cd /usr/local tar -xvzf /path/to/motion-3.2.X.tar.gz
ln -s motion-3.2.X motion
cd motion
./configure
make
make install
motion
| Library | RPM Packages | Debian Packages |
|---|---|---|
| libm, libresolv, libdl, libpthread, libc, ld-linux, libcrypt, and libnsl | glibc and glibc-devel | libc6 , libc6-dev ,libglib1.2 |
| libjpeg | libjpeg and libjpeg-devel | libjpeg62 and libjpeg62-dev ( optional libjpeg-mmx-dev ) |
| libz | zlib and zlib-devel | zlib1g and zlib1g-dev |
| Library | RPM Packages | Debian Packages |
|---|---|---|
| libavcodec, libavformat | ffmpeg and ffmpeg-devel or install from source | libavcodec-dev libavcodec0d libavformat-dev libavformat0d (*) |
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org stable main # ( etch ) deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main # ( lenny ) deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org unstable main # ( sid )Add the suitable line to your /etc/apt/sources.list and run this:
apt-get update ; apt-get -y install libavcodec-dev libavcodec0d libavformat-dev libavformat0dFor logging in MySQL you need this library:
| Library | RPM Packages | Debian Packages |
|---|---|---|
| libmysqlclient | mysql and mysql-devel | libmysqlclient15-off and libmysqlclient15-dev |
| Library | RPM Packages | Debian Packages |
|---|---|---|
| libpq | postgresql-libs and postgresql-devel | libpq-dev and libpq4 |
./configure
You can add the parameter ./configure --help to get help on the different switches.
This is walk through of the options.
Attention!
If you have run make before, you should run a make clean before running make again. This cleans out all the object files that were generated the previous time you ran make. If you do not run make clean first before you rebuild Motion you may not get the additional feature included. For example: If you built Motion without ffmpeg support and then add it later - and rebuild Motion without running make clean first - the ffmpeg feature does not get compiled into the Motion binary.
First time you build motion run ./configure, make, make install. If you need to build it again (to run with different configure options) run ./configure, make clean, make, make install.
make install simply copies all the nice files that were generated during the compilation/linking that make did.
Makes the directories (if they do not already exist)(path shown are the defaults): /usr/local/bin, usr/local/man/man1, /usr/local/etc, /usr/local/share/doc/motion-3.2.X, and /usr/local/share/doc/examples/motion-3.2.X.
Copies the following files from the base motion directory (assuming the default PREFIX /usr/local was used when running configure - otherwise adjust to the actuals you chose) make uninstall
And delete the base installation directory in /usr/local and any link pointing to it. If you have forgotten where you installed it or someone else did it for you, simply search for the files and directories starting with motion. If the filenames and the directories match the names described in the "Make Install" section of this document, you can safely delete them.
make, make install and make uninstall has already been described above.
make clean before you run make if you change the configuration (like adding features such as ffmpeg) and rebuild motion.
-c pathname Motion will expect the config file to be as specified. When you specify the config file on the command line with -c you can call it anything.
If you do not specify -c or the filename you give Motion does not exist, Motion will search for the configuration file called 'motion.conf' in the following order:
In Motion 3.2.1 and forward most command line options have been removed and replaced them by an option to specify location to motion.conf and a few options related to setting up motion. There are now only few command line options left and they are basically all new.
SYNOPSIS
motion [ -hns ] [ -c config file path ] [ -d level ] [ -p process_id_file ]
| Option | Range/Values Default |
Description |
|---|---|---|
| area_detect | Values: 1 - 999999999 Default: Not defined |
Detect motion center in predefined areas. A script (on_area_detected) is started immediately when motion center is detected in one of the given areas, but only once during an event even if there is motion in a different configured area. |
| auto_brightness | Values: on, off Default: off |
Let motion regulate the brightness of a video device. Only recommended for cameras without auto brightness |
| brightness | Values: 0 - 255 Default: 0 (disabled) |
The brightness level for the video device. |
| contrast | Values: 0 - 255 Default: 0 (disabled) |
The contrast level for the video device. |
| control_authentication | Values: Max 4096 characters Default: Not defined |
To protect HTTP Control by username and password, use this option for HTTP 1.1 Basic authentication. The string is specified as username:password. Do not specify this option for no authentication. This option must be placed in motion.conf and not in a thread config file. |
| control_html_output | Values: on, off Default: on |
Enable HTML in the answer sent back to a browser connecting to the control_port. This option must be placed in motion.conf and not in a thread config file. |
| control_localhost | Values: on, off Default: on |
Limits the http (html) control to the localhost. This option must be placed in motion.conf and not in a thread config file. |
| control_port | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 0 (disabled) |
Sets the port number for the http (html using browser) based remote control. This option must be placed in motion.conf and not in a thread config file. |
| daemon | Values: on, off Default: off |
Start in daemon (background) mode and release terminal. This option must be placed in motion.conf and not in a thread config file. |
| despeckle | Values: EedDl Default: Not defined |
Despeckle motion image using combinations of (E/e)rode or (D/d)ilate. And ending with optional (l)abeling. |
| ffmpeg_bps | Values: 0 - 9999999 Default: 400000 |
Bitrate of mpegs produced by ffmpeg. Bitrate is bits per second. Default: 400000 (400kbps). Higher value mans better quality and larger files. Option requires that ffmpeg libraries are installed. |
| ffmpeg_cap_motion | Values: on, off Default: off |
Use ffmpeg libraries to encode motion type mpeg movies where you only see the pixels that changes. |
| ffmpeg_cap_new | Values: on, off Default: off |
Use ffmpeg libraries to encode mpeg movies in realtime. |
| ffmpeg_deinterlace | Values: on, off Default: off |
