path: root/vdr.1

'\" t
.\" ** The above line should force tbl to be a preprocessor **
.\" Man page for vdr
.\"
.\" Copyright (C) 2013 Klaus Schmidinger
.\"
.\" You may distribute under the terms of the GNU General Public
.\" License as specified in the file COPYING that comes with the
.\" vdr distribution.
.\"
.\" $Id: vdr.1 4.1 2015/04/18 14:25:07 kls Exp $
.\"
.TH vdr 1 "19 Feb 2015" "2.2" "Video Disk Recorder"
.SH NAME
vdr \- the Video Disk Recorder
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B vdr
[options]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B vdr
implements a complete digital Set-Top Box and Video Recorder.
It can work with signals received from satellites (DVB-S) as
well as cable (DVB-C) and terrestrial (DVB-T) signals.

At least one DVB card is required to run \fBvdr\fR. With it you can watch
live TV while recording one or more other broadcasts from the same transponder.
It is also possible to start watching a recorded programme before the live
broadcast has ended (\fBtime shifting\fR). In order to record from different
transponders simultaneously two or more DVB cards are necessary.
By default \fBvdr\fR can support up to eight DVB cards.
The primary DVB card (the one your TV set is connected to) can either
be a "full featured" card, which means it contains an MPEG decoder
and provides audio and video signal outputs, or you can use some third party
plugin that implements software decoding of the MPEG data and displays it via
the system's graphics adapter.

\fBvdr\fR uses an On Screen Display (OSD) to display its menus.
It can be controlled by the PC keyboard, the "Linux Infrared Remote Control" (LIRC),
or any other means of remote control, implemented by a third party plugin.

