It  should  be fairly small to fit in with the rest of the table. If you prefer you can specify a
       width instead in the previous option but you should only use one of the width or  height  and  the  other
       option  should  be set to zero. If both width and height are specified then width will be used and height
       ignored.

       WEB_USE_OBJECT_TAGS - There are two methods of including media content in web pages. The most common  way
       is  use the EMBED tag which is able to give some indication of the type of content. However this is not a
       standard part of HTML. The official method is to use OBJECT tags which are able to give more  information
       allowing  the correct media viewers etc to be loaded. However these are less widely supported and content
       may be specifically tailored to a particular platform or  player.  This  option  controls  whether  media
       content  is  enclosed  in  EMBED  tags  only or whether, where appropriate, it is additionally wrapped in
       OBJECT tags. Currently OBJECT tags are only used in a limited number of circumstances but they may become
       more  widespread  in  the  future.  It  is  suggested  that you leave this option on unless you encounter
       problems playing some content.

   Options - Images
       [image]

       OPT_FFMPEG - ZoneMinder can optionally encode a series of video images into an MPEG  encoded  movie  file
       for  viewing, downloading or storage. This option allows you to specify whether you have the ffmpeg tools
       installed. Note that creating MPEG files can be fairly CPU and disk  intensive  and  is  not  a  required
       option as events can still be reviewed as video streams without it.

       PATH_FFMPEG - This path should point to where ffmpeg has been installed.

       FFMPEG_INPUT_OPTIONS  -  Ffmpeg can take many options on the command line to control the quality of video
       produced. This option allows you to specify your own set that apply to the input to ffmpeg (options  that
       are  given  before the -i option). Check the ffmpeg documentation for a full list of options which may be
       used here.

       FFMPEG_OUTPUT_OPTIONS - Ffmpeg can take many options on the command line to control the quality of  video
       produced.  This  option  allows you to specify your own set that apply to the output from ffmpeg (options
       that are given after the -i option). Check the ffmpeg documentation for a full list of options which  may
       be  used  here.  The  most  common one will often be to force an output frame rate supported by the video
       encoder.

       FFMPEG_FORMATS - Ffmpeg can generate video in many different formats. This option allows you to list  the
       ones  you  want to be able to select. As new formats are supported by ffmpeg you can add them here and be
       able to use them immediately. Adding a '*' after a format indicates that this will be the default  format
       used for web video, adding '**' defines the default format for phone video.

       FFMPEG_OPEN_TIMEOUT  -  When  Ffmpeg is opening a stream, it can take a long time before failing; certain
       circumstances even seem to be able to lock indefinitely. This option allows you to set a maximum time  in
       seconds to pass before closing the stream and trying to reopen it again.

       JPEG_STREAM_QUALITY  -  When viewing a 'live' stream for a monitor ZoneMinder will grab an image from the
       buffer and encode it into JPEG format before sending it. This option specifies what image quality  should
       be  used  to  encode these images. A higher number means better quality but less compression so will take
       longer to view over a slow connection. By contrast a low number means quicker to view images but  at  the
       price  of  lower  quality images. This option does not apply when viewing events or still images as these
       are usually just read from disk and so will be encoded at the quality specified by the previous options.

       MPEG_TIMED_FRAMES - When using streamed MPEG based video, either for  live  monitor  streams  or  events,
       ZoneMinder  can  send  the  streams  in  two ways. If this option is selected then the timestamp for each
       frame, taken from it's capture time, is included in the stream. This means  that  where  the  frame  rate
       varies,  for  instance around an alarm, the stream will still maintain it's 'real' timing. If this option
       is not selected then an approximate frame rate is calculated and that is used to schedule frames instead.
       This option should be selected unless you encounter problems with your preferred streaming method.

       MPEG_LIVE_FORMAT  -  When  using  MPEG  mode  ZoneMinder  can output live video. However what formats are
       handled by the browser varies greatly between machines. This option allows you to specify a video  format
       using  a file extension format, so you would just enter the extension of the file type you would like and
       the rest is determined from that. The default of 'asf' works well under Windows with Windows Media Player
       but  I'm  currently  not sure what, if anything, works on a Linux platform. If you find out please let me
       know! If this option is left blank then live streams will revert to being in motion jpeg format

       MPEG_REPLAY_FORMAT - When using MPEG mode ZoneMinder can replay events in encoded video  format.  However
       what  formats  are  handled  by  the  browser  varies greatly between machines. This option allows you to
       specify a video format using a file extension format, so you would just enter the extension of  the  file
       type  you  would like and the rest is determined from that. The default of 'asf' works well under Windows
       with Windows Media Player and 'mpg', or 'avi' etc should work under Linux. If  you  know  any  more  then
       please  let  me  know! If this option is left blank then live streams will revert to being in motion jpeg
       format

       RAND_STREAM - Some browsers can cache the streams used by ZoneMinder. In order to prevent his a  harmless
       random string can be appended to the url to make each invocation of the stream appear unique.

       OPT_CAMBOZOLA  -  Cambozola  is a handy low fat cheese flavoured Java applet that ZoneMinder uses to view
       image streams on browsers such as Internet Explorer that don't natively support this format. If  you  use
       this  browser  it  is highly recommended to install this from http://www.charliemouse.com/code/cambozola/
       however if it is not installed still images at a lower refresh rate can still be viewed.

       PATH_CAMBOZOLA - Cambozola is a handy low fat cheese flavoured Java applet that ZoneMinder uses  to  view
       image  streams  on browsers such as Internet Explorer that don't natively support this format. If you use
       this browser it is highly recommended to install  this  from  http://www.charliemouse.com/code/cambozola/
       however  if  it  is not installed still images at a lower refresh rate can still be viewed. Leave this as
       'cambozola.jar' if cambozola is installed in the same directory as the ZoneMinder web client files.

       RELOAD_CAMBOZOLA - Cambozola allows for the viewing of streaming  MJPEG  however  it  caches  the  entire
       stream  into  cache  space  on  the computer, setting this to a number > 0 will cause it to automatically
       reload after that many seconds to avoid filling up a hard drive.

       OPT_FFMPEG - ZoneMinder can optionally encode a series of video images into an MPEG  encoded  movie  file
       for  viewing, downloading or storage. This option allows you to specify whether you have the ffmpeg tools
       installed. Note that creating MPEG files can be fairly CPU and disk  intensive  and  is  not  a  required
       option as events can still be reviewed as video streams without it.

       PATH_FFMPEG - This path should point to where ffmpeg has been installed.

       FFMPEG_INPUT_OPTIONS  -  Ffmpeg can take many options on the command line to control the quality of video
       produced. This option allows you to specify your own set that apply to the input to ffmpeg (options  that
       are  given  before the -i option). Check the ffmpeg documentation for a full list of options which may be
       used here.

       FFMPEG_OUTPUT_OPTIONS - Ffmpeg can take many options on the command line to control the quality of  video
       produced.  This  option  allows you to specify your own set that apply to the output from ffmpeg (options
       that are given after the -i option). Check the ffmpeg documentation for a full list of options which  may
       be  used  here.  The  most  common one will often be to force an output frame rate supported by the video
       encoder.

       FFMPEG_FORMATS - Ffmpeg can generate video in many different formats. This option allows you to list  the
       ones  you  want to be able to select. As new formats are supported by ffmpeg you can add them here and be
       able to use them immediately. Adding a '*' after a format indicates that this will be the default  format
       used for web video, adding '**' defines the default format for phone video.

       FFMPEG_OPEN_TIMEOUT  -  When  Ffmpeg is opening a stream, it can take a long time before failing; certain
       circumstances even seem to be able to lock indefinitely. This option allows you to set a maximum time  in
       seconds to pass before closing the stream and trying to reopen it again.

   Options - Logging
       [image]

       LOG_LEVEL_SYSLOG  -  ZoneMinder  logging is now more more integrated between components and allows you to
       specify the destination for logging output and the individual levels  for  each.  This  option  lets  you
       control  the  level of logging output that goes to the system log. ZoneMinder binaries have always logged
       to the system log but now scripts and web logging is also included. To preserve  the  previous  behaviour
       you should ensure this value is set to Info or Warning. This option controls the maximum level of logging
       that will be written, so Info includes Warnings and Errors etc. To disable entirely, set this  option  to
       None.  You  should  use caution when setting this option to Debug as it can affect severely affect system
       performance. If you want debug you will also need to set a level and component below

       LOG_LEVEL_FILE - ZoneMinder logging is now more more integrated between  components  and  allows  you  to
       specify  the  destination  for  logging  output  and the individual levels for each. This option lets you
       control the level of logging output that goes to individual log files  written  by  specific  components.
       This is how logging worked previously and although useful for tracking down issues in specific components
       it also resulted in many disparate log files. To preserve this behaviour you should ensure this value  is
       set  to  Info or Warning. This option controls the maximum level of logging that will be written, so Info
       includes Warnings and Errors etc. To disable entirely, set this option to None. You  should  use  caution
       when  setting this option to Debug as it can affect severely affect system performance though file output
       has less impact than the other options. If you want debug you will also need to set a level and component
       below

       LOG_LEVEL_WEBLOG  -  ZoneMinder  logging is now more more integrated between components and allows you to
       specify the destination for logging output and the individual levels  for  each.  This  option  lets  you
       control  the  level  of logging output from the web interface that goes to the httpd error log. Note that
       only web logging from PHP and JavaScript files is included and so this option is really only  useful  for
       investigating  specific  issues  with those components. This option controls the maximum level of logging
       that will be written, so Info includes Warnings and Errors etc. To disable entirely, set this  option  to
       None.  You  should  use caution when setting this option to Debug as it can affect severely affect system
       performance. If you want debug you will also need to set a level and component below

       LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE - ZoneMinder logging is now more more integrated between components and allows you  to
       specify  the  destination  for  logging  output  and the individual levels for each. This option lets you
       control the level of logging output that is written to the database. This is a new option which can  make
       viewing logging output easier and more intuitive and also makes it easier to get an overall impression of
       how the system is performing. If you have a large or very busy system then it is  possible  that  use  of
       this  option  may  slow  your  system  down  if  the  table  becomes  very  large.  Ensure  you  use  the
       LOG_DATABASE_LIMIT option to keep the table to a manageable size. This option controls the maximum  level
       of  logging that will be written, so Info includes Warnings and Errors etc. To disable entirely, set this
       option to None. You should use caution when setting this option to Debug as it can affect severely affect
       system performance. If you want debug you will also need to set a level and component below

       LOG_DATABASE_LIMIT  -  If  you are using database logging then it is possible to quickly build up a large
       number of entries in the Logs table. This option allows you to specify how  many  of  these  entries  are
       kept.  If  you  set  this  option to a number greater than zero then that number is used to determine the
       maximum number of rows, less than or equal to zero indicates no limit and is  not  recommended.  You  can
       also set this value to time values such as '<n> day' which will limit the log entries to those newer than
       that time. You can specify 'hour', 'day', 'week', 'month' and 'year', note  that  the  values  should  be
       singular  (no  's' at the end). The Logs table is pruned periodically so it is possible for more than the
       expected number of rows to be present briefly in the meantime.

       LOG_DEBUG" - ZoneMinder components usually support  debug  logging  available  to  help  with  diagnosing
       problems.  Binary  components  have  several levels of debug whereas more other components have only one.
       Normally this is disabled to minimise performance penalties and avoid  filling  logs  too  quickly.  This
       option  lets  you  switch on other options that allow you to configure additional debug information to be
       output. Components will pick up this instruction when they are restarted.

       LOG_DEBUG_TARGET - There are three scopes of debug available. Leaving this option blank  means  that  all
       components will use extra debug (not recommended). Setting this option to '_<component>', e.g. _zmc, will
       limit extra debug to  that  component  only.  Setting  this  option  to  '_<component>_<identity>',  e.g.
       '_zmc_m1'  will  limit  extra  debug  to that instance of the component only. This is ordinarily what you
       probably want to do. To debug scripts use their names without the .pl extension, e.g. '_zmvideo'  and  to
       debug  issues with the web interface use '_web'. You can specify multiple targets by separating them with
       '|' characters.

       LOG_DEBUG_LEVEL - There are 9 levels of debug available, with higher numbers being more debug and level 0
       being no debug. However not all levels are used by all components. Also if there is debug at a high level
       it is usually likely to be output at such a volume that it may obstruct normal operation. For this reason
       you  should  set the level carefully and cautiously until the degree of debug you wish to see is present.
       Scripts and the web interface only have one level so this is an on/off type option for them.

       LOG_DEBUG_FILE - This option allows you to specify a different target for debug  output.  All  components
       have a default log file which will norally be in /tmp or /var/log and this is where debug will be written
       to if this value is empty. Adding a path here will temporarily redirect debug, and other logging  output,
       to  this  file.  This option is a simple filename and you are debugging several components then they will
       all try and write to the same file with undesirable consequences. Appending a '+' to  the  filename  will
       cause  the  file  to be created with a '.<pid>' suffix containing your process id. In this way debug from
       each run of a component is kept separate. This is  the  recommended  setting  as  it  will  also  prevent
       subsequent  runs  from  overwriting  the same log. You should ensure that permissions are set up to allow
       writing to the file and directory specified here.

       LOG_CHECK_PERIOD - When ZoneMinder is logging events to the database it can retrospectively  examine  the
       number  of  warnings  and  errors that have occurred to calculate an overall state of system health. This
       option allows you to indicate what period of historical events are used in this calculation.  This  value
       is expressed in seconds and is ignored if LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE is set to None.

       LOG_ALERT_WAR_COUNT  -  When  ZoneMinder is logging events to the database it can retrospectively examine
       the number of warnings and errors that have occurred to calculate an overall state of system health. This
       option  allows  you  to  specify  how  many warnings must have occurred within the defined time period to
       generate an overall system alert state. A value of zero means warnings are not considered. This value  is
       ignored if LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE is set to None.

       LOG_ALERT_ERR_COUNT  -  When  ZoneMinder is logging events to the database it can retrospectively examine
       the number of warnings and errors that have occurred to calculate an overall state of system health. This
       option  allows  you  to  specify  how  many  errors  must have occurred within the defined time period to
       generate an overall system alert state. A value of zero means errors are not considered.  This  value  is
       ignored if LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE is set to None.

       LOG_ALERT_FAT_COUNT  -  When  ZoneMinder is logging events to the database it can retrospectively examine
       the number of warnings and errors that have occurred to calculate an overall state of system health. This
       option  allows  you  to  specify  how  many fatal errors (including panics) must have occurred within the
       defined time period to generate an overall system alert state. A value of zero means fatal errors are not
       considered. This value is ignored if LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE is set to None.

       LOG_ALARM_WAR_COUNT  -  When  ZoneMinder is logging events to the database it can retrospectively examine
       the number of warnings and errors that have occurred to calculate an overall state of system health. This
       option  allows  you  to  specify  how  many warnings must have occurred within the defined time period to
       generate an overall system alarm state. A value of zero means warnings are not considered. This value  is
       ignored if LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE is set to None.

       LOG_ALARM_ERR_COUNT  -  When  ZoneMinder is logging events to the database it can retrospectively examine
       the number of warnings and errors that have occurred to calculate an overall state of system health. This
       option  allows  you  to  specify  how  many  errors  must have occurred within the defined time period to
       generate an overall system alarm state. A value of zero means errors are not considered.  This  value  is
       ignored if LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE is set to None.

       LOG_ALARM_FAT_COUNT  -  When  ZoneMinder is logging events to the database it can retrospectively examine
       the number of warnings and errors that have occurred to calculate an overall state of system health. This
       option  allows  you  to  specify  how  many fatal errors (including panics) must have occurred within the
       defined time period to generate an overall system alarm state. A value of zero means fatal errors are not
       considered. This value is ignored if LOG_LEVEL_DATABASE is set to None.

       RECORD_EVENT_STATS  -  This  version of ZoneMinder records detailed information about events in the Stats
       table. This can help in profiling what the optimum settings are  for  Zones  though  this  is  tricky  at
       present.  However  in  future  releases  this will be done more easily and intuitively, especially with a
       large sample of events. The default option of 'yes' allows  this  information  to  be  collected  now  in
       readiness  for  this  but if you are concerned about performance you can switch this off in which case no
       Stats information will be saved.

       RECORD_DIAG_IMAGES - In addition to recording event statistics  you  can  also  record  the  intermediate
       diagnostic images that display the results of the various checks and processing that occur when trying to
       determine if an alarm event has taken place. There are several of these images generated for  each  frame
       and zone for each alarm or alert frame so this can have a massive impact on performance. Only switch this
       setting on for debug or analysis purposes and remember to switch it off again once no longer required.