Use ffmpeg to deinterlace video. Necessary if you use an analog camera and see horizontal combing on moving objects in video or pictures. |
| ffmpeg_filename (now called movie_filename) | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S |
File path for motion triggered ffmpeg movies (mpeg) relative to target_dir. This option was renamed to movie_filename in 3.2.5 to enable better integration of alternative movie libraries to the current ffmpeg solution. |
| ffmpeg_timelapse | Values: 0 - 2147483647 Default: 0 (disabled) |
Create a timelapse movie saving a picture frame at the interval in seconds set by this parameter. Set it to 0 if not used. |
| ffmpeg_timelapse_mode | Values: hourly, daily, weekly-sunday, weekly-monday, monthly, manual Default: daily |
The file rollover mode of the timelapse video. |
| ffmpeg_variable_bitrate | Values: 0, 2 - 31 Default: 0 (disabled) |
Enables and defines variable bitrate for the ffmpeg encoder. ffmpeg_bps is ignored if variable bitrate is enabled. Valid values: 0 (default) = fixed bitrate defined by ffmpeg_bps, or the range 2 - 31 where 2 means best quality and 31 is worst. |
| ffmpeg_video_codec | Values: mpeg1 (ffmpeg-0.4.8 only), mpeg4, msmpeg4, swf, flv, ffv1, mov Default: mpeg4 |
Codec to be used by ffmpeg for the video compression. Timelapse mpegs are always made in mpeg1 format independent from this option. |
| framerate | Values: 2 - 100 Default: 100 (no limit) |
Maximum number of frames to be captured from the camera per second. |
| frequency | Values: 0 - 999999 Default: 0 (Not set) |
The frequency to set the tuner to (kHz). Valid range: per tuner spec, default: 0 (Don't set it) |
| gap | Values: 0 - 2147483647 Default: 60 |
Gap is the seconds of no motion detection that triggers the end of an event. An event is defined as a series of motion images taken within a short timeframe. |
| height | Values: Device Dependent Default: 288 |
The height of each frame in pixels. |
| hue | Values: 0 - 255 Default: 0 (disabled) |
The hue level for the video device. |
| input | Values: 0 - 7, 8 = disabled Default: 8 (disabled) |
Input channel to use expressed as an integer number starting from 0. Should normally be set to 1 for video/TV cards, and 8 for USB cameras. |
| jpeg_filename | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-%q |
File path for motion triggered images (jpeg or ppm) relative to target_dir. Value 'preview' makes a jpeg filename with the same name body as the associated saved mpeg movie file. |
| lightswitch | Values: 0 - 100 Default: 0 (disabled) |
Ignore sudden massive light intensity changes given as a percentage of the picture area that changed intensity. |
| locate | Values: on, off, preview Default: off |
Locate and draw a box around the moving object. Value 'preview' makes Motion only draw a box on a saved preview jpeg image and not on the saved mpeg movie. |
| mask_file | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
PGM file to use as a sensitivity mask. This picture MUST have the same width and height as the frames being captured and be in binary format. |
| max_mpeg_time | Values: 0 (infinite) - 2147483647 Default: 3600 |
The maximum length of an mpeg movie in seconds. Set this to zero for unlimited length. |
| minimum_frame_time | Values: 0 - 2147483647 Default: 0 |
Minimum time in seconds between the capturing picture frames from the camera. Default: 0 = disabled - the capture rate is given by the camera framerate. |
| minimum_motion_frames | Values: 1 - 1000s Default: 1 |
Picture frames must contain motion at least the specified number of frames in a row before they are detected as true motion. At the default of 1, all motion is detected. Valid range is 1 to thousands, but it is recommended to keep it within 1-5. |
| motion_video_pipe | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
The video4linux video loopback input device for motion images. If a particular pipe is to be used then use the device filename of this pipe, if a dash '-' is given motion will use /proc/video/vloopback/vloopbacks to locate a free pipe. Default: not set |
| movie_filename | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S |
File path for motion triggered ffmpeg movies (mpeg) relative to target_dir. This was previously called ffmpeg_filename. |
| mysql_db | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Name of the MySQL database. |
| mysql_host | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: localhost |
IP address or domain name for the MySQL server. Use "localhost" if motion and MySQL runs on the same server. |
| mysql_password | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
The MySQL password. |
| mysql_user | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
The MySQL user name. |
| netcam_http | Values: 1.0, keep_alive, 1.1 Default: 1.0 |
The setting for keep-alive of network socket, should improve performance on compatible net cameras. ( new in 3.2.10 ) |
| netcam_proxy | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
URL to use for a netcam proxy server, if required. The syntax is http://myproxy:portnumber |
| netcam_tolerant_check | Values: on, off Default: off |
Set less strict jpeg checks for network cameras with a poor/buggy firmware. |
| netcam_url | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Specify an url to a downloadable jpeg file or raw mjpeg stream to use as input device. Such as an AXIS 2100 network camera. |
| netcam_userpass | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
For network cameras protected by username and password, use this option for HTTP 1.1 Basic authentication. The string is specified as username:password. Do not specify this option for no authentication. |
| noise_level | Values: 1 - 255 Default: 32 |
The noise level is used as a threshold for distinguishing between noise and motion. |
| noise_tune | Values: on, off Default: on |
Activates the automatic tuning of noise level. |
| norm | Values: 0 (PAL), 1 (NTSC), 2 (SECAM), 3 (PAL NC no colour) Default: 0 (PAL) |
Select the norm of the video device. Values: 0 (PAL), 1 (NTSC), 2 (SECAM), 3 (PAL NC no colour). Default: 0 (PAL) |
| on_area_detected | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Command to be executed when motion in a predefined area is detected. Check option area_detect. |
| on_camera_lost | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Command to be executed when a camera can't be opened or if it is lost. You can use Conversion Specifiers and spaces as part of the command. Use %f for passing filename (with full path) to the command. (new in 3.2.10) |
