Opened 9 years ago

Closed 16 months ago

#4197 closed defect (wontfix)

libspeex detection is broken on systems without pkg-config

Reported by: Carl Eugen Hoyos Owned by:
Priority: important Component: build system
Version: git-master Keywords: libspeex regression
Cc: gajjanagadde@gmail.com Blocked By:
Blocking: Reproduced by developer: no
Analyzed by developer: no

Description

libspeex detection is broken on systems without pkg-config since 621d4089

Change History (30)

comment:1 by Clément Bœsch, 9 years ago

Note: no user without pkg-config complained about this AFAIK

comment:2 by Cigaes, 9 years ago

Look at the commit message, this is completely intentional.

And for this one, I must say I fully agree with Luca: pkg-config has been around for years and is nowadays an essential element of a build environment. Maintaining ways of overriding it is IMHO wasted time, because it is redoing in FFmpeg work that is already been done by the library upstream, and not redoing better. Fixing the few cases where pkg-config is badly used in the build system, if there are still any, is much better spent time.

I support closing this as wontfix, and officially announcing that all similar complaints will be closed with the same answer: install pkg-config.

comment:3 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

(I did not want to imply it wasn't intentional, just that I had forgotten about this.)

This is a (very) bad regression and we should do the same as for x264.
I will try to produce a patch this weekend.

Several operating systems don't install pkg-config by default. Additionally, I believe it is very useful to link an external library without installing it first.

in reply to:  3 ; comment:4 by Cigaes, 9 years ago

Replying to cehoyos:

This is a (very) bad regression and we should do the same as for x264.

I strongly object to that. It makes the build system slower and harder to maintain for no benefit.

Several operating systems don't install pkg-config by default.

Several operating systems don't install a C compiler by default. And most operating systems do not install the development files for the libraries by default.

If people need pkg-config, they install it, just as the libraries they want and yasm and texi2html and...

Additionally, I believe it is very useful to link an external library without installing it first.

Please share the basis for that belief.

in reply to:  4 ; comment:5 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

Replying to Cigaes:

Replying to cehoyos:

This is a (very) bad regression and we should do the same as for x264.

I strongly object to that. It makes the build system slower and harder to maintain for no benefit.

I am willing to take the burden.

Several operating systems don't install pkg-config by default.

Several operating systems don't install a C compiler by default. And most operating systems do not install the development files for the libraries by default.

What I meant was: On several operating systems, after you install the compiler and the necessary libraries and headers, there is no pkg-config and this configuration was supported by FFmpeg for many years. Removing this support means introducing a regression.

If people need pkg-config, they install it, just as the libraries they want and yasm and texi2html and...

Not everyone who wants to compile FFmpeg can install on the target system.

Additionally, I believe it is very useful to link an external library without installing it first.

Please share the basis for that belief.

You misunderstand: When I test, I never install the libraries but always link them from the build directory. (The basis is just my workflow for testing FFmpeg because of user reports that include using external libraries.)

comment:6 by Hendrik, 9 years ago

You can use pkg-config without installing pkg-config itself or the libraries just fine.

in reply to:  6 comment:7 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

Replying to heleppkes:

You can use pkg-config without installing pkg-config itself or the libraries just fine.

I prefer not to use it: I consider it difficult to use and it does not always work the expected way, remember that I often have to test old versions of external libraries.

comment:8 by Timothy Gu, 9 years ago

@cehoyos:

Please paste your uncut configure output and relevant section of config.log to make this a valid ticket. Thank you.

comment:9 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

$ git log -1 --oneline
f622ff1 avfilter/vf_boxblur: avoid one addition per line
$ dash configure --enable-libspeex
ERROR: speex not found using pkg-config

If you think configure made a mistake, make sure you are using the latest
version from Git.  If the latest version fails, report the problem to the
ffmpeg-user@ffmpeg.org mailing list or IRC #ffmpeg on irc.freenode.net.
Include the log file "config.log" produced by configure as this will help
solve the problem.
check_pkg_config speex speex/speex.h speex_decoder_init -lspeex
false --exists --print-errors speex
ERROR: speex not found using pkg-config

It worked fine before 621d4089

$ git log -1 --oneline
8b1e920 Merge commit '259fe7280d0b63dc7a8ff017d44f26d3a84cfde8'
$ dash configure --enable-libspeex
install prefix            /usr/local
source path               .
C compiler                gcc
C library                 glibc
ARCH                      x86 (generic)
big-endian                no
runtime cpu detection     yes
yasm                      yes
MMX enabled               yes
MMXEXT enabled            yes
3DNow! enabled            yes
3DNow! extended enabled   yes
SSE enabled               yes
SSSE3 enabled             yes
AVX enabled               yes
XOP enabled               yes
FMA3 enabled              yes
FMA4 enabled              yes
i686 features enabled     yes
CMOV is fast              yes
EBX available             yes
EBP available             yes
debug symbols             yes
strip symbols             yes
optimize for size         no
optimizations             yes
static                    yes
shared                    no
postprocessing support    no
new filter support        yes
network support           yes
threading support         pthreads
safe bitstream reader     yes
SDL support               yes
opencl enabled            no
texi2html enabled         yes
perl enabled              yes
pod2man enabled           yes
makeinfo enabled          yes