       DUMP_CORES - When an unrecoverable error occurs in a ZoneMinder binary process is has traditionally  been
       trapped  and the details written to logs to aid in remote analysis. However in some cases it is easier to
       diagnose the error if a core file, which is a memory dump of the process at the time  of  the  error,  is
       created.  This  can  be  interactively analysed in the debugger and may reveal more or better information
       than that available from the logs. This option is recommended for advanced users only otherwise leave  at
       the  default.  Note using this option to trigger core files will mean that there will be no indication in
       the binary logs that a process has died, they will just stop, however the zmdc log will still contain  an
       entry. Also note that you may have to explicitly enable core file creation on your system via the 'ulimit
       -c' command or other means otherwise no file will be created regardless of the value of this option.

   Options - Network
       [image]

       HTTP_VERSION - ZoneMinder can communicate with network cameras using either of the HTTP/1.1  or  HTTP/1.0
       standard.  A  server  will  normally  fall back to the version it supports with no problem so this should
       usually by left at the default. However it can be changed to HTTP/1.0 if necessary to resolve  particular
       issues.

       HTTP_UA  - When ZoneMinder communicates with remote cameras it will identify itself using this string and
       it's version number. This is normally sufficient,  however  if  a  particular  cameras  expects  only  to
       communicate  with  certain browsers then this can be changed to a different string identifying ZoneMinder
       as Internet Explorer or Netscape etc.

       HTTP_TIMEOUT - When retrieving remote images ZoneMinder will wait for this length of time before deciding
       that an image is not going to arrive and taking steps to retry. This timeout is in milliseconds (1000 per
       second) and will apply to each part of an image if it is not sent in one whole chunk.

       MIN_RTP_PORT - When ZoneMinder communicates with MPEG4 capable cameras using RTP with the unicast  method
       it  must  open  ports  for the camera to connect back to for control and streaming purposes. This setting
       specifies the minimum port number that ZoneMinder will use. Ordinarily two adjacent ports  are  used  for
       each camera, one for control packets and one for data packets. This port should be set to an even number,
       you may also need to open up a hole in your firewall to allow cameras to connect back if you wish to  use
       unicasting.

       MAX_RTP_PORT  - When ZoneMinder communicates with MPEG4 capable cameras using RTP with the unicast method
       it must open ports for the camera to connect back to for control and  streaming  purposes.  This  setting
       specifies  the  maximum  port number that ZoneMinder will use. Ordinarily two adjacent ports are used for
       each camera, one for control packets and one for data packets. This port should be set to an even number,
       you  may also need to open up a hole in your firewall to allow cameras to connect back if you wish to use
       unicasting. You should also ensure that you have opened up at least two ports for each monitor that  will
       be connecting to unicasting network cameras.

   Options - Email
       [image]

       OPT_EMAIL  -  In  ZoneMinder  you can create event filters that specify whether events that match certain
       criteria should have their details emailed to you at a designated email address. This will allow  you  to
       be  notified  of  events  as soon as they occur and also to quickly view the events directly. This option
       specifies whether this functionality should be available. The email created with this option can  be  any
       size and is intended to be sent to a regular email reader rather than a mobile device.

       EMAIL_ADDRESS  -  This  option  is  used  to  define  the  email  address  that any events that match the
       appropriate filters will be sent to.

       EMAIL_SUBJECT - This option is used to define the subject of the email that is sent for any  events  that
       match the appropriate filters.

       EMAIL_BODY  -  This  option  is  used to define the content of the email that is sent for any events that
       match the appropriate filters.

                                   ┌───────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
                                   │Token  │ Description                           │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EI%   │ Id of the event                       │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EN%   │ Name of the event                     │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EC%   │ Cause of the event                    │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%ED%   │ Event description                     │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%ET%   │ Time of the event                     │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EL%   │ Length of the event                   │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EF%   │ Number of frames in the event         │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EFA%  │ Number of alarm frames in the event   │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EST%  │ Total score of the event              │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%ESA%  │ Average score of the event            │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%ESM%  │ Maximum score of the event            │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EP%   │ Path to the event                     │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EPS%  │ Path to the event stream              │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EPI%  │ Path to the event images              │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EPI1% │ Path to the first alarmed event image │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EPIM% │ Path to the (first) event image  with │
                                   │       │ the highest score                     │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EI1%  │ Attach first alarmed event image      │
                                   └───────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘

                                   │%EIM%  │ Attach  (first)  event image with the │
                                   │       │ highest score                         │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%EV%   │ Attach event mpeg video               │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MN%   │ Name of the monitor                   │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MET%  │ Total  number  of  events   for   the │
                                   │       │ monitor                               │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MEH%  │ Number  of  events for the monitor in │
                                   │       │ the last hour                         │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MED%  │ Number of events for the  monitor  in │
                                   │       │ the last day                          │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MEW%  │ Number  of  events for the monitor in │
                                   │       │ the last week                         │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MEM%  │ Number of events for the  monitor  in │
                                   │       │ the last month                        │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MEA%  │ Number  of  archived  events  for the │
                                   │       │ monitor                               │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MP%   │ Path to the monitor window            │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MPS%  │ Path to the monitor stream            │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%MPI%  │ Path to the monitor recent image      │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%FN%   │ Name  of  the  current  filter   that │
                                   │       │ matched                               │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%FP%   │ Path   to  the  current  filter  that │
                                   │       │ matched                               │
                                   ├───────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
                                   │%ZP%   │ Path to your ZoneMinder console       │
                                   └───────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘

       OPT_MESSAGE - In ZoneMinder you can create event filters that specify whether events that  match  certain
       criteria  should  have  their  details sent to you at a designated short message email address. This will
       allow you to be  notified  of  events  as  soon  as  they  occur.  This  option  specifies  whether  this
       functionality  should  be available. The email created by this option will be brief and is intended to be
       sent to an SMS gateway or a minimal mail reader such as a mobile device or phone rather  than  a  regular
       email reader.

       MESSAGE_ADDRESS  -  This  option  is  used to define the short message email address that any events that
       match the appropriate filters will be sent to.

       MESSAGE_SUBJECT - This option is used to define the subject of the message that is sent  for  any  events
       that match the appropriate filters.

       MESSAGE_BODY  - This option is used to define the content of the message that is sent for any events that
       match the appropriate filters.

       NEW_MAIL_MODULES - Traditionally ZoneMinder has used the MIME::Entity perl module to construct  and  send
       notification  emails  and messages. Some people have reported problems with this module not being present
       at all or flexible enough for their needs. If you are one of those  people  this  option  allows  you  to
       select  a  new mailing method using MIME::Lite and Net::SMTP instead. This method was contributed by Ross
       Melin and should work for everyone but has not been extensively tested so currently is  not  selected  by
       default.

       EMAIL_HOST  - If you have chosen SMTP as the method by which to send notification emails or messages then
       this option allows you to choose which SMTP server to use to send them. The default of localhost may work
       if  you have the sendmail, exim or a similar daemon running however you may wish to enter your ISP's SMTP
       mail server here.

       FROM_EMAIL - The emails or messages that will be sent to you informing you of events can appear  to  come
       from  a  designated  email  address  to  help  you  with mail filtering etc. An address of something like
       ZoneMinder@your.domain is recommended.

       URL - The emails or messages that will be sent to you informing you of events can include a link  to  the
       events  themselves for easy viewing. If you intend to use this feature then set this option to the url of
       your installation as it would appear from where you read your email, e.g. http://host.your.domain/zm.php.

   Options - Upload
       [image]

       OPT_UPLOAD - In ZoneMinder you can create event filters that specify whether events  that  match  certain
       criteria  should  be  uploaded  to  a  remote  server  for  archiving. This option specifies whether this
       functionality should be available

       UPLOAD_ARCH_FORMAT - Uploaded events may be stored in either .tar or .zip format, this  option  specifies
       which.  Note  that  to  use  this you will need to have the Archive::Tar and/or Archive::Zip perl modules
       installed.

       UPLOAD_ARCH_COMPRESS - When the archive files are created they can  be  compressed.  However  in  general
       since  the  images are compressed already this saves only a minimal amount of space versus utilising more
       CPU in their creation. Only enable if you have CPU to waste and are limited in disk space on your  remote
       server or bandwidth.

       UPLOAD_ARCH_ANALYSE - When the archive files are created they can contain either just the captured frames
       or both the captured frames and, for frames that caused an alarm, the analysed  image  with  the  changed
       area  highlighted.  This  option  controls files are included. Only include analysed frames if you have a
       high bandwidth connection to the remote server or if you need help in figuring out what caused  an  alarm
       in the first place as archives with these files in can be considerably larger.

       UPLOAD_PROTOCOL  -  ZoneMinder can upload events to a remote server using either FTP or SFTP. Regular FTP
       is widely supported but not necessarily very secure whereas SFTP (Secure FTP) runs over an ssh connection
       and  so  is  encrypted  and  uses  regular  ssh  ports.  Note  that to use this you will need to have the
       appropriate perl module, either Net::FTP or Net::SFTP installed depending on your choice.

       UPLOAD_HOST - You can use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to a remote server. This option
       indicates the name, or ip address, of the server to use.

       UPLOAD_PORT  - You can use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to a remote server. If you are
       using the SFTP protocol then this option allows you to specify a particular port to use  for  connection.
       If this option is left blank then the default, port 22, is used. This option is ignored for FTP uploads.

       UPLOAD_USER - You can use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to a remote server. This option
       indicates the username that ZoneMinder should use to log in for transfer.

       UPLOAD_PASS - You can use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to a remote server. This option
       indicates  the  password  that ZoneMinder should use to log in for transfer. If you are using certificate
       based logins for SFTP servers you can leave this option blank.

       UPLOAD_LOC_DIR - You can use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to  a  remote  server.  This
       option  indicates  the  local  directory that ZoneMinder should use for temporary upload files. These are
       files that are created from events, uploaded and then deleted.

       UPLOAD_REM_DIR - You can use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to  a  remote  server.  This
       option indicates the remote directory that ZoneMinder should use to upload event files to.

       UPLOAD_TIMEOUT  -  You  can  use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to a remote server. This
       option indicates the maximum inactivity timeout (in seconds) that should be tolerated  before  ZoneMinder
       determines that the transfer has failed and closes down the connection.

       UPLOAD_FTP_PASSIVE  - You can use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to a remote ftp server.
       This option indicates that ftp transfers should be done in passive mode. This uses  a  single  connection
       for  all  ftp  activity  and, whilst slower than active transfers, is more robust and likely to work from
       behind filewalls. This option is ignored for SFTP transfers.

       UPLOAD_DEBUG - You can use filters to instruct ZoneMinder to upload events to a remote server. If you are
       having  (or  expecting)  troubles  with  uploading  events  then setting this to 'yes' permits additional
       information to be generated by the underlying transfer modules and included in the logs.

   Options - X10
       [image]

       OPT_X10 - If you have an X10 Home Automation setup in your home you can use  ZoneMinder  to  initiate  or
       react  to  X10  signals  if your computer has the appropriate interface controller. This option indicates
       whether X10 options will be available in the browser client.

       X10_DEVICE - If you have an X10 controller device (e.g. XM10U) connected to  your  computer  this  option
       details which port it is connected on, the default of /dev/ttyS0 maps to serial or com port 1.

       X10_HOUSE_CODE - X10 devices are grouped together by identifying them as all belonging to one House Code.
       This option details what that is. It should be a single letter between A and P.

       X10_DB_RELOAD_INTERVAL - The zmx10 daemon periodically checks the database to find out  what  X10  events
       trigger,  or  result  from,  alarms.  This option determines how frequently this check occurs, unless you
       change this area frequently this can be a fairly large value.

   Options - High, Medium and Low B/W
       [image]

       There are now a number of options that  are  grouped  into  bandwidth  categories,  this  allows  you  to
       configure the ZoneMinder client to work optimally over the various access methods you might to access the
       client. The following options are available in H, M and L options. These 3 groups  control  what  happens
       when  the  client is running in 'high', 'medium' and 'low' bandwidth mode respectively. In most cases the
       default values will be suitable as a starting point.

       High - You should set these options for when accessing the ZoneMinder client over a local network or high
       speed link.

       Medium  -   You  should set these options for when accessing the ZoneMinder client over a slower cable or
       DSL link.

       Slow - You should set these options for when accessing Zoneminder client over a slow network link.

       WEB_H_REFRESH_MAIN, WEB_M_REFRESH_MAIN, WEB_L_REFRESH_MAIN - How often  (in  seconds)  the  main  console
       window should refresh itself. The main console window lists a general status and the event totals for all
       monitors. This is not a trivial task and should not be repeated too  frequently  or  it  may  affect  the
       performance of the rest of the system.

       WEB_H_REFRESH_CYCLE,  WEB_M_REFRESH_CYCLE,  WEB_L_REFRESH_CYCLE  - How often (in seconds) the cycle watch
       window swaps to the next monitor. The cycle watch window is a  method  of  continuously  cycling  between
       images from all of your monitors. This option determines how often to refresh with a new image.

       WEB_H_REFRESH_IMAGE,  WEB_M_REFRESH_IMAGE, WEB_L_REFRESH_IMAGE - How often (in seconds) the watched image
       is refreshed (if not streaming). The live images from a monitor can  be  viewed  in  either  streamed  or
       stills  mode. This option determines how often a stills image is refreshed, it has no effect if streaming
       is selected.

       WEB_H_REFRESH_STATUS, WEB_M_REFRESH_STATUS, WEB_L_REFRESH_STATUS - How  often  (in  seconds)  the  status
       refreshes itself in the watch window. The monitor window is actually made from several frames. The one in
       the middle merely contains a monitor status which needs to refresh  fairly  frequently  to  give  a  true
       indication. This option determines that frequency.

       WEB_H_REFRESH_EVENTS,  WEB_M_REFRESH_EVENTS,  WEB_L_REFRESH_EVENTS  -  How  often  (in seconds) the event
       listing is refreshed in the watch window. The monitor window is actually made from  several  frames.  The
       lower  framme contains a listing of the last few events for easy access. This option determines how often
       this is refreshed.

       WEB_H_CAN_STREAM, WEB_M_CAN_STREAM, WEB_L_CAN_STREAM - If you know that your  browser  can  handle  image
       streams of the type 'multipart/x-mixed-replace' but ZoneMinder does not detect this correctly you can set
       this option to ensure that the stream is delivered with or without  the  use  of  the  Cambozola  plugin.
       Selecting 'yes' will tell ZoneMinder that your browser can handle the streams nativ

       WEB_H_STREAM_METHOD,  WEB_M_STREAM_METHOD,  WEB_H_STREAM_METHOD  -  ZoneMinder  can  be configured to use
       either mpeg encoded video or a series or still jpeg  images  when  sending  video  streams.  This  option
       defines  which  is  used.  If  you  choose  mpeg  you should ensure that you have the appropriate plugins
       available on your browser whereas choosing jpeg will work natively on Mozilla and  related  browsers  and
       with a Java applet on Internet Explorer

       WEB_H_DEFAULT_SCALE,  WEB_M_DEFAULT_SCALE,  WEB_L_DEFAULT_SCALE - Normally ZoneMinder will display 'live'
       or 'event' streams in their native size. However if you have monitors with large  dimensions  or  a  slow
       link  you  may  prefer  to  reduce  this  size, alternatively for small monitors you can enlarge it. This
       options lets you specify what the default scaling factor will be. It is expressed as a percentage so  100
       is normal size, 200 is double size etc.

       WEB_H_DEFAULT_RATE,  WEB_M_DEFAULT_RATE,  WEB_L_DEFAULT_RATE  -  Normally ZoneMinder will display 'event'
       streams at their native rate, i.e. as close to real-time as possible. However if you have long events  it
       is  often  convenient  to  replay them at a faster rate for review. This option lets you specify what the
       default replay rate will be. It is expressed as a percentage so 100 is normal rate, 200 is  double  speed
       etc.

       WEB_H_VIDEO_BITRATE,  WEB_M_VIDEO_BITRATE,  WEB_L_VIDEO_BITRATE - When encoding real video via the ffmpeg
       library a bit rate can be specified which roughly corresponds to the available  bandwidth  used  for  the
       stream.  This  setting  effectively  corresponds  to  a 'quality' setting for the video. A low value will
       result in a blocky image whereas a high value will produce a clearer view. Note that  this  setting  does
       not  control  the  frame  rate of the video however the quality of the video produced is affected both by
       this setting and the frame rate that the video is produced at. A higher frame rate at  a  particular  bit
       rate result in individual frames being at a lower quality.

