8/17/2021 CompilationGuide/Ubuntu – FFmpeg

Compile FFmpeg for Ubuntu, Debian, or Mint

This guide for supported releases of Ubuntu, Debian, and Linux Contents
Mint and will provide a local, non-system installation of FFmpeg Get the Dependencies
with support for several common external encoding libraries. Compilation & Installation
Updating FFmpeg
You may also refer to the Generic Compilation Guide for additional Reverting Changes made by this Guide
FAQ
information about compiling software. Additional help for installing on older/special systems
If You Need Help
Recent static builds are also available for lazy people or those Also See
who are unable to compile. The static builds do not support non-
free libraries.

Note: FFmpeg is part of the Ubuntu packages and can be installed via apt-get install ffmpeg. You
may still wish to compile if you want the latest version, experience a bug, or want to customize your build, and
it will not interfere with the ffmpeg package in the repository.

This guide is designed to be non-intrusive and will create several directories in your home directory:

ffmpeg_sources – Where the source files will be downloaded. This can be deleted if desired when finished
with the guide.
ffmpeg_build – Where the files will be built and libraries installed. This can be deleted if desired when
finished with the guide.
bin – Where the resulting binaries (ffmpeg, ffplay, ffprobe, x264, x265) will be installed.

You can easily undo any of this as shown in Reverting Changes Made by This Guide.

Get the Dependencies

These are packages required for compiling, but you can remove them when you are done if you prefer:

sudo apt-get update -qq && sudo apt-get -y install \

autoconf \

automake \

build-essential \

cmake \

git-core \

libass-dev \

libfreetype6-dev \

libgnutls28-dev \

libsdl2-dev \

libtool \

libva-dev \

libvdpau-dev \

libvorbis-dev \

libxcb1-dev \

libxcb-shm0-dev \

libxcb-xfixes0-dev \

meson \

ninja-build \

pkg-config \

texinfo \

wget \

yasm \

zlib1g-dev

Note: Server users can omit the ffplay and x11grab dependencies: libsdl2-dev libva-dev
libvdpau-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-shm0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev.
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu 1/8
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In your home directory make a new directory to put all of the source code and binaries into:

mkdir -p ~/ffmpeg_sources ~/bin

Compilation & Installation

This guide assumes that you want to install some of the most common third-party libraries. Each section provides you
with the commands needed to install that library.

For each section, copy-paste the entire code-block into your shell.

If you do not require certain features, you may skip the relevant section (if it is not required) and then remove the
appropriate ./configure option in FFmpeg. For example, if libvpx is not needed, skip that section and then remove
--enable-libvpx from the Install FFmpeg section.

Tip: To significantly speed up the compilation process on systems with multiple cores, you can use the -j
option with each make command to set the number of compilation jobs allowed to run simultaneously, such as
make -j4. To set this to the number of available logical CPU cores, use make -j$(nproc). The -j option
also works with the ninja build system used to compile some of the libraries in this guide.

NASM
An assembler used by some libraries.

If your repository provides nasm version ≥ 2.13 then you can install that instead of compiling:

sudo apt-get install nasm

Otherwise you can compile:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

wget https://www.nasm.us/pub/nasm/releasebuilds/2.15.05/nasm-2.15.05.tar.bz2 &&

\

tar xjvf nasm-2.15.05.tar.bz2 && \

cd nasm-2.15.05 && \

./autogen.sh && \
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" ./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --
bindir="$HOME/bin" && \

make && \

make install

libx264
H.264 video encoder. See the H.264 Encoding Guide for more information and usage examples.

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-gpl --enable-libx264.

If your repository provides libx264-dev version ≥ 118 then you can install that instead of compiling:

sudo apt-get install libx264-dev

Otherwise you can compile:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

git -C x264 pull 2> /dev/null || git clone --depth 1

https://code.videolan.org/videolan/x264.git && \

cd x264 && \

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu 2/8
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PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig"
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="$HOME/bin" --enable-static
--enable-pic && \
PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make && \

make install

libx265

H.265/HEVC video encoder. See the H.265 Encoding Guide for more information and usage examples.

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-gpl --enable-libx265.

If your repository provides libx265-dev version ≥ 68 then you can install that instead of compiling:

sudo apt-get install libx265-dev libnuma-dev

Warning: Currently and unlike other libraries, you have to get the full libx265 repository (so remove --depth
1 argument in git clone). Indeed, it will be longer, but it is necessary to allow generating x265.pc file, which is
needed to build ffmpeg with --enable-libx265. Without this, ffmpeg build will be broken.

If you cannot, or don't want to get the full libx265 repository, please use the version provided by apt instead.