External libraries:
bzlib                   libspeex                zlib
iconv                   xlib

Enabled decoders:
aac                     bink                    gsm_ms
aac_latm                binkaudio_dct           h261
aasc                    binkaudio_rdft          h263
ac3                     bintext                 h263i
ac3_fixed               bmp                     h263p
adpcm_4xm               bmv_audio               h264
adpcm_adx               bmv_video               h264_vdpau
adpcm_afc               brender_pix             hevc
adpcm_ct                c93                     hnm4_video
adpcm_dtk               cavs                    huffyuv
adpcm_ea                cdgraphics              iac
adpcm_ea_maxis_xa       cdxl                    idcin
adpcm_ea_r1             cinepak                 idf
adpcm_ea_r2             cljr                    iff_byterun1
adpcm_ea_r3             cllc                    iff_ilbm
adpcm_ea_xas            comfortnoise            imc
adpcm_g722              cook                    indeo2
adpcm_g726              cpia                    indeo3
adpcm_g726le            cscd                    indeo4
adpcm_ima_amv           cyuv                    indeo5
adpcm_ima_apc           dca                     interplay_dpcm
adpcm_ima_dk3           dfa                     interplay_video
adpcm_ima_dk4           dirac                   jacosub
adpcm_ima_ea_eacs       dnxhd                   jpeg2000
adpcm_ima_ea_sead       dpx                     jpegls
adpcm_ima_iss           dsd_lsbf                jv
adpcm_ima_oki           dsd_lsbf_planar         kgv1
adpcm_ima_qt            dsd_msbf                kmvc
adpcm_ima_rad           dsd_msbf_planar         lagarith
adpcm_ima_smjpeg        dsicinaudio             libspeex
adpcm_ima_wav           dsicinvideo             loco
adpcm_ima_ws            dvbsub                  mace3
adpcm_ms                dvdsub                  mace6
adpcm_sbpro_2           dvvideo                 mdec
adpcm_sbpro_3           dxa                     metasound
adpcm_sbpro_4           dxtory                  microdvd
adpcm_swf               eac3                    mimic
adpcm_thp               eacmv                   mjpeg
adpcm_vima              eamad                   mjpegb
adpcm_xa                eatgq                   mlp
adpcm_yamaha            eatgv                   mmvideo
aic                     eatqi                   motionpixels
alac                    eightbps                movtext
alias_pix               eightsvx_exp            mp1
als                     eightsvx_fib            mp1float
amrnb                   escape124               mp2
amrwb                   escape130               mp2float
amv                     evrc                    mp3
anm                     exr                     mp3adu
ansi                    ffv1                    mp3adufloat
ape                     ffvhuff                 mp3float
ass                     ffwavesynth             mp3on4
asv1                    fic                     mp3on4float
asv2                    flac                    mpc7
atrac1                  flashsv                 mpc8
atrac3                  flashsv2                mpeg1_vdpau
atrac3p                 flic                    mpeg1video
aura                    flv                     mpeg2video
aura2                   fourxm                  mpeg4
avrn                    fraps                   mpeg4_vdpau
avrp                    frwu                    mpeg_vdpau
avs                     g2m                     mpeg_xvmc
avui                    g723_1                  mpegvideo
ayuv                    g729                    mpl2
bethsoftvid             gif                     msa1
bfi                     gsm                     msmpeg4v1
msmpeg4v2               qcelp                   txd
msmpeg4v3               qdm2                    ulti
msrle                   qdraw                   utvideo
mss1                    qpeg                    v210
mss2                    qtrle                   v210x
msvideo1                r10k                    v308
mszh                    r210                    v408
mts2                    ra_144                  v410
mvc1                    ra_288                  vb
mvc2                    ralf                    vble
mxpeg                   rawvideo                vc1
nellymoser              realtext                vc1_vdpau
nuv                     rl2                     vc1image
on2avc                  roq                     vcr1
opus                    roq_dpcm                vima
paf_audio               rpza                    vmdaudio
paf_video               rv10                    vmdvideo
pam                     rv20                    vmnc
pbm                     rv30                    vorbis
pcm_alaw                rv40                    vp3
pcm_bluray              s302m                   vp5
pcm_dvd                 sami                    vp6
pcm_f32be               sanm                    vp6a
pcm_f32le               sgi                     vp6f
pcm_f64be               sgirle                  vp7
pcm_f64le               shorten                 vp8
pcm_lxf                 sipr                    vp9
pcm_mulaw               smackaud                vplayer
pcm_s16be               smacker                 vqa
pcm_s16be_planar        smc                     wavpack
pcm_s16le               smvjpeg                 webp
pcm_s16le_planar        snow                    webvtt
pcm_s24be               sol_dpcm                wmalossless
pcm_s24daud             sonic                   wmapro
pcm_s24le               sp5x                    wmav1
pcm_s24le_planar        srt                     wmav2
pcm_s32be               ssa                     wmavoice
pcm_s32le               subrip                  wmv1
pcm_s32le_planar        subviewer               wmv2
pcm_s8                  subviewer1              wmv3
pcm_s8_planar           sunrast                 wmv3_vdpau
pcm_u16be               svq1                    wmv3image
pcm_u16le               svq3                    wnv1
pcm_u24be               tak                     ws_snd1
pcm_u24le               targa                   xan_dpcm
pcm_u32be               targa_y216              xan_wc3
pcm_u32le               text                    xan_wc4
pcm_u8                  theora                  xbin
pcm_zork                thp                     xbm
pcx                     tiertexseqvideo         xface
pgm                     tiff                    xl
pgmyuv                  tmv                     xsub
pgssub                  truehd                  xwd
pictor                  truemotion1             y41p
pjs                     truemotion2             yop
png                     truespeech              yuv4
ppm                     tscc                    zero12v
prores                  tscc2                   zerocodec
prores_lgpl             tta                     zlib
ptx                     twinvq                  zmbv

