static-ffmpeg

The easiest way to get ffmpeg v8 installed through python.

Install

> pip install static-ffmpeg

Usage

import static_ffmpeg
# ffmpeg installed on first call to add_paths(), threadsafe.
static_ffmpeg.add_paths()  # blocks until files are downloaded
# or static_ffmpeg.add_paths(weak=True) to only add if ffmpeg/ffprobe not already on path
# Now ffmpeg and ffprobe will use static_ffmpeg versions.
os.system("ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 ...")

Or if you want more lazy behavior to install on first use, or you don't want to modify system paths, use static_ffmpeg

import static_ffmpeg
# ffmpeg installed on first call, threadsafe.
os.system("static_ffmpeg -i myfile.mp4 ...")

You can also use it on the command line

> pip install static-ffmpeg
> static_ffmpeg -i file.mp4 ...
> static_ffprobe ...
> static_ffmpeg_paths
FFMPEG=c:\users\niteris\dev\static_ffmpeg\static_ffmpeg\bin\win32\ffmpeg.exe
FFPROBE=c:\users\niteris\dev\static_ffmpeg\static_ffmpeg\bin\win32\ffprobe.exe

About

This tool installs binaries for ffmpeg and ffprobe binary (with all plugins and codecs) into the running platform. The platform binaries are installed on first use and is done without requiring elevated permissions.

This package is designed to allow tools that rely on ffmpeg to have a fully featured ffmpeg available by just including this package. No seperate install of ffmpeg is needed.

Without this library...

Your ffmpeg tool would have to rely on the user to install ffmpeg, with the right build settings to ensure your tool functions correctly. This is a major pain for ffmpeg based tools (missing codecs for example) and this library solves this problem.

As of now, binaries are available for:

• win32 (Windows x64)
• darwin (macOS Intel x64)
• darwin_arm64 (macOS Apple Silicon)
• linux (Linux x64, Ubuntu 20+)
• linux_arm64 (Linux ARM64/aarch64)
• Pull requests to support for other platforms are welcome! To add support please see related git repo: ffmpeg_bins.

There is both an python api and a command line api. After installing this package the command line aliases will be available:

• static_ffmpeg operates just like ffmpeg
• static_ffprobe operates just like ffprobe.
• static_ffmpeg_paths prints out the paths of the ffmpeg binaries.

> static_ffmpeg_paths
FFMPEG=c:\users\niteris\dev\static_ffmpeg\static_ffmpeg\bin\win32\ffmpeg.exe
FFPROBE=c:\users\niteris\dev\static_ffmpeg\static_ffmpeg\bin\win32\ffprobe.exe

Api

Here's how to get the binaries and execute them.

# Using the alias method
import os
# Platform binaries will be installed the first run.
os.system("static_ffmpeg -version")  # static_ffmpeg is an alias for this tools ffmpeg.
os.system("static_ffprobe -version")

# Using the program location method
import subprocess
from static_ffmpeg import run
# Platform binaries are installed on the first run of below.
ffmpeg, ffprobe = run.get_or_fetch_platform_executables_else_raise()
# ffmpeg, ffprobe will be paths to ffmpeg and ffprobe.
subprocess.check_output([ffmpeg, "-version"])
subprocess.check_output([ffprobe, "-version"])

Binary resolution & backward compatibility

By default static-ffmpeg downloads the same per-platform zips it always has, from the frozen ffmpeg_bins repo, so existing installs keep resolving to the exact same URLs — those are never moved.

New installs can additionally resolve binaries through a manifest.json catalog, which lets the download source, versions, and integrity hashes change without a client release. The client detects a platform tuple (os / arch / libc, so glibc and musl Linux builds are distinguished), resolves it against the catalog, and verifies the artifact's sha256 before use. If the manifest is disabled, unreachable, or does not describe the current platform, it falls back to the legacy URL — resolution is never worse than before.

Manifest resolution is opt-in until the ffmpeg-bins2 catalog + CDN are live. Point it at a catalog with:

export STATIC_FFMPEG_MANIFEST_URL="https://<cdn>/ffmpeg/manifest.json"

See manifest.example.json for the catalog format and issue #20 for the full migration plan.

Testing

• Clone this project git clone https://github.com/zackees/static_ffmpeg
• cd static_ffmpeg
• Then run tox tox

Virtual Environment (optional)

To test it in a virtual environment, use this easy helper:

To easily setup a virtual environment, please run

python setupvirtualenv.py

Then run ./activate.sh to activate the shell.

Binary source

• https://github.com/zackees/ffmpeg_bins

Version

ffmpeg and ffprobe are both version: 8.0

Release History

• 3.0:
  • FFmpeg upgraded to 8.0
  • Added ARM64 support for macOS (Apple Silicon) and Linux (aarch64)
  • New platform keys: darwin_arm64, linux_arm64
  • Automatic CPU architecture detection
• 2.7: Bugfix, increase the timeout to download for slow connections to 10 minutes.
• 2.6: Bugfix, add_paths(...) can now be called multiple times without polluting the os env path.
• 2.5: add_paths() now has optional weak parameter (default False). If True then ffmpeg/ffprobe binaries are only only if either ffmpeg OR ffprobe doesn't already exist on path
• 2.3: Adds static_ffmpeg.add_paths()
• 2.2: Addressed bug 9 in some cases static_ffmpeg couldn't handle spaces in mp4 names.
• 2.1: Addressed bug 7 on Win32 for not handling spaces in directory names in the site packages path.
• 2.0:
  • ffmpeg upgraded to 5.0
  • added ffprobe (static_ffprobe or get run.get_platform_executables_or_raise() to get the binary location)
  • Now downloads platform specific binary to reduce install size (reduced 2/3rds of the install size vs 1.0)
• 1.0:
  • ffmpeg 4.4 released + tests