libva

Libva provides an implementation of VA-API (Video Acceleration API), an open-source library and API specification for accessing graphics hardware acceleration capabilities for video processing. Its architecture combines a main library with driver-specific acceleration backends for supported hardware vendors, allowing applications to use a common interface while vendor drivers provide hardware support. The repository is oriented toward developers and integrators. It links a contributing guide and beginner-friendly janitorial issues, publishes Doxygen-generated documentation through GitHub Pages, and directs development contact through GitHub issues. The project states a backward-compatibility policy: contributions should not regress existing API behavior, and deliberate API modifications or removals should be communicated in release notes. API options are treated as stable, while debug parameters, environment variables, and internal data structures are not. Build documentation was tested on Ubuntu Server 18.04 with GCC and Clang. Listed requirements include git, cmake, pkg-config, meson, libdrm-dev, automake, and libtool. Libva can be built from source using either autogen with make or Meson with ninja. The README provides distribution-specific prefix and library-directory examples for Debian/Ubuntu systems and RPM-style systems, and notes that a default /usr/local/lib installation may require LD_LIBRARY_PATH configuration.