Enabled encoders:
a64multi                jpegls                  ppm
a64multi5               libspeex                prores
aac                     ljpeg                   prores_aw
ac3                     mjpeg                   prores_ks
ac3_fixed               movtext                 qtrle
adpcm_adx               mp2                     r10k
adpcm_g722              mp2fixed                r210
adpcm_g726              mpeg1video              ra_144
adpcm_ima_qt            mpeg2video              rawvideo
adpcm_ima_wav           mpeg4                   roq
adpcm_ms                msmpeg4v2               roq_dpcm
adpcm_swf               msmpeg4v3               rv10
adpcm_yamaha            msvideo1                rv20
alac                    nellymoser              s302m
alias_pix               pam                     sgi
amv                     pbm                     snow
ass                     pcm_alaw                sonic
asv1                    pcm_f32be               sonic_ls
asv2                    pcm_f32le               srt
avrp                    pcm_f64be               ssa
avui                    pcm_f64le               subrip
ayuv                    pcm_mulaw               sunrast
bmp                     pcm_s16be               svq1
cinepak                 pcm_s16be_planar        targa
cljr                    pcm_s16le               tiff
comfortnoise            pcm_s16le_planar        tta
dca                     pcm_s24be               utvideo
dnxhd                   pcm_s24daud             v210
dpx                     pcm_s24le               v308
dvbsub                  pcm_s24le_planar        v408
dvdsub                  pcm_s32be               v410
dvvideo                 pcm_s32le               vorbis
eac3                    pcm_s32le_planar        wavpack
ffv1                    pcm_s8                  webvtt
ffvhuff                 pcm_s8_planar           wmav1
flac                    pcm_u16be               wmav2
flashsv                 pcm_u16le               wmv1
flashsv2                pcm_u24be               wmv2
flv                     pcm_u24le               xbm
g723_1                  pcm_u32be               xface
gif                     pcm_u32le               xsub
h261                    pcm_u8                  xwd
h263                    pcx                     y41p
h263p                   pgm                     yuv4
huffyuv                 pgmyuv                  zlib
jpeg2000                png                     zmbv

Enabled hwaccels:
h263_vaapi              mpeg1_xvmc              mpeg4_vdpau
h263_vdpau              mpeg2_vaapi             vc1_vaapi
h264_vaapi              mpeg2_vdpau             vc1_vdpau
h264_vdpau              mpeg2_xvmc              wmv3_vaapi
mpeg1_vdpau             mpeg4_vaapi             wmv3_vdpau

Enabled parsers:
aac                     dvd_nav                 mpegvideo
aac_latm                dvdsub                  opus
ac3                     flac                    png
adx                     gsm                     pnm
bmp                     h261                    rv30
cavsvideo               h263                    rv40
cook                    h264                    tak
dca                     hevc                    vc1
dirac                   mjpeg                   vorbis
dnxhd                   mlp                     vp3
dpx                     mpeg4video              vp8
dvbsub                  mpegaudio               vp9

