<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso8859-1"?>

<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
     "http://docbook.org/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>

<book id="vls-user-guide">

<bookinfo>

<title>
VLS user guide

</title>

<authorgroup>
  <author>
    <firstname>Cyril</firstname>
    <surname>Deguet</surname>
  </author>
  <author>
    <firstname>Alexis</firstname>
    <surname>de Lattre</surname>
  </author>
</authorgroup>

<copyright>
    <year>2002, 2003</year>
    <holder>
the VideoLAN project

</holder>
</copyright>

<legalnotice>

<para>Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version
1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation ;
with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no
Back-Cover Texts. The text of the license can be found in the appendix
<xref linkend="gfdl" endterm="tgfdl"/>.</para>

</legalnotice>

<keywordset>
    <keyword>VideoLAN</keyword>
    <keyword>VLS</keyword>
    <keyword>stream</keyword>
    <keyword>multicast</keyword>
    <keyword>MPEG-1</keyword>
    <keyword>MPEG-2</keyword>
    <keyword>MPEG-4</keyword>
    <keyword>DVD</keyword>
    <keyword>DVB</keyword>
</keywordset>

<abstract>

<para>
This document is the complete user guide of VLS

.</para>

</abstract>

</bookinfo>


<toc/>


<chapter id="intro"><title id="tintro">Introduction</title>

<sect1><title>
What is the VideoLAN project ?

</title>

<sect2><title>
Overview

</title>


<para>VideoLAN is a complete software solution for video streaming, developed
by students of the <ulink url="http://www.ecp.fr">Ecole Centrale
Paris</ulink> and developers from all over the world, under the
<ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public
License</ulink> (GPL). VideoLAN is designed to stream MPEG videos on high
bandwidth networks.</para>

<para>The VideoLAN solution includes :</para>






<itemizedlist>


<listitem><para>VLS (VideoLAN Server), which can stream MPEG-1, MPEG-2
and MPEG-4 files, DVDs, digital satellite channels, digital terrestial
television channels and live videos on the network in unicast or
multicast,</para></listitem>





<listitem><para>VLC (initially VideoLAN Client), which can be used as
a server to stream MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files, DVDs and live
videos on the network in unicast or multicast ; or used as a client
to receive, decode and display MPEG streams under multiple operating
systems.</para></listitem>




</itemizedlist>


<para>Here is an illustration of the complete VideoLAN solution :</para>




<figure float="0"><title>
Global VideoLAN solution
La solution VideoLAN globale
</title>

<mediaobject>
  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="images/global-diagram.jpg" format="JPG" scalefit="1" scale="60"/>
  </imageobject>
</mediaobject>
</figure>


<para>More details about the project can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/">VideoLAN Web site</ulink>.</para>


</sect2>

<sect2><title>
VideoLAN software

</title>

<simplesect><title>VLC</title>


<para>VLC works on many platforms : Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, BeOS,
*BSD, Solaris, Familiar Linux, Yopy/Linupy and QNX. It can read :</para>




<itemizedlist>


<listitem><para>MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, 
a CD-ROM drive, ...</para></listitem>




<listitem><para>DVDs and VCDs,</para></listitem>




<listitem><para>from a satellite card (DVB-S),</para></listitem>




<listitem><para>MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 streams from the
network sent by VLS or VLC's stream output.</para></listitem>



</itemizedlist>

<para>
VLC can also be used as a server to stream :

</para>

<itemizedlist>


<listitem><para>MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files,</para></listitem>




<listitem><para>DVDs,</para></listitem>




<listitem><para>from an MPEG encoding card,</para></listitem>



</itemizedlist>

<para>
 to :
 </para>

<itemizedlist>


<listitem><para>one machine (i.e. to one IP address) : this is called
<emphasis>unicast</emphasis>,</para></listitem>




<listitem><para>a dynamic group of machines that the clients can
join or leave (i.e. to a multicast IP address) : this is called
<emphasis>multicast</emphasis>,</para></listitem>



</itemizedlist>

<para>in IPv4 or IPv6
      .</para>


<para>To get the complete list of VLC's possibilities
on each plateform supported, see the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html">VLC features
page</ulink>.</para>





<note><para>
VLC doesn't work on Mac OS 9, and will
probably never do.

</para></note>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>VLS</title>

<para>
 VLS can stream :
 
</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
an MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 files stored on a hard drive
or on a CD,

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
a DVD located in a local DVD drive or copied on a hard
disk,

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
a satellite card (DVB-S) or a digital terrestial
television card (DVB-T)

,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
an MPEG encoding card

 ;</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>to:</para>

<itemizedlist>


<listitem><para>one machine (i.e. to one IP address) : this is called
<emphasis>unicast</emphasis>,</para></listitem>




<listitem><para>a dynamic group of machines that the clients can
join or leave (i.e. to a multicast IP address) : this is called
<emphasis>multicast</emphasis>,</para></listitem>



</itemizedlist>

<para>in IPv4 or IPv6
      .</para>


<para>A Pentium 100 MHz with 32 MB of memory should be enough to send one
stream on the network. When streaming a lot of videos stored on a
hard drive, the actual limitation is not the processor but the hard
drive and the network connection.</para>




<para>VLS works under Linux and Windows. To get the complete
list of VLS's possibilities on each plateform supported, see the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/streaming/features.html">streaming features
page</ulink>.</para>





</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>Mini-SAP-server</title>

<para>
You can add a channel information service based on the SAP/SDP
standard to the VideoLAN solution. The mini-SAP-server sends announces
about the multicast programs on the network in IPv4 or IPv6, and VLCs
receive these annouces and automatically add the programs announced to
their playlist.

</para>

<para>
The mini-SAP-server works under Linux and Mac OS X.

</para>

</simplesect>
</sect2>
</sect1>

<sect1><title>

What is a codec ?
</title>



<para>
To fully understand the VideoLAN solution, you must
understand the difference between a <emphasis>codec</emphasis> and a
<emphasis>container format</emphasis>

</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
A <emphasis>codec</emphasis> is a compression
algorithm, used to reduce the size of a stream. There are audio codecs
and video codecs. MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, Vorbis, DivX, ... are
codecs

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
A <emphasis>container format</emphasis> contains
one or several streams already encoded by codecs. Very often, there
is an audio stream and a video one. AVI, Ogg, MOV, ASF, ... are
container formats. The streams contained can be encoded using different
codecs. In a perfect world, you could put any codec in any container
format. Unfortunately, there are some incompatibilities. You can
find a matrix of possible codecs and container formats on the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/streaming/features.html">features
page</ulink>


</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>
To decode a stream, VLC first
<emphasis>demuxes</emphasis> it. This means that it reads the container
format and separates audio, video, and subtitles, if any. Then, each of
these are passed <emphasis>decoders</emphasis> that do the mathematical
processing to decompress the streams

.</para>


<para>
There is a particular thing about MPEG:

</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
MPEG is a <emphasis>codec</emphasis>. There are
several versions of it, called MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, ...

