<para>This ioctl is used to create buffers for <link linkend="mmap">memory
mapped</link> or <link linkend="userp">user pointer</link> or <link
linkend="dmabuf">DMA buffer</link> I/O. It can be used as an alternative or in
-addition to the <constant>VIDIOC_REQBUFS</constant> ioctl, when a tighter
+addition to the &VIDIOC-REQBUFS; ioctl, when a tighter
control over buffers is required. This ioctl can be called multiple times to
create buffers of different sizes.</para>
<para>The <structfield>format</structfield> field specifies the image format
that the buffers must be able to handle. The application has to fill in this
-&v4l2-format;. Usually this will be done using the
-<constant>VIDIOC_TRY_FMT</constant> or <constant>VIDIOC_G_FMT</constant> ioctl()
-to ensure that the requested format is supported by the driver. Unsupported
-formats will result in an error.</para>
+&v4l2-format;. Usually this will be done using the &VIDIOC-TRY-FMT; or &VIDIOC-G-FMT; ioctls
+to ensure that the requested format is supported by the driver.
+Based on the format's <structfield>type</structfield> field the requested buffer
+size (for single-planar) or plane sizes (for multi-planar formats) will be
+used for the allocated buffers. The driver may return an error if the size(s)
+are not supported by the hardware (usually because they are too small).</para>
<para>The buffers created by this ioctl will have as minimum size the size
-defined by the <structfield>format.pix.sizeimage</structfield> field. If the
+defined by the <structfield>format.pix.sizeimage</structfield> field (or the
+corresponding fields for other format types). Usually if the
<structfield>format.pix.sizeimage</structfield> field is less than the minimum
-required for the given format, then <structfield>sizeimage</structfield> will be
-increased by the driver to that minimum to allocate the buffers. If it is
-larger, then the value will be used as-is. The same applies to the
-<structfield>sizeimage</structfield> field of the
-<structname>v4l2_plane_pix_format</structname> structure in the case of
-multiplanar formats.</para>
+required for the given format, then an error will be returned since drivers will
+typically not allow this. If it is larger, then the value will be used as-is.
+In other words, the driver may reject the requested size, but if it is accepted
+the driver will use it unchanged.</para>
<para>When the ioctl is called with a pointer to this structure the driver
will attempt to allocate up to the requested number of buffers and store the
actual number allocated and the starting index in the
<structfield>count</structfield> and the <structfield>index</structfield> fields
respectively. On return <structfield>count</structfield> can be smaller than
-the number requested. The driver may also increase buffer sizes if required,
-however, it will not update <structfield>sizeimage</structfield> field values.
-The user has to use <constant>VIDIOC_QUERYBUF</constant> to retrieve that
-information.</para>
+the number requested.</para>
<table pgwide="1" frame="none" id="v4l2-create-buffers">
<title>struct <structname>v4l2_create_buffers</structname></title>