Enabled demuxers:
aac                     h263                    nut
ac3                     h264                    nuv
act                     hevc                    ogg
adf                     hls                     oma
adp                     hnm                     paf
adx                     ico                     pcm_alaw
aea                     idcin                   pcm_f32be
afc                     idf                     pcm_f32le
aiff                    iff                     pcm_f64be
amr                     ilbc                    pcm_f64le
anm                     image2                  pcm_mulaw
apc                     image2_alias_pix        pcm_s16be
ape                     image2_brender_pix      pcm_s16le
aqtitle                 image2pipe              pcm_s24be
asf                     image_bmp_pipe          pcm_s24le
ass                     image_dpx_pipe          pcm_s32be
ast                     image_exr_pipe          pcm_s32le
au                      image_j2k_pipe          pcm_s8
avi                     image_pictor_pipe       pcm_u16be
avr                     image_png_pipe          pcm_u16le
avs                     image_sgi_pipe          pcm_u24be
bethsoftvid             image_sunrast_pipe      pcm_u24le
bfi                     image_tiff_pipe         pcm_u32be
bink                    ingenient               pcm_u32le
bintext                 ipmovie                 pcm_u8
bit                     ircam                   pjs
bmv                     iss                     pmp
boa                     iv8                     pva
brstm                   ivf                     pvf
c93                     jacosub                 qcp
caf                     jv                      r3d
cavsvideo               latm                    rawvideo
cdg                     live_flv                realtext
cdxl                    lmlm4                   redspark
cine                    loas                    rl2
concat                  lrc                     rm
data                    lvf                     roq
daud                    lxf                     rpl
dfa                     m4v                     rsd
dirac                   matroska                rso
dnxhd                   mgsts                   rtp
dsf                     microdvd                rtsp
dsicin                  mjpeg                   sami
dts                     mlp                     sap
dtshd                   mlv                     sbg
dv                      mm                      sdp
dxa                     mmf                     sdr2
ea                      mov                     segafilm
ea_cdata                mp3                     shorten
eac3                    mpc                     siff
epaf                    mpc8                    sln
ffm                     mpegps                  smacker
ffmetadata              mpegts                  smjpeg
filmstrip               mpegtsraw               smush
flac                    mpegvideo               sol
flic                    mpl2                    sox
flv                     mpsub                   spdif
fourxm                  msnwc_tcp               srt
frm                     mtv                     str
g722                    mv                      subviewer
g723_1                  mvi                     subviewer1
g729                    mxf                     swf
gif                     mxg                     tak
gsm                     nc                      tedcaptions
gxf                     nistsphere              thp
h261                    nsv                     tiertexseq
tmv                     voc                     wsvqa
truehd                  vplayer                 wtv
tta                     vqf                     wv
tty                     w64                     xa
txd                     wav                     xbin
vc1                     wc3                     xmv
vc1t                    webm_dash_manifest      xwma
vivo                    webvtt                  yop
vmd                     wsaud                   yuv4mpegpipe
vobsub

Enabled muxers:
a64                     ipod                    pcm_s24be
ac3                     ircam                   pcm_s24le
adts                    ismv                    pcm_s32be
adx                     ivf                     pcm_s32le
aiff                    jacosub                 pcm_s8
amr                     latm                    pcm_u16be
asf                     lrc                     pcm_u16le
asf_stream              m4v                     pcm_u24be
ass                     matroska                pcm_u24le
ast                     matroska_audio          pcm_u32be
au                      md5                     pcm_u32le
avi                     microdvd                pcm_u8
avm2                    mjpeg                   psp
bit                     mkvtimestamp_v2         rawvideo
caf                     mlp                     rm
cavsvideo               mmf                     roq
crc                     mov                     rso
data                    mp2                     rtp
daud                    mp3                     rtsp
dirac                   mp4                     sap
dnxhd                   mpeg1system             segment
dts                     mpeg1vcd                smjpeg
dv                      mpeg1video              smoothstreaming
eac3                    mpeg2dvd                sox
f4v                     mpeg2svcd               spdif
ffm                     mpeg2video              speex
ffmetadata              mpeg2vob                srt
filmstrip               mpegts                  stream_segment
flac                    mpjpeg                  swf
flv                     mxf                     tee
framecrc                mxf_d10                 tg2
framemd5                null                    tgp
g722                    nut                     truehd
g723_1                  oga                     uncodedframecrc
gif                     ogg                     vc1
gxf                     oma                     vc1t
h261                    opus                    voc
h263                    pcm_alaw                w64
h264                    pcm_f32be               wav
hds                     pcm_f32le               webm
hevc                    pcm_f64be               webm_dash_manifest
hls                     pcm_f64le               webvtt
ico                     pcm_mulaw               wtv
ilbc                    pcm_s16be               wv
image2                  pcm_s16le               yuv4mpegpipe
image2pipe

Enabled protocols:
cache                   hls                     rtmpt
concat                  http                    rtp
crypto                  httpproxy               sctp
data                    md5                     srtp
ffrtmphttp              mmsh                    subfile
file                    mmst                    tcp
ftp                     pipe                    udp
gopher                  rtmp                    unix