</para></listitem>

<listitem>

<para>MPEG is also a container format, sometimes refered
to as <emphasis>MPEG System</emphasis>. There are several types of MPEG:
ES, PS, and TS</para>
<para>When you play an MPEG video from a DVD, for instance, the MPEG
stream is actually composed of several streams (called Elementary
Streams, ES): there is one stream for video, one for audio, another for
subtitles, and so on. These different streams are mixed together into a
single Program Stream (PS). So, the .VOB files you can find in a DVD are
actually MPEG-PS files. But this PS format is not adapted for streaming
video through a network or by satellite, for instance. So, another
format called Transport Stream (TS) was designed for streaming MPEG
videos through such channels.</para>



</listitem>
</itemizedlist>


</sect1>

<sect1><title>
How can I use VideoLAN ?

</title>

<sect2><title>Documentation</title>

<para>
The user documentation of VideoLAN is made up of 4 documents :


</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
the <emphasis>VideoLAN Quickstart</emphasis>. This
document will give you a quick overview of VLC, VLC's stream output,
the Video On Demand solution and the channel information service
system.

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
the <emphasis>VideoLAN HOWTO</emphasis>. This
document is the complete guide of the VideoLAN streaming
solution.

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
the <emphasis>VLC user guide</emphasis>. This document
is the complete guide for VLC.

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
the <emphasis>VLS user guide</emphasis>. This document
is the complete guide for VLS.

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
the <emphasis>VideoLAN FAQ</emphasis>.
This document contains Frequently Asked Questions about
VideoLAN.

</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>

The latest version of these documents can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/doc/">documentation page</ulink>

.</para>

<para>

You can also have a look at the <ulink url="http://wiki.videolan.org">VideoLAN Wiki</ulink>. This is a website
that everyone can change. We use it to document everything that is not
in the &quot;official&quot; documentation: the tips and tricks for each O.S., the
graphical interfaces, etc...


</para>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>
User support

</title>

<para>

If you have problems using VideoLAN, and if you don't find the
answer to your problems in the documentation, please look at the <ulink url="http://www.via.ecp.fr/via/ml/videolan/index-en.html">online
archive of the mailing-lists</ulink>. There are two English-speaking
mailing-lists for the users :


</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para><emphasis>vlc@videolan.org</emphasis>
 for the questions on VLC
 
,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><emphasis>streaming@videolan.org</emphasis> 
 for the questions on VLS, mini-SAP-server
    and the network
 
.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>

If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe to the mailing-lists,
please go to the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/support/lists.html">
mailing-list page</ulink>.


</para>

<para>
You can also talk with VideoLAN users and developers on IRC :
server <emphasis>irc.freenode.net</emphasis>, channel
<emphasis>#videolan</emphasis>

.</para>

<para>
If you find a bug, please follow the instructions on 
the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/support/bug-reporting.html">
bug reporting page</ulink>

.</para>

</sect2>
</sect1>

<sect1><title>
Command line usage

</title>

<itemizedlist>


<listitem><para>

VLC has many different graphical interfaces, that
are organized quite differently in order to be in harmony with the
guidelines of each operating system supported. Documenting the use
of each graphical interface is too long, and some features are only
available via the command line interface. Therefore we decided to
document only the command line interface, but in many cases it shoud
be easy to guess how to use the graphical interface for the same use
!


</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
VLS has a command line and a telnet interface, but no
graphical interface !

</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>

All the commands that show up in this document should be typed
inside a terminal.
.</para>

<sect2><title>
Open a terminal

</title>

<simplesect><title>Windows</title>

<para>
Click on <emphasis>Start</emphasis>,
<emphasis>Run</emphasis> and type :

</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para><command moreinfo="none">cmd</command> <keycap moreinfo="none">Enter</keycap>
(Windows 2000 / XP),</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><command moreinfo="none">command</command> <keycap moreinfo="none">Enter</keycap>
(Windows 95 / 98 / ME).</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>
The terminal appears
Le terminal apparait
</para>

<figure float="0"><title>Windows terminal</title>
<mediaobject>
  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="images/terminal-windows.jpg" format="JPG" scalefit="1" scale="60"/>
  </imageobject>
</mediaobject>
</figure>

<note><para>
Under Windows, you need to be in the directory where the
program is installed to run it.
</para></note>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>Linux / Unix</title>

<para>
Open a terminal

 :</para>

<figure float="0"><title>Linux X terminal</title>
<mediaobject>
  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="images/terminal-linux.jpg" format="JPG" scalefit="1" scale="60"/>
  </imageobject>
</mediaobject>
</figure>

<para>
In the documentation, we adopt the following 
conventions for the Unix commands :

</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
commands that should be typed as
<emphasis>root</emphasis> have a <command moreinfo="none">#</command> prompt :

</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none"># </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">command_to_be_typed_as_root</userinput>
</screen>

</listitem>

<listitem><para>
commands that should be typed as a regular user have a
<command moreinfo="none">%</command> prompt :

</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">command_to_be_typed_as_regular_user</userinput>
</screen>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>Mac OS X</title>

<para>

Go to <emphasis>Applications</emphasis>, open the
folder <emphasis>Utilities</emphasis> and double-click on
<emphasis>Terminal</emphasis>

 :</para>

<figure float="0"><title>Mac OS X terminal</title>
<mediaobject>
  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="images/terminal-macosx.jpg" format="JPG" scalefit="1" scale="60"/>
  </imageobject>
</mediaobject>
</figure>

<note><para>
Under Mac OS X, you need to be in the directory where
the program is installed to run it, and start the command with
<command moreinfo="none">./</command> 

.</para></note>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>BeOS</title>

<para>
In the deskbar, go to <emphasis>Application</emphasis> and then
<emphasis>Terminal</emphasis> :
</para>

<figure float="0"><title>BeOS terminal</title>
<mediaobject>
  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="images/terminal-beos.jpg" format="JPG" scalefit="1" scale="60"/>
  </imageobject>
</mediaobject>
</figure>

<note><para>
Under BeOS, you need to be in the directory where
the program is installed to run it, and start the command with
<command moreinfo="none">./</command>

.</para></note>

</simplesect>
</sect2>
</sect1>

</chapter>



<chapter id="install"><title id="tinstall">
Installing VLS
</title>

<sect1><title>
Installing VLS
</title>


<sect2><title>Windows</title>

<para>
Download the ZIP file from the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/streaming/download-vls-windows.html">VLS
Windows download page</ulink>, unzip-it and run
<filename moreinfo="none">setup.exe</filename>

.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>GNULinux &amp; Mac OS X</title>

<simplesect><title>
Install the libraries

</title>

<para>
Many libraries are needed for particular uses

</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para><emphasis>libdvbpsi</emphasis> 
(always needed)