| on_event_end | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Command to be executed when an event ends after a period of no motion. The period of no motion is defined by option gap. You can use Conversion Specifiers and spaces as part of the command. |
| on_event_start | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Command to be executed when an event starts. An event starts at first motion detected after a period of no motion defined by gap. You can use ConversionSpecifiers and spaces as part of the command. |
| on_motion_detected | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Command to be executed when a motion frame is detected. You can use Conversion Specifiers and spaces as part of the command. |
| on_movie_end | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Command to be executed when an ffmpeg movie is closed at the end of an event. You can use Conversion Specifiers and spaces as part of the command. Use %f for passing filename (with full path) to the command. |
| on_movie_start | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Command to be executed when an mpeg movie is created. You can use Conversion Specifiers and spaces as part of the command. Use %f for passing filename (with full path) to the command. |
| on_picture_save | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Command to be executed when an image is saved. You can use Conversion Specifiers and spaces as part of the command. Use %f for passing filename (with full path) to the command. |
| output_all | Values: on, off Default: off |
Picture are saved continuously as if motion was detected all the time. |
| output_motion | Values: on, off Default: off |
Output pictures with only the moving object. This feature generates the special motion type movies where you only see the pixels that changes as a graytone image. If labelling is enabled you see the largest area in blue. Smartmask is shown in red. |
| output_normal | Values: on, off, first, best, center (since 3.2.10) Default: on |
Normal image is an image that is stored when motion is detected. It is the same image that was taken by the camera. I.e. not a motion image like defined by output_motion. Default is that normal images are stored. |
| pgsql_db | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Name of the PostgreSQL database. |
| pgsql_host | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: localhost |
IP address or domain name for the PostgreSQL server. Use "localhost" if motion and PostgreSQL runs on the same server. |
| pgsql_password | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
The PostgreSQL password. |
| pgsql_port | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 5432 |
The PostgreSQL server port number. |
| pgsql_user | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
The PostgreSQL user name. |
| post_capture | Values: 0 - 2147483647 Default: 0 (disabled) |
Specifies the number of frames to be captured after motion has been detected. |
| ppm | Values: on, off Default: off |
Output ppm images instead of jpeg. This uses less CPU time, but causes a LOT of hard disk I/O, and it is generally slower than jpeg. |
| pre_capture | Values: 0 - 100s Default: 0 (disabled) |
Specifies the number of previous frames to be outputted at motion detection. Recommended range: 0 to 5, default=0. Do not use large values! Large values will cause Motion to skip video frames and cause unsmooth mpegs. To smooth mpegs use larger values of post_capture instead. |
| process_id_file | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
File to store the process ID, also called pid file. Recommended value when used: /var/run/motion.pid |
| quality | Values: 1 - 100 Default: 75 |
The quality for the jpeg images in percent. |
| quiet | Values: on, off Default: off |
Be quiet, don't output beeps when detecting motion. |
| rotate | Values: 0, 90, 180, 270 Default: 0 (not rotated) |
Rotate image the given number of degrees. The rotation affects all saved images as well as mpeg movies. |
| roundrobin_frames | Values: 1 - 2147483647 Default: 1 |
Specifies the number of frames to capture before switching inputs, this way also slow switching (e.g. every second) is possible. |
| roundrobin_skip | Values: 1 - 2147483647 Default: 1 |
Specifies the number of frames to skip after a switch. (1 if you are feeling lucky, 2 if you want to be safe). |
| saturation | Values: 0 - 255 Default: 0 (disabled) |
The colour saturation level for the video device. |
| setup_mode | Values: on, off Default: off |
Run Motion in setup mode. |
| smart_mask_speed | Values: 0 - 10 Default: 0 (disabled) |
Slugginess of the smart mask. Default is 0 = DISABLED. 1 is slow, 10 is fast. |
| snapshot_filename | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: %v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-snapshot |
File path for snapshots (jpeg or ppm) relative to target_dir. |
| snapshot_interval | Values: 0 - 2147483647 Default: 0 (disabled) |
Make automated snapshots every 'snapshot_interval' seconds. |
| sql_log_image | Values: on, off Default: on |
Log to the database when creating motion triggered image file. |
| sql_log_mpeg | Values: on, off Default: off |
Log to the database when creating motion triggered mpeg file. |
| sql_log_snapshot | Values: on, off Default: on |
Log to the database when creating a snapshot image file. |
| sql_log_timelapse | Values: on, off Default: off |
Log to the database when creating timelapse mpeg file |
| sql_query | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: insert into security(camera, filename, frame, file_type, time_stamp, text_event) values('%t', '%f', '%q', '%n', '%Y-%m-%d %T', '%C') |
SQL query string that is sent to the database. The values for each field are given by using convertion specifiers |
| switchfilter | Values: on, off Default: off |
Turns the switch filter on or off. The filter can distinguish between most switching noise and real motion. With this you can even set roundrobin_skip to 1 without generating much false detection. |
| target_dir | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined = current working directory |
Target directory for picture and movie files. |
| text_changes | Values: on, off Default: off |
Turns the text showing changed pixels on/off. |
| text_double | Values: on, off Default: off |
Draw characters at twice normal size on images. |
| text_event | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: %Y%m%d%H%M%S |
This option defines the value of the speciel event conversion specifier %C. You can use any conversion specifier in this option except %C. Date and time values are from the timestamp of the first image in the current event. |
