cam

List available cameras

$ cam [[-l|--list]]

$ cam [[-c|--camera]] [camera_index] --list-controls

$ cam [[-c|--camera]] [camera_index] [[-C|--capture=]][frames_to_capture] [[-F|--file]]

$ cam [[-c|--camera]] [camera_index] [[-C|--capture]] [[-S|--sdl]]

The 'cam' command is not a standard Linux utility and thus has no universal synopsis.

The cam command does not appear to be a standard or widely recognized utility within typical Linux distributions. While many commands share similar spellings (e.g., cat for concatenating files, cal for displaying a calendar, or cmp for comparing files), there is no generic 'cam' command listed in standard Linux man pages or documentation.

Specific applications or hardware control utilities might include 'cam' as part of their name (like camcontrol for SCSI/ATA CAM or various webcam utilities), but these are not simply 'cam'. If you encountered this command, it is most likely a custom shell alias, a user-defined script, or part of a highly specialized or niche software package not commonly distributed across most standard Linux environments. Therefore, a generic analysis of a 'cam' command is not possible due to its non-standard nature.

As 'cam' is not a standard command, its existence and behavior on a specific system would be entirely dependent on local customizations. If found, it could be a simple alias, a complex script, or even a malicious executable. Using an undocumented 'cam' command without verifying its source and purpose could pose security risks or lead to unintended system modifications.

It is highly probable that 'cam' is a typo for a common command like cat or cal. Alternatively, it might be an alias created by a user or administrator. You can check for aliases using alias cam, and for its existence in your PATH using which cam or type -a cam.

While 'cam' itself isn't standard, commands related to camera hardware often exist. For instance, v4l2-ctl (Video4Linux2 control) is a common utility for configuring webcam devices, and various graphical applications (like Cheese) provide user-friendly interfaces for camera usage.

There is no documented history or widely recognized development timeline for a generic 'cam' command in the context of standard Linux utilities, as it does not exist as such.

cat(1), cal(1), cmp(1), camcontrol(8), fswebcam(1)