Enabled filters:
aconvert                copy                    nullsink
adelay                  crop                    nullsrc
aecho                   curves                  overlay
aeval                   dctdnoiz                pad
aevalsrc                decimate                pan
afade                   dejudder                perms
aformat                 deshake                 pixdesctest
ainterleave             drawbox                 psnr
allpass                 drawgrid                removelogo
alphaextract            earwax                  replaygain
alphamerge              edgedetect              rgbtestsrc
amerge                  elbg                    rotate
amix                    equalizer               scale
amovie                  extractplanes           select
anull                   fade                    sendcmd
anullsink               field                   separatefields
anullsrc                fieldmatch              setdar
apad                    fieldorder              setfield
aperms                  flanger                 setpts
aphaser                 format                  setsar
aresample               fps                     settb
aselect                 framepack               showcqt
asendcmd                framestep               showinfo
asetnsamples            gradfun                 showspectrum
asetpts                 haldclut                showwaves
asetrate                haldclutsrc             shuffleplanes
asettb                  hflip                   signalstats
ashowinfo               highpass                silencedetect
asplit                  histogram               sine
astats                  hqx                     smptebars
astreamsync             hue                     smptehdbars
atempo                  idet                    split
atrim                   il                      swapuv
avectorscope            interleave              telecine
bandpass                join                    testsrc
bandreject              life                    thumbnail
bass                    lowpass                 tile
bbox                    lut                     transpose
biquad                  lut3d                   treble
blackdetect             lutrgb                  trim
blend                   lutyuv                  unsharp
cellauto                mandelbrot              vflip
channelmap              mergeplanes             vignette
channelsplit            movie                   volume
color                   negate                  volumedetect
colorbalance            noformat                w3fdif
colorchannelmixer       noise                   yadif
compand                 null                    zoompan
concat

Enabled bsfs:
aac_adtstoasc           imx_dump_header         mp3_header_decompress
chomp                   mjpeg2jpeg              noise
dump_extradata          mjpega_dump_header      remove_extradata
h264_mp4toannexb        mov2textsub             text2movsub

Enabled indevs:
alsa                    jack                    oss
dv1394                  lavfi                   v4l2
fbdev

Enabled outdevs:
alsa                    oss                     v4l2
fbdev                   sdl                     xv

License: LGPL version 2.1 or later
Creating config.mak, config.h, and doc/config.texi...

WARNING: pkg-config not found, library detection may fail.

in reply to:  5 ; comment:10 by Cigaes, 9 years ago

Replying to cehoyos:

I am willing to take the burden.

I do not think it can work that way for the build system. The extra code complexity is a nuisance for anyone who needs to look at it, and, unlike for an isolated decoder or demuxer, that means potentially any contributor. The slowness, of course, affects everyone.

Removing this support means introducing a regression.

The difference between a regression and the cleanup of an obsolete feature become useless is only a matter of point of view.

Not everyone who wants to compile FFmpeg can install on the target system.

Is there a misunderstanding here? pkg-config is required on the build system, never on the target system.

You misunderstand: When I test, I never install the libraries but always link them from the build directory. (The basis is just my workflow for testing FFmpeg because of user reports that include using external libraries.)

For the sake of clarity, I suggest we keep the discussion about your use case separate from the discussion about generic users.

Concerning generic users, can you quote actual situations where pkg-config is impossible to install, or at least significantly harder than the other required build components (including yasm)?

You certainly will need to invoke exotic cases, cross-building or such, but please keep it realistic.

Concerning your personal use case, I am pretty sure that it is possible to alter your work flow just slightly to adjust to a configure that requires pkg-config. You may possibly even save time by doing that.

If I understand you correctly, you need to be able to build ffmpeg with libfoo that you just built in a separate directory but not installed. That looks pretty easy to achieve. Do you have any other requirement?

in reply to:  10 ; comment:11 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

Replying to Cigaes:

Replying to cehoyos:

I am willing to take the burden.

I do not think it can work that way for the build system.

I don't understand: Why should something that does work fine for x264 not work for other libraries?

The extra code complexity is a nuisance for anyone who needs to look at it, and, unlike for an isolated decoder or demuxer, that means potentially any contributor.

I very much doubt this, especially when comparing the "complexity" of our configure script with any other part of FFmpeg.

The slowness, of course, affects everyone.

Could you elaborate?

Removing this support means introducing a regression.

The difference between a regression and the cleanup of an obsolete feature become useless is only a matter of point of view.

Of course.
I opened this ticket because I consider this issue a (severe) regression.

Not everyone who wants to compile FFmpeg can install on the target system.

Is there a misunderstanding here? pkg-config is required on the build system, never on the target system.

I meant the build system, sorry for the wrong wording.

You misunderstand: When I test, I never install the libraries but always link them from the build directory. (The basis is just my workflow for testing FFmpeg because of user reports that include using external libraries.)

For the sake of clarity, I suggest we keep the discussion about your use case separate from the discussion about generic users.

I do consider myself a user.

Concerning generic users, can you quote actual situations where pkg-config is impossible to install, or at least significantly harder than the other required build components (including yasm)?

I mean every user who is not an admin on the build system. Note that yasm is not needed on all targets.

You certainly will need to invoke exotic cases, cross-building or such, but please keep it realistic.

Please understand while for you (as for many other FFmpeg developers) it is completely clear how to use pkg-config, for me as for many users who post on the user mailing list it is needlessly difficult.