       WEB_H_VIDEO_MAXFPS,  WEB_M_VIDEO_MAXFPS,  WEB_L_VIDEO_MAXFPS - When using streamed video the main control
       is the bitrate which determines how much data can be transmitted. However a lower bitrate at  high  frame
       rates  results in a lower quality image. This option allows you to limit the maximum frame rate to ensure
       that video quality is maintained. An additional advantage is that encoding video at high frame rates is a
       processor  intensive  task  when  for  the  most  part  a  very high frame rate offers little perceptible
       improvement over one that has a more manageable resource requirement. Note, this option is implemented as
       a  cap beyond which binary reduction takes place. So if you have a device capturing at 15fps and set this
       option to 10fps then the video is not produced at 10fps, but rather at 7.5fps (15 divided by  2)  as  the
       final frame rate must be the original divided by a power of 2.

       WEB_H_SCALE_THUMBS,  WEB_M_SCALE_THUMBS, WEB_L_SCALE_THUMBS - If unset, this option sends the whole image
       to the browser which resizes it in the window. If set the image is  scaled  down  on  the  server  before
       sending  a reduced size image to the browser to conserve bandwidth at the cost of cpu on the server. Note
       that ZM can only perform the resizing if the appropriate PHP graphics functionality is installed. This is
       usually available in the php-gd package.

       WEB_H_EVENTS_VIEW, WEB_M_EVENTS_VIEW, WEB_L_EVENTS_VIEW - Stored events can be viewed in either an events
       list format or in a timeline based one. This option sets the default view that will be used. Choosing one
       view  here does not prevent the other view being used as it will always be selectable from whichever view
       is currently being used.

       WEB_H_SHOW_PROGRESS, WEB_M_SHOW_PROGRESS, WEB_L_SHOW_PROGRESS - When viewing events an  event  navigation
       panel and progress bar is shown below the event itself. This allows you to jump to specific points in the
       event, but can can also dynamically update to display the current progress of the  event  replay  itself.
       This  progress  is  calculated  from  the  actual event duration and is not directly linked to the replay
       itself, so on limited bandwidth connections may be out of step with the replay. This option allows you to
       turn  off  the  progress display, whilst still keeping the navigation aspect, where bandwidth prevents it
       functioning effectively.

       WEB_H_AJAX_TIMEOUT, WEB_M_AJAX_TIMEOUT, WEB_L_AJAX_TIMEOUT - The newer versions  of  the  live  feed  and
       event  views  use  Ajax  to  request information from the server and populate the views dynamically. This
       option allows you to specify a timeout if required after which requests are abandoned. A timeout  may  be
       necessary  if requests would overwise hang such as on a slow connection. This would tend to consume a lot
       of browser memory and make the interface unresponsive. Ordinarily no  requests  should  timeout  so  this
       setting  should  be  set  to  a  value  greater  than  the  slowest  expected  response. This value is in
       milliseconds but if set to zero then no timeout will be used.

   Options - Phone Bandwidth
       [image]

       WEB_P_CAN_STREAM - Override the automatic detection of browser streaming capability.  If  you  know  that
       your  browser  can  handle  image streams of the type 'multipart/x-mixed-replace' but ZoneMinder does not
       detect this correctly you can set this option to ensure that the stream is delivered with or without  the
       use  of  the  Cambozola  plugin.  Selecting  'yes'  will tell ZoneMinder that your browser can handle the
       streams natively, 'no' means that it can't and so the plugin will be used while  'auto'  lets  ZoneMinder
       decide.

       WEB_P_STREAM_METHOD  - ZoneMinder can be configured to use either mpeg encoded video or a series or still
       jpeg images when sending video streams. This option defines which is used. If you choose mpeg you  should
       ensure  that  you  have the appropriate plugins available on your browser whereas choosing jpeg will work
       natively on Mozilla and related browsers and with a Java applet on Internet Explorer"

       WEB_P_DEFAULT_SCALE - Normally ZoneMinder will display 'live' or 'event' streams in  their  native  size.
       However  if  you  have  monitors with large dimensions or a slow link you may prefer to reduce this size,
       alternatively for small monitors you can enlarge it. This options  lets  you  specify  what  the  default
       scaling factor will be. It is expressed as a percentage so 100 is normal size, 200 is double size etc.

       WEB_P_DEFAULT_RATE - Normally ZoneMinder will display 'event' streams at their native rate, i.e. as close
       to real-time as possible. However if you have long events it is often convenient  to  replay  them  at  a
       faster  rate  for  review.  This  option  lets  you  specify  what the default replay rate will be. It is
       expressed as a percentage so 100 is normal rate, 200 is double speed etc.

       WEB_P_VIDEO_BITRATE - When encoding real video via the ffmpeg library a bit rate can be  specified  which
       roughly  corresponds to the available bandwidth used for the stream. This setting effectively corresponds
       to a 'quality' setting for the video. A low value will result in a blocky image whereas a high value will
       produce  a  clearer view. Note that this setting does not control the frame rate of the video however the
       quality of the video produced is affected both by this setting and the  frame  rate  that  the  video  is
       produced  at.  A  higher frame rate at a particular bit rate result in individual frames being at a lower
       quality.

       WEB_P_VIDEO_MAXFPS - When using streamed video the main control is the bitrate which determines how  much
       data  can  be  transmitted. However a lower bitrate at high frame rates results in a lower quality image.
       This option allows you to limit the maximum frame rate to ensure that video  quality  is  maintained.  An
       additional  advantage  is  that encoding video at high frame rates is a processor intensive task when for
       the most part a very high frame rate offers little perceptible improvement  over  one  that  has  a  more
       manageable  resource requirement. Note, this option is implemented as a cap beyond which binary reduction
       takes place. So if you have a device capturing at 15fps and set this option to 10fps then  the  video  is
       not  produced  at  10fps,  but  rather  at  7.5fps  (15 divided by 2) as the final frame rate must be the
       original divided by a power of 2.

       WEB_P_SCALE_THUMBS - If unset, this option sends the whole image to the browser which resizes it  in  the
       window.  If set the image is scaled down on the server before sending a reduced size image to the browser
       to conserve bandwidth at the cost of cpu on the server. Note that ZM can only perform the resizing if the
       appropriate PHP graphics functionality is installed. This is usually available in the php-gd package.

       WEB_P_AJAX_TIMEOUT  - The newer versions of the live feed and event views use Ajax to request information
       from the server and populate the views dynamically. This option  allows  you  to  specify  a  timeout  if
       required  after  which requests are abandoned. A timeout may be necessary if requests would overwise hang
       such as on a slow connection. This would tend to consume a lot of browser memory and make  the  interface
       unresponsive. Ordinarily no requests should timeout so this setting should be set to a value greater than
       the slowest expected response. This value is in milliseconds but if set to zero then no timeout  will  be
       used.

   Options - eyeZM
       NOTE:
          eyeZM  does not seem to be actively maintained by the developers and does not work with later versions
          of ZoneMinder.
       [image]

       EYEZM_DEBUG - Enable or Disable extra debugging from the eyeZm Plugin. Extra debugging  information  will
       be displayed in it's own file (EYEZM_LOG_TO_FILE is set), or your Apache error log

       EYEZM_LOG_TO_FILE  -  When EYEZM_DEBUG is on and EYEZM_LOG_TO_FILE is on, output generated from the eyeZm
       Plugin will go to it's own file. Otherwise it will go to the apache error log.

       EYEZM_LOG_FILE - Default filename to use when logging eyeZm Output and EYEZM_LOG_TO_FILE is enabled. This
       file  will  contain it's own output from the eyeZm Plugin when EYEZM_LOG_TO_FILE and EYEZM_DEBUG are both
       enabled.

       EYEZM_EVENT_VCODEC - The eyeZm Plugin calls FFMPEG externally to encode  the  captured  images.  If  your
       FFMPEG  is  not  built  with  support  for  H264,  change  this  to  MPEG-4.  If using H264, please check
       http://www.eyezm.com for H264 requirements and that your eyeZm version supports H264 (v1.2+).

       EYEZM_FEED_VCODEC - Determines whether the live stream is generated using  native  MJPEG  streaming  with
       ZoneMinder,  or  H264 using FFMPEG and HTML-5 streaming. If using H264, please check http://www.eyezm.com
       for H264 requirements and that your  eyeZm  version  supports  H264  (v1.2+).  This  is  just  a  default
       parameter, and can be overridden with eyeZm.

       EYEZM_H264_DEFAULT_BR  -  Default  bit-rate  to  use with FFMPEG for H264 streaming. When using the eyeZm
       Plugin to stream H264 data, FFMPEG requires a bitrate to control the quality and bandwidth of the  video.
       This  should  be  specified  in  a  format acceptable to FFMPEG. The default value is sufficient for most
       installations. This is just a default parameter, and can be overridden with eyeZm.

       EYEZM_H264_DEFAULT_EVBR - Default bit-rate to use with FFMPEG for H264  event  viewing.  When  using  the
       eyeZm  Plugin  to  view events in H264, FFMPEG requires a bitrate to control the quality and bandwidth of
       the video. This should be specified in a format acceptable to FFMPEG. The default value is sufficient for
       most installations. This is just a default parameter, and can be overridden with eyeZm.

       EYEZM_H264_TIMEOUT  - Timeout (sec) to wait for H264 stream to start before terminating. The eyeZm Plugin
       will attempt to spawn an H264 stream when requested, and require that  it  complete  within  the  timeout
       specified.  If  you  have  a  slow  system  or find through the logs that the H264 stream is not starting
       because the timeout is expiring, even though FFMPEG is running, try increasing this value. If you have  a
       fast  system,  decreasing  this  value can improve the responsiveness when there are issues starting H264
       streams.

       EYEZM_SEG_DURATION - Segment duration used for streaming using HTTP-5 Streaming protocol. The HTTP-5 Live
       Streaming  Protocol  segments  the  input  video stream into small chunks of a duration specified by this
       parameter. Increasing the segment duration will help with choppy connections on the other end,  but  will
       increase the latency in starting a stream.

   Options - Users
       [image]

       In  this  section  you  will  see  a list of the current users defined on the system. You can also add or
       delete users from here. It is recommended you do not delete  the  admin  user  unless  you  have  created
       another  fully  privileged user to take over the same role. Each user is defined with a name and password
       (which is hidden) as well as an enabled setting which you can use to temporarily enable or disable users,
       for example a guest user for limited time access. As well as that there is a language setting that allows
       you to define user specific languages. Setting a language here that is different than the system language
       will  mean  that  when that user logs in they will have the web interface presented in their own language
       rather than the system default, if it is available.

       There are also five values that define the user permissions, these  are  ‘Stream’,  ‘Events’,  ‘Control’,
       ‘Monitors’ and ‘System’ Each can have values of ‘None’, ‘View’ or ‘Edit’ apart from ‘Stream’ which has no
       ‘Edit’ setting. These values cover access to the following areas; ‘Stream’  defines  whether  a  user  is
       allowed  to  view  the  ‘live’  video feeds coming from the cameras. You may wish to allow a user to view
       historical events only in which case this setting should  be  ‘none’.  The  ‘Events’  setting  determines
       whether a user can view and modify or delete any retained historical events. The ‘Control’ setting allows
       you to indicate whether the user is able to control any Pan/Tilt/Zoom type cameras you may have  on  your
       system.  The  ‘Monitors’ setting specifies whether a user can see the current monitor settings and change
       them. Finally the ‘System’ setting determines whether a user can view or modify the system settings as  a
       whole, such as options and users or controlling the running of the system as a whole.

       As  well  as  these  settings  there is also a ‘Bandwidth’ setting which can be used to limit the maximum
       bandwidth that a user can view at and a ‘Monitor Ids’ setting that can be used for non-’System’ users  to
       restrict  them  to  only being able to access streams, events or monitors for the given monitors ids as a
       comma separated list with no spaces. If a user with ‘Monitors’ edit privileges  is  limited  to  specific
       monitors  here  they will not be able to add or delete monitors but only change the details of those they
       have access to. If a user has ‘System’ privileges then the ‘Monitors Ids’ setting is ignored and  has  no
       effect.’

   Camera Control
       ZoneMinder  provides  the  facility  to  control  cameras  from  the  web  interface  and  to some extent
       automatically. Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) cameras have a wide range of capabilities and use a  large  number  of
       different  protocols  making  any kind of generic control solution potentially very difficult. To address
       this ZoneMinder uses two key approaches to get around this problem.

       Definition of Capabilities
              For each camera model you use, an entry in the camera capabilities table must  be  created.  These
              indicate  what  functions  the  camera  supports and ensure that the interface presents only those
              capabilities that the camera supports. There are a very large number of capabilities that  may  be
              supported  and it is very important that the entries in this table reflect the actual abilities of
              the camera. A small number of example capabilities are included in ZoneMinder, these can  be  used
              ‘as is’ or modified.

       Control Scripts
              ZoneMinder  itself  does  not generally provide the ability to send commands to cameras or receive
              responses. What it does is mediate motion requests from the web interface into a standard  set  of
              commands  which  are  passed  to  a  script defined in the control capability. Example scripts are
              provided in ZoneMinder which support a number of serial or network protocols but it is likely that
              for  many  cameras new scripts will have to be created. These can be modelled on the example ones,
              or if control commands already exist from other applications, then the script can just  act  as  a
              ‘glue’ layer between ZoneMinder and those commands.

       It  should  be  emphasised  that the control and capability elements of ZoneMinder are not intended to be
       able to support every camera out of the box. Some degree of development is likely to be required for many
       cameras.

   Controlling Monitors
       If  you have defined your system as having controllable monitors and you are looking at a monitor that is
       configured for control, then clicking on the ‘Control’ link along the top of the window will  change  the
       short  event  listing area to a control area. The capabilities you have defined earlier determine exactly
       what is displayed in this window. Generally you will have a Pan/Tilt  control  area  along  with  one  or
       subsidiary areas such as zoom or focus control to the side. If you have preset support then these will be
       near the bottom of the window. The normal method of  controlling  the  monitor  is  by  clicking  on  the
       appropriate  graphics  which  then  send  a command via the control script to the camera itself. This may
       sometimes take a noticeable delay before the camera responds.

       It is usually the case that the control arrows are sensitive to where you click on them. If  you  have  a
       camera that allows different speeds to be used for panning or zooming etc then clicking near the point of
       the arrow will invoke the faster speed whilst clicking near the base of the arrow will be slower. If  you
       have defined continuous motion then ongoing activities can be stopped by clicking on the area between the
       arrows, which will either be a graphic in the case of pan/tilt controls or a word in the case of zoom and
       focus controls etc.

       Certain  control  capabilities such as mapped motion allow direct control by clicking on the image itself
       when used in browsers which support streamed images directly. Used in this way you can just click on  the
       area  of  the  image  that interests you and the camera will centre on that spot. You can also use direct
       image control for relative motion when the area of the image you click on defines the direction  and  the
       distance  away  from  the  centre  of  the  image  determines the speed. As it is not always very easy to
       estimate direction near the centre of the image, the active area does not start until  a  short  distance
       away from the centre, resulting in a ‘dead’ zone in the middle of the image.

   Control Flow
       Having  a  basic  understanding of how camera control works in ZoneMinder will go a long way in debugging
       issues in the future. It is important to note  that  many  of  the  'camera  control'  scripts  are  user
       contributed and it is entirely possible that they break in a future version upgrade.

       • ZoneMinder  relies  on  'control  protocols'  for specific camera models. These 'control' protocols are
         nothing but perl packages located in  /usr/share/perl5/ZoneMinder/Control/  (in  Ubuntu  distributions)
         that are invoked by ZoneMinder when you invoke a PTZ operation

       • When you associate a 'protocol' for PTZ for a camera, you are effectively letting ZoneMinder know where
         to locate the perl file that will eventually control the camera movement

       • Let's for example, assume that you are configuring a  Foscam  9831W  camera  and  have  associated  the
         '9831w'  protocol to that camara. This basically means when you move the camera via ZoneMinder, it will
         pass on the movements to FI9831w.pm in /usr/share/perl5/ZoneMinder/Control/

       • ZoneMinder also maintains protocol configuration parameters in a table called Controls in the DB.  This
         table is used to store parameters like whether the camera supports continuous move, zoom etc.

       • The Controls table is used by ZoneMinder to build its PTZ web interface. For example, an FI9831W camera
         does not support Zoom --> so when you open the PTZ interface of ZoneMinder  via  the  Web  Console  and
         navigate  to  the  FI9831W camera, the Zoom option will not be shown. It knows not to show this because
         the Control table entry for FI9831W specifies it does not  support  Zoom.  Note  that  you  edit  these
         parameters via Source->Control->Control Type->Edit in the web console

       • If  you ever look at any of the control protocol files, you will notice it has functions like moveRelUp
         or moveConLeft etc. -> these are the functions that eventually get invoked to move  the  camera  around
         and it is expected that contributors who implement missing camera profiles fill in these functions with
         the appropriate camera specific commands. This way, the core ZoneMinder code does  not  need  to  worry
         about camera specific commands. All it needs to know is the features of a camera and accordinfly invoke
         abstract commands in the protocol perl file and it is the responsibility of  the  perl  file  for  that
         camera  to implement the specifics. So, if you are facing problems with PTZ not working, these protocol
         files are what you should be debugging.