Otherwise you can compile:

sudo apt-get install libnuma-dev && \

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

git -C x265_git pull 2> /dev/null || git clone

https://bitbucket.org/multicoreware/x265_git && \

cd x265_git/build/linux && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -

DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" -DENABLE_SHARED=off ../../source &&
\

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make && \

make install

libvpx

VP8/VP9 video encoder/decoder. See the VP9 Video Encoding Guide for more information and usage examples.

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libvpx.

If your repository provides libvpx-dev version ≥ 1.4.0 then you can install that instead of compiling:

sudo apt-get install libvpx-dev

Otherwise you can compile:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

git -C libvpx pull 2> /dev/null || git clone --depth 1

https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libvpx.git && \

cd libvpx && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" ./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-

examples --disable-unit-tests --enable-vp9-highbitdepth --as=yasm && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make && \

make install

libfdk-aac

AAC audio encoder. See the AAC Audio Encoding Guide for more information and usage examples.

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu 3/8
8/17/2021 CompilationGuide/Ubuntu – FFmpeg
Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libfdk-aac (and --enable-nonfree if you also included --
enable-gpl).

If your repository provides libfdk-aac-dev then you can install that instead of compiling:

sudo apt-get install libfdk-aac-dev

Otherwise you can compile:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

git -C fdk-aac pull 2> /dev/null || git clone --depth 1

https://github.com/mstorsjo/fdk-aac && \

cd fdk-aac && \

autoreconf -fiv && \

./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared && \

make && \

make install

libmp3lame
MP3 audio encoder.

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libmp3lame.

If your repository provides libmp3lame-dev version ≥ 3.98.3 then you can install that instead of compiling:

sudo apt-get install libmp3lame-dev

Otherwise you can compile:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

wget -O lame-3.100.tar.gz
https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/lame/lame/3.100/lame-3.100.tar.gz &&
\

tar xzvf lame-3.100.tar.gz && \

cd lame-3.100 && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" ./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --

bindir="$HOME/bin" --disable-shared --enable-nasm && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make && \

make install

libopus

Opus audio decoder and encoder.

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libopus.

If your repository provides libopus-dev version ≥ 1.1 then you can install that instead of compiling:

sudo apt-get install libopus-dev

Otherwise you can compile:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

git -C opus pull 2> /dev/null || git clone --depth 1

https://github.com/xiph/opus.git && \

cd opus && \

./autogen.sh && \
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared && \

make && \

make install

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu 4/8
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libaom
AV1 video encoder/decoder:

Warning: libaom does not yet appear to have a stable API, so compilation of libavcodec/libaomenc.c
may occasionally fail. Just wait a day or two for us to catch up with these annoying changes, re-download
ffmpeg-snapshot.tar.bz2, and try again. Or skip libaom altogether.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

git -C aom pull 2> /dev/null || git clone --depth 1

https://aomedia.googlesource.com/aom && \

mkdir -p aom_build && \

cd aom_build && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -

DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" -DENABLE_SHARED=off -DENABLE_NASM=on
../aom && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make && \

make install

libsvtav1

AV1 video encoder/decoder. Only the encoder is supported by FFmpeg, so building of the decoder is disabled.

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libsvtav1.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

git -C SVT-AV1 pull 2> /dev/null || git clone https://gitlab.com/AOMediaCodec/SV

mkdir -p SVT-AV1/build && \

cd SVT-AV1/build && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="$HOME/f

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make && \

make install

libdav1d

AV1 decoder, much faster than the one provided by libaom.

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libdav1d.

If your repository provides libdav1d-dev, you can install that instead of compiling:

sudo apt-get install libdav1d-dev

Otherwise you'll need can build from source. Users whose distributions don't provide a recent enough version of
meson (0.49.0 or newer) will need to install a more up-to-date version. This is easily done via the Python Package
Index:

sudo apt-get install python3-pip && \

pip3 install --user meson

NASM version 2.14 or newer is required for AVX-512 support. See the NASM section for how to install/build.
Alternatively, disable AVX-512 in Meson setup with -Denable_avx512=false.

To compile:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

git -C dav1d pull 2> /dev/null || git clone --depth 1

https://code.videolan.org/videolan/dav1d.git && \

mkdir -p dav1d/build && \

cd dav1d/build && \

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu 5/8
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meson setup -Denable_tools=false -Denable_tests=false --default-library=static

.. --prefix "$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --libdir="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" && \

ninja && \

ninja install

libvmaf

Library for calculating the ​VMAF video quality metric. Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libvmaf.
Currently ​an issue in libvmaf also requires FFmpeg to be built with --ld="g++" for a static build to succeed.