Concerning your personal use case, I am pretty sure that it is possible to alter your work flow just slightly to adjust to a configure that requires pkg-config. You may possibly even save time by doing that.

I would prefer to continue being able to configure FFmpeg without using pkg-config.

If I understand you correctly, you need to be able to build ffmpeg with libfoo that you just built in a separate directory but not installed. That looks pretty easy to achieve. Do you have any other requirement?

Yes, I just want to be able to build (configure and build) FFmpeg with (most) external libraries without having to use pkg-config.

in reply to:  11 ; comment:12 by Cigaes, 9 years ago

Replying to cehoyos:

I don't understand: Why should something that does work fine for x264 not work for other libraries?

I want to get rid of it for x264 too! But for x264, it is already there, for speex, it has been removed, and I object it coming back.

Could you elaborate?

configure takes a lot of time, blocking for the rest of the build process.

Of course.
I opened this ticket because I consider this issue a (severe) regression.

And I consider it good riddance: configure is faster, simpler, more readable, more reliable.

I meant the build system, sorry for the wrong wording.

Then of course they can install something on the build system: they are installing ffmpeg.

I mean every user who is not an admin on the build system. Note that yasm is not needed on all targets.

Actual practical examples, please.

Please understand while for you (as for many other FFmpeg developers) it is completely clear how to use pkg-config, for me as for many users who post on the user mailing list it is needlessly difficult.

sudo apt-get install pkg-config

There is nothing more to do in normal cases. In non-normal cases, the user already did something way more complex than export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/some/path.

Yes, I just want to be able to build (configure and build) FFmpeg with (most) external libraries without having to use pkg-config.

“without having to use pkg-config” is not a functional need.

in reply to:  12 comment:13 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

Replying to Cigaes:

Replying to cehoyos:

I don't understand: Why should something that does work fine for x264 not work for other libraries?

I want to get rid of it for x264 too! But for x264, it is already there, for speex, it has been removed, and I object it coming back.

The patch was not reviewed and since libspeex is not completely outdated, we should really allow installation without jumping through the pkg-config hole.

Could you elaborate?

configure takes a lot of time, blocking for the rest of the build process.

Could you elaborate how the patch made configure faster or how the workaround would make it slower?

Of course.
I opened this ticket because I consider this issue a (severe) regression.

And I consider it good riddance: configure is faster, simpler, more readable, more reliable.

I don't think it is faster and calling removing a feature being more reliable is hard to understand for me.

I meant the build system, sorry for the wrong wording.

Then of course they can install something on the build system: they are installing ffmpeg.

I never install FFmpeg.

I mean every user who is not an admin on the build system. Note that yasm is not needed on all targets.

Actual practical examples, please.

yasm is not needed on arm and powerpc.

Please understand while for you (as for many other FFmpeg developers) it is completely clear how to use pkg-config, for me as for many users who post on the user mailing list it is needlessly difficult.

sudo apt-get install pkg-config

This does not even work on my development system and it certainly doesn't work for people using servers where they are not admins.
But I meant using pkg-config not installing it.

There is nothing more to do in normal cases. In non-normal cases, the user already did something way more complex than export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/some/path.

I consider this at least a magnitude more difficult than setting a path.

Yes, I just want to be able to build (configure and build) FFmpeg with (most) external libraries without having to use pkg-config.

“without having to use pkg-config” is not a functional need.

It is needed for my workflow and was very often requested by users on the user mailing list.

in reply to:  12 ; comment:14 by Michael Niedermayer, 9 years ago

Replying to Cigaes:

Replying to cehoyos:

Could you elaborate?

configure takes a lot of time, blocking for the rest of the build process.

how much time is saved by removing non pkg-config cases ?

I mean every user who is not an admin on the build system. Note that yasm is not needed on all targets.

Actual practical examples, please.

Can you or someone else document on the wiki how to setup & use pkg config for the various cases that people need ?
One case iam aware of is cross building, or maybe configure could be made to just work in that case without installing wraper scripts or whatever

Last edited 9 years ago by Michael Niedermayer (previous) (diff)

in reply to:  14 comment:15 by Cigaes, 9 years ago

Replying to michael:

how much time is saved by removing non pkg-config cases ?

I must admit, I got carried away. Thinking more specifically about it, the non pkg-config case will only take time if the library was enabled but pkg-config fails. It will only be a burden when auto-detection will be implemented.

Can you or someone else document on the wiki how to setup & use pkg config for the various cases that people need ?

Sure. Patch on the mailing-list.

One case iam aware of is cross building, or maybe configure could be made to just work in that case without installing wraper scripts or whatever

The most common cases can probably be automated, but I am not familiar enough with cross-compiling to know what the most common cases are. If we can get the linker's search path (ld --verbose | grep SEARCH_DIR), we can set PKG_CONFIG_LIBDIR accordingly, but I do not know if that default search path is usually relevant.

comment:16 by Ganesh Ajjanagadde, 9 years ago

Cc: gajjanagadde@gmail.com added

@cehoyos: is this still an issue? Above patch has been merged,
so pkg-config usage should hopefully be clear.