   Control Capabilities
       If you have a camera that supports PTZ controls and wish to use it with ZoneMinder then the  first  thing
       you  need to do is ensure that it has an accurate entry in the capabilities table. To do this you need to
       go to the Control tab of the Monitor configuration dialog and select ‘Edit’ where it  is  listed  by  the
       Control  Type  selection  box.  This  will  bring  up a new window which lists, with a brief summary, the
       existing capabilities. To edit an existing capability to modify select the Id or Name of  the  capability
       in  question, or click on the Add button to add a new control capability. Either of these approaches will
       create a new window, in familiar style, with tabs along the top and forms fields below. In  the  case  of
       the  capabilities  table  there  are  a  large number of settings and tabs, the mean and use of these are
       briefly explained below.

   Main Tab
       Name   This is the name of the control capability, it will usually make sense to name capabilities  after
              the camera model or protocol being used.

       Type   Whether the capability uses a local (usually serial) or network control protocol.

       Command
              This  is  the  full  path  to a script or application that will map the standard set of ZoneMinder
              control commands to equivalent control protocol command. This may be one of  the  shipped  example
              zmcontrol-*.pl scripts or something else entirely.

       Can Wake
              This  is  the  first  of  the  actual  capability  definitions. Checking this box indicates that a
              protocol command exists to wake up the camera from a sleeping state.

       Can Sleep
              The camera can be put to sleep.

       Can Reset
              The camera can be reset to a previously defined state.

   Move Tab
       Can Move
              The camera is able move, i.e. pan or tilt.

       Can Move Diagonally
              The camera can move diagonally. Some devices can move only vertically or horizontally at a time.

       Can Move Mapped
              The camera is able internally map a point on an image to a precise degree of motion to centre that
              point in the image.

       Can Move Absolute
              The camera can move to an absolute location.

       Can Move Relative
              The camera can more to a relative location, e.g. 7 point left or up.

       Can Move Continuous
              The  camera can move continuously in a defined direction until told to stop or the movement limits
              are reached, e.g. left.

   Pan Tab
       Can Pan
              The camera can pan, or move horizontally.

       Min/Max Pan Range
              If the camera supports absolute motion this is the minimum and maximum pan co-ordinates  that  may
              be specified, e.g. -100 to 100.

       Min/Man Pan Step
              If  the  camera  supports relative motion, this is the minimum and maximum amount of movement that
              can be specified.

       Has Pan Speed
              The camera supports specification of pan speeds.

       Min/Max Pan Speed
              The minimum and maximum pan speed supported.

       Has Turbo Pan
              The camera supports an additional turbo pan speed.

       Turbo Pan Speed
              The actual turbo pan speed.

   Tilt Tab
       Definition of Tilt capabilities, fields as for ‘Pan’ tab.

   Zoom Tab
       Can Zoom
              The camera can zoom.

       Can Zoom Absolute
              The camera can zoom to an absolute position.

       Can Zoom Relative
              The camera can zoom to a relative position.

       Can Zoom Continuous
              The camera can zoom continuously in or out until told to stop or the zoom limits are reached.

       Min/Max Zoom Range
              If the camera supports absolute zoom this is the minimum and maximum  zoom  amounts  that  may  be
              specified.

       Min/Man Zoom Step
              If  the  camera supports relative zoom, this is the minimum and maximum amount of zoom change that
              can be specified.

       Has Zoom Speed
              The camera supports specification of zoom speed.

       Min/Max Zoom Speed
              The minimum and maximum zoom speed supported.

   Focus Tab
       Definition of Focus capabilities, fields as for ‘Zoom’ tab, but with the following additional capability.

       Can Auto Focus
              The camera can focus automatically.

   White Tab
       Definition of White Balance capabilities, fields as for ‘Focus’ tab.

   Iris Tab
       Definition of Iris Control capabilities, fields as for ‘Focus’ tab.

   Presets Tab
       Has Presets
              The camera supports preset positions.

       Num Presets
              How many presets the camera supports. If the camera supports a huge  number  of  presets  then  it
              makes sense to specify a more reasonable number here, 20 or less is recommended.

       Has Home Preset
              The camera has a defined ‘home’ position, usually in the mid point of its range.

       Can Set Presets
              The camera supports setting preset locations via its control protocol.

   Control Scripts
       The  second  key  element  to controlling cameras with ZoneMinder is ensuring that an appropriate control
       script or application is present. A small number of sample scripts are included with ZoneMinder  and  can
       be used directly or as the basis for development. Control scripts are run atomically, that is to say that
       one requested action from the web interface  results  in  one  execution  of  the  script  and  no  state
       information  is  maintained.  If your protocol requires state information to be preserved then you should
       ensure that your scripts do this as ZoneMinder has no concept of the  state  of  the  camera  in  control
       terms.

       If  you  are  writing  a  new control script then you need to ensure that it supports the parameters that
       ZoneMinder will pass to it. If you already have scripts or applications that control  your  cameras,  the
       ZoneMinder  control  script  will just act as glue to convert the parameters passed into a form that your
       existing application understands. If you are writing a script to support a new  protocol  then  you  will
       need  to  convert  the  parameters  passed  into  the script to equivalent protocol commands. If you have
       carefully defined your control capabilities above then you should only expect commands that correspond to
       those capabilities.

       The standard set of parameters passed to control scripts is defined below,
          --device=<device>  :  This  is  the control device from the monitor definition. Absent if no device is
          specified.  — address=<address> : This is the control address from the monitor definition.  This  will
          usually  be  a  hostname  or  ip  address  for network cameras or a simple numeric camera id for other
          cameras.
          --autostop=<timeout> : This indicates whether an automatic timeout should be applied to '''stop''' the
          given  command. It will only be included for '''continuous''' commands, as listed below, and will be a
          timeout in decimal seconds, probably fractional.  — command=<command> :  This  specifies  the  command
          that the script should execute. Valid commands are given below.
          --xcoord=<x>,  --ycoord=<y>  :  This  specifies  the x and/or y coordinates for commands which require
          them. These will normally be absolute or mapped commands.  —  width=<width>'',  ''--height=<height>  :
          This  specifies  the  width  and  height  of  the  current image, for mapped motion commands where the
          coordinates values passed must have a context.
          --speed=<speed> :  This  specifies  the  speed  that  the  command  should  use,  if  appropriate.   —
          panspeed=<speed>'',  ''--tiltspeed=<speed>  :  This  indicates  the  specific  pan and tilt speeds for
          diagonal movements which may allow a different motion rate for horizontal and vertical components.
          --step=<step> : This specifies the amount of motion that  the  command  should  use,  if  appropriate.
          Normally  used  for  relative commands only.  — panstep=<step>'', ''--tiltstep=<step> : This indicates
          the specific pan and tilt steps for diagonal movements which may allow a different  amount  of  motion
          for horizontal and vertical components.
          --preset=<preset> : This specifies the particular preset that relevant commands should operate on.

       The command option listed above may take one of the following commands as a parameter.

       wake   Wake the camera.

       sleep  Send the camera to sleep.

       reset  Reset the camera.

       move_map
              Move mapped to a specified location on the image.

       move_pseudo_map
              As  move_map  above.  Pseudo-mapped  motion  can  be  used when mapped motion is not supported but
              relative motion is in which case mapped motion can be roughly approximated by careful calibration.

       move_abs_<direction>
              Move to a specified absolute location. The direction element gives a hint to the direction  to  go
              but  can  be  omitted.  If  present  it  will  be  one of "up", "down", "left", "right", "upleft",
              "upright", "downleft" or "downright".

       move_rel_<direction>
              Move a specified amount in the given direction.

       move_con_<direction>
              Move continuously in the given direction until told to stop.

       move_stop
              Stop any motion which may be in progress.

       zoom_abs_<direction>
              Zoom to a specified absolute zoom position. The direction element gives a hint to the direction to
              go but can be omitted. If present it will be one of "tele" or "wide".

       zoom_rel_<direction>
              Zoom a specified amount in the given direction.

       zoom_con_<direction>
              Zoom continuously in the given direction until told to stop.

       zoom_stop
              Stop any zooming which may be in progress.

       focus_auto
              Set focusing to be automatic.

       focus_man
              Set focusing to be manual.

       focus_abs_<direction>
              Focus  to a specified absolute focus position. The direction element gives a hint to the direction
              to go but can be omitted. If present it will be one of "near" or "far".

       focus_rel_<direction>
              Focus a specified amount in the given direction.

       focus_con_<direction>
              Focus continuously in the given direction until told to stop.

       focus_stop
              Stop any focusing which may be in progress.

       white_<subcommand>
              As per the focus commands, except that direction may be "in" or "out".

       iris_<subcommand>
              As per the focus commands, except that direction may be "open" or "close".

       preset_set
              Set the given preset to the current location.

       preset_goto
              Move to the given preset.

       preset_home
              Move to the "home" preset.

   Mobile Devices
       Here are some options for using ZoneMinder on Mobile devices:

   Third party mobile clientszmNinja (source code, needs APIs to be installed to work)

                • Available in App Store and Play Store - websitezmView (limited, free) and zmView Pro (more features, paid)

                • Available in App Store and Play Store, relies on ZM skins website

   Using the existing web console
       • You can directly use the ZoneMinder interface by launching a browser and going to the ZoneMinder server
         just like you do on the Desktop

       • ZoneMinder  also  has  a  "mobile skin" that offers limited functionality (not all views are present in
         this skin). You can point your  mobile browser to http://yourzoneminderip/zm/index.php?skin=mobile  and
         bookmark  it. Note however that 1.29 is the last release that will support the mobile skin. It's use is
         deprecated

   Discontinued clients
       The following are a list of clients that do not work and have not been updated:

       • eyeZM

   Logging
       Most components of ZoneMinder can emit informational, warning, error and debug  messages  in  a  standard
       format.  These  messages  can  be  logged  in  one or more locations. By default all messages produced by
       scripts are logged in <script  name>.log  files  which  are  placed  in  the  directory  defined  by  the
       ZM_PATH_LOGS configuration variable. This is initially defined as ‘/tmp’ though it can be overridden (see
       the Options and Users section above). So for  example,  the  zmpkg.pl  script  will  output  messages  to
       /tmp/zmpkg.pl, an example of these messages is:

          03/01/06 13:46:00.166046 zmpkg[11148].INF [Command: start]

       where  the  first  part  refers  to  the  date and time of the entry, the next section is the name (or an
       abbreviated version) of the script, followed by the process id in square brackets, a severity code  (INF,
       WAR, ERR or DBG) and the debug text. If you change the location of the log directory, ensure it refers to
       an existing directory which the web user has permissions to write  to.  Also  ensure  that  no  logs  are
       present  in  that  directory  the  web  user does not have permission to open. This can happen if you run
       commands or scripts as the root  user  for  testing  at  some  point.  If  this  occurs  then  subsequent
       non-privileged runs will fails due to being unable to open the log files.

       As  well  as  specific  script  logging above, information, warning and error messages are logged via the
       system syslog service. This is a standard component on Linux systems and allows logging of all  sorts  of
       messages  in  a  standard  way and using a standard format. On most systems, unless otherwise configured,
       messages produced by ZoneMinder will go to the /var/log/messages file. On some distributions they may end
       up  in  another  file,  but  usually still in /var/log. Messages in this file are similar to those in the
       script log files but differ slightly. For example the above event in the system log file looks like:

          Jan  3 13:46:00 shuttle52 zmpkg[11148]: INF [Command: start]

       where you can see that the date is formatted differently (and only to 1 second precision) and there is an
       additional  field  for the hostname (as syslog can operate over a network). As well as ZoneMinder entries
       in this file you may also see entries from various other system components. You should ensure  that  your
       syslogd daemon is running for syslog messages to be correctly handled.

       A  number  of  users  have asked how to suppress or redirect ZoneMinder messages that are written to this
       file. This most often occurs due to not wanting other system messages to be overwhelmed and  obscured  by
       the  ZoneMinder  produced  ones  (which  can  be  quite  frequent by default). In order to control syslog
       messages you need to locate and edit the syslog.conf file on your system. This will often be in the  /etc
       directory.  This  file  allows configuration of syslog so that certain classes and categories of messages
       are routed to different files or highlighted to a console, or just ignored. Full details of the format of
       this file is outside the scope of this document (typing ‘man syslog.conf’ will give you more information)
       but the most often requested changes are easy to implement.

       The syslog service uses the concept  of  priorities  and  facilities  where  the  former  refers  to  the
       importance  of  the  message  and  the latter refers to that part of the system from which it originated.
       Standard priorities include ‘info’, ‘warning’, ‘err’ and ‘debug’ and  ZoneMinder  uses  these  priorities
       when  generating  the  corresponding  class  of  message.  Standard facilities include ‘mail’, ‘cron’ and
       ‘security’ etc but as well this, there are eight ‘local’ facilities that can be used by machine  specific
       message generators. ZoneMinder produces it’s messages via the ‘local1’ facility.

       So  armed  with  the  knowledge  of  the  priority and facility of a message, the syslog.conf file can be
       amended to handle messages however you like.

       So to ensure that all ZoneMinder messages go to a specific log file you can add the following  line  near
       the top of your syslog.conf file:

          # Save ZoneMinder messages to zm.log
          local1.*                        /var/log/zm/zm.log

       which   will   ensure   that   all  messages  produced  with  the  local1  facility  are  routed  to  fhe
       /var/log/zm/zm.log file. However this does not necessarily prevent them  also  going  into  the  standard
       system log. To do this you will need to modify the line that determines which messages are logged to this
       file. This may look something like:

          # Log anything (except mail) of level info or higher.
          # Don't log private authentication messages!
          *.info;mail.none;news.none;authpriv.none;cron.none      /var/log/messages

       by default. To remove ZoneMinder messages altogether from this file you can  modify  this  line  to  look
       like:

          *.info;local1.!*;mail.none;news.none;authpriv.none;cron.none     /var/log/messages

       which  instructs  syslog  to  ignore  any  messages  from  the local1 facility. If however you still want
       warnings and errors to occur in the system log file, you could change it to:

          *.info;local1.!*;local1.warning;mail.none;news.none;authpriv.none;cron.none     /var/log/messages

       which follows the ignore instruction with a further one to indicate that any messages with a facility  of
       local1 and a priority of warning or above should still go into the file.

       These recipes are just examples of how you can modify the logging to suit your system, there are a lot of
       other modifications you could make. If you do make any changes  to  syslog.conf  you  should  ensure  you
       restart  the  syslogd  process  or  send  it  a  HUP  signal to force it to reread its configuration file
       otherwise your changes will be ignored.

       The discussion of logging above began by describing how scripts produce error and debug messages. The way
       that  the  binaries work is slightly different. Binaries generate information, warning and error messages
       using syslog in exactly the same way as scripts and these messages will be handled  identically.  However
       debug  output  is  somewhat different. For the scripts, if you want to enable debug you will need to edit
       the script file itself and change the DBG_LEVEL constant to have a value of 1. This will then cause debug
       messages  to  be  written to the <script>.log file as well as the more important messages. Debug messages
       however are not routed via syslog. Scripts currently only have one level of debug so this will cause  any
       and  all  debug  messages  to be generated. Binaries work slightly differently and while you can edit the
       call to zmDbgInit that is present in every binary’s ‘main’ function to update the initial  value  of  the
       debug level, there are easier ways.

       The  simplest  way  of  collecting  debug output is to click on the Options link from the main ZoneMinder
       console view and then go to the Debug tab. There you will find a number of debug options. The first thing
       you should do is ensure that the ZM_EXTRA_DEBUG setting is switched on. This enables debug generally. The
       next thing you need to do is select the debug target, level  and  destination  file  using  the  relevant
       options.  Click  on  the  ‘?’  by each option for more information about valid settings. You will need to
       restart ZoneMinder as a whole or at least the component in question for logging to take effect. When  you
       have  finished  debugging  you should ensure you switch debug off by unchecking the ZM_EXTRA_DEBUG option
       and restarting ZoneMinder. You can leave the other options as you like as they are ignored if the  master
       debug option is off.

       Once  you  have  debug  being  logged  you  can  modify the level by sending USR1 and USR2 signals to the
       relevant binary (or binaries) to increase or decrease the level of debug  being  emitted  with  immediate
       effect. This modification will not persist if the binary gets restarted however.

