Compile FFmpeg on CentOS 6.x (Latest Version)

This guide is based on minimal CentOS and will provide a local, non-system installation of FFmpeg with several external encoding libraries. These instructions should also work for recent Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Fedora. This is a non-invasive guide and undoing all steps is simple and is shown at the end of this page.

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Get the Dependencies

Note: The # indicates that the command should be executed as superuser or root.

Get the dependencies:

# yum install autoconf automake gcc gcc-c++ git libtool make nasm pkgconfig zlib-devel

Make a directory to put all of the source code into:

mkdir ~/ffmpeg_sources

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Compilation & Installation

Note: If you do not require certain encoders you may skip the relevant section and then remove the appropriate ./configure option in FFmpeg. For example, if libvorbis is not needed, then skip that section and then remove --enable-libvorbis from the Install FFmpeg section.

Yasm

Yasm is an assembler used by x264 and FFmpeg.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
curl -O http://www.tortall.net/projects/yasm/releases/yasm-1.2.0.tar.gz
tar xzvf yasm-1.2.0.tar.gz
cd yasm-1.2.0
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="$HOME/bin"
make
make install
make distclean
. ~/.bash_profile

x264

H.264 video encoder.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone --depth 1 git://git.videolan.org/x264
cd x264
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="$HOME/bin" --enable-static
make
make install
make distclean

libfdk_aac

AAC audio encoder.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone --depth 1 git://github.com/mstorsjo/fdk-aac.git
cd fdk-aac
autoreconf -fiv
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

libmp3lame

MP3 audio encoder.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
curl -L -O http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/lame/lame/3.99/lame-3.99.5.tar.gz
tar xzvf lame-3.99.5.tar.gz
cd lame-3.99.5
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="$HOME/bin" --disable-shared --enable-nasm
make
make install
make distclean

libopus

Opus audio decoder and encoder.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
curl -O http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/opus/opus-1.0.3.tar.gz
tar xzvf opus-1.0.3.tar.gz
cd opus-1.0.3
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

libogg

Ogg bitstream library. Required by libtheora and libvorbis.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
curl -O http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/ogg/libogg-1.3.1.tar.gz
tar xzvf libogg-1.3.1.tar.gz
cd libogg-1.3.1
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

libvorbis

Vorbis audio encoder. Requires libogg.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
curl -O http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/vorbis/libvorbis-1.3.3.tar.gz
tar xzvf libvorbis-1.3.3.tar.gz
cd libvorbis-1.3.3
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --with-ogg="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

libvpx

VP8/VP9 video encoder.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone --depth 1 http://git.chromium.org/webm/libvpx.git
cd libvpx
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-examples
make
make install
make clean

FFmpeg

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone --depth 1 git://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg
cd ffmpeg
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig"
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --extra-cflags="-I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include" --extra-ldflags="-L$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" --bindir="$HOME/bin" --extra-libs="-ldl" --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-libfdk_aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264
make
make install
make distclean
hash -r
. ~/.bash_profile

Compilation is now complete and ffmpeg (also ffprobe, ffserver, lame, and x264) should now be ready to use. The rest of this guide shows how to update or remove FFmpeg.

Note: Keep the ffmpeg_sources directory and all contents if you intend to update or uninstall as shown below.

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Additional Libraries

Other libraries codecs that you may require (but probably do not). These must be installed before you compile ffmpeg.

libfreetype

Font rendering library. Required for the drawtext video filter.

# yum install freetype-devel

Add --enable-libfreetype to your ffmpeg ./configure.

libspeex

Speex audio decoder and encoder.

# yum install speex-devel

Add --enable-libspeex to your ffmpeg ./configure.

libtheora

Theora video encoder. Requires libogg.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
curl -O http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/theora/libtheora-1.1.1.tar.gz
tar xzvf libtheora-1.1.1.tar.gz
cd libtheora-1.1.1
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --with-ogg="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-examples --disable-shared --disable-sdltest --disable-vorbistest
make
make install
make distclean

Add --enable-libtheora to your ffmpeg ./configure.

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Updating

Development of FFmpeg is active and an occasional update can give you new features and bug fixes. First, remove the old files and then update the dependencies:

rm -rf ~/ffmpeg_build ~/bin/{ffmpeg,ffprobe,ffserver,lame,vsyasm,x264,yasm,ytasm}
# yum install autoconf automake gcc gcc-c++ git libtool make nasm pkgconfig zlib-devel

Update x264

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources/x264
make distclean
git pull

Then run ./configure, make, and make install as shown in the Install x264 section.

Update libfdk_aac

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources/libfdk_aac
make distclean
git pull

Then run ./configure, make, and make install as shown in the Install libfdk_aac section.

Update libvpx

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources/libvpx
make clean
git pull

Then run ./configure, make, and make install as shown in the Install libvpx section.

Update FFmpeg

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources/ffmpeg
make distclean
git pull

Then run ./configure, make, and make install as shown in the Install FFmpeg section.

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Reverting changes made by this guide

rm -rf ~/ffmpeg_build ~/ffmpeg_sources ~/bin/{ffmpeg,ffprobe,ffserver,lame,vsyasm,x264,yasm,ytasm}
# yum erase autoconf automake gcc gcc-c++ git libtool make nasm pkgconfig zlib-devel
hash -r