LIRC - Linux Infrared Remote Control README.

Copyright (C) 1996 Ralph Metzler <rjkm@thp.uni-koeln.de>
Copyright (C) 1998-2010 Christoph Bartelmus <lirc@bartelmus.de>
Copyright (C) 2010-2011 Jarod Wilson <jarod@redhat.com>
(according to GNU General Public Licence 2.0 or later)

General

This is the README file for LIRC, the Linux Infrared Remote rol package. The main documentation of this package is available in HTML format at http://lirc.org. After building the documentation is also available at doc/html/index.html.

Updated versions of lirc is available using the website http://lirc.org.

Last version: 0.9.1

• Added systemd support: unit files, socket activation.
• Building kernel modules is not supported.
• New config file lirc_options.conf with cli options default values.
• Automagically sets the lirc protocol for /dev/rc devices.
• Whitespace cleanup and git hook to enforce whitespace handling.
• Docs are built s part of normal build process.
• Bugfixes
• Autotools update and Darwin fixes.
• docs: Added new Configuration Guide.
• Licensing: Added some MIT-licensed files from CCAN, complete license now is GPLv2 + MIT.

Build and install.

More complete build and install instructions are available in the manual, the Installation chapter. The fast track:

$ ./autogen.sh
$ ./configure --with-syslog --with-driver=userspace
$ make
$ sudo make install

If you are upgrading from an older version of LIRC take a look at the NEWS file which contains all user visible changes between releases. Also at least read the "Updating from lirc-x.y.z" sections in the main documentation.

What is LIRC?

LIRC is a package that allows you to decode and send infra-red signals of many (but not all) commonly used remote controls. Pre-release versions are currently available at the LIRC homepage: http://www.lirc.org/

Former versions focussed on home-brew hardware connected to the serial or parallel port. Descriptions how to build this hardware can be found on the LIRC homepage. Current versions of LIRC also support a variety of other hardware. An up-to-date list of all supported devices and the status of the according drivers is available on the LIRC homepage.

The most important part of LIRC is the lircd daemon that will decode IR signals received by the device drivers and provide the information on a socket. It will also accept commands for IR signals to be sent if the hardware supports this. The second daemon program called lircmd will connect to lircd and translate the decoded IR signals to mouse movements. You can e.g. configure X to use your remote control as an input device.

The user space applications will allow you to control your computer with your remote control. You can send X events to applications, start programs and much more on just one button press. The possible applications are obvious: Infra-red mouse, remote control for your TV tuner card or CD-ROM, shutdown by remote, program your VCR and/or satellite tuner with your computer, etc.

Adding new remotes is still problematic but since version 0.5.2 there is a program (irrecord) that will try to add new remote controls automatically.

Don't expect much documentation. This is only a pre-release version and there is still much to be done before LIRC becomes easily configurable and usable. For people with a little C/C++ knowledge this should already be possible with this pre-release. Otherwise, wait for version 1.0.