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<h1>IRRECORD</h1>
Section: User Commands (1)<br>Updated: Last change: May 2017<br><a href="#index">Index</a>
<a href="index.html">Return to Main Contents</a><hr>
<a name="lbAB"> </a>
<h2>NAME</h2>
<p>
<b>irrecord</b> - IR-codes recording tool for usage with LIRC
<a name="lbAC"> </a>
</p>
<h2>SYNOPSIS</h2>
<p>
<b>irrecord</b> [<i>-f</i>] [<i>-n</i>] [<i>-H driver</i>] [<i>-d device</i>] [<i>file</i>]
</p>
<p>
<b>irrecord</b> -a <<i>file</i>>
</p>
<p>
<b>irrecord</b> -l
</p>
<p>
<b>irrecord</b> --help | --version
</p>
<p>
<a name="lbAD"> </a>
</p>
<h2>DESCRIPTION</h2>
This program will record the signals from your remote control and create
a config file for lircd. Although a good deal of effort is put in
this program it is often not possible to automatically recognize all
features of a remote control. See USAGE NOTES below.
<p>
If <i>file</i> is not specified it defaults to "irrecord.lircd.conf"
</p>
<p>
If <i>file</i> already exists and contains a valid config irrecord will
use the protocol description found there and will only try to record the
buttons.
</p>
<p>
<a name="lbAE"> </a>
</p>
<h2>OPTIONS</h2>
<dl>
<div><dt>
<b>-a</b> <b>--analyse</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Analyse a raw_codes config file, trying to convert it to a
regular configuration.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-u</b> <b>--update</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Add new buttons to an existing config file. No protocol information is
updated.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-f</b> <b>--force</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Force raw mode. Use this if recording fails otherwise. This
creates a raw codes configuration file which can be used as-is
or converted using the -a option.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-n</b> <b>--disable-namespace</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Disable namespace checks.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-l</b> <b>--list-namespace</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
List valid button names.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-H</b> <b>--driver</b>=<i>driver</i>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Use given driver. -H help lists available drivers.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-d</b> <b>--device</b>=<i>device</i>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Read from given device. Use <b><a href="mode2.html">mode2</a>(1) --list-devices</b> to list
available devices for a driver.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-U</b> <b>--plugindir</b>=<i>directory</i>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Load drivers from directory. See DRIVER LOADING.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-k</b> <b>--keep-root</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Don't drop root privileges after opening device. See RUNNING AS ROOT.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-A, --driver-options</b> <i>key:value[|key:value...]</i>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Set one or more options for the driver. The argument is a list of
key:value pairs delimited by '|'. The key can not contain spaces, but
such are allowed in the value part. Certain characters including '#'
and ';' are used as comment markers in the config file and are not
allowed anywhere.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-D</b> <b>--loglevel</b>=<i>level</i>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Determine the amount of logging information. [level] can be a symbolic
syslog level: 'error','warning, 'info', 'notice' or 'debug'. lirc
also defines three additional levels 'trace', 'trace1' and 'trace2' which
gives even more messages ('trace2' bringing the most). However, in the
log these messages are marked as 'debug'.
The level can also be an integer in the range 3 (almost no messages) to
10.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-O, --options-file</b> <<i>path</i>></dt></div>
<dd>
File containing default values for all options. A relative path is
interpreted from current directory. See [FILES] below.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-h</b> <b>--help</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Display this message.
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>-v</b> <b>--version</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Display version.
<p>
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<a name="lbAF"> </a>
<h2>USAGE NOTES</h2>
<p>
The primary options are --driver and usually also --device (some drivers
does not need --device). These could be verified using <a href="mode2.html">mode2</a>(1)
if irrecord runs into trouble.
</p>
<p>
When driver and device is known it saves some work to update
lirc_options.conf with the new values. irrecord uses the [lircd] section
as a fallback, so with a proper lirc_options.conf irrecord could be run
without command line options.
</p>
<p>
Using an existing file as a template can sometimes be required for
<i>irrecord</i> to work. If using one of the generic templates it can also
provide better timing. See PROTOCOL PARAMETERS AND TEMPLATES.
</p>
<p>
If the program fails to recognize the protocol of the remote control you
could use the --force option to at least create a config file in raw mode.
</p>
<p>
<a name="lbAG"> </a>
</p>
<h2>REPEAT MASKS</h2>
After recording some buttons with irrecord, you should check the
repeat masks. These are needed in order to handle repeated button
presses, which are very common
<p>
Using the config file, start lircd and irw. Keeping a button
pressed down, you should see something like:<
</p>
<pre>
0000000000f40bf0 00 KEY_1 ANIMAX
0000000000f40bf0 01 KEY_1 ANIMAX
0000000000f40bf0 02 KEY_1 ANIMAX
0000000000f40bf0 03 KEY_1 ANIMAX
0000000000f40bf0 04 KEY_1 ANIMAX
0000000000f40bf0 05 KEY_1 ANIMAX
</pre>
<p>
Note how the second field gets incremented. This must work for correct
operation.
</p>
<p>
<a name="lbAH"> </a>
</p>
<h2>PROTOCOL PARAMETERS AND TEMPLATES.</h2>
irrecord actually works in two phases. In the first, it tries to identify
the protocol used by the remote. Although this often works quite well,
there are advantages using an existing file as a template.
<p>
One reason to use a template is when irrecord fails to recognize the
protocol in the beginning. In such cases, try to find an existing
configuration from the same vendor using something like:
</p>
<p>
</p>
<pre>
$ irdb-get find motorola
# lots of remotes listed...
$ irdb-get download motorola/VIP_1200.lircd.conf # Pick any
$ cp VIP_1200.lircd.conf my_remote.lircd.conf
$ irrecord my_remote.lircd.conf
</pre>
<p>
Invoking irrecord this way re-uses the existing protocol which usually
works (vendors seldom changes protocol parameters).
