Development: Video4Linux APIs

Development stages of the Video4Linux application programming interface (API).

Video4Linux

v4l (also known as v4l1) is the original video capture/overlay API of the linux kernel. It appeared late in the 2.1.x development cycle of the linux kernel. Support for the v4l API was dropped from the 2.5.x branch with the 2.6.15 kernel release, but remains in the 2.4.x branch.

• Linux v4l API - Obsoleted
  • VIDEO_PALETTE_RAW

Video4Linux2

v4l2 is the second generation of the video4linux API which fixes a number of design bugs of the first version. It was integrated into the standard kernel in 2.5.x.

• Linux v4l2 API

Starting in October 2006, Jon Corbet started publishing a series of articles to document v4l2 internals, including video_ioctl2, at lwn:

• The Video4Linux2 API: an introduction (updated as new articles are published)
  • Part 2: registration and open()
  • Part 3: Basic ioctl() handling
  • Part 4: Inputs and Outputs
  • Part 5a: Colors and formats

Video4Linux3

• Discussion of v4l api version 3