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><emphasis>libdvdcss</emphasis>
if you want to be able to access encrypted DVDs

,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><emphasis>libdvdread</emphasis>
if you want to be able to stream DVDs

,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para><emphasis>libdvb</emphasis>
 if you want to be able to stream from a DVB card (a
satellite card or a digital terrestial TV card)

.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>
Download the libraries from the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/streaming/download-vls-sources.html">VLS
sources download page</ulink>

.</para>

<para>
For each library, uncompress, configure
(unless for <emphasis>libdvb</emphasis> which doesn't have a
<emphasis>./configure</emphasis>), compile and install 

:</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">tar xvzf library.tar.gz</userinput>
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">cd library</userinput>
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">./configure</userinput>
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">make</userinput>
<prompt moreinfo="none"># </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">make install</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
Check that the configuration file
<filename moreinfo="none">/etc/ld.so.conf</filename> contains the following line

 :</para>
<programlisting format="linespecific">
/usr/local/lib
</programlisting>

<para>
If the line is not present, add-it and then run

 :</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none"># </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">ldconfig</userinput>
</screen>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>
Install VLS

</title>

<para>
Download the sources of the latest release : get
the file <filename moreinfo="none">vls-version.tar.gz</filename> from the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/streaming/download-vls-sources.html">VLS
sources download page</ulink>. Uncompress-it and generate
<emphasis>./configure</emphasis> 

:</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">tar xvzf vls-version.tar.gz</userinput>
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">cd vls-version</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
To get the list of configuration options, do

</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">./configure --help</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
Then configure vls 

:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
if you want a basic VLS without DVD support, do

:</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">./configure --disable-dvd</userinput>
</screen>

</listitem>

<listitem><para>
if you want a VLS with DVD support, do

 :</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">./configure</userinput>
</screen>

</listitem>

<listitem><para>
if you want a VLS with DVB support, do 

:</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">./configure --enable-dvb --with-dvb=PATH_TO_DVB_DRIVERS --with-libdvb=PATH_TO_LIBDVB</userinput>
</screen>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>
Then, compile and install

 :</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">make</userinput>
<prompt moreinfo="none"># </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">make install</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
You can also do a <command moreinfo="none">make uninstall</command>,
<command moreinfo="none">make clean</command> or <command moreinfo="none">make distclean</command> as
needed

.</para>

</simplesect>

</sect2>

</sect1>

<sect1><title>
Uninstalling VLS
</title>


<sect2><title>Windows</title>

<para>
Go to the <emphasis>Control Panel</emphasis>,
click on <emphasis>Add and remove programs</emphasis>, select
<emphasis>VLS</emphasis> and click on <emphasis>Modify/Remove</emphasis>
and follow the steps to uninstall the program

.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>
If you compiled VLS from sources

</title>

<para>
Go to the directory containing VLS sources and run
:</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none"># </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">make uninstall</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
Then you can remove the VLS sources

.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>

</chapter>



<chapter id="overview"><title id="toverview">
Overview and basic concepts

</title>

<sect1><title>
VLS structure
</title>

<para>
From a user's point of view, VLS can be divided into
four kinds of components

:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
a <emphasis>manager</emphasis>

,</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>
<emphasis>inputs
</emphasis>,</para></listitem>
<listitem><para><emphasis>
converters
</emphasis>,</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>

et des <emphasis>sorties</emphasis>
.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<figure float="0"><title>
VLS structure
</title>
<mediaobject>
  <imageobject>
    <imagedata fileref="images/archi-vls.jpg" format="JPG" scalefit="1" scale="60"/>
  </imageobject>
</mediaobject>
</figure>

<simplesect><title>
Input
</title>

<para>
The role of an <emphasis>input</emphasis> is to
read MPEG streams from a given source (file, DVD, DVB card, device,
...), and feed the right <emphasis>converters</emphasis> with these
streams. An input may be able to read several streams, which are called
<emphasis>programs</emphasis>. There are several kinds of inputs

:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
the <emphasis>local</emphasis> input, which can read
videos from files or DVDs

,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>

the <emphasis>video</emphasis> input, which
can read videos from MPEG encoding cards devices

,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
the <emphasis>dvb</emphasis> input, which
can read videos from DVB cards,
l'entrée <emphasis>dvb</emphasis>, qui peut
lire depuis des cartes DVB,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
the <emphasis>v4l</emphasis> input, which
can read from acquisition cards supported by the Video4Linux
drivers

.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>
You can use several inputs and play several programs
at the same time

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>
Converter

</title>

<para>
The role of a <emphasis>converter</emphasis> is to
receive a stream from an input, and convert it into the MPEG-TS format.
VLS is able to convert PS streams (from DVDs, for instance) into TS
streams (ps2ts converter). Of course, it can also read TS streams, and
fix them by handling stream discontinuities (ts2ts converter)

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>
Channel

</title>

<para>

A <emphasis>channel</emphasis> receives a stream from a
converter, and send it to a given destination (network, file, ...).
If you want, you can call a &quot;channel&quot; an &quot;output&quot;: it is the
same thing !). Currently, two kinds of channels are supported:
<emphasis>network</emphasis> and <emphasis>file</emphasis>. Note that,
at the moment, VLS can support only one output per
stream, so you cannot play a stream on the network and write it into
a file at the same time. The network output is highly configurable:
you can choose which network interface you want to use, and specify
source and destination IP addresses



.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>
Manager

</title>

<para>
The <emphasis>manager</emphasis> controls
the way streams are sent. Through an <emphasis>administration
interface</emphasis>, you can tell the manager to start, stop,
suspend, resume, forward or rewind the different programs. You
can also get a list of all programs available in the Program
Table. The manager gets this table from the VLS configuration file
(<filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename>), so it cannot be changed once VLS has
been started. At the moment, you cannot ask the manager whether a given
stream is being broadcasted, but you will get an error message if you
try to stop a stream that was not broadcasted

.</para>

</simplesect>
</sect1>

<sect1><title>
Administration interface

</title>

<para>
There are currently two ways to launch the
streaming

:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
you can use the <emphasis>command line</emphasis> to
give arguments at startup;

</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
or you can use the <emphasis>telnet
interface</emphasis> to start/stop/pause the streaming whenever you
want

.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>
When using the telnet interface, you must
authenticate before typing any command, because any user may not
be allowed to execute any command (this can be configured in the
<filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename> configuration file)

.</para>

</sect1>
</chapter>



<chapter id="config"><title id="tconfig">Configuration</title>

<para>
VLS reads its configuration from the
<filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename> configuration file, which
is supposed to be located in the current directory or
in <filename moreinfo="none">SYSCONF_DIR/videolan/vls</filename> (where
<emphasis>SYSCONF_DIR</emphasis> is <filename moreinfo="none">/usr/local/etc</filename>
if you built and installed VLS by hand, or is <filename moreinfo="none">/etc</filename>
if you installed the debian binary package)

