zbarcam 1 zbarcam scan and decode bar codes from a video device zbarcam device zbarcam Description zbarcam scans a video4linux video source (eg, a webcam) for bar codes and prints any decoded data to the standard output. The video stream is also displayed to the screen. device is the path to the video4linux (version 1 or 2) character device special file (major number 81 and minor number 0 thru 63). It defaults to /dev/video0 The underlying library currently supports EAN-13 (including UPC and ISBN subsets), EAN-8, DataBar, DataBar Expanded, Code 128, Code 93, Code 39, Codabar, Interleaved 2 of 5 and QR Code symbologies. The specific type of each detected symbol is printed with the decoded data. Options This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax. Single letter options may be bundled, long options start with two dashes (`-'). &refcommonoptions; Quiet operation; disable the audible beep otherwise emitted when a symbol is decoded Disable output video window. Video input will be scanned until the program is interrupted or otherwise signaled Stream results using an XML output format. This format wraps the raw data from the symbol with information about the scan in an easy to parse format. The latest schema is available from Use raw symbol data output format. This format prints symbol data separated by newlines without the additional symbology type information that is printed by default Request video input scaling from the camera driver. Possibly useful for reducing huge frames to achieve a higher frame rate. Note that the driver may adjust or completely ignore the scaling request Examples Scan for barcodes using the second video device and pipe the resulting data through a script that searches for each code in a database and does something useful with them: zbarcam /dev/video1 | upcrpc.py The upcrpc.py example script included in the examples/ subdirectory of the distribution will make an XMLRPC call to a popular internet UPC database and print the product description if found. Scan for barcodes using the default video device and stream results to stdout in XML format, also disable recognition of Interleaved 2 of 5 codes to prevent confusion with other symbologies or background noise: zbarcam Scan only for Code 39, without using the preview window - maybe for a fixed installation. To enable only Code 39, first all symbologies are disabled, then Code 39 is re-enabled: zbarcam Exit Status zbarcam returns an exit code to indicate the status of the program execution. Current exit codes are: 0 Successful program completion. 1 An error occurred. This includes bad arguments and I/O errors. 2 A fatal error occurred. See Also Bugs See