I am going to reduce priority of this bug in next few days since usage of pkg-config has been clarified; raise objections if you have any.

Last edited 9 years ago by Ganesh Ajjanagadde (previous) (diff)

comment:17 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

The patch fixing this regression can be found on the development mailing list:
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.devel/187278

comment:18 by Ganesh Ajjanagadde, 9 years ago

Yes, what I meant was the documentation update on usage of pkg-config has been merged as commit 40948819fcfe5bba39531df358dc50d52cee10d4.

My point is that pkg-config usage has been clarified, so therefore this ticket does not deserve an "important" priority. This simply distracts from other arguably more pressing issues on the bug tracker. By no means am I saying to close this ticket, but to degrade it to "normal" or ideally "minor" (in my view).

comment:19 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

I can hardly see a more pressing issue than a user-reported regression.

comment:20 by Ganesh Ajjanagadde, 9 years ago

Even among user-reported regressions, some are arguably more severe than others and this is a subjective matter, e.g most users feel that their own tickets are more "important". Anyway, I digress.

I am interested in resolving this issue, and it seems like it has been stuck for a while with no consensus among the devs. Thoughts on how to proceed? Is it worthwhile resurrecting the old thread on this?

in reply to:  19 ; comment:21 by Hendrik, 9 years ago

Replying to cehoyos:

I can hardly see a more pressing issue than a user-reported regression.

Its not a regression if the change was intentional and the old way is now unsupported.

This ticket should be closed, it was clearly quite intentional that pkg-config is now required, and we have proper documentation in place on how to set it up as well.

In fact, there isn't even a single user complaining about a regression in this ticket at all.

Last edited 9 years ago by Hendrik (previous) (diff)

in reply to:  21 ; comment:22 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

Replying to heleppkes:

Replying to cehoyos:

I can hardly see a more pressing issue than a user-reported regression.

Its not a regression if the change was intentional and the old way is now unsupported.

This ticket should be closed, it was clearly quite intentional that pkg-config is now required, and we have proper documentation in place on how to set it up as well.

I really wonder what "intentional" means for a change that was not discussed on any FFmpeg mailiing list.

In fact, there isn't even a single user complaining about a regression in this ticket at all.

I did not claim that a user opened a ticket but I don't consider bug reports on the user mailing list less helpful.

in reply to:  22 ; comment:23 by Ganesh Ajjanagadde, 9 years ago

Replying to cehoyos:

Replying to heleppkes:

Replying to cehoyos:

I can hardly see a more pressing issue than a user-reported regression.

Its not a regression if the change was intentional and the old way is now unsupported.

This ticket should be closed, it was clearly quite intentional that pkg-config is now required, and we have proper documentation in place on how to set it up as well.

I really wonder what "intentional" means for a change that was not discussed on any FFmpeg mailiing list.

Ok, so I have opened a thread on the mailing list for people to discuss this:
http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2015-July/176485.html

In fact, there isn't even a single user complaining about a regression in this ticket at all.

I did not claim that a user opened a ticket but I don't consider bug reports on the user mailing list less helpful.

in reply to:  23 ; comment:24 by Ganesh Ajjanagadde, 9 years ago

Replying to gajjanag:

Replying to cehoyos:

Replying to heleppkes:

Replying to cehoyos:

I can hardly see a more pressing issue than a user-reported regression.

Its not a regression if the change was intentional and the old way is now unsupported.

This ticket should be closed, it was clearly quite intentional that pkg-config is now required, and we have proper documentation in place on how to set it up as well.

I really wonder what "intentional" means for a change that was not discussed on any FFmpeg mailiing list.

Ok, so I have opened a thread on the mailing list for people to discuss this:
http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2015-July/176485.html

I see no response to the thread I opened. As such, to me it looks like no one is interested in discussing this, and the change was thus "intentional". Unless someone responds to that thread soon, this ticket should be closed. I will leave it open for a few more days, and in absence of a response will close the ticket.

@cehoyos: you can (and perhaps will) reopen this ticket. Nevertheless, I consider the above closure symbolic, since to me (and perhaps many others) the above represents a clean closure, since we provided an opportunity that was not taken to discuss this.

In fact, there isn't even a single user complaining about a regression in this ticket at all.

I did not claim that a user opened a ticket but I don't consider bug reports on the user mailing list less helpful.

in reply to:  24 comment:25 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

Replying to gajjanag:

Ok, so I have opened a thread on the mailing list for people to discuss this:
http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2015-July/176485.html

I see no response to the thread I opened. As such, to me it looks like no one is interested in discussing this, and the change was thus "intentional". Unless someone responds to that thread soon, this ticket should be closed. I will leave it open for a few more days, and in absence of a response will close the ticket.

