VCP-Recorder is normally started automatically when the VCP-Recorder server boots. In a development environment, you may choose to disable automatic startup and, instead, start it manually.
While it is possible to invoke VCP-Recorder's main executable, vvtr, it is preferable to invoke the VCP-Recorder daemon. The VCP-Recorder daemon, vtrd, starts, monitors, and, if necessary, restarts vvtr.
This chapter explains how to start VCP-Recorder in the following sections:
If VCP-Recorder is not started automatically, you can start it manually using the following command:
# /usr/vtr/bin/vtrstart |
vtrstart starts vtrd which in turn starts vvtr, the VCP-Recorder server software.
You should be root when you start vvtr to ensure reliable operation. If you are not root, VCP-Recorder starts but writes a warning message to vtrlog. For more information about vtrlog, see Chapter 6, “Logging.”
 | Note: When VCP-Recorder is started manually, in addition to vtrlog and syslog, its log messages are written to the window from which vvtr is invoked. |
There is an optional graphics port available on O2 that allows you to see the outgoing video in a window, the VCP-Recorder X Window, on the graphics display. This window is sized to display a 625-line video frame with non-square pixels (720x576). If you are playing video with a smaller image size, the image is centered within the window.
| Note: If you are playing video with non-square pixels (CCIR601 timing), the aspect ratio in the graphics window is incorrect; pixels are square on graphics. |
The graphics window is enabled by default on O2. To disable it, edit /usr/vtr/config/device-defaults/mvp and set vtr.media.graphics.enabled to false.
If you wish to use the graphics port, you cannot start VCP-Recorder automatically at boot time. The vvtr X Window appears only when you use /usr/vtr/bin/vtrstart to start the VCP-Recorder.
To disable automatic startup, set
% chkconfig vtr off |
The default installation operates normally without changing the start up options. However, the start up options for vvtr can be changed by editing /usr/vtr/config/vtrd.conf and adding them immediately after the program path, /usr/vtr/bin/vvtr. The line in vtrd.conf appears as follows:
vvtr * * * * TERM “/usr/vtr/bin/vvtr -l p” |
TERM is the signal sent by vtrd, the daemon, to the vvtr processes when they are to be shutdown.
If a process does not shut down using TERM, you might instead send a KILL signal.
Table 5-1 describes the start up options for VCP-Recorder.
Option | Description |
|---|---|
Sets the severity level of the messages that are written to the console log. If this option is omitted, all messages with a severity level of Info and above are written to the log. If this option is present, loglevel, which can be positive or negative, identifies the minimum level of the messages that are written to the log. See onTable 6-2 on page 37 for an explanation of the VCP-Recorder severity levels. | |
Sets the log options, which control the format of the messages written to the log. If this option is omitted, each message contains the severity code, a timestamp, the process ID, and the text of the message. The following may be specified for this option: -l l, don't include the severity code in each log message “VCP-Recorder Log Messages” for more information about the format of the log messages. | |
-p | Specifies that VCP-Recorder should not run at high priority (p). If this option is omitted, VCP-Recorder runs at the highest system priorities. VCP-Recorder must run with high priority to ensure real-time video performance. This option should only be used when it is suspected that a bug is causing a single processor system to hang. (If VCP-Recorder were to go into an infinite loop while running at the highest system priorities, it would lock out all other processes on that processor.) This option should also be used when running a decoder that cannot run in real time. Without this option, the system would continue to run, but all processing, except for VCP-Recorder, would not be able to run while a clip is playing. |
You can also specify any of the log options described in “Logging Options”.
You can start VCP-Recorder automatically at boot time by turning on the vvtr configuration state as follows:
# chkconfig vtr on |
The commands to start and stop VCP-Recorder from the command line are in /usr/vtr/bin. If this directory is not defined in your PATH statement, you need to prepend it to your commands.
To start and stop VCP-Recorder, respectively, from the command line, use the following commands:
# vtrstart # vtrstop |
The easiest way to see whether or not VCP-Recorder is running is by using the vtrstat command, as follows:
# vtrstat VCP-Recorder on <host> is running # |
Inside /var/adm/crash directory is a subdirectory for each program that might crash. If a program crashes, a directory is dynamically created with that program name. Inside that directory a core file is created containing the crash information.
When VCP-Recorder detects a program crash, it renames the core file to core.number, where number is the next, incremental number. This prevents core files from overwriting one another.
You can use debugging tools to examine the core file.