Hi all, I am increasingly unhappy about the choice of /dev/videoX for metadata devices. It is confusing for end-users (especially w.r.t. the common uvc driver) and if we want to change this, then we need to do it soon. This patch https://patchwork.linuxtv.org/patch/58693/ adds a new VFL_TYPE_METADATA so at least drivers can now explicitly signal that they want to register a metadata device. This also makes it possible to add a kernel config option that allows you to select whether you want metadata devices to appear as videoX or v4l-metaX. I would prefer to set it to v4l-metaX by default. We can also consider backporting this to the stable/long-term kernels. Metadata capture was introduced in 4.12 for the vsp1 driver, in 4.16 for the uvc driver and in 5.0 for the staging ipu3 driver. Does someone remember the reason why we picked /dev/videoX for this in the first place? Regards, Hans