</p>
<p>
Another reason to use an existing file is to get more exact timing,
important when planning to also transmit (blast). In such cases, using
a generic template found using <i>irdb-get find generic</i> has
advantages since the timing values here are hand-crafted from
specifications. To use these, you need to know which protocol your
remote uses, though.
</p>
<p>
If decoding of IR commands does not work reliably you can try to
modify the eps and aeps values in the lircd config file to adjust
the tolerance of signal lengths. aeps is an absolute value while
eps is a relative value expressed in percent. See <a href="lircd.conf.html">lircd.conf</a>(5)
</p>
<p>
<a name="lbAI"> </a>
</p>
<h2>TROUBLESHOOTING</h2>
<p>
<a name="lbAJ"> </a>
</p>
<h3>Multiple-personalities remotes</h3>
<p>
Some remotes actually emulates two or more remotes. <i>irrecord</i> runs
into trouble if buttons from different logical remotes are mixed in
the same run, in particular in the initial protocol identification. For
such devices, irrecord must be invoked once for every logical device using
only buttons from this device during the run.
</p>
<p>
<a name="lbAK"> </a>
</p>
<h3>Un-printable garbage when using default driver</h3>
If there is various non-printable garbage on the screen when running
irrecord when using the default driver the rc protocol needs to be set.
With a single device the protocol can be set and inspected using
<p>
</p>
<pre>
sudo sh -c "echo 'lirc' > /sys/class/rc/rc0/protocol"
cat /sys/class/rc/rc0/protocol
</pre>
<p>
<a name="lbAL"> </a>
</p>
<h3>Physical disturbances</h3>
As for physical disturbances, the primary source is fluorescent
light. You should not have any such light around when using irrecord.
It's also important to have a suitable distance between the remote and
the capture device, which often is smaller than in typical, normal
usage. However, making the distance too small might cause other problems.
At a first try use a foot or two.
<p>
<a name="lbAM"> </a>
</p>
<h2>DRIVER LOAD PATH</h2>
Drivers are loaded dynamically. This is done from a traditional *ux
':'-separated path where each component in the path is searched (leading
part first, trailing last).
<p>
The path used for this is determined by (falling
priority):
</p>
<dl>
<div><dt>-</dt></div>
<dd>
The --plugindir option.
</dd>
<div><dt>-</dt></div>
<dd>
The 'plugindir' entry in the [lircd] section of the lirc_options.conf file.
</dd>
<div><dt>-</dt></div>
<dd>
The environment variable LIRC_PLUGINDIR.
</dd>
<div><dt>-</dt></div>
<dd>
A hardcoded default (/usr/lib/lirc/plugins).
<p>
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<a name="lbAN"> </a>
<h2>RUNNING AS ROOT</h2>
In many cases irrecord needs to run as root to access devices not
available to regular users. On the other hand, running as root creates
problems such as log files owned by root, security concerns etc.
<p>
In order to cope with this, irrecord by default drops root privileges
after opening the input device. This support is based on that root
permissions are accquired using <a href="sudo.html">sudo</a>(1) e. g., using
</p>
<pre>
$ sudo irrecord --device /dev/lirc0 --driver default
</pre>
If not using sudo, the same behaviour could be accomplished using the
SUDO_USER environment variable e. g.,
<pre>
# SUDO_USER=$LOGNAME irrecord --device /dev/lirc0 --driver default
</pre>
The --keep-root option will make irrecord to keep root privileges for the
complete run.
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
<a name="lbAO"> </a>
</p>
<h2>FILES</h2>
<dl>
<div><dt>
<b>/etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
The options file holding default values for command line options in the
[irrecord] section. For some values including debug, plugindir, driver and
device irrecord falls back to the [lircd] section if not found in [irrecord].
</dd>
<div><dt>-</dt></div>
<dd>
The location of this file can be changed using the -O/--options-file
command-line option or using the environment variable LIRC_OPTIONS_PATH.
<p>
</p>
</dd>
<div><dt>
<b>~/.cache/irrecord.log</b>
</dt></div>
<dd>
Debug output. Setting the XDG_CACHE_HOME environment variable relocates this
file to $XDG_CACHE_HOME/irrecord.log
<p>
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<a name="lbAP"> </a>
<h2>SEE ALSO</h2>
<a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lirc-remotes/wiki">https://sourceforge.net/p/lirc-remotes/wiki</a>
<br>
<a href="irdb-get.html">irdb-get</a>(1)
<br>
<a href="mode2.html">mode2</a>(1)
<br>
<a href="lircd.conf.html">lircd.conf</a>(5)
<p>
</p>
<hr>
<a name="index"> </a><h2>Index</h2>
<dl>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAB">NAME</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAC">SYNOPSIS</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAD">DESCRIPTION</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAE">OPTIONS</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAF">USAGE NOTES</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAG">REPEAT MASKS</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAH">PROTOCOL PARAMETERS AND TEMPLATES.</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAI">TROUBLESHOOTING</a></dt></div>
<dd>
<dl>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAJ">Multiple-personalities remotes</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAK">Un-printable garbage when using default driver</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAL">Physical disturbances</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
</dl>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAM">DRIVER LOAD PATH</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAN">RUNNING AS ROOT</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAO">FILES</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
<div><dt><a href="#lbAP">SEE ALSO</a></dt></div>
<dd>
</dd>
</dl>
<hr>
<p>
This document was created by
<a href="index.html">man2html</a>,
using the manual pages.<br>
Time: 12:55:07 GMT, February 16, 2019
</p>
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