| text_left | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
User defined text overlayed on each in the lower left corner. Use A-Z, a-z, 0-9, " / ( ) @ ~ # < > , . : - + _ \n and vertical bar and conversion specifiers (codes starting by a %). |
| text_right | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: %Y-%m-%d\n%T |
User defined text overlayed on each in the lower right corner. Use A-Z, a-z, 0-9, " / ( ) @ ~ # < > , . : - + _ \n and vertical bar and conversion specifiers (codes starting by a %). Default: %Y-%m-%d\n%T = date in ISO format and time in 24 hour clock |
| thread | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
Specifies full path and filename for a thread config file. Each camera needs a thread config file containing the options that are unique to the camera. If you only have one camera you do not need thread config files. If you have two or more cameras you need one thread config file for each camera in addition to motion.conf. This option must be placed in motion.conf and not in a thread config file. |
| threshold | Values: 1 - 2147483647 Default: 1500 |
Threshold for declaring motion. The threshold is the number of changed pixels counted after noise filtering, masking, despeckle, and labelling. |
| threshold_tune | Values: on, off Default: off |
Activates the automatic tuning of threshold level. ( It's broken ) |
| timelapse_filename | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: %v-%Y%m%d-timelapse |
File path for timelapse mpegs relative to target_dir (ffmpeg only). |
| track_auto | Values: on, off Default: off |
Enable auto tracking |
| track_iomojo_id | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 0 |
Use this option if you have an iomojo smilecam connected to the serial port instead of a general stepper motor controller. |
| track_maxx | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 0 |
The maximum position for servo x. |
| track_maxy | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 0 |
The maximum position for servo y. |
| track_motorx | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 0 |
The motor number that is used for controlling the x-axis. |
| track_motory | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 0 |
The motor number that is used for controlling the y-axis. |
| track_move_wait | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 10 |
Delay during which tracking is disabled after auto tracking has moved the camera. Delay is defined as number of picture frames. |
| track_port | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
This is the device name of the serial port to which the stepper motor interface is connected. |
| track_speed | Values: 0 - 255 Default: 255 |
Speed to set the motor to. |
| track_step_angle_x | Values: 0-90 Default: 10 |
Angle in degrees the camera moves per step on the X-axis with auto tracking. Currently only used with pwc type cameras. |
| track_step_angle_y | Values: 0-40 Default: 10 |
Angle in degrees the camera moves per step on the Y-axis with auto tracking. Currently only used with pwc type cameras. |
| track_stepsize | Values: 0 - 255 Default: 40 |
Number of steps to make. |
| track_type | Values: 0 (none), 1 (stepper), 2 (iomojo), 3 (pwc), 4 (generic), 5 (uvcvideo) Default: 0 (None) |
Type of tracker. |
| tunerdevice | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: /dev/tuner0 |
The tuner device used for controlling the tuner in a tuner card. This option is only used when Motion is compiled for FreeBSD. |
| v4l2_palette | Values: 0 - 8 Default: 8 |
Allow to choose preferable palette to be use by motion to capture from those supported by your videodevice. ( new in 3.2.10 ) |
| videodevice | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: /dev/video0 (FreeBSD: /dev/bktr0) |
The video device to be used for capturing. Default for Linux is /dev/video0. for FreeBSD the default is /dev/bktr0. |
| video_pipe | Values: Max 4095 characters Default: Not defined |
The video4linux video loopback input device for normal images. If a particular pipe is to be used then use the device filename of this pipe. If a dash '-' is given motion will use /proc/video/vloopback/vloopbacks to locate a free pipe. |
| webcam_limit | Values: 0 - 2147483647 Default: 0 (unlimited) |
Limit the number of frames to number frames. After 'webcam_limit' number of frames the connection will be closed by motion. The value 0 means unlimited. |
| webcam_localhost | Values: on, off Default: on |
Limits the access to the webcam to the localhost. |
| webcam_maxrate | Values: 1 - 100 Default: 1 |
Limit the framerate of the webcam in frames per second. Default is 1. Set the value to 100 for practically unlimited. |
| webcam_motion | Values: on, off Default: off |
If set to 'on' Motion sends slows down the webcam stream to 1 picture per second when no motion is detected. When motion is detected the stream runs as defined by webcam_maxrate. When 'off' the webcam stream always runs as defined by webcam_maxrate. |
| webcam_port | Values: 0 - 65535 Default: 0 (disabled) |
TCP port on which motion will listen for incoming connects with its webcam server. |
| webcam_quality | Values: 1 - 100 Default: 50 |
Quality setting in percent for the mjpeg picture frames transferred over the webcam connection. Keep it low to restrict needed bandwidth. |
| width | Values: Device Dependent Default: 352 |
The width in pixels of each frame. Valid range is camera dependent. |
| Option | Range/Values Default |
Description |
|---|---|---|
| low_cpu | Values: 0 - 100 Default: 0 (disabled) |
When this option is not zero motion will be in a low cpu mode while not detecting motion. In low cpu mode Motion reduces the framerate to the value given for this option. Value zero means disabled. ( DEPRECATED ) |
| minimum_gap | Values: 0 - 2147483647 Default: 0 (no minimum) |
The minimum time between two shots in seconds. ( DEPRECATED ) |
| night_compensate | Values: on, off Default: off |
When this option is set the noise threshold will be lowered if the picture is dark. This will improve the sensitivity in dark places. However it might also increase the number of false alarms since most cameras also increase light sensitivity with their AGC (Automatic Gain Control) and this will increase noise. ( DEPRECATED ) |
kill -s SIGHUP pid, where the last parameter is the process ID which you get by typing ps -ef ¦ grep motion. The PID is the first on the list which is the parent process for the threads.