       If  you  wish to run a binary directly from the command line to test specific functionality or scenarios,
       you can set the ZM_DBG_LEVEL and ZM_DBG_LOG environment variables to set the level and log  file  of  the
       debug  you  wish  to  see, and the ZM_DBG_PRINT environment variable to 1 to output the debug directly to
       your terminal.

       All ZoneMinder logs can now be rotated by logrotate. A sample logrotate config file is shown below:

          /var/log/zm/*.log {
              missingok
              notifempty
              sharedscripts
              postrotate
                  /usr/local/bin/zmpkg.pl logrot 2> /dev/null > /dev/null || true
              endscript
          }

API

       This document will provide an overview of ZoneMinder's API. This is work in progress.

   Overview
       In an effort to further 'open up' ZoneMinder, an API was needed.  This will allow quick integration  with
       and development of ZoneMinder.

       The  API  is  built  in  CakePHP  and  lives under the /api directory.  It provides a RESTful service and
       supports CRUD (create, retrieve, update, delete)  functions  for  Monitors,  Events,  Frames,  Zones  and
       Config.

   Security
       The APIs tie into ZoneMinder's existing security model. This means if you have OPT_AUTH enabled, you need
       to log into ZoneMinder using the same browser you plan to use the APIs from. If you are developing an app
       that  relies  on  the API, you need to do a POST login from the app into ZoneMinder before you can access
       the API.

       Then, you need to re-use the authentication information of the login (returned  as  cookie  states)  with
       subsequent APIs for the authentication information to flow through to the APIs.

       This means if you plan to use cuRL to experiment with these APIs, you first need to do

          curl -d "username=XXXX&password=YYYY&action=login&view=console" -c cookies.txt  http://yourzmip/zm/index.php

       replacing XXXX and YYYY with your username and password, respectively.

       Please  make sure you do this in a directory where you have write permissions, otherwise cookies.txt will
       not be created and the command will silently  fail.

       What the "-c cookies.txt" does is store a cookie state reflecting that you have logged into ZM.  You  now
       need  to  apply  that  cookie  state  to  all subsequent APIs. You do that by using a '-b cookies.txt' to
       subsequent APIs if you are using CuRL like so:

          curl -b cookies.txt http://yourzmip/zm/api/monitors.json

       This would return a list of monitors and pass on the authentication information to the ZM API layer.

       So remember, if you are using authentication, please add a -b cookies.txt  to each of the commands  below
       if you are using CuRL. If you are not using CuRL and writing your own app, you need to make sure you pass
       on cookies to subsequent requests in your app.

   Examples (please read security notice above)
       You will see each URL ending in either .xml or .json.   This  is  the  format  of  the  request,  and  it
       determines  the format that any data returned to you will be in.  I like json, however you can use xml if
       you'd like.

       (In all examples, replace 'server' with IP or hostname & port where ZoneMinder is running)

   API Version
       To retrieve the API version:

          curl http://server/zm/api/host/getVersion.json

   Return a list of all monitors
          curl http://server/zm/api/monitors.json

   Retrieve monitor 1
          curl http://server/zm/api/monitors/1.json

   Change State of Monitor 1
       This API changes monitor 1 to Modect and Enabled

          curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/monitors/1.json -d "Monitor[Function]=Modect&Monitor[Enabled]:true"

   Add a monitor
       This command will add a new http monitor.

          curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/monitors.json -d "Monitor[Name]=Cliff-Burton \
          &Monitor[Function]=Modect \
          &Monitor[Protocol]=http \
          &Monitor[Method]=simple \
          &Monitor[Host]=usr:pass@192.168.11.20 \
          &Monitor[Port]=80 \
          &Monitor[Path]=/mjpg/video.mjpg \
          &Monitor[Width]=704 \
          &Monitor[Height]=480 \
          &Monitor[Colours]=4"

   Edit monitor 1
       This command will change the 'Name' field of Monitor 1 to 'test1'

          curl -XPUT http://server/zm/api/monitors/1.json -d "Monitor[Name]=test1"

   Delete monitor 1
       This command will delete Monitor 1, but will _not_ delete any Events which depend on it.

          curl -XDELETE http://server/zm/api/monitors/1.json

   Return a list of all events
          http://server/zm/api/events.json

       Note that events list can be quite large and this API (as with all other APIs  in  ZM)  uses  pagination.
       Each  page  returns a specific set of entries. By default this is 25 and ties into WEB_EVENTS_PER_PAGE in
       the ZM options menu.

       So the logic to iterate through all events should be something  like  this  (pseudocode):  (unfortunately
       there is no way to get pageCount without getting the first page)

          data = http://server/zm/api/events.json?page=1 # this returns the first page
          # The json object returned now has a property called data.pagination.pageCount
          count = data.pagination.pageCount;
          for (i=1, i<count, i++)
          {
            data = http://server/zm/api/events.json?page=i;
             doStuff(data);
          }

   Retrieve event Id 1000
          curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/events/1000.json

   Edit event 1
       This command will change the 'Name' field of Event 1 to 'Seek and Destroy'

          curl -XPUT http://server/zm/api/events/1.json -d "Event[Name]=Seek and Destroy"

   Delete event 1
       This command will delete Event 1, and any Frames which depend on it.

          curl -XDELETE http://server/zm/api/events/1.json

   Return a list of events for a specific monitor Id =5
          curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/events/events/index/MonitorId:5.json``

       Note that the same pagination logic applies if the list is too long

   Return a list of events for a specific monitor within a specific date/time range
          http://server/zm/api/events/events/index/MonitorId:5/StartTime >=:2015-05-15 18:43:56/EndTime <=:2015-05-16 18:43:56.json

       To try this in CuRL, you need to URL escape the spaces like so:

          curl -XGET  "http://server/zm/api/events/index/MonitorId:5/StartTime%20>=:2015-05-15%2018:43:56/EndTime%20<=:2015-05-16%2018:43:56.json"

   Return a list of events for all monitors within a specified date/time range
          curl -XGET "http://server/zm/api/events/index/StartTime%20>=:2015-05-15%2018:43:56/EndTime%20<=:208:43:56.json"

   Configuration Apis
       The APIs allow you to access all the configuration parameters of ZM that you typically set inside the web
       console.  This returns the full list of configuration parameters:

          curl -XGET http://server/zm/api/configs.json

       Each configuration parameter has an Id, Name, Value and other fields. Chances are  you  are  likely  only
       going to focus on these 3.

       (Example of changing config TBD)

   Run State Apis
       ZM API can be used to start/stop/restart/list states of  ZM as well Examples:

          curl -XGET  http://server/zm/api/states.json # returns list of run states
          curl -XPOST  http://server/zm/api/states/change/restart.json #restarts ZM
          curl -XPOST  http://server/zm/api/states/change/stop.json #Stops ZM
          curl -XPOST  http://server/zm/api/states/change/start.json #Starts ZM

   Create a Zone
          curl -XPOST http://server/zm/api/zones.json -d "Zone[Name]=Jason-Newsted \
          &Zone[MonitorId]=3 \
          &Zone[Type]=Active \
          &Zone[Units]=Percent \
          &Zone[NumCoords]=4 \
          &Zone[Coords]=0,0 639,0 639,479 0,479 \
          &Zone[AlarmRGB]=16711680 \
          &Zone[CheckMethod]=Blobs \
          &Zone[MinPixelThreshold]=25 \
          &Zone[MaxPixelThreshold]= \
          &Zone[MinAlarmPixels]=9216 \
          &Zone[MaxAlarmPixels]= \
          &Zone[FilterX]=3 \
          &Zone[FilterY]=3 \
          &Zone[MinFilterPixels]=9216 \
          &Zone[MaxFilterPixels]=230400 \
          &Zone[MinBlobPixels]=6144 \
          &Zone[MaxBlobPixels]= \
          &Zone[MinBlobs]=1 \
          &Zone[MaxBlobs]= \
          &Zone[OverloadFrames]=0"

   PTZ Control APIs
       PTZ controls associated with a monitor are stored in the Controls table and not the Monitors table inside
       ZM. What that means is when you get the details of a Monitor, you will only know if  it  is  controllable
       (isControllable:true) and the control ID.  To be able to retrieve PTZ information related to that Control
       ID, you need to use the controls API

       This returns all the control definitions:

          curl http://server/zm/api/controls.json

       This returns control definitions for a specific control ID=5

          curl http://server/zm/api/controls/5.json

   Host APIs
       ZM APIs have various APIs that help you in determining host  (aka  ZM)  daemon  status,  load  etc.  Some
       examples:

          curl -XGET  http://server/zm/api/host/daemonCheck.json # 1 = ZM running 0=not running
          curl -XGET  http://server/zm/api/host/getLoad.json # returns current load of ZM
          curl -XGET  http://server/zm/api/host/getDiskPercent.json # returns in GB (not percentage), disk usage per monitor (that is,   space taken to store various event related information,images etc. per monitor) ``

FAQ

       This is the FAQ page. Feel free to contribute any FAQs that you think are missing.

   How can I stop ZoneMinder filling up my disk?
       Recent  versions  of  ZoneMinder  come  with a filter you can use for this purpose already included.  The
       filter is called PurgeWhenFull and to find it, choose one of the event counts from the console page,  for
       instance  events  in  the  last  hour,  for  one of your monitors. Note that this filter is automatically
       enabled if you do a frresh install of ZoneMinder including creating a new Database. If you  already  have
       an  existing  Database  and are upgrading Zoneminder, it will retain the settings of the filter (which in
       earlier releases was disabled by default). So you may want to check if PurgeWhenFull is  enabled  and  if
       not, enable it.

       To enable it, go to Web Console, click on any of your Events of any of your monitors.  This will bring up
       an event listing and a filter window.

       In the filter window there is a drop down select box labeled 'Use Filter', that lets your select a  saved
       filter. Select 'PurgeWhenFull' and it will load that filter.

       Make  any  modifications  you might want, such as the percentage full you want it to kick in, or how many
       events to delete at a time (it will repeat the filter as many times as needed to  clear  the  space,  but
       will only delete this many events each time to get there).

       Then  click  on  'Save'  which  will  bring  up a new window. Make sure the 'Automatically delete' box is
       checked and press save to save your filter. This will then run in the background to keep your disk within
       those limits.

       After you've done that, you changes will automatically be loaded into zmfilter within a few minutes.

       Check  the  zmfilter.log  file  to make sure it is running as sometimes missing perl modules mean that it
       never runs but people don't always realize.

       Purge By Age To delete events that are older than 7 days, create a new filter with "Date"  set  to  "less
       than"  and  a  value  of  "-7  days",  sort by "date/time" in "asc"ending order, then enable the checkbox
       "delete all matches". You can also use a value of week or week and days: "-2 week"  or "-2 week 4 day"

       Save with 'Run Filter In Background' enabled to  have  it  run  automatically.   Optional  skip  archived
       events:   click  on the plus sign next to -7 days to add another condition.  "and" "archive status" equal
       to "unarchived only".

       Optional slow delete:  limit the number of results to 3.  If you have a  large  backlog  of  events  that
       would  be  deleted, this can hard spike the CPU usage for a long time.  Limiting the number of results to
       only the first three each time the filter is run spreads out the delete processes over time, dramatically
       lessening the CPU load.

       There are two methods for ZM to remove files when they are deleted that can be found in Options under the
       System tab ZM_OPT_FAST_DELETE and ZM_RUN_AUDIT.

       ZM_OPT_FAST_DELETE:

       Normally an event created as the result of an alarm consists of entries in one or  more  database  tables
       plus the various files associated with it. When deleting events in the browser it can take a long time to
       remove all of this if your are trying to do a lot of events at once. It is recommended that you set  this
       option  which means that the browser client only deletes the key entries in the events table, which means
       the events will no longer appear in the listing, and leaves the zmaudit  daemon  to  clear  up  the  rest
       later.

       ZM_RUN_AUDIT:

       The  zmaudit  daemon  exists  to  check that the saved information in the database and on the file system
       match and are consistent with each other. If an error occurs or if you are using 'fast deletes' it may be
       that  database  records  are  deleted  but  files  remain. In this case, and similar, zmaudit will remove
       redundant information to synchronize the two data stores. This option controls whether zmaudit is run  in
       the  background  and  performs  these checks and fixes continuously. This is recommended for most systems
       however if you have a very large number of events the process of scanning the database  and  file  system
       may  take  a  long  time  and impact performance. In this case you may prefer to not have zmaudit running
       unconditionally and schedule occasional checks at other, more convenient, times.

       ZM_AUDIT_CHECK_INTERVAL:

       The zmaudit daemon exists to check that the saved information in the database and  on  the  files  system
       match and are consistent with each other. If an error occurs or if you are using 'fast deletes' it may be
       that database records are deleted but files remain. In  this  case,  and  similar,  zmaudit  will  remove
       redundant  information  to synchronize the two data stores. The default check interval of 900 seconds (15
       minutes) is fine for most systems however if you have a very  large  number  of  events  the  process  of
       scanning  the  database and file system may take a long time and impact performance. In this case you may
       prefer to make this interval much larger to reduce the impact on your system. This option determines  how
       often these checks are performed.

   Math for Memory: Making sure you have enough memory to handle your cameras
       One  of  the most common issues for erratic ZoneMinder behavior is you don't have enough memory to handle
       all your cameras. Many users often configure multiple HD cameras at full resolution and 15FPS or more and
       then  face  various  issues about processes failing, blank screens and other completely erratic behavior.
       The core reason for all of this is you either don't have enough memory or horsepower to handle  all  your
       cameras. The solution often is to reduce FPS, reduce cameras or bump up your server capabilities.

       Here  are  some guidelines with examples on how you can figure out how much memory you need. With respect
       to CPU, you should benchmark your server using standard unix tools like top, iotop  and  others  to  make
       sure  your  CPU load is manageable. ZoneMinder also shows average load on the top right corner of the Web
       Console for easy access.

       In general a good estimate of memory required would be:

          Min Memory = 1.2 * ((image-width*image-height*image buffer size*target color space*number of cameras/8/1024/1024 )

       Where: * image-width and image-height are the width and height of images that your camera  is  configured
       for (in my case, 1280x960). This value is in the Source tab for each monitor * image buffer size is the #
       of images ZM will keep in memory (this is used by ZM to make sure it  has  pre  and  post  images  before
       detecting  an  alarm - very useful because by the time an alarm is detected, the reason for the alarm may
       move out of view and a buffer is really useful for this,  including  for  analyzing  stats/scores).  This
       value  is  in  the  buffers tab for each monitor * target color space is the color depth - 8bit, 24bit or
       32bit. It's again in the source tab of each monitor The 1.2 at the start is basically adding 20%  on  top
       of the calculation to account for image/stream overheads (this is an estimate)

       So  let's  do  the  math.  If we have 4 cameras running at 1280x960 with 32bit color space and one camera
       running at 640x480 with 8bit greyscale color space, the system would require:

       1.2 * ((1280*960*50*32*4/8/1024/1024 )  + (640 *480  *50*8/8 /1024/1024))

       Or, around 900MB of memory.

       So if you have 2GB of memory, you should be all set. Right? Not, really:

          • This is just the base memory required to capture  the  streams.  Remember  ZM  is  always  capturing
            streams  irrespective  of  whether  you  are actually recording or not - to make sure its image ring
            buffer is there with pre images when an alarm kicks in.

          • You also need to account for other processes not related to ZM running in your box

          • You also need to account for other ZM processes - for example, I noticed the audit daemon takes up a
            good amount of memory when it runs, DB updates also take up memory

       So  a  good  rule of thumb is to make sure you have twice the memory as the calculation above (and if you
       are using the ZM server for other purposes, please factor in those memory requirements as well)

       Also remember by default ZM only uses 50% of your available memory unless you change it

       As it turns out, ZM uses mapped memory and by default, 50% of your physical memory is what this will grow
       to. When you reach that limit , ZM breaks down with various errors.

       (Note:  Mapped  memory is applicable when you install ZoneMinder with mapped memory support, which is the
       default mode. If you have specifically disabled mapped memory then please see the next FAQ enty on how to
       increase shared memory)

       A good way to know how much memory is allocated to ZM for its operation is to do a df -h

       A sample output on Ubuntu:

          pp@camerapc:~$ df -h
          Filesystem                 Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
          /dev/sda1                  226G   96G  119G  45% /
          none                       4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
          udev                       1.8G  4.0K  1.8G   1% /dev
          tmpfs                      371M  816K  370M   1% /run
          none                       5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
          tmpfs                      2.6G  923M  1.7G  36% /run/shm
          none                       100M     0  100M   0% /run/user

       The  key  item here is tmpfs --> the example above shows we have allocated 1.7G of mapped memory space of
       which 36% is used which is a healthy number. If you are seeing this to go beyond 70% you  should  probaby
       increase mapped memory

       If  you want to increase this limit to 70% of your memory, add the following to /etc/fstab tmpfs /run/shm
       tmpfs defaults,noexec,nosuid,size=70% 0 0

   What does a 'Can't shmget: Invalid argument' error in my logs mean? (and my camera does not display at higher
       resolutions)
       (Note:  This is applicable for systems that have mapped memory disabled in ZoneMinder. By default, Mapped
       memory is enabled and unless you have disabled it  manually,  please  refer  to  the  "Math  for  Memory"
       question above and how to increase mapped memory limits)

       This  error  is  discussed  in the README in the following excerpt:- ''...this is caused by an attempt to
       allocate an amount of shared memory greater than your system can handle. The size it requests is based on
       the  following  formula, ring buffer size x image width x image height x 3 (for 24 bit images) + a bit of
       overhead.

