Chapter 3. Input/Output

Table of Contents
3.1. Read/Write
3.2. Streaming I/O (Memory Mapping)
3.3. Streaming I/O (User Pointers)
3.4. Asynchronous I/O
3.5. Buffers
3.6. Field Order

The V4L2 API defines several different methods to read from or write to a device. All drivers exchanging data with applications must support at least one of them.

The classic I/O method using the read() and write() function is automatically selected after opening a V4L2 device. When the driver does not support this method attempts to read or write will fail at any time.

Other methods must be negotiated. To select the streaming I/O method with memory mapped or user buffers applications call the VIDIOC_REQBUFS ioctl. The asynchronous I/O method is not defined yet.

Video overlay can be considered another I/O method, although the application does not directly receive the image data. It is selected by initiating video overlay with the VIDIOC_S_FMT ioctl. For more information see Section 4.2.

Generally exactly one I/O method, including overlay, is associated with each file descriptor. The only exceptions are applications not exchanging data with a driver ("panel applications", see Section 1.1) and drivers permitting simultaneous video capturing and overlay using the same file descriptor, for compatibility with V4L and earlier versions of V4L2.

VIDIOC_S_FMT and VIDIOC_REQBUFS would permit this to some degree, but for simplicity drivers need not support switching the I/O method (after first switching away from read/write) other than by closing and reopening the device.

The following sections describe the various I/O methods in more detail.

3.1. Read/Write

Input and output devices support the read() and write() function, respectively, when the V4L2_CAP_READWRITE flag in the capabilities field of struct v4l2_capability returned by the VIDIOC_QUERYCAP ioctl is set.

Drivers may need the CPU to copy the data, but they may also support DMA to or from user memory, so this I/O method is not necessarily less efficient than other methods merely exchanging buffer pointers. It is considered inferior though because no meta-information like frame counters or timestamps are passed. This information is necessary to recognize frame dropping and to synchronize with other data streams. However this is also the simplest I/O method, requiring little or no setup to exchange data. It permits command line stunts like this (the vidctrl tool is fictitious):

> vidctrl /dev/video --input=0 --format=YUYV --size=352x288
> dd if=/dev/video of=myimage.422 bs=202752 count=1

To read from the device applications use the read() function, to write the write() function. Drivers must implement one I/O method if they exchange data with applications, but it need not be this.[1] When reading or writing is supported, the driver must also support the select() and poll() function.[2]

Notes

[1]

It would be desirable if applications could depend on drivers supporting all I/O interfaces, but as much as the complex memory mapping I/O can be inadequate for some devices we have no reason to require this interface, which is most useful for simple applications capturing still images.

[2]

At the driver level select() and poll() are the same, and select() is too important to be optional.