View source for Hacker Guide

= Introduction  =

{{VLC}} is a very popular, but quite large and complex piece of software.<br />
It uses a large number of [[Contrib Status|3rd party libraries]]. 

VLC development is open source, and then a large community of developers worldwide contribute to it.<br />
However, entering a project such as {{VLC}} can be long and complex for new developers. 

This '''guide''' seeks to help understanding the VLC code base and VLC internals to quickly get up to speed.<br />
''NB: this guide is '''not''' about [[Compile|compiling]] VLC.''


A very good introduction to VLC can also be found on [http://www.enjoythearchitecture.com/vlc-architecture.html enjoythearchitecture].

= The layers of VLC and libVLC  =

== VLC's Core / libVLCcore  ==

The most important (and probably most complex) part of VLC is the core, located in src/ in the repository. 

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Core|Introduction to the core]]
** This is a '''MUST-READ''' for developers. 
*[[Documentation:VLC Modules Loading|VLC modules loading]]
** How the numerous VLC modules work and are loaded.
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Input|Input]]
** How the main input chain works (slightly outdated)
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Object Management|VLC Object Management]]
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Variables|VLC variables]]
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/VLM Internals|VLM Internals]]

== Plugins / Modules  ==

[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Module Writers Guide|How to write a VLC module]].

=== Input === 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Access|Access]] 
** An access module provides a byte stream from a location string [[MRL]], like support for files, HTTP streams, webcams...
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Demux|Demuxer]]
** A demux module parses a byte stream and splits it into [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elementary_stream elementary streams] (tracks).
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Access Demux|Access-Demuxer]]
** An access_demux module combines the functionality of access and demux (and bypass any stream filters), splitting elementary streams directly from a location string. It's used where the bytestream abstraction is inadequate.
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Stream Filters|Stream Filters]]
** A stream filter module converts a byte stream into another byte stream. It could be used for file or byte stream decryption, as it is already used for decompression (gzip, Bzip2, XZ) and multi-part files.
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Decoder|Decoder]]
** A decoder takes an elementary stream and convert into raw video, audio or text data, reading for output.

=== Audio === 

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Audio Filters|Audio Filters]] 
**[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Audio Mixers|Audio Mixers]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Audio Output|Audio Output]]

=== Video ===

*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Video Filters|Video Filters]] 
**[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Video Filters/Deinterlace|Deinterlace]]
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Video Output|Video Output]]

=== Interfaces ===
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Interfaces|Interfaces]]

=== Modules types not documented (yet) ===
==== Misc ====
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Visualization|Visualization]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Packetizers|Packetizers]]

==== Streaming output ====
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Encoder|Encoder]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Mux|Mux]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Stream Output|Stream Output]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Access Output|Access Output]]

== libVLC and bindings ==

*Using [[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/libvlc|libvlc]] 
*bindings

= VLC source code overview  =

*[[VLC source tree]] 
*[[Modules source tree]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Preferences|VLC Preferences]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Playlist|VLC Playlist and Media Library]]

= Coding for VLC  =

*[[Patches|Patching]] 
*[[Sending Patches]] 
*[[Code Conventions]] 
*[[Documentation:Hacker's Guide/Module Writers Guide|Adding a module]] 
*[[Documentation:Unicode]] 
*[http://www.videolan.org/developers/vlc/doc/doxygen/html/ Doxygen Documentation] 
*[[C Types]] 
*[[Strings]]


= Testing  =

*[[Test Suite]]

= Mozilla plugins =

* [[Plugins/Mozilla|Plugins in Mozilla]]

{{Hacker_Guide}}