       So, for example:

          384x288 capture resolution, that makes: 110 592 pixels
          in 24 bit color that's x24 = 2 654 208 bits per frame
          by 80 frames ring buffer x80 = 212 336 640 bits per camera
          by 4 cameras x4 = 849 346 560 bits.
          Plus 10% overhead = 934 281 216 bits
          That's 116 785 152 bytes, and
          = 114 048 kB, respectively 111.38 MB.
          If my shared memory is set to 134 217 728, which is exactly 128MB,
          that means I shouldn't have any problem.
          (Note that 1 byte = 8 bits and 1kbyte = 1024bytes, 1MB = 1024 kB)

       If for instance you were using 24bit 640x480 then this would come to about 92Mb  if  you  are  using  the
       default  buffer size of 100. If this is too large then you can either reduce the image or buffer sizes or
       increase the maximum amount of shared memory available. If you are using RedHat then you can get  details
       on how to change these settings here

       You  should be able to use a similar procedure  with other distributions to modify the shared memory pool
       without kernel recompilations though in some cases this may be necessary. Note, this error also sometimes
       occurs  if  you have an old shared memory segment lying around from a previous run that is too small. Use
       the ipcs and ipcrm system commands to check and remove it if necessary.'"

       You can often find out how many 4KB shared memory pages are available by typing the following :-

          # cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmall
          2097152

       In recent kernels the shmall is set to 2097152 memory pages multiplied by 4096 bytes per page for a total
       of  8  GB  of shared memory available.  You only need to increase the shmall value if you have a computer
       with more than 8GB of memory and wish to use more of it for shared memory usage, such as large databases.

       The most shared memory bytes you can allocate in one go :-

          # cat /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
          33554432

       In recent kernels the shmmax is set to 33554432 bytes for only 32 MB of maximum shared memory allocatable
       at  a  time,  hardly  enough for ZoneMinder to go above 320 x 240 x 24-bit resolution at 40 frames in the
       buffer if it is using the /dev/shm shared memory device, so this value needs to be increased.  If you are
       using ZoneMinder with the memory mapped (mmap) compile time option then this doesn't affect you.

       To  change  the  value  to  128  MB  temporarily  during this kernel execution type (for example) :- echo
       536870912 >/proc/sys/kernel/shmmax

       Be sure to restart ZoneMinder after this.

       However be aware that sometimes you will only need to change the shmmax value as shmall  is  often  large
       enough. Also changing these values in this way is only effective until your machine is rebooted.

       To  change  them  permanently  you  will  need  to edit /etc/sysctl.conf and add the following lines (for
       example) :- kernel.shmmax = 536870912

       Or if your distribution has the /etc/sysctl.d/ folder you can  create  a  file  in  this  folder  without
       modifying the /etc/sysctl.d so you won't lose the changes during distro upgrades :- `echo kernel.shmmax =
       536870912 >/etc/sysctl.d/60-kernel-shm.conf`

       To load these settings in the sysctl.conf file type: sysctl -p

       To check your shared memory settings type: ipcs -l

       Note that with Megapixel cameras like the Axis 207mw becoming cheaper  and  more  attractive,  the  above
       memory  settings  are  not adequate. To get Zoneminder working with a full 1280x1024 resolution camera in
       full color, increase 134217728 (128 MB) to, for example, 268435456 (256 MB) and multiple  this  value  by
       each camera.

       These changes will now also be set the next time your machine is restarted.

       Versions  1.24.x  of  ZoneMinder  also allows you to use an alternate method of shared memory allocation,
       Mmap mapped memory . This requires less configuration and can be simpler to use. Mapped memory allows you
       to  use  a  special type of file as the placeholder for your memory and this file is 'mapped' into memory
       space for easy and fast access.

       To enable mapped memory in ZoneMinder you need add add the --enable--mmap=yes switch  to  your  configure
       line.  By  default mapped memory files are created in /dev/shm which on most distributions is a dedicated
       pseudo-partition containing memory formatted as a filesystem. If your system uses a different  path  then
       this can be changed in ZoneMinder in Options->paths->PATH_MAP. It uses a filesystem type called tmpfs. If
       you type df -h you should see this area and the size of memory it currently allows. To increase size  for
       tmpfs  you  need  to  edit  /etc/default/tmpfs.  Search  for:  SHM_SIZE=128M and change to something like
       SHM_SIZE=1G then reboot the system. You could possibly need to change RUN_SIZE, too.

       It is important that you do not use a disk based filesystem for your memory mapped  files  as  this  will
       cause  memory  access  to be extremely slow. ZoneMinder creates files called .zm.mmap.<monitor id> in the
       mapped memory filesystem.

       Mapped memory is subject to the same limitations in terms of  total  memory  as  using  more  traditional
       shared  memory  but  does  not  require  any configuration per allocation or chunk. In future versions of
       ZoneMinder this will be the default shared memory storage method.

       Another good article about shared memory settings can be found here .

       The essential difference was that the kernel.shmall setting is NOT in a direct memory setting in  KB  but
       in pages of memory. it is Max Pages of memory

       For example: If you want to allocate a maximum memory setting to 8GB you have to convert it to the number
       of pages (or segments).  with a page size of 4096.  kernel.shmall = 8000x1024x1024/4096  kernel.shmall  =
       2097152 NOT 8388608000 as would be suggested in the RedHat article linked above.

       shmmax  is  the  max  amount to allocate in one request - this is is an actual memory size (as opposed to
       pages) set to 4GB kernel.shmmax = 4294967296

       The /etc/sysctl.conf would have these lines

          kernel.shmall = 2097152
          kernel.shmmax = 4294967296</pre>

       As above, reload your sysctl.conf with sysctl -p and check that the settings are correct with ipcs -l.

   I have enabled motion detection but it is not always being triggered when things happen in the camera view
       ZoneMinder uses zones to examine images for motion detection. When you create the initial zones  you  can
       choose from a number of preset values for sensitivity etc. Whilst these are usually a good starting point
       they are not always suitable for all situations and you will probably need to tweak the values  for  your
       specific  circumstances.  The  meanings of the various settings are described in the documentation (here)
       however if you believe you have sensible settings configured then there are two diagnostic approaches you
       can use.

       Another  user  contributed  illustrated  Zone definition guide can be found here: An illustrated guide to
       Zones

   Event Statistics
       The first technique is to use event statistics. Firstly  you  should  ensure  they  are  switched  on  in
       Options->Logging->RECORD_EVENT_STATS.  This  will  then cause the raw motion detection statistics for any
       subsequently generated events to be written to the DB. These can then be accessed by  first  clicking  on
       the Frames or Alarm Frames values of the event from any event list view in the web gui. Then click on the
       score value to see the actual values that caused the event. Alternatively the stats can  be  accessed  by
       clicking  on  the  'Stats'  link when viewing any individual frame. The values displayed there correspond
       with the values that are used in the zone configuration and give you an idea of what 'real world'  values
       are being generated.

       Note  that  if you are investigating why events 'do not' happen then these will not be saved and so won't
       be accessible. The best thing to do in that circumstance is to make your zone more sensitive so  that  it
       captures  all  events  (perhap  even ones you don't want) so you can get an idea of what values are being
       generated and then start to adjust back to less sensitive settings if necessary. You should make sure you
       test  your settings under a variety of lighting conditions (e.g. day and night, sunny or dull) to get the
       best feel for that works and what doesn't.

       Using statistics will slow your system down to a small degree and use a little extra disk space in the DB
       so  once  you  are  happy  you  can  switch them off again. However it is perfectly feasible to keep them
       permanently on if your system is able to cope which will allow you to review your setting periodically.

   Diagnostic Images
       The second approach is to use diagnostic images which are saved copies of the intermediate images that ZM
       uses    when    determining    motion    detection.    These    are    switched    on   and   off   using
       Options->Logging->RECORD_DIAG_IMAGES.

       There are two kinds of diagnostic images which are and are written (and continuously overwritten) to  the
       top level monitor event directory. If an event occurs then the files are additionally copied to the event
       directory and renamed with the appropriate frame number as a prefix.

       The first set are produced by the monitor on the image as a whole. The diag-r.jpg image  is  the  current
       reference  image  against  which all individual frames are compared and the diag-d.jpg image is the delta
       image highlighting the difference between the reference image and the last analysed image. In this images
       identical  pixels  will  be  black  and the more different a pixel is the whiter it will be. Viewing this
       image and determining the colour of the pixels is a good way of getting a feel for the pixel  differences
       you might expect (often more than you think).

       The  second  set  of  diag images are labelled as diag-<zoneid>-<stage>.jpg where zoneid is the id of the
       zone in question (Smile) and the stage is where in the alarm check process the image is  generated  from.
       So  if  you have several zones you can expect to see multiple files. Also these files are only interested
       in what is happening in their zone only and will ignore anything else outside of  the  zone.  The  stages
       that each number represents are as follows,

       #  Alarmed  Pixels  -  This image shows all pixels in the zone that are considered to be alarmed as white
       pixels and all other pixels as black.  # Filtered Pixels - This is as stage one except  that  all  pixels
       removed  by  the  filters  are  now  black.  The white pixels represent the pixels that are candidates to
       generate an event.  # Raw Blobs - This image contains all alarmed pixels from stage 2 but aggrageted into
       blobs.  Each  blob  will have a different greyscale value (between 1 and 254) so they can be difficult to
       spot with the naked eye but using a colour picker or photoshop will make it easier to see  what  blob  is
       what.   #  Filtered  Blobs  - This image is as stage 3 but under (or over) sized blobs have been removed.
       This is the final step before determining if an event has occurred, just prior to  the  number  of  blobs
       being  counted.  Thus  this  image  forms  the  basis  for  determining whether an event is generated and
       outlining on alarmed images is done from the blobs in this image.

       Using the above images you should be able to tell at all stages what ZM is doing to determine if an event
       should  happen or not. They are useful diagnostic tools but as is mentioned elsewhere they will massively
       slow your system down and take up a great deal more space. You should never  leave  ZM  running  for  any
       length of time with diagnostic images on.

   Why  can't  ZoneMinder capture images (either at all or just particularly fast) when I can see my camera just
       fine in xawtv or similar?
       With capture  cards  ZoneMinder  will  pull  images  as  fast  as  it  possibly  can  unless  limited  by
       configuration.  ZoneMinder  (and any similar application) uses the frame grabber interface to copy frames
       from video memory into user memory. This takes some time, plus if you have  several  inputs  sharing  one
       capture chip it has to switch between inputs between captures which further slows things down.

       On  average  a  card  that can capture at 25fps per chip PAL for one input will do maybe 6-10fps for two,
       1-4fps for three and 1-2 for four. For a 30fps NTSC chip the  figures  will  be  correspondingly  higher.
       However  sometimes it is necessary to slow down capture even further as after an input switch it may take
       a short while for the new image to settle before it can be captured without corruption.

       When using xawtv etc to view the stream you are not looking at an image captured using the frame  grabber
       but the card's video memory mapped onto your screen. This requires no capture or processing unless you do
       an explicit capture via the J or ctrl-J keys for instance. Some cards or drivers do not support the frame
       grabber interface at all so may not work with ZoneMinder even though you can view the stream in xawtv. If
       you can grab a still using the grab functionality of xawtv then in  general  your  card  will  work  with
       ZoneMinder.

   Why can't I see streamed images when I can see stills in the Zone window etc?
       This issue is normally down to one of two causes

       1. You  are  using  Internet Explorer and are trying to view multi-part jpeg streams. IE does not support
          these streams directly, unlike most other browsers. You will need  to  install  Cambozola  or  another
          multi-part  jpeg  aware  pluging  to view them. To do this you will need to obtain the applet from the
          Downloads page and install the cambozola.jar file in the same directly as the  ZoneMinder  php  files.
          Then  find  the  ZoneMinder Options->Images page and enable ZM_OPT_CAMBOZOLA and enter the web path to
          the .jar file in ZM_PATH_CAMBOZOLA. This will ordinarily just be cambozola.jar.  Provided  (Options  /
          B/W tabs) WEB_H_CAN_STREAM is set to auto and WEB_H_STREAM_METHOD is set to jpeg then Cambozola should
          be loaded next time you try and view a stream.

       '''NOTE''': If you find that the Cambozola applet loads in IE but the applet just displays the version  #
       of  Cambozola  and  the  author's name (as opposed to seeing the streaming images), you may need to chmod
       (''-rwxrwxr-x'') your (''usr/share/zoneminder/'') cambozola.jar:

          sudo chmod 775 cambozola.jar

       Once I did this, images started to stream for me.

       2. The other common cause for being unable to view streams is that you have installed the ZoneMinder  cgi
          binaries  (zms and nph-zms) in a different directory than your web server is expecting. Make sure that
          the --with-cgidir option you use to the ZoneMinder configure script is the same as the  CGI  directory
          configure  for  your  web  server. If you are using Apache, which is the most common one, then in your
          httpd.conf file there should be a line like ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/" where  the  last
          directory  in  the quotes is the one you have specified. If not then change one or the other to match.
          Be warned that configuring apache can be  complex  so  changing  the  one  passed  to  the  ZoneMinder
          configure  (and  then rebuilding and reinstalling) is recommended in the first instance. If you change
          the apache config you will need to restart apache for the changes to take effect. If you still  cannot
          see  stream  reliably  then  try  changing  Options->Paths->ZM_PATH_ZMS  to just use zms if nph-zms is
          specified, or vice versa. Also check in your apache error logs.

   I have several monitors configured but when I load the Montage view in FireFox why can I only  see  two?  or,
       Why don't all my cameras display when I use the Montage view in FireFox?
       By  default  FireFox  only  supports  a  small number of simultaneous connections. Using the montage view
       usually requires one persistent connection for  each  camera  plus  intermittent  connections  for  other
       information such as statuses.

       You  will  need  to  increase  the number of allowed connections to use the montage view with more than a
       small number of cameras.  Certain FireFox extensions such as FasterFox may also help to achieve the  same
       result.

       To resolve this situation, follow the instructions below:

       Enter about:config in the address bar

       scroll down to browser.cache.check_doc_frequency 3 change the 3 to a 1

          browser.cache.disk.enable True -> False
          network.http.max-connections-per-server -> put a value of 100
          network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy -> 100 again
          network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server -> 100 again

   Why is ZoneMinder using so much CPU?
       The  various  elements  of ZoneMinder can be involved in some pretty intensive activity, especially while
       analysing images for motion. However generally this should not overwhelm your machine unless it  is  very
       old or underpowered.

       There  are  a number of specific reasons why processor loads can be high either by design or by accident.
       To figure out exactly what is causing it in your circumstances requires a bit of experimentation.

       The main causes are.

          • Using a video palette other than greyscale or RGB24. This can cause a  relatively  minor  performace
            hit,  though  still  significant.  Although  some cameras and cards require using planar palettes ZM
            currently  doesn't  support  this  format  internally  and  each  frame  is  converted  to  an   RGB
            representation  prior to processing. Unless you have compelling reasons for using YUV or reduced RGB
            type palettes such as hitting USB transfer limits I would experiment to see if RGB24 or greyscale is
            quicker.  Put  your  monitors  into  'Monitor' mode so that only the capture daemons are running and
            monitor the process load of these (the 'zmc' processes) using top. Try it with various  palettes  to
            see if it makes a difference.

          • Big  image sizes. A image of 640x480 requires at least four times the processing of a 320x240 image.
            Experiment with different sizes to see what effect it may have. Sometimes a large image is just  two
            interlaced  smaller  frames  so  has  no  real  benefit  anyway.  This is especially true for analog
            cameras/cards as image height over 320 (NTSC) or 352 PAL) are invariably interlaced.

          • Capture frame rates. Unless there's a compelling reason in your case there is often  little  benefit
            in running cameras at 25fps when 5-10fps would often get you results just as good. Try changing your
            monitor settings to limit your cameras to lower frame rates. You can still configure  ZM  to  ignore
            these limits and capture as fast as possible when motion is detected.