Motion responds to the following signals:
| Signal | Description | Editors comment |
|---|---|---|
| SIGHUP | The config file will be reread. | This is a very useful signal when you experiment with settings in the config file. |
| SIGTERM | If needed motion will create an mpeg file of the last event and exit | |
| SIGUSR1 | Motion will create an mpeg file of the current event. |
/var/log/messages (e.g. RedHat/Fedora) or /var/log/syslog and /var/log/user.log (e.g. Debian).
This feature is introduced in Motion 3.2.7
V4L2_PIX_FMT_SN9C10X : 0 'S910' V4L2_PIX_FMT_SBGGR8 : 1 'BA81' V4L2_PIX_FMT_MJPEG : 2 'MJPEG' V4L2_PIX_FMT_JPEG : 3 'JPEG' V4L2_PIX_FMT_RGB24 : 4 'RGB3' V4L2_PIX_FMT_UYVY : 5 'UYVY' V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUYV : 6 'YUYV' V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUV422P : 7 '422P' V4L2_PIX_FMT_YUV420 : 8 'YU12'
Round Robin is not relevant for Network cameras or standard USB web cameras. The Round Robin feature is used with video capture cards which have multiple inputs per video chip.
Note that round robin is not the ideal way to run multiple cameras. When the capture card changes input it takes a little while before the decoder chip has syncronized to the new camera. You can improve this if you have expensive cameras with a syncronize input. Only one camera can be decoded at a time so if you have 4 cameras connected 3 of the camera threads will need to wait for their turn. The fact that cameras have to take turns and the fact that you have to skip a few frames after each turn dramatically lowers the possible framerate. You can get a high framerate by viewing each camera for a long time. But then you may miss the action on one of the inactive cameras. If you can affort it avoid Round Robin and buy the more expensive type of capture cards that has one decoder chip per input. If you only need 2 or 3 cameras you can also simply put 2 or 3 cheap TV cards in the computer. Linux has no problem working with multiple TV cards.
This feature was seriously broken until Motion 3.2.4
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One or more areas can be specified with this option.
rotate option, note that the mask is applied after the rotation.
Detailed Description
The mask file must be a pgm format image file (portable gray map). Note that you must choose the BINARY format.
The feature is simple. Create an image of exact the same size as the ones you get from your video device (camera). Make a purely white picture and paint the areas that you want to mask out black. You can also make gray areas where you want to lower the sensitivity to motion. Normally you will stick to pure black and white.
One easy method for generating the mask file is as follows.
You can just take a motion captured picture, edit it with black and white for the mask and save it as a pgm file.
If you cannot save in this format save as a grayscale jpg and then you can convert it to pgm format with
djpeg -grayscale -pnm [inputfile] > mask.pgm
(assuming you have djpeg installed - part of the jpeg lib package).
Note that the mask file option masks off the detection of motion. The entire picture is still shown on the picture. This means that you cannot use the feature to mask off an area that you do not want people to see.
Below are an example of a webcam picture and a mask file to prevent the detection cars in the street.
Normal picture. Notice the street is visible through the hedge.
Mask file (converted to png format so it can be shown by your web browser)
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cd /usr/local/ffmpeg ./configure --enable-shared make make installThis creates the
libavcodec.so and libavformat.so libraries under /usr/local/lib and header files under /usr/local/include/ffmpeg.
You probably need to do one more step.
Make sure you have 'root' privileges for the next steps.
Open the file /etc/ld.so.conf in your favorite text editor.
Add this line of text if it is not already there - otherwise go to the next step (ldconfig).
/usr/local/lib
Run the command ldconfig.
Motion should now be able to find the shared libraries for ffmpeg (libavcodec.so and libavformat.so) in /usr/local/lib.
You can also find a pre-compiled binary package (e.g. rpm or deb) and install this. Normally an rpm will place the libavcodec.so under /usr/lib.
There are various RPMs available from different repositories. Some need additional RPMs that are actually not needed by Motion but need to be installed to satisfy dependencies. The editor has tried different RPMs of ffmpeg-0.4.8 and they all seem to work.
Motion then need to be built by running ./configure, make and make install.
(Note that with earlier versions of motion you had to specify the location of libavcodec. Now configure searches for the shared library in /usr/lib and /usr/local/lib by default.)