Remote access is possible via the "Simple Video Disk Recorder Protocol" (SVDRP),
which can be accessed on port 6419, for instance by \fBtelnet\fR.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.BI \-a\  cmd ,\ \-\-audio= cmd
Send Dolby Digital audio to stdin of command \fIcmd\fR.
.TP
.BI \-\-cachedir= dir
Save cache files in \fIdir\fR
(default is to save them in the video directory).
.TP
.BI \-\-chartab= character_table
Set the character table to use for strings in the DVB data stream that don't begin
with a character table indicator, but don't use the standard default character table
(for instance ISO-8859-9).
.TP
.BI \-c\  dir ,\ \-\-config= dir
Read config files from directory \fIdir\fR
(default is to read them from the video directory).
.TP
.B \-d, \-\-daemon
Run in daemon mode (implies \-\-no\-kbd).
.TP
.BI \-D\  num ,\ \-\-device= num
Use only the given DVB device (\fInum\fR = 0, 1, 2...).
There may be several \fB\-D\fR options (by default all DVB devices will be used).
If \fB\-D\-\fR is given, no DVB devices will be used at all, independent of any
other \-D options.
.TP
.BI \-\-dirnames= path [, name [, enc ]]
Set the maximum directory path length to \fIpath\fR (default is the maximum value
allowed on the system). If \fIname\fR is also given, it defines the maximum directory
name length (default is the maximum value allowed on the system).  The optional
\fIenc\fR can be 0 or 1, and controls whether special characters in directory names
are encoded as hex values (default: 0).
If \fIpath\fR or \fIname\fR are left empty (as in ",,1" to only set \fIenc\fR), the defaults apply.
The length of the video directory name and that of the actual recording directory is
subtracted from \fIpath\fR, to make sure the directory path will never become too long.
.TP
.BI \-\-edit= rec
Edit the given recording.
\fIrec\fR must be the full path name of an existing recording.
The program will return immediately after editing the recording.
.TP
.BI \-E\  file ,\ \-\-epgfile= file
Write the EPG data into the given \fIfile\fR
(default is \fIepg.data\fR in the cache directory).
Use \fB\-E\-\fR to disable this.
If \fIfile\fR is a directory, the file \fIepg.data\fR
will be created in that directory.
.TP
.BI \-\-filesize= size
Limit video files to \fIsize\fR bytes (default is 2000M).
This option is only useful in conjunction with --edit, and must precede that
option to have an effect.
\fIsize\fR is an integer number and may be followed by one of the letters K, M, G or T
to abbreviate Kilo-, Mega-, Giga- or Terabyte, respectively.
The given value is silently limited to the program's internal minimum and
maximum values.
.TP
.BI \-\-genindex= rec
Generate the index file for the given recording.
\fIrec\fR must be the full path name of an existing recording.
The recording must be in TS format.
If the recording already has an index file, it will be deleted
before creating the new one.
The program will return immediately after generating the index.
Note that using this option while another instance of VDR is
currently replaying the given recording, or if the recording
has not been finished yet, may lead to unexpected results.
.TP
.BI \-g,\ \-\-grab= dir
Write images from the SVDRP command GRAB into the
given directory \fIdir\fR. \fIdir\fR must be the full path name of an
existing directory, without any "..", double '/'
or symlinks. By default, or if \fB\-g\-\fR is given,
grabbing images to disk is disabled.
.TP
.B \-h, \-\-help
Print a help message and exit.
.TP
.BI \-i\  instance ,\ \-\-instance= instance
Use \fIinstance\fR as the id of this VDR instance (default is 0).
In an environment where several instances of VDR use the same video
directory, this parameter can be set to a positive integer value
that's unique for each instance, so that they won't interfere with
each other in case they record exactly the same broadcast.
The number given here will be part of the directory name in which
the recordings will be stored.
.TP
.BI \-l\  level ,\ \-\-log= level
Set logging to \fIlevel\fR.
\fB0\fR\ =\ no logging, \fB1\fR\ =\ errors only,
\fB2\fR\ =\ errors and info, \fB3\fR\ =\ errors, info and debug.
The default logging level is \fB3\fR.
If logging should be done to LOG_LOCAL\fIn\fR instead of
LOG_USER, add '.n' to LEVEL, as in 3.7 (n=0..7).
.TP
.BI \-L\  dir ,\ \-\-lib= dir
Search for plugins in directory \fIdir\fR (default is ./PLUGINS/lib).
There can be several \fB\-L\fR options with different \fIdir\fR values.
Each of them will apply to the \fB\-P\fR options following it.
.TP
.BI \-\-lirc[= path ]
Use a LIRC remote control device.
If \fIpath\fR is omitted, vdr uses \fI/var/run/lirc/lircd\fR.
.TP
.BI \-\-localedir= dir
Search for locale files in \fIdir\fR (default is ./locale).
.TP
.B \-m, \-\-mute
Mute audio of the primary DVB device at startup.
.TP
.B \-\-no\-kbd
Don't use the keyboard as an input device.
.TP
.BI \-p\  port ,\ \-\-port= port
Use \fIport\fR for SVDRP. A value of \fB0\fR turns off SVDRP.
The default SVDRP port is \fB6419\fR.
You need to edit the file \fIsvdrphosts.conf\fR in order to enable
access to the SVDRP port.
.TP
.BI \-P\  options ,\ \-\-plugin= options
Load a plugin, defined by the given \fIoptions\fR.
The first word in \fIoptions\fR must be the name of an existing \fBvdr\fR
plugin, optionally followed by a blank separated list of command line options
for that plugin. If \fIoptions\fR contains any blanks, you need to enclose it
in quotes, like for example

\fBvdr \-P "abc \-a \-b xyz"\fR

which would load a plugin named \fBabc\fR, giving it the command line options
\fB\-a\ \-b\ xyz\fR. If you want to load all available plugins (without any
particular options) you can use