To compile:

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

wget https://github.com/Netflix/vmaf/archive/v2.1.1.tar.gz && \

tar xvf v2.1.1.tar.gz && \

mkdir -p vmaf-2.1.1/libvmaf/build &&\

cd vmaf-2.1.1/libvmaf/build && \

meson setup -Denable_tests=false -Denable_docs=false --buildtype=release --defau

ninja && \

ninja install

FFmpeg

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources && \

wget -O ffmpeg-snapshot.tar.bz2 https://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-

snapshot.tar.bz2 && \

tar xjvf ffmpeg-snapshot.tar.bz2 && \

cd ffmpeg && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig"
./configure \

--prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" \

--pkg-config-flags="--static" \

--extra-cflags="-I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include" \

--extra-ldflags="-L$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" \

--extra-libs="-lpthread -lm" \

--ld="g++" \

--bindir="$HOME/bin" \

--enable-gpl \

--enable-gnutls \

--enable-libaom \

--enable-libass \

--enable-libfdk-aac \

--enable-libfreetype \

--enable-libmp3lame \

--enable-libopus \

--enable-libsvtav1 \

--enable-libdav1d \

--enable-libvorbis \

--enable-libvpx \

--enable-libx264 \

--enable-libx265 \

--enable-nonfree && \

PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" make && \

make install && \

hash -r

Now re-login or run the following command for your current shell session to recognize the new ffmpeg location:

source ~/.profile

Compilation and installation are now complete and ffmpeg (also ffplay, ffprobe, lame, x264, & x265)
should now be ready to use. The rest of this guide shows how to update or remove FFmpeg.
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu 6/8
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Usage
You can now open a terminal, enter the ffmpeg command, and it should execute your new ffmpeg.

If you need multiple users on the same system to have access to your new ffmpeg, and not just the user that
compiled it, then move or copy the ffmpeg binary from ~/bin to /usr/local/bin.

Documentation
If you want to run man ffmpeg to have local access to the documentation:

echo "MANPATH_MAP $HOME/bin $HOME/ffmpeg_build/share/man" >> ~/.manpath

You may have to log out and then log in for man ffmpeg to work.

HTML formatted documentation is available in ~/ffmpeg_build/share/doc/ffmpeg.

You can also refer to the online FFmpeg documentation, but remember that it is regenerated daily and is meant to be
used with the most current ffmpeg (meaning an old build may not be compatible with the online docs).

Updating FFmpeg
Development of FFmpeg is active and an occasional update can give you new features and bug fixes. First you need
to delete (or move) the old files:

rm -rf ~/ffmpeg_build ~/bin/{ffmpeg,ffprobe,ffplay,x264,x265}

Now can just follow the guide from the beginning.

Reverting Changes made by this Guide

Remove the build and source files as well as the binaries:

rm -rf ~/ffmpeg_build ~/ffmpeg_sources

~/bin/{ffmpeg,ffprobe,ffplay,x264,x265,nasm}

sed -i '/ffmpeg_build/d' ~/.manpath

hash -r

You may also remove packages that have been installed from this guide:

sudo apt-get autoremove autoconf automake build-essential cmake git-core

libass-dev libfreetype6-dev libgnutls28-dev libmp3lame-dev libnuma-dev libopus-
dev libsdl2-dev libtool libva-dev libvdpau-dev libvorbis-dev libvpx-dev
libx264-dev libx265-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-shm0-dev ibxcb-xfixes0-dev texinfo
wget yasm zlib1g-dev

FAQ
Why install to ~/bin?
Avoids installing files into any system directories.
Avoids interfering with the package management system.
Avoids conflicts with the ffmpeg package from the repository.
Super simple to uninstall.
https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu 7/8
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Does not necessarily require sudo or root: useful for shared server users as long as they have the required
dependencies available.
~/bin is already in the vanilla Ubuntu PATH (see ~/.profile).
User is free to move ffmpeg to any other desired location (such as /usr/local/bin).

Why are the commands in this guide so complicated?

It is to make compiling easy and convenient for the user. This guide:

Confines everything to the user's home directory (see the previous FAQ question above).
Is intended to be usable on all currently supported versions of Debian and Ubuntu.
Allows the user to choose if they want to compile certain libraries (latest and greatest) or to simply install the
version from their repository (fast and easy but older).

This results in some various additional commands and configurations instead of the typical and simple
./configure, make, make install.

make[1]: Nothing to be done for 'all'/'install'

This is message from libvpx that occasionally makes users think something went wrong. You can ignore this
message. It just means make is finished doing its work.

Additional help for installing on older/special systems

2021-06-11: Installing with this guide works on Lubuntu 16.04.7 but requires compiling cmake, meson and other
minor things. You might need to update $PATH in /etc/environment and source .profile to load current
settings. Especially, it worked for usage with -c:a libfdk_aac to convert 5.1 to stereo.

If You Need Help

Feel free to ask your questions at the #ffmpeg IRC channel or the ffmpeg-user mailing list.

Also See
Generic FFmpeg Compilation Guide
H.264 Video Encoding Guide
AAC Audio Encoding Guide

Last modified on Jun 11, 2021, 2:21:02 PM

Tags
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Note:
See TracWiki
for help on using the wiki.

https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu 8/8