Note that if you install ffmpeg from source and already have ffmpeg installed from an RPM, the Motion configure may very well find the binary library from the rpm instead of the sources. Make sure to uninstall any old ffmpeg RPMs before you install ffmpeg from sources.
These are the config file options related to ffmpeg.
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text_event feature is special in that it defines the conversion specifier %C which can be used both for text display and for filenames.
target_dir is the target directory for all snapshots, motion images and normal images. The default is the current working directory (current working directory of the terminal from which motion was started). You will normally always want to specify this parameter.
Note that the options snapshot_filename, jpeg_filename, ffmpeg_filename, and timelapse_filename all allow specifying directories by using '/' in the filename. These will all be relative to target_dir. This means in principle that you can specify target_dir as '/' and be 100% flexible. It also means that Motion can write files all over your harddisk if you make a mistake. It is recommended to specify the target_dir as deep or detailed as possible for this reason. And note that targer_dir does not allow conversion specifiers.
The conversion specifier %C which is defined by the option text_event is interesting in connection with filenames because it can be used to create files and directories for each event in a very flexible way.
The convertion specifier %t (thread/camera number) is also very useful. Here is an example of filename definitions in motion.conf:
target_dir /usr/local/webcam snapshot_filename cam%t/%v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-snapshot jpeg_filename cam%t/%v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S-%q ffmpeg_filename cam%t/%v-%Y%m%d%H%M%S timelapse_filename cam%t/%Y%m%d%H-timelapseThe smart thing is that this defines the filename of all your camera threads in motion.conf so you do not need to specify target dir and filenames in the thread config files. In the above example an mpegfile for camera thread 3 will be saved as a filename similar to
/usr/local/webcam/cam3/28-20051128130840.avi
NOTE: Unless you use the minimum_gap option to limit the number of shots to less then one per second - you must use the frame modifier %q as part of the jpeg_filename. Otherwise the pictures saved within the same second will overwrite each other. The %q in jpeg_filename ensures that each jpeg (or ppm) picture saved gets a unique filename.
Security Warning! Note that the flexibility of this feature also means you have to pay attention to the following. This option was renamed to movie_filename in 3.2.5 to enable better integration of alternative movie libraries to the current ffmpeg solution.
This option was renamed from ffmpeg_filename to movie_filename in Motion 3.2.5.
Default value is equivalent to legacy 'oldlayout' option
For Motion 3.0 compatible mode (directories based on date and time) choose: %Y/%m/%d/%H%M%S
File extension .mpg or .avi is automatically added so do not include this.
This option uses conversion specifiers which are codes that start by % and then a letter. The conversion specifiers used has the same function as for the C function strftime (3). The most commonly used are: text_event, text_left, text_right, sql_query, snapshot_filename, jpeg_filename, ffmpeg_filename, timelapse_filename, on_event_start, on_event_end, on_picture_save, on_movie_start, on_movie_end, and on_motion_detected.
In text_left and text_right you can additionally use '\n' for new line.
| Conversion Specifier | Description |
|---|---|
| %a | The abbreviated weekday name according to the current locale. |
| %A | The full weekday name according to the current locale. |
| %b | The abbreviated month name according to the current locale. |
| %B | The full month name according to the current locale. |
| %c | The preferred date and time representation for the current locale. |
| %C | Text defined by the text_event feature |
| %d | The day of the month as a decimal number (range 01 to 31). |
| %D | Number of pixels detected as Motion. If labelling is enabled the number is the number of pixels in the largest labelled motion area. |
| %E | Modifier: use alternative format, see below. |
| %f | File name - used in the on_picture_save, on_movie_start, on_movie_end, and sql_query features. |
| %F | Equivalent to %Y-%m-%d (the ISO 8601 date format). |
| %H | The hour as a decimal number using a 24-hour clock (range 00 to 23). |
| %i | Width of the rectangle containing the motion pixels (the rectangle that is shown on the image when locate is on). |
| %I | The hour as a decimal number using a 12-hour clock (range 01 to 12). |
| %j | The day of the year as a decimal number (range 001 to 366). |
| %J | Height of the rectangle containing the motion pixels (the rectangle that is shown on the image when locate is on). |
| %k | The hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (range 0 to 23); single digits are preceded by a blank. (See also %H.) |
| %K | X coordinate in pixels of the center point of motion. Origin is upper left corner. |
| %l | The hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (range 1 to 12); single digits are preceded by a blank. (See also %I.) |
| %L | Y coordinate in pixels of the center point of motion. Origin is upper left corner and number is positive moving downwards (I may change this soon). |
| %m | The month as a decimal number (range 01 to 12). |
| %M | The minute as a decimal number (range 00 to 59). |
| %n | Filetype as used in the on_picture_save, on_movie_start, on_movie_end, and sql_query features. |
| %N | Noise level. |
| %o | Threshold. The number of detected pixels required to trigger motion. When threshold_tune is 'on' this can be used to show the current tuned value of threshold. |
| %p | Either 'AM' or 'PM' according to the given time value, or the corresponding strings for the current locale. Noon is treated as `pm' and midnight as `am'. |
| %P | Like %p but in lowercase: `am' or `pm' or a corresponding string for the current locale. |
| %q | Picture frame number within current second. For jpeg filenames this should always be included in the filename if you save more then 1 picture per second to ensure unique filenames. It is not needed in filenames for mpegs. |
| %Q | Number of detected labels found by the despeckle feature |
| %r | The time in a.m. or p.m. notation. |
| %R | The time in 24-hour notation (%H:%M). |
| %s | The number of seconds since the Epoch, i.e., since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC. |
| %S | The second as a decimal number (range 00 to 61). |
| %t | Thread number (camera number) |
| %T | The time in 24-hour notation (%H:%M:%S). |
| %u | The day of the week as a decimal, range 1 to 7, Monday being 1. See also %w. |
| %U | The week number of the current year as a decimal number, range 00 to 53, starting with the first Sunday as the first day of week 01. See also %V and %W. |
| %v | Event number. An event is a series of motion detections happening with less than 'gap' seconds between them. |
| %V | The ISO 8601:1988 week number of the current year as a decimal number, range 01 to 53, where week 1 is the first week that has at least 4 days in the current year, and with Monday as the first day of the week. See also %U and %W. |
| %w | The day of the week as a decimal, range 0 to 6, Sunday being 0. See also %u. |
| %W | The week number of the current year as a decimal number, range 00 to 53, starting with the first Monday as the first day of week 01. |
| %x | The preferred date representation for the current locale without the time. |
| %X | The preferred time representation for the current locale without the date. |
| %y | The year as a decimal number without a century (range 00 to 99). |
| %Y | The year as a decimal number including the century. |
| %z | The time-zone as hour offset from GMT. |
| %Z | The time zone or name or abbreviation. |
ppm is set to off. (I.e. saved images are jpeg images).