\fBvdr \-P "*"\fR

(note the quotes around the asterisk to prevent wildcard expansion).
.TP
.BI \-r\  cmd ,\ \-\-record= cmd
Call \fIcmd\fR before and after a recording. See the file \fIINSTALL\fR for
more information.
.TP
.BI \-\-resdir= dir
Read resource files from \fIdir\fR
(default is to read them from the config directory).
.TP
.BI \-\-showargs[= dir ]
Read command line arguments from \fIdir\fR (default is \fI/etc/vdr/conf.d\fR),
display them to the console and exit.
.TP
.BI \-s\  cmd ,\ \-\-shutdown= cmd
Call \fIcmd\fR to shutdown the computer. See the file \fIINSTALL\fR for more
information.
.TP
.BI \-\-split
Split edited files at the editing marks.
This option is only useful in conjunction with --edit, and must precede that
option to have an effect.
.TP
.BI \-t\  tty ,\ \-\-terminal= tty
Set the controlling terminal.
.TP
.BI \-u\  user ,\ \-\-user= user
Run as user \fIuser\fR in case vdr was started as user 'root'.
Starting vdr as 'root' is necessary if the system time shall
be set from the transponder data, but for security reasons
vdr can switch to a lesser privileged user id during normal
operation.
.TP
.BI \-\-updindex= rec
Update the index file for the given recording.
\fIrec\fR must be the full path name of an existing recording.
The recording must be in TS format.
If the recording already has an index file, it will be checked
whether it is complete, and will be updated if it isn't. If
there is no index file yet, a new one will be generated.
The program will return immediately after updating the index.
Note that using this option while another instance of VDR is
currently replaying the given recording, or if the recording
has not been finished yet, may lead to unexpected results.
.TP
.BI \-\-userdump
Allow coredumps if -u is given (only for debugging).
.TP
.BI \-\-vfat
For backwards compatibility (same as \-\-dirnames= 250,40,1).
.TP
.BI \-v\  dir ,\ \-\-video= dir
Use \fIdir\fR as video directory.
The default is \fI/video\fR.
.TP
.B \-V, \-\-version
Print version information and exit.
.TP
.BI \-w\  sec ,\ \-\-watchdog= sec
Activate the watchdog timer with a timeout of \fIsec\fR seconds.
A value of \fB0\fR (default) disables the watchdog.
.P
If started without any options, vdr tries to read command line options
from files named '*.conf' in the directory /etc/vdr/conf.d. Files are
read in alphabetical order. See vdr(5) for details.
.SH SIGNALS
.TP
.B SIGINT, SIGTERM
Program exits with status 0.
.TP
.B SIGHUP
Program exits with status 1. This can be used to force a reload, for example
if an update has been installed.
.SH EXIT STATUS
.TP
.B 0
Successful program execution.
.TP
.B 1
An error has been detected which requires the DVB driver and \fBvdr\fR
to be reloaded.
.TP
.B 2
An non-recoverable error has been detected, \fBvdr\fR has given up.
.SH FILES
.TP
.I channels.conf
Channel configuration.
.TP
.I timers.conf
Timer configuration.
.TP
.I setup.conf
User definable setup.
.TP
.I commands.conf
User definable commands (executed from the \fBCommands\fR menu).
.TP
.I svdrphosts.conf
SVDRP host configuration, defining which hosts or networks are given
access to the SVDRP port.
.TP
.I marks
Contains the editing marks defined for a recording.
.TP
.I info
Contains a description of the recording.
.TP
.I resume
Contains the index into the recording where the last replay session left off.
.TP
.I index
Contains the file number, offset and type of each frame of the recording.
.TP
.I remote.conf
Contains the key assignments for the remote control.
.TP
.I keymacros.conf
Contains user defined remote control key macros.
.TP
.IR 00001.ts\  ...\  65535.ts
The actual data files of a recording.
.TP
.I epg.data
Contains all current EPG data. Can be used for external processing and will
also be read at program startup to have the full EPG data available immediately.
.TP
.I .update
If this file is present in the video directory, its last modification time will
be used to trigger an update of the list of recordings in the "Recordings" menu.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR vdr (5), svdrpsend (1)
.SH AUTHOR
Written by Klaus Schmidinger, with contributions from many others.
See the file \fICONTRIBUTORS\fR in the \fBvdr\fR source distribution.
.SH REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to <vdr\-bugs@tvdr.de>.
.SH COPYRIGHT
Copyright \(co 2013 Klaus Schmidinger.

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.