[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH 2/3] Add section describing the filtergraph.

[Stefano Sabatini]

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+ at chapter Filtergraph description
+ at c man begin FILTERGRAPH DESCRIPTION
+
+A filtergraph is a graph of connected filters.
+
+Each filter instance has a variable number of inputs and output pads,
+which are used to connect it with other filters. A filter with no
+input pads is called "source", a filter with no output pads is called
+a "sink". A connection between an output pad and an input pad of a
+filter is called a "link".
+
+ at section Filtergraph syntax
+
+A filtergraph can be represented using a textual representation, which
+is recognized by the @code{-vf} and @code{-af} options of the ff*
+tools, and by the @code{av_parse_graph()} function defined in
+ at file{libavfilter/avfiltergraph}.
+
+A filtergraph is represented by a list of ";"-separated filterchain
+descriptions. Each filterchain represents a sequence of connected
+filterchain node filters (each one called "filternode").
+
+A filternode is represented by a string of the form:
+ at example
+[@var{in_link_1}]...[@var{in_link_N}]@var{filter_name}=@var{arguments}[@var{out_link_1}]...[@var{out_link_M}]
+ at end example
+
+ at var{filter_name} is the name of a filter, optionally
+followed by a string "=@var{arguments}", and eventually preceded and
+followed by a list of link labels.
+
+ at var{arguments} is a string representing the parameters used to
+initialize the corresponding filter instance, and are described in the
+filters descriptions below.
+
+The list of arguments can be quoted using the character "'" as initial
+and ending mark, and the character '\' for escaping the characters
+within the quoted text; otherwise the argument string is considered
+terminated when the next special character (belonging to the set
+"[]=;,") is encountered.
+
+A link label allows to name a link and associate it to an output or
+input pad of a filternode. @var{in_link_1}, ..., @var{in_link_N} are
+associated to the input pads of the filter instance, and
+ at var{out_link_1}, ..., at var{out_link_M} to the output pads.
+
+If an output pad is not labelled, it is linked by default to the first
+non-labelled input pad of the next filter in the filterchain.
+
+For example in the filterchain:
+ at example
+nullsrc, split[l1], [l2]overlay, nullsink;
+ at end example
+
+split has two output pads, and overlay two input pads. The first
+output pad of split is labelled "l1", the first input pad of
+overlay is labelled "l2", and the second output pad of split is linked
+to the second input pad of overlay, which are both unlabelled.
+
+In the first filterchain of the filtergraph, if the first filternode
+has an unlabelled input pad the label "in" is automatically assigned
+to it; if the last filternode of the last filterchain has an
+unlabelled output pad the label "out" is automatically assigned to it.
+
+In a complete filterchain all the unlabeled input and output pads must
+be connected. A filtergraph is considered "valid" if all the input and
+output filternode pads are connected.
+
+Follows the BNF description of the filtergraph syntax:
+ at example
+ at var{NAME}             ::= sequence of alphanumeric characters and '_'
+ at var{LINKLABEL}        ::= "[" @var{NAME} "]"
+ at var{LINKLABELS}       ::= "@var{LINKLABEL} [@var{LINKLABELS}]
+ at var{FILTER_ARGUMENTS} ::= sequence of chars (eventually quoted)
+ at var{FILTERNODE}       ::= [@var{LINKNAMES}] @var{NAME} ["=" @var{ARGUMENTS}] [@var{LINKNAMES}]
+ at var{FILTERCHAIN}      ::= @var{FILTERNODE} [, at var{FILTERCHAIN}]
+ at var{FILTERGRAPH}      ::= @var{FILTERCHAIN} [;@var{FILTERCHAIN}]
+ at end example
+
+The tool program @file{tools/graph2dot} can be used for converting a
+textual representation of a filtergraph to a representation in the dot
+language, which can be converted to a visual representation using the
+graphviz utilities, e.g. with @file{dot}.
+
+ at c man end FILTERGRAPH DESCRIPTION
+
 @chapter Audio Filters
 @c man begin AUDIO FILTERS
 
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