1LIRCD(8) System Administration Utilities LIRCD(8)
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6 lircd - Decode infrared signals and provide them on a socket.
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9 lircd [options] [config file]
10
12 The main task of lircd is to decode the infrared signals and provide an
13 uniform interface for client applications. Clients can connect to lircd
14 through a Unix domain socket, by default /var/run/lirc/lircd. Using
15 this socket they will get the infrared codes received by lircd and they
16 can send commands to lircd.
17
19 config file
20 The configuration file, by default /etc/lirc/lircd.conf. A relative
21 path is interpreted from /etc/lirc. The default configuration file
22 includes all files in /etc/lircd.conf.d.
23 Each remote which should be decoded by lircd usually requires that
25 a specific file is used e. g., by copying it to
26 /etc/lirc/lirc.conf.d/. The format is described in lircd.conf(5).
27 Configuration files could be found using irdb-get(1) or lirc-set‐
28 up(1). It's also possible to generate a config file using
29 irrecord(1)
30
33 Common options:
34 -d, --device <device>
36 Select the character device which lircd should read from. The
37 default is currently /dev/lirc0 on most systems.
38 Some drivers, including the default devinput driver, supports the
40 auto device which picks the first usable device found for the
41 actual driver.
42 When using the devinput driver name=STRING or phys=STRING can be
44 used to select the device; lircd will look in /dev/input to find a
45 device with a matching description. This is useful in case the
46 device name isn't fixed. STRING may contain the '*' and '?' wild‐
47 cards and '\' to mark them as literal. Use mode2 --driver devinput
48 --list-devices to list the actual devices.
49 -H, --driver <driver>
51 The driver to use. Using --driver help lists all available driv‐
52 ers, see DRIVER LOADING below.
53 -h, --help
55 Displays short help message.
56 Other options:
58 -a, --allow-simulate
60 Enable the SIMULATE command which can be issued using irsend(1) or
61 the client API. This will allow simulating arbitrary IR events from
62 the command line. Use this option with caution because it will give
63 all users with access to the lircd socket wide control over the
64 system. E.g., if you have configured your system to shut down by a
65 button press on your remote control, everybody will be able to shut
66 down your system from the command line.
67 -c, --connect [host[:port]][,[host[:port]]]
69 Connects to other lircd servers that provide a network socket at
70 the given host and port number (see --listen). The number of such
71 connections is currently limited to 100. The connecting lircd
72 instance will receive IR events from the lircd instance it connects
73 to. To connect to multiple servers, add them as a comma separated
74 list.
75 -e, --effective-user <uid>
77 If started as user root, lircd drops it privileges and runs as user
78 <uid> after opening files etc.
79 -i, --immediate-init
81 Lircd normally initializes the driver when the first client con‐
82 nects. If this option is selected, the driver is instead initial‐
83 ized immediately at start.
84 -A, --driver-options key:value[|key:value...]
86 Set one or more options for the driver. The argument is a list of
87 key:value pairs delimited by '|'. The key can not contain spaces,
88 but such are allowed in the value part. Certain characters includ‐
89 ing '#' and ';' are used as comment markers in the config file and
90 are not allowed anywhere.
91 -Y, --dynamic-codes [EXPERIMENTAL]
93 Allows use of codes which have been decoded for one remote but are
94 not defined in lircd.conf. New codes are dynamically created with
95 a default name. This feature is experimental and subject to all
96 sorts of changes. It has not ben tested thoroughly.
97 -l, --listen [[address:]port]]
99 Let lircd listen for network connections on the given address/port.
100 The default address is 0.0.0.0, which means that connections on all
101 network interfaces will be accepted. The address must be given in
102 dotted numerical form. Port defaults to 8765. The listening
103 lircd instance will send all IR events to the connecting lircd
104 instances without any security checks.
105 On non-glibc platforms the address:port argument is mandatory, but
107 can be given as an empty string e. g. --listen= which then defaults
108 to 0.0.0.0:8765.
109 -L, --logfile <logfile path>
111 Select the lircd daemon log file. logfile is either the string
112 'syslog' indicating that syslog(1) should be used or a log file
113 path. The default is to use syslog.
