Compile FFmpeg on CentOS

This guide is based on a minimal installation of the latest CentOS release, and will provide a local, non-system installation of FFmpeg with support for 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. These are required compiling, but you can remove them when you are done if you prefer (except make; it should be installed by default and many things depend on it).

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

In your home directory make a new 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
git clone --depth 1 git://github.com/yasm/yasm.git
cd yasm
autoreconf -fiv
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="$HOME/bin"
make
make install
make distclean

libx264

H.264 video encoder.

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

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.

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libfdk_aac (and --enable-nonfree if you also included --enable-gpl).

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone --depth 1 git://git.code.sf.net/p/opencore-amr/fdk-aac
cd fdk-aac
autoreconf -fiv
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

libmp3lame

MP3 audio encoder.

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

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.

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

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone git://git.opus-codec.org/opus.git
cd opus
autoreconf -fiv
./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-1.3.2.tar.gz
tar xzvf libogg-1.3.2.tar.gz
cd libogg-1.3.2
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

libvorbis

Vorbis audio encoder. Requires libogg.

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

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
curl -O http://downloads.xiph.org/releases/vorbis/libvorbis-1.3.4.tar.gz
tar xzvf libvorbis-1.3.4.tar.gz
cd libvorbis-1.3.4
LDFLAGS="-L$HOME/ffmeg_build/lib" CPPFLAGS="-I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include" ./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --with-ogg="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

libvpx

VP8/VP9 video encoder.

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

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone --depth 1 https://chromium.googlesource.com/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="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig" ./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --extra-cflags="-I$HOME/ffmpeg_build/include" --extra-ldflags="-L$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib" --bindir="$HOME/bin" --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-libfdk_aac --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopus --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libx264
make
make install
make distclean
hash -r

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.

Tip: Keep the ffmpeg_sources directory and all contents if you intend to update as shown below. Otherwise you can delete this directory.

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Additional Libraries

Other external libraries 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.

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

# yum install freetype-devel

libtheora

Theora video encoder. Requires libogg. A more modern alternative is VP8 or VP9 (see libvpx section).

Requires ffmpeg to be configured with --enable-libtheora

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

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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 nasm pkgconfig zlib-devel
hash -r

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If You Need Help

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

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Also See

• H.264 Video Encoding Guide
• AAC Audio Encoding Guide