.</para>

<para>
To write a <filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename> file, use the one supplied
with VLS as a start-point



.</para>

<sect1><title>
General structure

</title>

<para>
VLS configuration file <filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename>
is divided into sections, and each section may contain several
variables

:</para>
<programlisting format="linespecific">

BEGIN &quot;FirstSection&quot;
  Variable1 = &quot;value1&quot;
  Variable2 = &quot;value2&quot;
  [...]
END

BEGIN &quot;SecondSection&quot;
  Variable1 = &quot;value1&quot;
  Variable3 = &quot;value3&quot;
  [...]
END

 
[...]
</programlisting>

<para>
All section names, variable names and values are not
case-sensitive. There can be empty sections and subsections. Comments
must follow a <keycap moreinfo="none">#</keycap> character. Some variables have a
default value; it means that you can ommit to declare these variables,
and then they will be given their default value

.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1><title>
Writing a <filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename>

</title>

<para>
Here is an explanation of all the sections you can
find in a <filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename>

:</para>

<sect2><title>Section &quot;Vls&quot;</title>

<para>
This section contains application wide settings

.</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
LogFile = &quot;name&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
Name of VLS log file. If left empty &quot;&quot;, then no
logging to files is done. Default is &quot;vls.log&quot;

.</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
SystemLog = &quot;[disable|enable]&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
Logging to the SystemLog. Today, only the SystemLog
using syslogd is implemented: compile with <command moreinfo="none">./configure
--enable-syslog</command>

.</para>

<caution><para>
 If VLS is started as <command moreinfo="none">vlsd</command>, then
the following configuration is mandatory

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Vls&quot;
  LogFile   = &quot;&quot;
  SystemLog = &quot;enabled&quot;
  ScreenLog = &quot;disabled&quot;
END
</programlisting>

</caution>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
ScreenLog = &quot;[disable|enable]&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
Logging to the console
.</para>

<para>
Example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Vls&quot;
  LogFile   = &quot;vls.log&quot;
  SystemLog = &quot;disable&quot;
  ScreenLog = &quot;enable&quot;
END
</programlisting>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>Section &quot;Groups&quot;</title>

<para>
In this section, you can define some groups of
users, and which commands these users are allowed to execute. For
each group you want to define, you must add a line in the following
format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
groupname = &quot;command1|command2|...&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
This adds a group &quot;groupname&quot;, the users of which
are allowed to execute command1, command2, and so on. At the moment, the
available commands are: help, browse, start, suspend, resume, forward,
rewind, stop, shutdown, logout

.</para>

<para>
Example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Groups&quot;
  monitor = &quot;help|browse|logout&quot;
  master  = &quot;help|browse|start|resume|suspend|forward|rewind|stop|shutdown|logout&quot;
END
</programlisting>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>Section &quot;Users&quot;</title>

<para>
This section contains a list of users allowed to
control VLS through an administration interface. For each user, add a
line in the following format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
username = &quot;password:groupname&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
This adds a user &quot;username&quot;, who belongs to the
group &quot;groupname&quot; (defined in the &quot;Groups&quot; section) and can log in with
the password &quot;password&quot;

.</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
Under Unix/Linux, the password must be encrypted,
with a tool such as <command moreinfo="none">mkpasswd</command>, or with the UNIX
function &quot;crypt&quot;

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
Under Windows, the password must be in clear text

.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>
Example for Unix/Linux

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Users&quot;
  monitor = &quot;3BcKWoiQn0vi6:monitor&quot;       # password is 'monitor'
  admin   = &quot;42BKiCguFAL/c:master&quot;        # password is 'Vir4Gv5S'
END
</programlisting>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>Section &quot;Telnet&quot;</title>

<para>
In this section, you can configure the telnet
administration interface

.</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
LocalPort = &quot;port&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
Defines which port will be used for the telnet
server. Default port is &quot;9999&quot;

.</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
Domain = &quot;domain&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
Either &quot;inet4&quot; or &quot;inet6&quot; (default is &quot;inet4&quot;). If
you want to use IPv4 addresses, put &quot;inet4&quot;, and if you want to use
IPv6, put &quot;inet6&quot;

.</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
LocalAddress = &quot;IP address&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
Defines on which IP address the telnet server will
listen for requests. Default address is &quot;0.0.0.0&quot; (or &quot;0::0&quot; with
IPv6)

.</para>

<para>
Example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Telnet&quot;
  LocalPort = &quot;9999&quot;
END
</programlisting>
</sect2>

<sect2><title>Section &quot;NativeAdmin&quot;</title>

<para>
Same syntax as &quot;Telnet&quot;. Not used yet

.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>Section &quot;Inputs&quot;</title>

<para>
In this section, you can define which inputs you
want to use. For each input you need, add a line in the following
format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
InputName = &quot;Type&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
This adds a input named &quot;InputName&quot;, the type
of which is &quot;Type&quot;. As explained before, there are several types of
input

:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>

&quot;local&quot; to play a stream from a file or a DVD

,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;video&quot; to play a stream from an MPEG encoding
card

,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;dvb&quot; to play a stream from a DVB card

,</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;v4l&quot; to play a stream from a Video4Linux device

.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>
Each input must be configured in its own section
(see next paragraph)

.</para>

<para>
Example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Inputs&quot;
  local1 = &quot;local&quot;
  pvr    = &quot;video&quot;
  dvb1   = &quot;dvb&quot;
  tuner  = &quot;v4l&quot;
END
</programlisting>
</sect2>

<sect2><title>
Inputs configuration

</title>

<para>
For each input declared in the &quot;Inputs&quot; section,
excepted &quot;local&quot; inputs, you must add a section with the same name as
the corresponding input. For instance, if you declared an input &quot;pvr&quot;,
there should be one section named &quot;pvr&quot; too. The syntax of such sections
depends on the type of the corresponding input

.</para>

<para>
To configure a local input, you don't have to do
anything. Except when another trickplay strategy must be used

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Local1&quot;
  ProgramCount = &quot;1&quot;
  TrickPlay    = &quot;normal&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<para>
&quot;Local1&quot; is the name of the local input you want to
configure. &quot;ProgramCount&quot; is the number of programs assigned to this
input. &quot;TrickPlay&quot; is the trickplay strategy that is used by this input
(default is &quot;normal&quot;)

.</para>

<para>
To configure a video input, add a section in the
following format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;VideoInputName&quot;
  Device = &quot;device&quot;
  Type   = &quot;type&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<para>
&quot;VideoInputName&quot; is the name of the video input you
want to configure. &quot;Device&quot; is the path of the MPEG encoding card you
want to read from (default is &quot;/dev/video&quot;). &quot;Type&quot; is either &quot;Mpeg2-PS&quot;
or &quot;Mpeg2-TS&quot;, depending on your device configuration (default is
&quot;Mpeg2-PS&quot;)