Why should the users that have reported the issue react on the development mailing list?
Why do we (suddenly!) refuse to fix regressions?
Why should we handle libspeex different from other external libraries like x264?

It is very easy to fix this ticket, I am strongly opposed to closing it just because not all developers use systems without pkg-config or want to force everybody to use it.

comment:26 by gjdfgh, 9 years ago

I am strongly opposed to closing it

OK. I'm strongly opposed to complicating the configure script by supporting non-pkg-config detection.

comment:27 by Ganesh Ajjanagadde, 9 years ago

@cehoyos: you rightly point out the inconsistency.

I think what we need to do is make FFmpeg take a clear stance on this issue among some options:

  1. We support pkg-config: in this case, we support it all the way, and add all required configure checks. I think very few people like this. I certainly don't.
  1. We don't support pkg-config: in this case we remove all pkg-config checks, and add relevant documentation in visible places saying that pkg-config is a build dependency. I personally don't mind this. However, I vaguely recall some legitimate reasons for supporting builds without pkg-config.
  1. We support pkg-config with some libraries and not with others: I consider this the most half baked option, but that is what we have currently. In this case, documentation must be in place for describing which external libs can be used without pkg-config, and which ones can't. This is annoying.

BTW, in order to call it a regression, there should be proof that FFmpeg did support building without pkg-config at one point - I am not counting behavior in practice, but documentation. FFmpeg clearly delineates build platforms, I see no reason for why build tools (e.g pkg-config) should be different.
In the absence of such proof, one can't call this a regression in my view. Otherwise, theoretically any change in undocumented behavior/state modifications can be called a "regression".

in reply to:  27 ; comment:28 by Carl Eugen Hoyos, 9 years ago

Replying to gajjanag:

@cehoyos: you rightly point out the inconsistency.

I think what we need to do is make FFmpeg take a clear stance on this issue among some options:

  1. We support pkg-config: in this case, we support it all the way, and add all required configure checks. I think very few people like this. I certainly don't.
  1. We don't support pkg-config: in this case we remove all pkg-config checks, and add relevant documentation in visible places saying that pkg-config is a build dependency. I personally don't mind this. However, I vaguely recall some legitimate reasons for supporting builds without pkg-config.
  1. We support pkg-config with some libraries and not with others: I consider this the most half baked option, but that is what we have currently. In this case, documentation must be in place for describing which external libs can be used without pkg-config, and which ones can't. This is annoying.

We already agreed on having pkg-config as default and detection without pkg-config as fallback.

BTW, in order to call it a regression, there should be proof that FFmpeg did support building without pkg-config at one point - I am not counting behavior in practice, but documentation. FFmpeg clearly delineates build platforms, I see no reason for why build tools (e.g pkg-config) should be different.
In the absence of such proof, one can't call this a regression in my view. Otherwise, theoretically any change in undocumented behavior/state modifications can be called a "regression".

A feature that breaks default detection of a library at least on aix, android, mingw and osx without any discussion or documentation is certainly a regression that cannot be fixed by an entry in the wiki (or the Changelog). But as said, this is trivial to fix, there should be no further discussion needed.

in reply to:  28 comment:29 by Ganesh Ajjanagadde, 9 years ago

Replying to cehoyos:

Replying to gajjanag:

@cehoyos: you rightly point out the inconsistency.

I think what we need to do is make FFmpeg take a clear stance on this issue among some options:

  1. We support pkg-config: in this case, we support it all the way, and add all required configure checks. I think very few people like this. I certainly don't.
  1. We don't support pkg-config: in this case we remove all pkg-config checks, and add relevant documentation in visible places saying that pkg-config is a build dependency. I personally don't mind this. However, I vaguely recall some legitimate reasons for supporting builds without pkg-config.
  1. We support pkg-config with some libraries and not with others: I consider this the most half baked option, but that is what we have currently. In this case, documentation must be in place for describing which external libs can be used without pkg-config, and which ones can't. This is annoying.

We already agreed on having pkg-config as default and detection without pkg-config as fallback.

Did not know that. It certainly does not feel that way since many developers are still not happy about this, and comments here and on the mailing list reflect a lack of agreement about this.
I will give you the benefit of doubt on this one, and apologize for my negative attitude about this ticket.

BTW, in order to call it a regression, there should be proof that FFmpeg did support building without pkg-config at one point - I am not counting behavior in practice, but documentation. FFmpeg clearly delineates build platforms, I see no reason for why build tools (e.g pkg-config) should be different.
In the absence of such proof, one can't call this a regression in my view. Otherwise, theoretically any change in undocumented behavior/state modifications can be called a "regression".

A feature that breaks default detection of a library at least on aix, android, mingw and osx without any discussion or documentation is certainly a regression that cannot be fixed by an entry in the wiki (or the Changelog). But as said, this is trivial to fix, there should be no further discussion needed.

comment:30 by Elon Musk, 16 months ago

Resolution: wontfix
Status: newclosed

There is native decoder now.

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