114 -D, --loglevel [level]
116 Determine the amount of logging information. level can be a sym‐
117 bolic syslog level: 'error','warning, 'info', 'notice' or 'debug'.
118 lircd also defines three additional levels 'trace', 'trace1' and
119 'trace2' which gives even more messages ('trace2' bringing the
120 most). However, in the log these messages are marked as 'debug'.
121 On non-glibc platforms the level argument is mandatory, but can be
123 given as an empty string e. g. --loglevel= which then defaults to
124 debug.
125 The level can also be an integer in the range 3 (almost no mes‐
127 sages) to 10.
128 -O, --options-file <path>
130 File containing default values for all options. A relative path is
131 interpreted from current directory. See [FILES] below.
132 -o, --output <output socket>
134 Select Unix domain socket, which lircd will write remote key codes
135 to. The default currently is /var/run/lirc/lircd.
136 -p, --permission <perm>
138 Gives the file permission of the output socket if it has to be cre‐
139 ated in octal representation. See chmod(1). If no --permission
140 option is given when the socket is initially created the default is
141 to give all users read and write permissions (0666 in octal repre‐
142 sentation). If the socket already exists this option has no effect.
143 -p, --pidfile <path>
145 Select the lircd daemon pid file, defaults to
146 /var/run/lirc/lircd.pid.
147 -U --plugindir <path>
149 Sets the directory from which lircd loads it's userspace drivers.
150 These are *.so files, by default found as described under DRIVER
151 LOADING. The argument is a :-separated search path.
152 -r, --release [suffix]
154 This option is deprecated and will be removed in an upcoming
155 release. See lircd-uinput(8) for a replacement.
156 Enables automatic generation of release events for each button
158 press. lircd will append the given suffix to the button name for
159 each release event. If no suffix is given the default suffix is
160 '_EVUP'.
161 Note the suffix _UP, which was used by lircd prior to 0.10.0, is
163 used by the linux kernel for other purposes since 4.7.
164 -R, --repeat-max <limit>
166 Sets an upper limit to the number of repeats when sending a signal.
167 The current default is 600. A SEND_START request will repeat the
168 signal this many times. Also, if the number of repeats in a
169 SEND_ONCE request exceeds this number, it will be replaced by this
170 number.
171
174 When decoding a button press or receiving a SIGHUP signal lircd.conf
175 lircd broadcasts messages to all connected clients.
176 For each decoded button press a package is made available on the
178 socket. This is printable data formatted as:
179 <code> <repeat count> <button name> <remote control name>
180 e.g.,
182 0000000000f40bf0 00 KEY_UP ANIMAX
183 The fields are:
187 code
190 A 16 hexadecimal digits number encoding of the IR signal. It's
191 usage in applications is deprecated and it should be ignored.
192 repeat count
194 shows how long the user has been holding down a button. The counter
195 will start at 0 and increment each time a new IR signal has been
196 received.
197 button name
199 is the name of a key defined in the lircd.conf file.
200 remote control name
202 is the mandatory name attribute in the lircd.conf config file.
203 These packets are broadcasted to all clients. The only other situation
205 when lircd broadcasts to all clients is when it receives the SIGHUP
206 signal and successfully re-reads its config file. Then it will send a
207 SIGHUP packet to its clients indicating that its configuration might
208 have changed. The sighup packet is three lines
209 BEGIN
211 SIGHUP
212 END
213
215 Applications can also send commands to lircd over the socket interface.
216 The most common task is sending data, but there are also other com‐
217 mands. Each command is a single printable line, terminated with a new‐
218 line. For each command, lircd replies with a reply package.
219 Supported commands:
221 SEND_ONCE <remote control> <button name> [repeats]
223 Tell lircd to send the IR signal associated with the given remote
224 control and button name, and then repeat it repeats times. repeats
225 is a decimal number between 0 and repeat_max. The latter can be
226 given as a --repeat-max command line argument to lircd, and
227 defaults to 600. If repeats is not specified or is less than the
228 minimum number of repeats for the selected remote control, the min‐
229 imum value will be used.
230 SEND_START <remote control name> <button name>
232 Tell lircd to start repeating the given button until it receives a
233 SEND_STOP command. However, the number of repeats is limited to
234 repeat_max. lircd won't accept any new send commands while it is
235 repeating.