.</para>

<para>
Example for a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-250 card

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;pvr&quot;
  Device = &quot;/dev/video0&quot;
  Type   = &quot;Mpeg2-PS&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<para>
To configure a dvb input, add a section in the
following format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;DvbInputName&quot;
  DeviceNumber = &quot;devicenumber&quot;
  SendMethod   = &quot;0&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<para>
&quot;DvbInputName&quot; is the name of the dvb input you
want to configure. Set &quot;SendMethod&quot; to &quot;0&quot; if you to stream the
complete DVB stream and set it to &quot;1&quot; if you only want to stream
the MPEG audio and video streams (default is &quot;0&quot;). &quot;DeviceNumber&quot;
is the number of the DVB device you want to read from (read
from <filename moreinfo="none">/dev/ost/dvr&lt;devicenumber&gt;</filename>,
default is &quot;&quot;). The dvb configuration file is defined by the
driver. You can find it in <filename moreinfo="none">$HOME/.dvbrc</filename> for
/dev/dvb/adapter0 or in <filename moreinfo="none">$HOME/.dvbrc.X</filename> for
<filename moreinfo="none">/dev/dvb/adapterX</filename>

.</para>

<para>
Example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;dvb1&quot;
  DeviceNumber = &quot;0&quot;
  TrickPlay = &quot;normal&quot;
END
</programlisting>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>Section &quot;Channels&quot;</title>

<para>
In this section, you can define the channels
(outputs) you want to use. For each channel, write a line in the
following format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
ChannelName = &quot;Type&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
This adds a channel named &quot;ChannelName&quot;, the type of
which is &quot;Type&quot;. &quot;Type&quot; must be either &quot;network&quot; or &quot;file&quot;. Like inputs,
channels must be configured in their own section

.</para>

<para>
Example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Channels&quot;
  localhost  = &quot;network&quot;
  client1    = &quot;network&quot;
  client2    = &quot;network&quot;
  multicast1 = &quot;network&quot;
  multicast2 = &quot;network&quot;
  localfile  = &quot;file&quot;
END
</programlisting>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>
Channels configuration

</title>

<para>
For each channel declared in the &quot;Channels&quot; section,
you must add a section with the same name as the corresponding channel.
The syntax of such a section depends on the type of the corresponding
channel

.</para>

<para>
To configure a network channel, add a section in the
following format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;NetChannelName&quot;
  Domain    = &quot;Domain&quot;
  Type      = &quot;Type&quot;
  SrcHost   = &quot;SourceHost&quot;
  SrcPort   = &quot;SourcePort&quot;
  DstHost   = &quot;DestHost&quot;
  DstPort   = &quot;DestPort&quot;
  TTL       = &quot;ttl&quot;
  Interface = &quot;Interface&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
&quot;NetChannelName&quot; is the name of the network channel
you want to configure

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;Domain&quot; is either &quot;inet4&quot; if you use IPv4
addresses, or &quot;inet6&quot; if you use IPv6 (default is &quot;inet4&quot;)

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;Type&quot; is either &quot;unicast&quot;, &quot;broadcast&quot; or
&quot;multicast&quot; (default is &quot;unicast&quot;), depending on what you want to do
(and on your &quot;DstHost&quot; address)

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;SourceHost&quot; is the IP address (or DNS name) from
which VLS will send the stream

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;SourcePort&quot; is the UDP port from which the stream
will be sent

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;DestHost&quot; is the IP address (or DNS name) to which
the stream will be sent

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;DestPort&quot; is the UDP port to which the stream will
be sent (default is &quot;1234&quot;)

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;TTL&quot; is an option useful only if &quot;Type&quot; is
&quot;multicast&quot; (default value is &quot;0&quot;). You can use it to increase the TTL
of your multicast packets if they have to cross several routers

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;Interface&quot; is an option only supported under
GNU/Linux, to force the stream to be sent through a given network
interface, &quot;eth1&quot; for instance&quot; (to use this option, you must have
super-user permissions)

.</para></listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<note><para>
&quot;SrcHost&quot; and &quot;SrcPort&quot; are optional (if you don't
set them, VLS will not 'bind' the socket)

.</para></note>

<para>
To configure a file channel, add a section in the
following format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;FileChannelName&quot;
  FileName = &quot;file&quot;
  Append   = &quot;append&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<para>
&quot;FileChannelName&quot; is the name of the file channel
you want to configure. &quot;file&quot; is the name of the file where the stream
will be stored (default is &quot;fileout.ts&quot;). &quot;append&quot; is either &quot;yes&quot; or
&quot;no&quot;, and indicates whether VLS will append the stream at the end of the
file, or rewrite it

.</para>

<para>
Example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;localhost&quot;         # The client is on the same host as the server
  DstHost = &quot;localhost&quot;
  DstPort = &quot;1234&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;client1&quot;           # unicast towards client1
  DstHost = &quot;192.168.1.2&quot;
  DstPort = &quot;1234&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;client2&quot;           # unicast towards client2 in IPv6
  Domain  = &quot;inet6&quot;
  DstHost = &quot;3ffe:ffff::2:12:42&quot;
  DstPort = &quot;1234&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;multicast1&quot;         # multicast streaming
  Type    = &quot;multicast&quot;
  DstHost = &quot;239.2.12.42&quot;
  DstPort = &quot;1234&quot;
  TTL     = &quot;2&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;multicast2&quot;         # multicast streaming in IPv6
  Domain  = &quot;inet6&quot;
  Type    = &quot;multicast&quot;
  DstHost = &quot;ff08::1&quot;
  DstPort = &quot;1234&quot;
  TTL     = &quot;12&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;localfile&quot;         # file output
  FileName = &quot;stream.ts&quot;
  Append   = &quot;no&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<caution><para>
If you use Windows, you should specify the &quot;SrcHost&quot;
and &quot;SrcPort&quot; fields. For example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;client1&quot;         # The client is on the same host as the server
  SrcHost = &quot;192.168.1.1&quot;  # IP of VLS
  SrcPort = &quot;1242&quot;         # Source port : the value is not important
  DstHost = &quot;192.168.1.2&quot;  # IP of the client
  DstPort = &quot;1234&quot;
END
</programlisting>

</caution>

</sect2>

<sect2><title>
Programs Configuration

</title>

<para>
As explained before, you must define the programs.
Each one is a MPEG stream (a file, for example). To do this, you must
add an &quot;Input&quot; section in your <filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename> file. Each
&quot;Input&quot; section must have the following syntax

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Input&quot;
  FilesPath    = &quot;path&quot;
  ProgramCount = &quot;count&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<para>
&quot;path&quot; is the path where your MPEG files are located
(by default it is the current directory). &quot;count&quot; is the number of
programs defined (&quot;0&quot; by default)

.</para>

<para>
For each program you want to define, you must add a
section with the following format

