Linux: cat /dev/video0 into a not growing buffer

Question

I want to cat a /dev/video0 device output (Transport Stream is the kind of output) into a temporary ring buffer. In fact i do not want that the file/buffer is growing over the time.

So the purpose is to have a file (buffer, Fifo, whatever) to be accessed by more than one consumer (example: tail -f, mencoder, VLC, ....).

Some kind of scenario:

Producer:
# cat /dev/video0 > mybuffer.ts

And then multiple access by consumer
2# tail -f mybuffer.ts > extract1.ts
2# tail -f mybuffer.ts > extract2.ts
3# ffmpeg -i mybuffer.ts ...

Does someone have an idea how to do something like this?

How would the ring buffer know when all of the clients have connected to it? — Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams, Aug 30 '12 at 09:23

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 30 '12 at 16:43

0

Parhaps you want to just split the stream:

cat /dev/video0 | tee extract1.ts extract2.ts | ffmpeg -i mybuffer.ts ...

tee copies the stream to files and stdout

answered Aug 30 '12 at 16:43

Imre L

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Thanks. Was not exactly what I searched for, but a nice approach. – Fox Aug 31 '12 at 15:22

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 30 '12 at 16:50

0

Looks like you need a /dev/fanout.

answered Aug 30 '12 at 16:50

abbot

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Linux: cat /dev/video0 into a not growing buffer

2 Answers2