          • Run function. Obviously running in Record or Mocord modes or in Modect with lots of events generates
            a lot of DB and file activity and so CPU and load will increase.

          • Basic default detection zones. By default when a camera is added one detection zone is  added  which
            covers  the  whole  image  with  a  default set of parameters. If your camera covers a view in which
            various regions are unlikely to generate a valid alarm (ie the sky) then  I  would  experiment  with
            reducing  the  zone  sizes  or  adding  inactive zones to blank out areas you don't want to monitor.
            Additionally the actual settings of the zone themselves  may  not  be  optimal.  When  doing  motion
            detection  the  number  of  changed  pixels above a threshold is examined, then this is filter, then
            contiguous regions are calculated to see if an  alarm  is  generated.  If  any  maximum  or  minimum
            threshold  is  exceeded  according  to your zone settings at any time the calculation stops. If your
            settings always result in the calculations going through to the last stage before being failed  then
            additional CPU time is used unnecessarily. Make sure your maximum and minimumzone thresholds are set
            to sensible values and experiment by switching RECORD_EVENT_STATS on  and  seeing  what  the  actual
            values of alarmed pixels etc are during sample events.

          • Optimise  your  settings.  After  you've  got  some  settings  you're  happy with then switching off
            RECORD_EVENT_STATS will prevent the statistics being written to the database which saves some  time.
            Other  settings  which  might  make  a difference are ZM_FAST_RGB_DIFFS, ZM_OPT_FRAME_SERVER and the
            JPEG_xxx_QUALITY ones.

       I'm sure there are other things which might make a difference such as what else you have running  on  the
       box  and  memory  sizes  (make  sure there's no swapping going on). Also speed of disk etc will make some
       difference during event capture and also if you are watching the whole time then you may have a bunch  of
       zms processes running also.

       I  think the biggest factors are image size, colour depth and capture rate. Having said that I also don't
       always know why you get certains results from 'top'. For instance if I have a 'zma' daemon running for  a
       monitor  that is capturing an image. I've commented out the actual analysis so all it's doing is blending
       the image with the previous one. In colour mode this takes ~11 milliseconds per frame on  my  system  and
       the  camera  is  capturing  at  ~10fps.  Using  'top'  this  reports  the process as using ~5% of CPU and
       permanently in R(un) state. Changing to greyscale mode the blending takes ~4msec (as you would expect  as
       this  is roughly a third of 11) but top reports the process as now with 0% CPU and permanently in S(leep)
       state. So an actual CPU resource usage change of a factor of 3 causes huge differences  in  reported  CPU
       usage.  I  have yet to get to the bottom of this but I suspect it's to do with scheduling somewhere along
       the line and that maybe the greyscale processing will fit into one  scheduling  time  slice  whereas  the
       colour one won't but I have no evidence of this yet!

   Why is the timeline view all messed up?
       The  timeline  view  is a new view allowing you to see a graph of alarm activity over time and to quickly
       scan and home in on events of interest. However this feature is highly complex and still in beta.  It  is
       based  extensively  on  HTML div tags, sometimes lots of them. Whilst FireFox is able to render this view
       successfully other browsers, particular Internet Explorer do not seem able  to  cope  and  so  present  a
       messed  up  view,  either  always  or  when  there  are a lot of events.  Using the timeline view is only
       recommended when using FireFox, however even then there may be issues.

       This function has from time to time been corrupted in the SVN release or in the stable releases, try  and
       reinstall from a fresh download.

   How much Hard Disk Space / Bandwidth do I need for ZM?
       Please see this excel sheet or  this online excel sheet (both are user contributed excel sheets)

       Or  go  to  this  link for the Axis bandwidth calculator. Although this is aimed at Axis cameras it still
       produces valid results for any kind of IP camera.

       As a quick guide I have 4 cameras at 320x240 storing 1 fps except during alarm events. After 1 week  60GB
       of space in the volume where the events are stored (/var/www/html/zm) has been used.

   When I try and run ZoneMinder I get lots of audit permission errors in the logs and it won't start
       Many Linux distributions nowadays are built with security in mind. One of the latest methods of achieving
       this is via SELinux (Secure Linux) which controls who is able to run what in  a  more  precise  way  then
       traditional  accounting  and file based permissions (link).  If you are seeing entries in your system log
       like:
          Jun 11 20:44:02 kernel: audit(1150033442.443:226): avc: denied { read  }  for  pid=5068  comm="uptime"
          name="utmp"          dev=dm-0         ino=16908345         scontext=user_u:system_r:httpd_sys_script_t
          tcontext=user_u:object_r:initrc_var_run_t tclass=file

       then it is likely that your system has SELinux enabled and it is preventing ZoneMinder  from  performaing
       certain  activities.  You  then  have  two  choices.  You  can either tune SELinux to permit the required
       operations or you can disable SELinux entirely which will permit ZoneMinder to run unhindered.  Disabling
       SELinux  is  usually  performed  by  editing  its configuration file (e.g., /etc/selinux/config) and then
       rebooting. However if you run a public server you should read up on the risks  associated  with  disabled
       Secure Linux before disabling it.

       Note  that SELinux may cause errors other than those listed above. If you are in any doubt then it can be
       worth disabling SELinux experimentally to see if it fixes your problem before trying other solutions.

   How do I enable ZoneMinder's security?
       In the console, click on Options. Check the box next to "ZM_OPT_USE_AUTH". You will immediately be  asked
       to login. The default username is 'admin' and the password is 'admin'.

       To Manage Users: In main console, go to Options->Users.

       You may also consider to use the web server security, for example, htaccess files under Apache scope; You
       may even use this as an additional/redundant security on top of Zoneminders built-in security features;

   Why does ZM stop recording once I have 32000 events for my monitor?
       Storing more than 32k files in a single folder is a limitation of some filesystems. To avoid this, enable
       USE_DEEP_STORAGE under Options.

       USE_DEEP_STORAGE  is  now  the default for new ZoneMinder systems so this limitation should only apply to
       users upgrading from a previous version of ZoneMinder.

       Versions of ZM from 1.23.0 onwards allow you to have a deeper filesystem with fewer files per  individual
       directory. As well as not being susceptible to the 32k limit, this is also somewhat faster.

       If  you have upgraded from a previous version of ZoneMinder and this option is not already enabled, it is
       very important to follow the steps below to enable it on an existing system. Failure to  properly  follow
       these steps WILL RESULT IN LOSS OF YOUR DATA!

          # Stop ZoneMinder
          # Backup your event data and the dB if you have the available storage
          # Enable USE_DEEP_STORAGE under Options.
          # From the command line, run "sudo zmupdate.pl --migrate-events"
          # Monitor the output for any events that fail to convert.
          # After the conversion completes, you can restart ZoneMinder

       Note that you can re-run the migrate-events command if any error messages scroll off the screen.

       You  can  read about the lack of a limit in the number of sub-directories in the ext4 filesystem at: this
       link and see what tools may assist in your use of this filesystem here If you search for ext3 or reiserfs
       on the forums you will find various threads on this issue with guidance on how to convert.

   Managing system load (with IP Cameras in mind)
   Introduction
       Zoneminder  is  a  superb  application  in  every  way,  but it does a job that needs a lot of horsepower
       especially when using multiple IP cameras. IP Cams require an extra level of processing to analogue cards
       as  the  jpg  or  mjpeg images need to be decoded before analysing. This needs grunt. If you have lots of
       cameras, you need lots of grunt.

       Why do ZM need so much grunt?  Think what Zoneminder is actually doing. In modect mode ZM is: 1. Fetching
       a  jpeg  from  the  camera.  (Either  in single part or multipart stream) 2. Decoding the jpeg image.  3.
       Comparing the zoned selections to the previous image or images and applying rules.  4. If in alarm state,
       writing that image to the disk and updating the mysql database.

       If  you're capturing at five frames per second, the above is repeated five times every second, multiplied
       by the number of cameras. Decoding the images is what takes the real power from the processor and this is
       the main reason why analogue cameras which present an image ready-decoded in memory take less work.

   How do I know if my computer is overloaded?
       If your CPU is running at 100% all the time, it's probably overloaded (or running at exact optimisation).
       If the load is consistently high (over 10.0 for a single processor) then Bad Things happen  -  like  lost
       frames, unrecorded events etc. Occasional peaks are fine, normal and nothing to worry about.

       Zoneminder runs on Linux, Linux measures system load using "load", which is complicated but gives a rough
       guide on what the computer is doing at any given time. Zoneminder shows Load on the main page (top right)
       as  well  as  disk  space.  Typing "uptime" on the command line will give a similar guide, but with three
       figures to give a fuller measure of what's happening over a period of time but for the best guide to  see
       what's happening, install "htop" - which gives easy to read graphs for load, memory and cpu usage.

       A load of 1.0 means the processor has "just enough to do right now". Also worth noting that a load of 4.0
       means exactly the same for a quad processor machine - each number equals a single processor's workload. A
       very high load can be fine on a computer that has a stacked workload - such as a machine sending out bulk
       emails, or working its way through a knotty problem; it'll just  keep  churning  away  until  it's  done.
       However  -  Zoneminder needs to process information in real time so it can't afford to stack its jobs, it
       needs to deal with them right away.

       For a better and full explanation of Load: Please read this

   My load is too high, how can I reduce it?
       (The previous documentation explained how to use turbo jpeg libraries as an optimization technique. These
       libraries  have  long  been part of standard linux distros since that article was authored and hence that
       section has been removed)

       Zoneminder is very tweakable and it's possible to tune it to compromise. The following are good things to
       try, in no particular order;

          • If  your camera allows you to change image size, think whether you can get away with smaller images.
            Smaller pics = less load. 320x240 is usually ok for close-up corridor shots.

          • Go Black and White. Colour pictures use twice to three times the CPU, memory and diskspace but  give
            little benefit to identification.

          • Reduce  frames per second. Halve the fps, halve the workload. If your camera supports fps throttling
            (Axis do), try that - saves ZM having to drop frames from a stream. 2-5 fps seems to be widely used.

          • Experiment with using jpeg instead of mjpeg. Some users have reported it gives  better  performance,
            but YMMV.

          • Tweak the zones. Keep them as small and as few as possible. Stick to one zone unless you really need
            more. Read this for an easy to understand explanation along with the official Zone guide.

          • Schedule. If you are running a linux system at near capacity, you'll need to think  carefully  about
            things  like  backups and scheduled tasks. updatedb - the process which maintains a file database so
            that 'locate' works quickly, is normally scheduled to run once a day and if on  a  busy  system  can
            create  a heavy increase on the load. The same is true for scheduled backups, especially those which
            compress the files. Re-schedule these tasks to a time when the cpu is less likely  to  be  busy,  if
            possible  -  and also use the "nice" command to reduce their priority. (crontab and /etc/cron.daily/
            are good places to start)

          • Reduce clutter on your PC. Don't run X unless you really need it, the GUI is a huge overhead in both
            memory and cpu.

       More expensive options:

          • Increase  RAM.  If  your  system is having to use disk swap it will HUGELY impact performance in all
            areas. Again, htop is a good monitor - but first you need to understand that because Linux is  using
            all  the memory, it doesn't mean it needs it all - linux handles ram very differently to Windows/DOS
            and caches stuff. htop will show cached ram as a different colour in the memory  graph.  Also  check
            that  you're  actually using a high memory capable kernel - many kernels don't enable high memory by
            default.

          • Faster CPU. Simple but effective. Zoneminder also works very well with  multiple  processor  systems
            out  of  the  box (if SMP is enabled in your kernel). The load of different cameras is spread across
            the processors.

          • Try building Zoneminder with processor specific instructions that are optimised  to  the  system  it
            will be running on, also increasing the optimisation level of GCC beyond -O2 will help.

          ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O3 -march=athlon-xp -mtune=athlon-xp" CXXFLAGS="-g -O3 -march=athlon-xp -mtune=athlon-xp"

       The  above  command  is optimised for an Athlon XP cpu so you will need to use the specific processor tag
       for your cpu, also the compiler optimisation has been increased to -O3.

       You also need to put in your normal  ./configure  commands  as  if  you  were  compiling  with  out  this
       optimisation.

       A  further note is that the compile must be performed on the system that Zoneminder will be running on as
       this optimisation will make it hardware specific code.

       Processor specific commands can be found in the GCC manual along with some more options that may increase
       performanc.
       http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/i386-and-x86_002d64-Options.html#i386-and-x86_002d64-Options

       The below command has been used to compile Zoneminder on a Athlon XP system running CentOS 5.5 and  along
       with the libjpeg-turbo modification to reduce the CPU load in half, libjpeg-turbo reduced the load by 1/3
       before the processor optimisation.

          ./configure --with-webdir=/var/www/html/zm --with-cgidir=/var/www/cgi-bin CFLAGS="-g -O3 -march=athlon-xp -mtune=athlon-xp" CXXFLAGS="-D__STDC_CONSTANT_MACROS -g -O3 -march=athlon-xp -mtune=athlon-xp" --enable-mmap --sysconfdir=/etc/zm

       The following command has been used to compile Zoneminder 1.25 on a CentOS 6.0 system, the native command
       should  choose  the processor automatically during compile time, this needs to be performed on the actual
       system!!.

          CFLAGS="-g -O3 -march=native -mtune=native" CXXFLAGS="-D__STDC_CONSTANT_MACROS -g -O3 -march=native -mtune=native" ./configure  --with-webdir=/var/www/html/zm --with-cgidir=/var/www/cgi-bin --with-webuser=apache --with-webgroup=apache ZM_DB_HOST=localhost ZM_DB_NAME=zm ZM_DB_USER=your_zm_user ZM_DB_PASS=your_zm_password ZM_SSL_LIB=openssl

   What about disks and bandwidth?
       A typical 100mbit LAN will cope with most setups easily. If you're feeding from cameras over  smaller  or
       internet links, obviously fps will be much lower.

       Disk     and    Bandwidth    calculators    are    referenced    on    the    Zoneminder    wiki    here:
       http://www.zoneminder.com/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_much_Hard_Disk_Space_.2F_Bandwidth_do_I_need_for_ZM.3F

   Building ZoneMinder
   When running configure I am getting a lot of messages about not being able to compile the ffmpeg libraries
       If you see output from configure that looks like this

          checking libavcodec/avcodec.h usability... no
          checking libavcodec/avcodec.h presence... yes
          configure: WARNING: libavcodec/avcodec.h: present but cannot be compiled
          configure: WARNING: libavcodec/avcodec.h:     check for missing
          prerequisite headers?
          configure: WARNING: libavcodec/avcodec.h: see the Autoconf documentation
          configure: WARNING: libavcodec/avcodec.h:     section "Present But
          Cannot Be Compiled"
          configure: WARNING: libavcodec/avcodec.h: proceeding with the compiler's
          result
          configure: WARNING:     ## ------------------------------------- ##
          configure: WARNING:     ## Report this to support@zoneminder.com ##
          configure: WARNING:     ## ------------------------------------- ##</pre>

       then it is caused not by the ZoneMinder build system but ffmpeg itself. However there is a workaround you
       can use which is to add CPPFLAGS=-D__STDC_CONSTANT_MACROS

       to the ZoneMinder ./configure command which should solve the issue. However this is not a proper 'fix' as
       such, which can only come from the ffmpeg project itself.

   I cannot build ZoneMinder and am getting lots of undefined C++ template errors
       This is almost certainly due to the 'ccache' package which attempts to speed up  compilation  by  caching
       compiled objects. Unfortunately one of the side effects is that it breaks the GNU g++ template resolution
       method that ZoneMinder uses in building by prevent files getting recompiled. The simplest way around this
       is to remove the ccache package using your distros package manager.

   How do I build for X10 support?
       You do not need to rebuild ZM for X10 support. You will need to install the perl module and switch on X10
       in the options, then restart. Installing the perl module is covered in the README  amongst  other  places
       but in summary, do:
          perl -MCPAN -eshell install X10::ActiveHome quit

   Extending Zoneminder
   How can I get ZM to do different things at different times of day or week?
       If  you  want to configure ZoneMinder to do motion detection during the day and just record at night, for
       example, you will need to use ZoneMinder 'run states'. A run  state  is  a  particular  configuration  of
       monitor functions that you want to use at any time.

       To save a run state you should first configure your monitors for Modect, Record, Monitor etc as you would
       want them during one of the times of day. Then click on the running state link at the top of the  Console
       view.  This  will usually say 'Running' or 'Stopped'. You will then be able to save the current state and
       give it a name, 'Daytime' for example. Now configure your monitors how you would want them  during  other
       times of day and save that, for instance as 'Nighttime'.

       Now  you  can  switch  between these two states by selecting them from the same dialog you saved them, or
       from the command line from issue the command ''zmpkg.pl <run state>'', for example ''zmpkg.pl Daytime''.