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;number&quot;
  Name     = &quot;name&quot;
  Type     = &quot;type&quot;
  FileName = &quot;file&quot;
  Device   = &quot;device&quot;
END
</programlisting>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
&quot;number&quot; is the program number: the first program
has number 1, the second number 2, and so on

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;name&quot; is the program name, by which you will tell
VLS to start this program (see next chapter &quot;Running VLS&quot;)

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
&quot;type&quot; can be &quot;Mpeg1-PS&quot;, &quot;Mpeg2-PS&quot;, &quot;Mpeg2-TS&quot;,
or &quot;DVD&quot;. If your stream is stored in a MPEG file (*.mpeg, *.mpg,
*.vob, and so on...), it is probably in Mpeg1-PS or Mpeg2-PS
format

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
if &quot;type&quot; is set to &quot;Mpeg1-PS&quot;, &quot;Mpeg2-PS&quot;, or
&quot;Mpeg2-TS&quot;, VLS will assume your stream is stored in the file &quot;file&quot;, in
the directory &quot;path&quot; (&quot;path&quot; being the variable defined in the &quot;Input&quot;
section)

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
if &quot;type&quot; is &quot;DVD&quot;, the variable &quot;Device&quot; will be
used instead of &quot;FileName&quot; (the variable &quot;FilesPath&quot; is not prepended
to the device name !). The variable &quot;Device&quot; is the device of your DVD
drive (&quot;/dev/hdc&quot; or &quot;/dev/cdrom&quot; for instance). You can also play a DVD
copied on a hard disk: then &quot;device&quot; is the directory where the .vob
files are stored (&quot;/mnt/data/VIDEO_TS&quot; for instance)

.</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<note>


<para>
VLS can stream MPEG files that meet two critera
:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
the file must be MPEG <emphasis>PS</emphasis>
(Program Stream) or MPEG <emphasis>TS</emphasis> (Transport Stream),
that contain video and audio multiplexed. VLS cannot stream MPEG
<emphasis>ES</emphasis> (Elementary Stream), i.e. a file with only audio
or video

.</para>

<para>
In order to know if an MPEG file is MPEG
<emphasis>PS</emphasis>, MPEG <emphasis>TS</emphasis> or MPEG
<emphasis>ES</emphasis>, read the file with VLC and look at the messages
(select in the menu <emphasis>View / Messages</emphasis>, or use the
command line <command moreinfo="none">vlc -vvv</command>)

.</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>
If you see a line
:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
[00000107] main module debug: using demux module &quot;ts_dvbpsi&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
it means the file is MPEG TS

.</para></listitem>


<listitem><para>
If you see a line
:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
[00000109] main module debug: using demux module &quot;ps&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
it means the file is MPEG PS

.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>
If you see a line
:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
[00000109] main module debug: using demux module &quot;es&quot;
</programlisting>

<para>
it means the file is MPEG ES, VLS can't stream it.

.</para></listitem>


</itemizedlist>

</listitem>

<listitem><para>
the sequence header of the video must repeat itself
regularly, which is often the case with MPEG-2, but very rare with
MPEG-1. There is no easy way to know if the sequence header is repeated
regularly. Files with a <emphasis>.vob</emphasis> extension are
normally MPEG-2 files and files with <emphasis>.mpg</emphasis> or
<emphasis>.mpeg</emphasis> extension or usually MPEG-1 files

.</para>

</listitem>

</itemizedlist>

<para>
 You can download this
streamable MPEG-2 PS file for your tests : <ulink url="ftp://ftp.videolan.org/pub/videolan/streams/presentation/presentation_short.vob">presentation_short.vob</ulink>

.</para>

</note>

<note><para>
In order to play DVDs, you need to compile VLS with
DVD support, which uses libdvdread and libdvdcss. You will need
read <emphasis>and</emphasis> write access rights to the DVD
device

.</para></note>


<para>
Full example

:</para>

<programlisting format="linespecific">
BEGIN &quot;Input&quot;
  FilesPath = &quot;/home/videolan/streams&quot;
  ProgramCount = &quot;4&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;1&quot;     # MPEG2 stream stored in /home/videolan/streams/Dolby.vob
  Name     = &quot;dolby&quot;
  FileName = &quot;Dolby.vob&quot;
  Type     = &quot;Mpeg2-PS&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;2&quot;     # another file
  Name     = &quot;canyon&quot;
  FileName = &quot;Dolby_Canyon.vob&quot;
  Type     = &quot;Mpeg2-PS&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;3&quot;     # DVD
  Name     = &quot;dvd&quot;
  Device   = &quot;/dev/cdrom&quot;
  Type     = &quot;Dvd&quot;
END

BEGIN &quot;4&quot;     # DVD stored on a hard disk
  Name     = &quot;matrix&quot;
  Device   = &quot;/mnt/data/matrix/VIDEO_TS&quot;
  Type     = &quot;Dvd&quot;
END
</programlisting>

</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>



<chapter id="run"><title id="trun">
Running VLS

</title>

<sect1><title>
Launching VLS

</title>

<para>
If you want to use the telnet interface, running
VLS is very easy: just type <command moreinfo="none">vls</command> in a shell
console, and that's all. Running <command moreinfo="none">vlsd</command> will
start VLS as a daemon and will detach itself from the launching
shell. Remember that VLS will try to load its configuration file
(<filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename>) from the current directory, and if
there is no <filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename> there, it will try to load it
from <filename moreinfo="none">SYSCONF_DIR/etc/videolan</filename> (see section <xref linkend="config" endterm="tconfig"/>)

.</para>

<caution><para>
If your log file is <filename moreinfo="none">vls.log</filename> as
in the example, VLS will need write access in the current directory, or
you will see something like

:</para>

<screen format="linespecific"><computeroutput moreinfo="none">
*** Exception *** in copy constructor (0xbffffc98, copy of 0x80e30a8)
Unable to open the log file &quot;vls.log&quot;: Error: Could not open file 'vls.log':
Permission denied
</computeroutput></screen>

<para>
Remember also that you must be root when using the
&quot;Interface&quot; option in <filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename>

.</para>

</caution>

<para>

If everything is right, you will see something like
:</para>

<screen format="linespecific"><computeroutput moreinfo="none">
VideoLAN Server v 0.5.3 (Jun  6 2003) - (c)1999-2003 VideoLAN
2002-03-09 17:24:51 [INFO/Vls]  Module &quot;channel:file&quot; registered
2002-03-09 17:24:51 [INFO/Vls]  Module &quot;channel:network&quot; registered
2002-03-09 17:24:51 [INFO/Vls]  Module &quot;mpegreader:file&quot; registered
2002-03-09 17:24:51 [INFO/Vls]  Module &quot;mpegconverter:ts2ts&quot; registered
[...]
</computeroutput></screen>

<para>
What you can see on the screen (stderr) is exactly
what goes in the log file <filename moreinfo="none">vls.log</filename>

.</para>

<para>
When VLS has been successfully started, it doesn't
take any command from its standard input, so you can put it into
background (you can use the <emphasis>screen</emphasis> utility to do
that)

.</para>

<para>
On the other hand, if you want to
use the command line interface, please see the <ulink url="http://www.videolan.org/doc/">VideoLAN HOWTO</ulink>

.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1><title>
Using the telnet interface

</title>

<para>
After VLS has been launched, it opens a telnet
server (on the port 9999 by default). You can connect to this server
with the following command

:</para>

<screen format="linespecific">
<prompt moreinfo="none">% </prompt><userinput moreinfo="none">telnet localhost 9999</userinput>
</screen>

<para>
You should see something like

:</para>

<screen format="linespecific"><computeroutput moreinfo="none">
Trying 127.0.0.1...
Connected to vls.
Escape character is '^]'.

