  This paper is concerned with the initial-boundary value problem for a
nonlinear hyperbolic system of conservation laws. We study the boundary layers
that may arise in approximations of entropy discontinuous solutions. We
consider both the vanishing viscosity method and finite difference schemes
(Lax-Friedrichs type schemes, Godunov scheme). We demonstrate that different
regularization methods generate different boundary layers. Hence, the boundary
condition can be formulated only if an approximation scheme is selected first.
Assuming solely uniform L\infty bounds on the approximate solutions and so
dealing with L\infty solutions, we derive several entropy inequalities
satisfied by the boundary layer in each case under consideration. A Young
measure is introduced to describe the boundary trace. When a uniform bound on
the total variation is available, the boundary Young measure reduces to a Dirac
mass. Form the above analysis, we deduce several formulations for the boundary
condition which apply whether the boundary is characteristic or not. Each
formulation is based a set of admissible boundary values, following Dubois and
LeFloch's terminology in ``Boundary conditions for nonlinear hyperbolic systems
of conservation laws'', J. Diff. Equa. 71 (1988), 93--122. The local structure
of those sets and the well-posedness of the corresponding initial-boundary
value problem are investigated. The results are illustrated with convex and
nonconvex conservation laws and examples from continuum mechanics.
