= libusb =
[[PageOutline(2-5, libusb)]]

== About ==

This is the home of libusb, a library for user level applications to access USB devices uniformly across many different operating systems. libusb is an open source project licensed under the [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1].

Many participants in the libusb community have helped and continue to help with ideas, implementation, support and improvements for libusb.

== Stable API: libusb-1.0 ==

Daniel Drake adopted the project in January 2008 and worked on a [wiki:Libusb1.0 libusb-1.0] release, which adds several features that were missing from the 0.1 API. As of December 2008, libusb-1.0 is the stable and recommended version to use. Developers are encouraged to port their applications to the new API.

 * ''See the [wiki:Libusb1.0] page for more information.''
 * [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1674&package_id=277626 Download libusb-1.0 releases here]
 * [api-1.0: API documentation]
 * Compatibility with libusb-0.1 is available through the [wiki:LibusbCompat0.1 libusb-compat-0.1 compatibility layer].
 * The [wiki:windows_backend Windows backend] uses WinUSB.sys or Win32 HID APIs, it is considered functional as of June 2010 and is being integrated into the main libusb-1.0 tree.

== Legacy API: libusb-0.1 ==

Johannes Erdfelt founded the libusb project and lead development through 2007. By then, libusb-0.1 had been developed, stabilized, and adopted by a wide range of projects.

 * Last release: [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1674&package_id=1632&release_id=398442 libusb-0.1.12]
 * Supported operating systems: Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Darwin, MacOS X (and Windows, through the [wiki:libusb-win32] project).
 * Development status: libusb-0.1 has reached maturity and no further changes or releases are expected.
 * Note that [wiki:libusb-win32] is a separate project which still sees active development (mainly on the driver side, the existing API is stable and unlikely to be changed). Once libusb-1.0 supports the libusb0.sys device driver (#49) then the focus of the project will shift to support libusb-1.0 API along with improving the libusb0.sys driver. In that case, libusb-win32 users will be encouraged to shift to libusb-1.0 API.
 * [http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=1674 Download libusb-0.1 releases here]
 * [doc-0.1: API documentation]
 * [libusb-win32:libusbwin32_examples Unofficial bindings], at the libusb-win32 site
 * [libusb-win32:libusbwin32_examples Projects and Examples using libusb-0.1 and libusb-win32]

== Support ==

Please ask support questions on the [wiki:MailingList mailing list] or in the [wiki:IRC IRC channel].

== Bugs and feature requests ==

If you find a bug in libusb, or wish to request an enhancement, please open a ticket on this web page.

Make sure to view [/report/1 the list of active tickets] before [/newticket creating a new ticket], so that duplicates can be avoided.

Thank you for helping make libusb even better!

== Related ==

 * [http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-usb/files/usbutils/ usbutils] includes the very useful lsusb program to view descriptors in devices