Videolan Server Administration System

Login:
</computeroutput></screen>

<para>
Then you must authenticate with a login/password
pair defined in <filename moreinfo="none">vls.cfg</filename>. When you have been
successfully authenticated, you should see a prompt like

:</para>


<screen format="linespecific"><computeroutput moreinfo="none">
admin@vls&gt;
</computeroutput>&gt;</screen>

<para>
Then you can type some commands, which are explained
in the next paragraph. To log out, type <command moreinfo="none">logout</command> after
the telnet prompt

.</para>

</sect1>

<sect1><title>
Interface commands
</title>

<simplesect><title>help</title>

<para>
Usage: help [command]
.</para>

<para>
Called with no argument, &quot;help&quot; gives the list of
all the commands (available or not). Called with one argument it gives
details about how to use the specified command

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>browse</title>

<para>
Usage: browse [input]
.</para>

<para>
Called without argument, &quot;browse&quot; gives all programs
of inputs. Called with one argument it only gives the programs of the
specified input. Each program is given with its status

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>start</title>

<para>

Usage: start &lt;program&gt; &lt;channel&gt; &lt;input&gt; [--loop] [--rtp]

</para>

<para>
&quot;start&quot; launches the specified program of the
specified input and broadcasts it through the specified channel. The
option &quot;--loop&quot; makes the program being repeated indefinitely. The
option &quot;--rtp&quot; makes the TS packet to be send through the RTP protocol,
as defined in RFC 1889 and RFC 2250

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>stop</title>
<para>
Usage: stop &lt;channel&gt;

</para>
<para>
&quot;stop&quot; ends the broadcast of the specified channel

.</para>
</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>forward</title>

<para>
Usage: forward &lt;channel&gt; &lt;speed&gt;
</para>

<para>
&quot;forward&quot; forwards the channel with the given speed.
This does not work when reading directly from a device such as an MPEG
encoding card, a DVB card or an acquisition card

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>rewind</title>

<para>
Usage: rewind &lt;channel&gt; &lt;speed&gt;
</para>
<para> &quot;rewind&quot; rewinds the channel with the given
speed. This does not work when reading directly from a device such as an
MPEG encoding card, a DVB card or an acquisition card
 .</para>
</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>suspend</title>

<para>
Usage: suspend &lt;channel&gt;

</para>
<para>
&quot;suspend&quot; suspends the streaming of the specified
channel

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>resume</title>

<para>
Usage: resume &lt;channel&gt;

</para>

<para>
&quot;resume&quot; resumes the streaming of the specified
channel

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>logout</title>

<para>
Usage: logout
</para>

<para>
&quot;logout&quot; closes the current administration session
and the remote connection

.</para>

</simplesect>

<simplesect><title>shutdown</title>

<para>
Usage: shutdown
</para>

<para>
&quot;shutdown&quot; stops all the programs and shutdowns VLS
.</para>

</simplesect>

</sect1>
</chapter>

<appendix id="gfdl">
<title id="tgfdl">GNU Free Documentation License</title>
<subtitle>Version 1.2, November 2002</subtitle>

<blockquote id="fsf-copyright">
 <para>Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.</para>
</blockquote>

<sect1 id="gfdl-0"><title>PREAMBLE</title>

<para>The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or
other functional and useful document &quot;free&quot; in the sense of freedom: to
assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with
or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially.
Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way
to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for
modifications made by others.</para>

<para>This License is a kind of &quot;copyleft&quot;, which means that derivative
works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense.  It
complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license
designed for free software.</para>

<para>We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for
free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free
program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the
software does.  But this License is not limited to software manuals; it
can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or
whether it is published as a printed book.  We recommend this License
principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-1"><title>APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS</title>

<para id="gfdl-doc">This License applies to any manual or other work, in
any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying
it can be distributed under the terms of this License.  Such a notice
grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use
that work under the conditions stated herein.  The &quot;Document&quot;, below,
refers to any such manual or work.  Any member of the public is a
licensee, and is addressed as &quot;you&quot;.  You accept the license if you
copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under
copyright law.</para>

<para id="gfdl-mod-ver">A &quot;Modified Version&quot; of the Document means any
work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim,
or with modifications and/or translated into another language.</para>

<para id="gfdl-secnd-sect">A &quot;Secondary Section&quot; is a named appendix or
a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the
relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the
Document's overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing
that could fall directly within that overall subject.  (Thus, if the
Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may
not explain any mathematics.)  The relationship could be a matter of
historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of
legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position
regarding them.</para>

<para id="gfdl-inv-sect">The &quot;Invariant Sections&quot; are certain Secondary
Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant
Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under
this License.  If a section does not fit the above definition of
Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant.  The
Document may contain zero Invariant Sections.  If the Document does not
identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.</para>

<para id="gfdl-cov-text">The &quot;Cover Texts&quot; are certain short passages of
text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the
notice that says that the Document is released under this License.  A
Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at
most 25 words.</para>

<para id="gfdl-transparent">A &quot;Transparent&quot; copy of the Document means a
machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is
available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the
document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images
composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely
available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text
formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable
for input to text formatters.  A copy made in an otherwise Transparent
file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to
thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not
Transparent.  An image format is not Transparent if used for any
substantial amount of text.  A copy that is not &quot;Transparent&quot; is called
&quot;Opaque&quot;.</para>

<para>Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain
ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or
XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML,
PostScript or PDF designed for human modification.  Examples of
transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG.  Opaque formats
include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by
proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or
processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated
HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output
purposes only.</para>

<para id="gfdl-title-page">The &quot;Title Page&quot; means, for a printed book,
the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold,
legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page.
For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, &quot;Title
Page&quot; means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work's
title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.</para>

<para id="gfdl-entitled">A section &quot;Entitled XYZ&quot; means a named subunit
of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in
parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language.
(Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as
&quot;Acknowledgements&quot;, &quot;Dedications&quot;, &quot;Endorsements&quot;, or &quot;History&quot;.)  To
&quot;Preserve the Title&quot; of such a section when you modify the Document
means that it remains a section &quot;Entitled XYZ&quot; according to this
definition.</para>

