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Guennadi Liakhovetski55093282011-09-28 08:10:58 -03001<refentry id="vidioc-create-bufs">
2 <refmeta>
3 <refentrytitle>ioctl VIDIOC_CREATE_BUFS</refentrytitle>
4 &manvol;
5 </refmeta>
6
7 <refnamediv>
8 <refname>VIDIOC_CREATE_BUFS</refname>
9 <refpurpose>Create buffers for Memory Mapped or User Pointer I/O</refpurpose>
10 </refnamediv>
11
12 <refsynopsisdiv>
13 <funcsynopsis>
14 <funcprototype>
15 <funcdef>int <function>ioctl</function></funcdef>
16 <paramdef>int <parameter>fd</parameter></paramdef>
17 <paramdef>int <parameter>request</parameter></paramdef>
18 <paramdef>struct v4l2_create_buffers *<parameter>argp</parameter></paramdef>
19 </funcprototype>
20 </funcsynopsis>
21 </refsynopsisdiv>
22
23 <refsect1>
24 <title>Arguments</title>
25
26 <variablelist>
27 <varlistentry>
28 <term><parameter>fd</parameter></term>
29 <listitem>
30 <para>&fd;</para>
31 </listitem>
32 </varlistentry>
33 <varlistentry>
34 <term><parameter>request</parameter></term>
35 <listitem>
36 <para>VIDIOC_CREATE_BUFS</para>
37 </listitem>
38 </varlistentry>
39 <varlistentry>
40 <term><parameter>argp</parameter></term>
41 <listitem>
42 <para></para>
43 </listitem>
44 </varlistentry>
45 </variablelist>
46 </refsect1>
47
48 <refsect1>
49 <title>Description</title>
50
51 <para>This ioctl is used to create buffers for <link linkend="mmap">memory
52mapped</link> or <link linkend="userp">user pointer</link>
53I/O. It can be used as an alternative or in addition to the
54<constant>VIDIOC_REQBUFS</constant> ioctl, when a tighter control over buffers
55is required. This ioctl can be called multiple times to create buffers of
56different sizes.</para>
57
58 <para>To allocate device buffers applications initialize relevant fields of
59the <structname>v4l2_create_buffers</structname> structure. They set the
60<structfield>type</structfield> field in the
61<structname>v4l2_format</structname> structure, embedded in this
62structure, to the respective stream or buffer type.
63<structfield>count</structfield> must be set to the number of required buffers.
64<structfield>memory</structfield> specifies the required I/O method. The
65<structfield>format</structfield> field shall typically be filled in using
66either the <constant>VIDIOC_TRY_FMT</constant> or
67<constant>VIDIOC_G_FMT</constant> ioctl(). Additionally, applications can adjust
68<structfield>sizeimage</structfield> fields to fit their specific needs. The
69<structfield>reserved</structfield> array must be zeroed.</para>
70
71 <para>When the ioctl is called with a pointer to this structure the driver
72will attempt to allocate up to the requested number of buffers and store the
73actual number allocated and the starting index in the
74<structfield>count</structfield> and the <structfield>index</structfield> fields
75respectively. On return <structfield>count</structfield> can be smaller than
76the number requested. The driver may also increase buffer sizes if required,
77however, it will not update <structfield>sizeimage</structfield> field values.
78The user has to use <constant>VIDIOC_QUERYBUF</constant> to retrieve that
79information.</para>
80
81 <table pgwide="1" frame="none" id="v4l2-create-buffers">
82 <title>struct <structname>v4l2_create_buffers</structname></title>
83 <tgroup cols="3">
84 &cs-str;
85 <tbody valign="top">
86 <row>
87 <entry>__u32</entry>
88 <entry><structfield>index</structfield></entry>
89 <entry>The starting buffer index, returned by the driver.</entry>
90 </row>
91 <row>
92 <entry>__u32</entry>
93 <entry><structfield>count</structfield></entry>
94 <entry>The number of buffers requested or granted.</entry>
95 </row>
96 <row>
97 <entry>&v4l2-memory;</entry>
98 <entry><structfield>memory</structfield></entry>
99 <entry>Applications set this field to
100<constant>V4L2_MEMORY_MMAP</constant> or
101<constant>V4L2_MEMORY_USERPTR</constant>.</entry>
102 </row>
103 <row>
104 <entry>&v4l2-format;</entry>
105 <entry><structfield>format</structfield></entry>
106 <entry>Filled in by the application, preserved by the driver.</entry>
107 </row>
108 <row>
109 <entry>__u32</entry>
110 <entry><structfield>reserved</structfield>[8]</entry>
111 <entry>A place holder for future extensions.</entry>
112 </row>
113 </tbody>
114 </tgroup>
115 </table>
116 </refsect1>
117
118 <refsect1>
119 &return-value;
120
121 <variablelist>
122 <varlistentry>
123 <term><errorcode>ENOMEM</errorcode></term>
124 <listitem>
125 <para>No memory to allocate buffers for <link linkend="mmap">memory
126mapped</link> I/O.</para>
127 </listitem>
128 </varlistentry>
129 <varlistentry>
130 <term><errorcode>EINVAL</errorcode></term>
131 <listitem>
132 <para>The buffer type (<structfield>type</structfield> field) or the
133requested I/O method (<structfield>memory</structfield>) is not
134supported.</para>
135 </listitem>
136 </varlistentry>
137 </variablelist>
138 </refsect1>
139</refentry>