236 SEND_STOP <remote control name> <button name>
238 Tell lircd to abort a SEND_START command.
239 LIST [remote control]
241 Without arguments lircd replies with a list of all defined remote
242 controls. Given a remote control argument, lircd replies with a
243 list of all keys defined in the given remote.
244 SET_INPUTLOG [path]
246 Given a path, lircd will start logging all received data on that
247 file. The log is printable lines as defined in mode2(1) describing
248 pulse/space durations. Without a path, current logfile is closed
249 and the logging is stopped.
250 DRV_OPTION key value
252 Make lircd invoke the drvctl_func(DRVCTL_SET_OPTION, option) with
253 option being made up by the parsed key and value. The return pack‐
254 age reflects the outcome of the drvctl_func call.
255 SIMULATE key data
257 Given key data, instructs lircd to send this to all clients i. e.,
258 to simulate that this key has been decoded. The key data must be
259 formatted exactly as the packet described in [SOCKET BROADCAST MES‐
260 SAGES FORMAT], notably is the number of digits in code and repeat
261 count hardcoded. This command is only accepted if the --allow-sim‐
262 ulate command line option is active.
263 SET_TRANSMITTERS transmitter mask
265 Make lircd invoke the drvctl_func(LIRC_SET_TRANSMITTER_MASK, &chan‐
266 nels), where channels is the decoded value of transmitter mask. See
267 lirc(4) for more information.
268 VERSION
270 Tell lircd to send a version packet response.
271 The protocol guarantees that broadcasted messages won't interfere with
273 reply packets. But broadcasts may appear at any point between packets.
274 The only exception are SIGHUP packages. These may appear just after you
275 have sent a command to lircd, so you have to make sure you don't con‐
276 fuse them with replies.
277 The format of the reply packet is
279 BEGIN
281 <command>
282 [SUCCESS|ERROR]
283 [DATA
284 n
285 n lines of data]
286 END
287 If the command was successful, data is only sent for the commands that
289 return some information. Note that a packet containing 0 lines of data
290 can be a valid reply.
291
294 Traditionally lircd has been running as root since accessing kernel
295 devices like /dev/lirc0 by default requires root privileges. However,
296 running a long-running service like this is a major security issue.
297 The lirc distribution contains example udev rules which makes
299 /dev/lirc[0-9] , USB and serial devices accessible by the lirc user.
300 Using these rules, it is possible to run lircd as a regular user and
301 group such as lirc.
302
305 /etc/lirc/lircd.conf
306 Main config file, see lircd.conf(5).
307 /etc/lirc/lirc_options.conf
310 The options file. lircd handles the values under the [lircd] sec‐
311 tion in this file. The location can be changed using the
312 -O/--options-file command-line option or using the environment
313 variable LIRC_OPTIONS_PATH. The values here are used as defaults
314 for any option not present on command line.
315
318 LIRC_OPTIONS_PATH
319 Options file path, see FILES.
320 LIRC_PLUGINDIR
322 Plugin load path, se DRIVER LOADING.
323 LIRC_DEBUG_OPTIONS
325 If set, enables debugging in early stages when the --debug option
326 is yet not parsed.
327
330 Drivers are loaded dynamically. This is done from a traditional *ux
331 ´:´-separated path where each component in the path is searched (lead‐
332 ing part first, trailing last).
333 The path used for this is determined by (falling priority):
335 - The --plugindir option.
337 - The 'plugindir' entry in the [lircd] section of the
339 lirc_options.conf file.
340 - The environment variable LIRC_PLUGINDIR.
342 - A hardcoded default (/usr/lib64/lirc/plugins).
344
347 HUP On receiving SIGHUP lircd re-reads the lircd.conf configuration
348 file (but not lirc_options.conf) and adjusts itself if the file has
349 changed.
350 USR1
352 On receiving SIGUSR1 lircd makes a clean exit.
353
356 lircd is a daemon. It should be started in some system-dependent init
357 script. By default, lirc ships with systemd files enabling user to
358 control the lircd service.
359
361 irdb-get(1)
362 lirc-setup(1)
363 lircd.conf(5)
364 irrecord(1)
365 lirc(4)
366 lircd-uinput(8)
367lircd 0.10.0 Last change: Jun 2017 LIRCD(8)