Jetson Linux API Reference

35.6.0 Release
Jetson Linux API Reference Documentation

Welcome to the NVIDIA Jetson Linux API Reference. This documentation is preliminary and is subject to change.

About the APIs

The Jetson Linux API Reference describes several APIs or API extensions that are implemented in NVIDIA® Jetson™ Linux Driver Package (L4T). You can use these APIs to customize aspects of your Jetson device's behavior.

Warning
Jetson Linux API References documents API elements that you can use directly. NVIDIA does not recommend using undocumented elements in your code. Such elements may work differently or cease to work when you upgrade to later releases.

The Multimedia APIs are a collection of lower-level APIs that support flexible application development by providing better control over the underlying hardware blocks.

The Multimedia APIs are separate from the GStreamer framework, which provides high-level APIs. That framework is included in current and previous releases.

The Multimedia APIs provide libraries, header files, API documentation, and sample source code for developing embedded applications for the Jetson platform. For more information, see Sample Applications.

The Graphics APIs implements the direct rendering manager, a Linux subsystem which gives software access to the Jetson platform's GPU.

NVIDIA® TensorRT supports deep learning and inference operations on NVIDIA GPUs. It facilitates running an already-trained network quickly and efficiently. It is documented separately in the NVIDIA TensorRT Documentation Developer Guide.

The NVIDIA Jetson & Embedded Systems forum provides answers to common questions about NVIDIA® TensorRT as it relates to the NVIDIA® Jetson® platform. These questions cover a range of topics including performance, common errors, samples, and customer layers.

Installing the APIs

You must install the Multimedia APIs with NVIDIA JetPack™. You cannot install them as a stand-alone package. You can download JetPack from the NVIDIA Embedded Download Center.

The Graphics APIs are integrated into L4T and need not be installed separately.

TensorRT installation instructions may be found in the NVIDIA TensorRT Documentation Installation Guide.

API Documentation

The API documentation is logically grouped into a hierarchy of modules. Header files that contribute to the same capability are grouped into a single module. Modules may be divided into functional subcategories. To view the modules in this documentation, click the API Modules tab.

To find an API element, sample program, or topic by name, enter the name in the Search field near the upper right corner of this window. As you type the initial letters of the name, Search opens a dropdown results list and populates it with the index entries that start with those letters. To narrow the list of results, continue typing.

You can select the element of interest from the results list, or float your cursor over the magnifying glass icon to make the results list show only functions, variables, structures, files, etc.

Search is case-insensitive. To dismiss the search results, click the X at the right of the Search field.