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)This is the README file for LIRC, the Linux Infrared Remote Control package. The main documentation of this package is available in HTML format at http://lirc.sf.net. After building the documentation is also available at doc/html/index.html.
Updated versions of lirc is available using the website http://lirc.org.
More complete build and install instructions are available in the manual, the Installation chapter. The fast track:
$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make installIf you are upgrading from an older version of LIRC take a look at the NEWS file which contains all user visible changes between releases.
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 focused 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 which decodes IR signals received by the device drivers and provides the information on a socket. It also accepts commands for IR signals to be sent if the hardware supports this.
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.
Since some time some of the LIRC functionality has been moved to the kernel. However, LIRC still adds functionality and flexibility to the basic kernel IR remote handling.