       The final step you need to take, is scheduling the time the changes take effect. For  this  you  can  use
       cron. A simple entry to change to the Daylight state at at 8am and to the nighttime state at 8pm would be
       as follows,

          0 8 * * * root /usr/local/bin/zmpkg.pl Daytime
          0 20 * * * root /usr/local/bin/zmpkg.pl Nighttime

       On Ubuntu 7.04 and possibly others, look in /usr/bin not just /usr/local/bin for the zmpkg.pl file.

       Although the example above describes changing states at different times of day, the  same  principle  can
       equally be applied to days of the week or other more arbitrary periods.

   How can I use ZoneMinder to trigger something else when there is an alarm?
       ZoneMinder  includes a perl API which means you can create a script to interact with the ZM shared memory
       data and use it in your own scripts to react to ZM alarms or to trigger ZM to generate new  alarms.  Full
       details are in the README or by doing perldoc ZoneMinder, perldoc ZoneMinder::SharedMem etc.  Below is an
       example script that checks all monitors for alarms and when one occurs, prints a message to  the  screen.
       You can add in your own code to make this reaction a little more useful.

          #!/usr/bin/perl -w

          use strict;

          use ZoneMinder;

          $| = 1;

          zmDbgInit( "myscript", level=>0, to_log=>0, to_syslog=>0, to_term=>1 );

          my $dbh = DBI->connect( "DBI:mysql:database=".ZM_DB_NAME.";host=".ZM_DB_HOST, ZM_DB_USER, ZM_DB_PASS );

          my $sql = "select M.*, max(E.Id) as LastEventId from Monitors as M left join Events as E on M.Id = E.MonitorId where M.Function != 'None' group by (M.Id)";
          my $sth = $dbh->prepare_cached( $sql ) or die( "Can't prepare '$sql': ".$dbh->errstr() );

          my $res = $sth->execute() or die( "Can't execute '$sql': ".$sth->errstr() );
          my @monitors;
          while ( my $monitor = $sth->fetchrow_hashref() )
          {
              push( @monitors, $monitor );
          }

          while( 1 )
          {
              foreach my $monitor ( @monitors )
              {
                  next if ( !zmMemVerify( $monitor ) );

                  if ( my $last_event_id = zmHasAlarmed( $monitor, $monitor->{LastEventId} ) )
                  {
                      $monitor->{LastEventId} = $last_event_id;
                      print( "Monitor ".$monitor->{Name}." has alarmed\n" );
                      #
                      # Do your stuff here
                      #
                  }
              }
              sleep( 1 );
          }

   Trouble Shooting
       Here are some things that will help you track down whats wrong.  This is also how to obtain the info that
       we need to help you on the forums.

   What logs should I check for errors?
       ZoneMinder creates its own logs and are usually located in the /tmp directory.

       The ZoneMinder logs for the RPM packages are located in /var/log/zm.

       Depending on your problem errors can show up in any of these logs but, usually the logs of  interest  are
       zmdc.log and zmpkg.log if ZM is not able to start.

       Now  since  ZM is dependent on other components to work, you might not find errors in ZM but in the other
       components.

          */var/log/messages and/or /var/log/syslog
          */var/log/dmesg
          */var/log/httpd/error_log`` (RedHat/Fedora) or ``/var/log/apache2/error_log
          */var/log/mysqld.log`` (Errors here don't happen very often but just in case)

       If ZM is not functioning, you should always be able to find an error in at least one of these  logs.  Use
       the [[tail]] command to get info from the logs. This can be done like so:
          tail -f /var/log/messages /var/log/httpd/error_log /var/log/zm/zm*.log

       This  will  append  any data entered to any of these logs to your console screen (-f). To exit, hit [ctrl
       -c].

       More verbose logging for the ZoneMinder binaries is available by  enabling  the  debug  option  from  the
       control  panel  and  will  be  placed  in  the path you have configured for the debug logs. Output can be
       limited to a specific binary as described in the Debug options page under the "?" marks.

   How can I trouble shoot the hardware and/or software?
       Here are some commands to get information about your hardware. Some commands are distribution  dependent.
       *  [[lspci]]  -vv -- Returns lots of detailed info. Check for conflicting interrupts or port assignments.
       You can sometimes alter interrupts/ ports in bios. Try a different pci slot to get a clue  if  it  is  HW
       conflict  (command  provided  by  the pciutils package).  * [[scanpci]] -v  -- Gives you information from
       your hardware EPROM * [[lsusb]] -vv -- Returns lots of detail  about  USB  devices  (camand  provided  by
       usbutils  package).   *  [[dmesg]] -- Shows you how your hardware initialized (or didn't) on boot-up. You
       will get the most use of this.  * [[v4l-info]] -- to see how driver is talking to card. look for  unusual
       values.   *  [[modinfo  bttv]]  --  some  bttv  driver  stats.   * [[zmu]]  -m 0 -q -v -- Returns various
       information regarding a monitor configuration.  *  [[ipcs]]  ``   --  Provides  information  on  the  ipc
       facilities  for which the calling process has read access.  * ``[[ipcrm]] ``  -- The ipcrm command can be
       used to remove an IPC object from the kernel.  *  ``cat  /proc/interrupts   --  This  will  dispaly  what
       interrupts your hardware is using.

   Why am I getting a 403 access error with my web browser when trying to access http //localhost/zm?
       The  apache  web  server  needs  to  have  the right permissions and configuration to be able to read the
       Zoneminder files. Check the forums for solution, and edit the apache configuration and  change  directory
       permissions  to  give  apache  the  right  to  read  the  Zoneminder  files. Depending on your Zoneminder
       configuration, you would use the zm user and group that Zoneminder was built with, such  as  wwwuser  and
       www.

   Why am I getting broken images when trying to view events?
       Zoneminder  and  the  Apache  web  server  need to have the right permissions. Check this forum topic and
       similar ones: http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=48754#48754

   Why is the image from my color camera appearing in black and white?
       If you recently upgraded to zoneminder 1.26, there is a per camera option  that  defaults  to  black  and
       white    and   can   be   mis-set   if   your   upgrade   didn't   happen   right.   See   this   thread:
       http://www.zoneminder.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=21344

       This may occur if you have a NTSC analog camera but have configured the source in ZoneMinder as  PAL  for
       the Device Format under the source tab.  You may also be mislead because zmu can report the video port as
       being PAL when the camera is actually NTSC.  Confirm the format of your analog camera  by  checking  it's
       technical  specifications, possibly found with the packaging it came in, on the manufacturers website, or
       even on the retail website where you purchased the camera.  Change the Device Format setting to NTSC  and
       set  it  to  the  lowest  resolution  of 320 x 240.  If you have confirmed that the camera itself is NTSC
       format, but don't  get  a  picture  using  the  NTSC  setting,  consider  increasing  the  shared  memory
       '''kernel.shmall'''  and  '''kernel.shmmax'''  settings  in  /etc/sysctl.conf  to  a larger value such as
       268435456.  This is also the reason you should start with the 320x240 resolution, so as to  minimize  the
       potential  of  memory problems which would interfere with your attempts to troubleshoot the device format
       issue.  Once you have obtained a picture in the monitor using the NTSC format, then  you  can  experiment
       with raising the resolution.

   Why do I only see blue screens with a timestamp when monitoring my camera?
       If  this  camera  is  attached  to  a capture card, then you may have selected the wrong Device Source or
       Channel when configuring the monitor in the ZoneMinder console.  If you have a capture card with 2  D-sub
       style  inputs(looks  like  a  VGA  port) to which you attach a provided splitter that splits off multiple
       cables, then the splitter may be attached to the wrong port.  For example, PV-149 capture cards have  two
       D-sub  style ports labeled as DB1 and DB2, and come packaged with a connector for one of these ports that
       splits into 4 BNC connecters.  The initial four video ports are available with the splitter  attached  to
       DB1.

   Why do I only see black screens with a timestamp when monitoring my camera?
       In  the  monitor  windows  where you see the black screen with a timestamp, select settings and enter the
       Brightness, Contrast, Hue, and Color settings reported for the  device  by  '''zmu  -d  <device_path>  -q
       -v'''.   32768  may  be  appropriate values to try for these settings.  After saving the settings, select
       Settings again to confirm they saved successfully.

   I am getting messages about a backtrace in my logs, what do I do?
       If you are seeing entries in your log like the following

          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: ERR [Backtrace: /lib64/libc.so.6 [0x3347230210]]
          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: ERR [Backtrace: /lib64/libc.so.6(memset+0xce) [0x334727684e]]
          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/local/bin/zma [0x40ee9a]]
          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/local/bin/zma [0x419946]]
          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/local/bin/zma [0x4213cf]]
          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/local/bin/zma(cos+0x35c) [0x404674]]
          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: ERR [Backtrace: /lib64/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf4) [0x334721da44]]
          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: ERR [Backtrace: /usr/local/bin/zma(cos+0xd1) [0x4043e9]]
          Jan 11 20:25:22 localhost zma_m2[19051]: INF [Backtrace complete]</pre>

       then you can help diagnose the problem by running a special command to translate the hex  addresses  into
       helpful  information.  This  command  is  called  addr2line  and  you  can  type 'man addr2line' for more
       information.  Basically addr2line takes two sets of parameters, the first is the name of the binary file,
       and the second is a list of addresses. Both of these pieces of information are displayed in the logs. The
       filename is the first part after the 'Backtrace:' tag, in this case  /usr/local/bin/zma,  though  it  may
       well  be  different in your case. Some of the lines refer to libraries rather than the zma executable but
       those can be ignored for now, the important part is noting which ZM binary is involved. The  binary  file
       is  passed  in  following the -e flag. The addresses to pass to addr2line are those contained in the '[]'
       pairs. Again you can ignore those that are on a line that refers to a library but it will not hurt if you
       include  them.   So  in  the example above, the command would be addr2line -e /usr/local/bin/zma 0x40ee9a
       0x419946 0x4213cf 0x404674 0x4043e9 This should then dump out a more symbolic list containing source file
       names  and  line  numbers,  and  it  is  this  information which will be helpful if posted to the forums.
       Sometimes addr2line fails to produce useful output. This is usually because  either  the  problem  is  so
       severe that it has corrupted the stack and prevented useful information from being displayed, or that you
       have either compiled ZM without the -g flag for debug, or  you  have  stripped  the  binaries  of  symbol
       information  after  installation. This this case you would need to rebuild temporarily with debug enabled
       for the information to be useful.

       This error some times happens when a linked camera looses its link or it is corrupted by the user or some
       other system event, try deleting the affected cameras and recreating them in the Zoneminder console.

   How do I repair the MySQL Database?
       There  is  two  ways  to go about this. In most cases you can run from the command prompt -> * mysqlcheck
       --all-databases --auto-repair -p'''your_database_password''' -u '''your_databse_user'''

       If that does not work then you will have to make sure that ZoneMinder is stopped then run  the  following
       (nothing  should  be  using  the database while running this and you will have to adjust for your correct
       path if it is different). -> * myisamchk --silent --force  --fast  --update-state  -O  key_buffer=64M  -O
       sort_buffer=64M -O read_buffer=1M -O write_buffer=1M /var/lib/mysql//.MYI

   How do I repair the MySQL Database when the cli fails?
       In Ubuntu, the commands listed above do not seem to work.  However, actually doing it by hand from within
       MySQL does.  (But that is beyond the scope of this document)  But that got me thinking...  And phpmyadmin
       does work.  Bring up a terminal.  sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

       Now go to http://zoneminder_IP/ and stop the ZM service.  Continue to http://zoneminder_IP/phpmyadmin and
       select the zoneminder database.  Select and tables marked 'in use' and pick the action 'repare'  to  fix.
       Restart the zoneminder service from the web browser.  Remove or disable the phpmyadmin tool, as it is not
       always the most secure thing around, and opens your database wide to any skilled  hacker.   sudo  apt-get
       remove phpmyadmin

   I upgraded by distribution and ZM stopped working
       Some    possibilties    (Incomplete    list    and   subject   to   correction)   [[/usr/local/bin/zmfix:
       /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.15: version `MYSQL_5.0' not found  (required  by  /usr/local/bin/zmfix)]]   ::
       Solution:  Recompile  and  reinstall  Zoneminder.   Any  time  you update a major version that ZoneMinder
       depends on, you need to recompile ZoneMinder.

   Zoneminder doesn't start automatically on boot
       Check the list for log entries like "zmfix[766]: ERR [Can't connect to server:  Can't  connect  to  local
       MySQL  server through socket '/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock' (2)] ".  What can happen is that zoneminder is
       started too quickly after Mysql and tries to contact the database server before  it's  ready.  Zoneminder
       gets  no  answer  and  aborts.   August 2010 - Ubuntu upgrades seem to be leaving several systems in this
       state. One way around this is to add a delay to the zoneminder startup script allowing  Mysql  to  finish
       starting.   "Simply  adding  'sleep  15'  in the line above 'zmfix -a' in the /etc/init.d/zoneminder file
       fixed my ZoneMinder startup problems!" - credit to Pada.

   Remote Path setup for Panasonic and other Camera
       On adding or editing the source you can select the preset link  for  the  parameters  for  the  specified
       camera  .   In  version  1.23.3  presets for BTTV,Axis,Panasonic,GadSpot,VEO, and BlueNet are available .
       Selecting the presets  ZM fills up the required value for the remote path variable

   Why do I get repeated/ mixed/unstable/ blank monitors on bt878-like cards (a.k.a. PICO 2000)
       Please have a check at [[Pico2000]];

   What causes Invalid JPEG file structure: two SOI markers from zmc (1.24.x)
       Some settings that used to be global only are now per camera.  On the Monitor  Source  tab,  if  you  are
       using Remote Protocol  "HTTP" and Remote Method "Simple", try changing Remote Method to "Regexp".

   Miscellaneous
   I see ZoneMinder is licensed under the GPL. What does that allow or restrict me in doing with ZoneMinder?
       The ZoneMinder license is described at the end of the documentation and consists of the following section
          This  program  is  free  software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
          General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the  License,
          or (at your option) any later version.

          This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
          the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A  PARTICULAR  PURPOSE.  See  the  GNU  General
          Public License for more details.

       This  means  that  ZoneMinder  is  licensed  under the terms described here. There is a comprehensive FAQ
       covering  the  GPL  at  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html  but  in  essence  you  are  allowed  to
       redistribute or modify GPL licensed software provided that you release your distribution or modifications
       freely under the same terms. You are allowed to sell systems based on GPL software. You are  not  allowed
       to  restrict or reduce the rights of GPL software in your distribution however. Of course if you are just
       making modifications for your system locally you are not releasing changes so you have no obligations  in
       this case. I recommend reading the GPL FAQ for more in-depth coverage of this issue.

   Can I use ZoneMinder as part of my commercial product?
       The  GPL  license  allows  you produce systems based on GPL software provided your systems also adhere to
       that license and any modifications you make are also released under the same terms.   The  GPL  does  not
       permit       you       to       include       ZoneMinder       in      proprietary      systems      (see
       http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLInProprietarySystem for details).  If  you  wish  to  include
       ZoneMinder in this kind of system then you will need to license ZoneMinder under different terms. This is
       sometimes possible and you will need to contact me for further details in these circumstances.

CONTRIBUTING

       Source hosted at GitHub Report issues/questions/feature requests on GitHub Issues

       Pull requests are very welcome! If you would like to contribute, please follow the following steps.

       • Fork the repo

       • Open an issue at our GitHub Issues Tracker. Describe the bug that you've found, or  the  feature  which
         you're asking for. Jot down the issue number (e.g. 456)

       • Create your feature branch (git checkout -b 456-my-new-feature)

       • Commit  your  changes  (git  commit -m 'Added some feature') It is preferred that you 'commit early and
         often' instead of bunching all changes into a single commit.

       • Push your branch to your fork on github (git push origin 456-my-new-feature)

       • Create new Pull Request

       • The team will then review, discuss and hopefully merge your changes.

       Welcome to ZoneMinder's documentation, the following resources are available

       userguide/index
              Guide to setting up ZoneMinder for the first time and detailed guides  for  using  the  ZoneMinder
              front end.

       api    Information on using the CakePHP based API for interfacing to ZoneMinder

       faq    Frequently Asked Questions

       contributing
              How  to contribute to ZoneMinder. As a community project we always need help, you don't need to be
              a coder to test or update documentation.

       • genindex

       • modindex

       • search

AUTHOR

       https://github.com/ZoneMinder/ZoneMinder/graphs/contributors

       2014, https://github.com/ZoneMinder/ZoneMinder/graphs/contributors

                                                 April 05, 2016                                    ZONEMINDER(1)