The webcam_maxrate and webcam_quality options are important to limit the load on your server and link. Don't set them too high unless you only use it on the localhost or on an internal LAN. The option webcam_quality is equivalent to the quality level for jpeg pictures.
The webcam_limit option prevents people from loading your Network connection by streaming for hours and hours. The options defines the number of picture frames sent as mjpeg Motion will allow without re-connecting (e.g. clicking refresh in the browser).
The option webcam_localhost is a security feature. When enabled you can only access the webserver on the same machine as Motion is running on. If you want to present a live webcam on your web site this feature must be disabled.
The webserver generates a stream in "multipart jpeg" format (mjpeg). You cannot watch the stream with most browsers. Only certain versions of Netscape works. Mozilla and Firefox brosers can view the mjpeg stream but you often have to refresh the page once to get the streaming going. Internet Explorer cannot show the mjpeg stream. For public viewing this is not very useful. There exists a java applet called Cambozola which enabled any Java capable browser to show the stream. To enable the feature to a broad audience you should use this applet or similar.
To use the webcam feature with Cambozola is actually very simple.
1. Create a html page in which you will want the streamed picture.
2. In the html page include this code
<applet code=com.charliemouse.cambozola.Viewer
archive=cambozola.jar width="320" height="240" style="border-width:1; border-color:gray; border-style:solid;">
<param name=url value="http://www.myurl.com:8081">
</applet>
Where the width and height is the image size of the video stream.
Replace www.myurl.com:8081 by the real url and port number of your choice.
3. In the same directory you place the cambozola.jar file. No need to build the java applet from source. Simply use the applet in the package.
4. Enable the feature in motion.conf.
You can also view the live webcam stream using MPlayer like this:
mplayer -demuxer lavf http://www.myurl.com:8081/stream.mjpgNote that the
stream.mjpg part is important, without it you will get a LAVF_check: no clue about this gibberish! error from libavformat.
These are the special webcam parameters.
0 9 * * * root /usr/bin/lwp-request http://localhost:8080/0/detection/start > /dev/null 0 18 * * * root /usr/bin/lwp-request http://localhost:8080/0/detection/pause > /dev/nullIf you want to use the http remote control from your own software (for example your own PHP front end) you can set the new motion.conf option html_output off. Then Motion answers back with very basic text only and no html around it. A bit like the xmlrpc interface did. To remote control Motion from a web pages you can for example use PHP. In PHP it takes this simple code line to send a remote commend to Motion. Here we pause motion detection for camera 2
readfile('http://localhost:8080/2/detection/pause');
What happened to XMLRPC?
XMLRPC is replaced by a simpler http remote control interface. It is still being worked on but it is absolutely useable now and much nicer to work with than xmlrpc. Another advantage is that you do not need to install xmlrpc libraries. It is all written in standard C.
Security Warning! Note that this feature also means you have to pay attention to the following. quiet is also included in this section.
A redesign of the external commands was due. They were not very easy to understand, not all were flexible enough and some were missing. So a new external command feature set was made for 3.2.1 and on.
This is how the new script commands look like:
| Function | Old Option | New Option | Argument Appended |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start of event (first motion) | execute | on_event_start | None |
| End of event (no motion for gap seconds) | New! | on_event_end | None |
| Picture saved (jpg or ppm) | onsave | on_picture_save | Filename of picture |
| Movie starts (mpeg file opened) | onmpeg | on_movie_start | Filename of movie |
| Movie ends (mpeg file closed) | onffmpegclose | on_movie_end | Filename of movie |
| Motion detected (each single frame with Motion detected) | New! | on_motion_detected | None |
Security Warning! Note that this feature also means you have to pay attention to the following. #!/bin/sh # Motion sample script to send an e-mail at start of an event. # Replaces the former 'mail' option. # Just define this script as 'on_event_start'-script in motion.conf like that: # on_event_start send_mail "%Y-%m-%d %T" #change to suit your needs: #location of 'mail' binary MAIL="/usr/bin/mail" #Destination e-mail address TO="root@localhost" #Subject of the e-mail SUBJECT="Motion detected" #Don't change anything below this line echo -e "This is an automated message generated by motion.\n\nMotion detected: $1\n\n" | $MAIL -s "$SUBJECT" $TO
#/usr/local/bin/send_mail $1 you can combine both sending email and sms.