<para>The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice
which states that this License applies to the Document.  These Warranty
Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License,
but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that
these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the
meaning of this License.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-2"><title>VERBATIM COPYING</title>

<para>You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either
commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the
copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to
the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other
conditions whatsoever to those of this License.  You may not use
technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying
of the copies you make or distribute.  However, you may accept
compensation in exchange for copies.  If you distribute a large enough
number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.
</para>

<para>You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above,
and you may publicly display copies.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-3"><title>COPYING IN QUANTITY</title>

<para>If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly
have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the
Document's license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the
copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts:
Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back
cover.  Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the
publisher of these copies.  The front cover must present the full title
with all words of the title equally prominent and visible.  You may add
other material on the covers in addition.  Copying with changes limited
to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and
satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other
respects.</para>

<para>If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit
legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit
reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent
pages.</para>

<para>If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document
numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable
Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each
Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general
network-using public has access to download using public-standard
network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of
added material.  If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably
prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity,
to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the
stated location until at least one year after the last time you
distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers)
of that edition to the public.</para>

<para>It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of
the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to
give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the
Document.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-4"><title>MODIFICATIONS</title>

<para>You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document
under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you
release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the
Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing
distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever
possesses a copy of it.  In addition, you must do these things in the
Modified Version:</para>

<orderedlist continuation="restarts" inheritnum="ignore" id="gfdl-modif-cond" numeration="upperalpha">
<listitem><simpara>Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a
  title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous
  versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History
  section of the Document).  You may use the same title as a previous
  version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more
  persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in
  the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal
  authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer
  than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>State on the Title page the name of the publisher of
  the Modified Version, as the publisher.</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Add an appropriate copyright notice for your
  modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a
  license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified
  Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the
  <link linkend="gfdl-addendum">Addendum</link> below.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Preserve in that license notice the full lists of
  Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document's
  license notice.</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Include an unaltered copy of this License.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Preserve the section Entitled &quot;History&quot;, Preserve its
  Title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new
  authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title
  Page.  If there is no section Entitled &quot;History&quot; in the Document,
  create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the
  Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the
  Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Preserve the network location, if any, given in the
  Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and
  likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous
  versions it was based on.  These may be placed in the &quot;History&quot;
  section.  You may omit a network location for a work that was
  published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the
  original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>For any section Entitled &quot;Acknowledgements&quot; or
  &quot;Dedications&quot;, Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the
  section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor
  acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document,
  unaltered in their text and in their titles.  Section numbers or the
  equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Delete any section Entitled &quot;Endorsements&quot;.
  Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled
  &quot;Endorsements&quot; or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
</simpara></listitem>
<listitem><simpara>Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.
</simpara></listitem>
</orderedlist>

<para>If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or
appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material
copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all
of these sections as invariant.  To do this, add their titles to the
list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version's license notice.
These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.</para>

<para>You may add a section Entitled &quot;Endorsements&quot;, provided it
contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various
parties--for example, statements of peer review or that the text has
been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a
standard.</para>

<para>You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text,
and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the
list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version.  Only one passage of
Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through
arrangements made by) any one entity.  If the Document already includes
a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by
arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may
not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission
from the previous publisher that added the old one.</para>

<para>The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this
License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to
assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-5"><title>COMBINING DOCUMENTS</title>

<para>You may combine the Document with other documents released under
this License, under the terms defined in <link linkend="gfdl-4">section
4</link> above for modified versions, provided that you include in the
combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original
documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your
combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their
Warranty Disclaimers.</para>

<para>The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and
multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single
copy.  If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but
different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding
at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or
publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number.  Make the
same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections
in the license notice of the combined work.</para>

<para>In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled
&quot;History&quot; in the various original documents, forming one section
Entitled &quot;History&quot;; likewise combine any sections Entitled
&quot;Acknowledgements&quot;, and any sections Entitled &quot;Dedications&quot;.  You must
delete all sections Entitled &quot;Endorsements&quot;.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-6"><title>COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS</title>

<para>You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other
documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies
of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is
included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this
License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other
respects.</para>

<para>You may extract a single document from such a collection, and
distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a
copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this
License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that
document.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-7"><title>AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS</title>

<para>A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other
separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a
storage or distribution medium, is called an &quot;aggregate&quot; if the
copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal
rights of the compilation's users beyond what the individual works
permit.  When the Document is included an aggregate, this License does
not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves
derivative works of the Document.</para>

<para>If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these
copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of
the entire aggregate, the Document's Cover Texts may be placed on covers
that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic
equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form.  Otherwise
they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole
aggregate.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-8"><title>TRANSLATION</title>

<para>Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may
distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4.
Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special
permission from their copyright holders, but you may include
translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the
original versions of these Invariant Sections.  You may include a
translation of this License, and all the license notices in the
Document, and any Warrany Disclaimers, provided that you also include
the original English version of this License and the original versions
of those notices and disclaimers.  In case of a disagreement between the
translation and the original version of this License or a notice or
disclaimer, the original version will prevail.</para>

<para>If a section in the Document is Entitled &quot;Acknowledgements&quot;,
&quot;Dedications&quot;, or &quot;History&quot;, the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its
Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual
title.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-9"><title>TERMINATION</title>

<para>You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document
except as expressly provided for under this License.  Any other attempt
to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Document is void, and will
automatically terminate your rights under this License.  However,
parties who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License
will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain
in full compliance.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-10"><title>FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE</title>

<para>The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of
the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time.  Such new versions
will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in
detail to address new problems or concerns.  See
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.</para>

<para>Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version
number.  If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of
this License &quot;or any later version&quot; applies to it, you have the option
of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version
or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the
Free Software Foundation.  If the Document does not specify a version
number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not
as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation.</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="gfdl-addendum"><title>ADDENDUM: How to use this License for
  your documents</title>

<para>To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy
of the License in the document and put the following copyright and
license notices just after the title page:</para>

<blockquote id="copyright-sample"><para>
    Copyright (c)  YEAR  YOUR NAME.
    Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
    under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
    or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
    with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
    A copy of the license is included in the section entitled &quot;GNU
    Free Documentation License&quot;.
</para></blockquote>

<para>If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover
Texts, replace the &quot;with...Texts.&quot; line with this:</para>

<blockquote id="inv-cover-sample"><para>
    with the Invariant Sections being LIST THEIR TITLES, with the
    Front-Cover Texts being LIST, and with the Back-Cover Texts being LIST.
</para></blockquote>

<para>If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other
combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the
situation.</para>

<para>If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we
recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free
software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit
their use in free software.</para>
</sect1>
</appendix>


</book>