#!/bin/sh # Motion sample script to send an sms at start of an event. # Replaces the former 'sms' option. # Just define this script as 'on_event_start'-script in motion.conf like that: # on_event_start send_sms "%Y-%m-%d %T" # # If you want to send an e-mail message here as well, just uncomment the last # line of this script. #change to suit your needs: #location of 'sms-client' binary SMS_CLIENT="/usr/bin/sms_client" #Destination sms number TO="12345" #Don't change anything below this line $SMS_CLIENT $TO "Motion detected $1" #/usr/local/bin/send_mail $1
| Normal image | 1 |
| Snapshot image | 2 |
| Motion image (showing only pixels defined as motion) | 4 |
| Normal mpeg image | 8 |
| Motion mpeg (showing only pixels defined as motion) | 16 |
| Timelapse mpeg | 32 |
CREATE TABLE security (camera int, filename char(80) not null, frame int, file_type int, time_stamp timestamp(14), text_event timestamp(14));
If you choose to use text_event for a non-timestamp value you can instead define something like.
CREATE TABLE security (camera int, filename char(80) not null, frame int, file_type int, time_stamp timestamp(14), text_event char(40));
Remember to update grant table to give access to the mysql username you choose for motion.
It would be too much to go into detail about how to setup and use MySQL. After all this is a guide about Motion. However here are some hints and links.
Setting Up a MySQL Based Website - A beginners guide from Linux Planet.
Webmonkey PHP/!MySQL tutorial - Entertaining and easy to read.
The phpMyAdmin homepage. The best and simplest tool to use MySQL (editors opinion). Requires Apache/PHP.
The options for MySQL
mknod /dev/video4 c 81 4 mknod /dev/video5 c 81 5 mknod /dev/video6 c 81 6 mknod /dev/video7 c 81 7 mknod /dev/video8 c 81 8 mknod /dev/video9 c 81 9 mknod /dev/video10 c 81 10 mknod /dev/video11 c 81 11Note that the video device number is the same as the last parameter given on each line. You may need to set the ownership and permissions (chown and chmod) to be the same as the video devices that were already there. Now you need to install the video loopback device. Download the latest video4linux loopback device . Place the file in a place of your own choice. Untar and uncompress the file to the place you want the program installed. Editor recommends /usr/local/vloopback.
cd /usr/local
tar -xvzf /path/to/vloopback-1.1-rc1.tar.gz
You now have a directory called vloopback-1.1-rc1. You can rename it to vloopback (mv vloopback-1.1-rc1 vloopback). I recommend creating a symbolic link to the current version. This way you can more easily experiment with different versions simply by changing the link.
ln -s vloopback-1.1-rc1 vloopback
Now change to the new directory
cd vloopback
Build the code
make
There is a good chance that the make will not work and give you a long list of errors. To run make the following must be available on you machine. ln -s /usr/src/linux-2.4.18-4 /usr/src/linux
#include <linux/malloc.h>
with the line
#include <linux/slab.h>
Install the code you built as a Kernel module. There are two options: pipes should be set to the number of video loopbacks that you want. Probably one for each camera. The dev_offset defines which video device number will be the first. If dev_offset is not defined the vloopback module will install itself from the first available video device. If you want the cameras to be assigned to the lower video device numbers you must either load vloopback after loading the video device modules OR use the dev_offset option when loading vloopback. Vloopback then installs itself in the sequence input 0, output 0, input 1, output 1, input 2, output 2 etc. Here is shown the command for our example of 4 cameras and 4 loopback devices and the first loopback device offset to /dev/video4.
/sbin/insmod /usr/local/vloopback/vloopback.o pipes=4 dev_offset=4
When you run the command you may get a warning about tainting the Kernel. Just ignore this.
You can choose to copy the vloopback.o file into a directory in the /lib/modules tree where the insmod/modprobe programs are already looking for modules. Then the command gets simpler (/sbin/insmod vloopback pipes=.....).
If you want the loopback device to load during boot, you can place the call in one of the bootup scripts such as /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Vloopback should be loaded before you start motion.
To activate the vloopback device in motion set the 'video_pipe' option in the motion.conf file. You can also view the special motion pictures where you see the changed pixels by setting the option 'motion_video_pipe' in motion.conf. When setting the video_pipe and/or motion_video_pipe options either specify the input device as e.g. /dev/video4. You can also set the parameter to '-' which means that motion will find the first vacant video loopback device input. If you have more than one camera you may want to control which loopback device each thread uses. Then you need to define the specific device name in motion.conf for the first camera and in each thread config file for the other cameras. If you set the video_pipe parameter to '-' in the motion.conf file and not setting it in the thread config files, motion automatically assign video devices in the same sequence as the threads are loaded. You can combine both video_pipe and motion_video_pipe but then naturally you will need twice as many pipes.
De-activating should be done with this command
/sbin/modprobe -r vloopback
Description of the motion.conf options related to video loopback device.