AVbin is a C library that provides a thin, cross-platform wrapper around Libav’s video- and audio-decoding functionality, providing long-term binary compatibility for applications and languages that need it. See also: Pyglet, a python media framework that makes extensive use of AVbin.

AVbin AVbin Last update: Sep 22, 2023

AVbin

Home: http://avbin.github.com

Maintainer: Nathan Stocks [email protected]

NOTE: Pyglet needs a new maintainer. If there are any volunteers, please contact Nathan Stocks.

End-User Installation

End-users should use the installers provided in the binary release. That is one of the benefits of a binary distribution, after all...

Developing

AVbin is a C library following standard conventions.

Clone the git repository:

git clone https://github.com/AVbin/AVbin.git avbin

See the header file include/avbin.h and the online API documentation at http://avbin.github.com/AVbin/Docs.html

Building

If you are interested in testing, contributing code, or otherwise helping out, we encourage you to join the Pyglet mailing list (AVbin was originally created for the Pyglet project). See http://pyglet.org/contribute.html

AVbin is designed to be used with a particular version of Libav. This version of Libav is included as a git submodule of the AVbin project under the libav directory. Note that this version of Libav may contain AVbin-specific patches, though we try to get all patches accepted upstream.

Use the included build.sh script to compile AVbin. This takes care of configuring Libav correctly, compiling it, then linking it with the AVbin sources. The final AVbin libraries are placed in the dist directory.

To build on your platform, use the included build.sh script. See build.sh --help for usage information.

If you are planning on distributing the self-built binary to anyone other than yourself, please create a PRERELEASE file in the root of the project directory containing a version modifier such as -my-version. get_avbin_info()->version_string would then return 10-my-version for a custom build of AVbin 10, while get_avbin_info()->version will still return the integer 10.

Building for OS X

On OS X Lion (10.7) and Mountain Lion (10.8)

  • Install Xcode (from Apple's App Store)
  • Open Xcode, and go to Preferences > Downloads > Components and install the Command Line Tools package.
  • Install yasm (You can install HomeBrew from http://brew.sh and then run brew install yasm to install yasm)
  • Obtain and install Auxiliary Tools for Xcode (from developer.apple.com > Mac Dev Center > Developer Downloads)
  • Run ./build.sh [desired options and target]

On OS X Mavericks (10.9)

  • Install Xcode from the App Store
  • Run xcode-select --install in your terminal and click Install on the dialog that pops up.
  • Install yasm (You can install HomeBrew from http://brew.sh and then run brew install yasm to install yasm)
  • Run ./build.sh [desired options and target]

Building for Linux

Tested on a default install of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (both 32- and 64-bit installs).

  • Install yasm: sudo apt-get install yasm
  • Install libbz2-dev: sudo apt-get install libbz2-dev
  • (If you want to make the binary installer) Install makeself: sudo apt-get install makeself
  • Run ./build.sh [desired options and targets]

Building for Win64 or Win32 (crosscompiling on Linux)

Tested on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit.

  • Install MinGW-64: sudo apt-get install mingw-64
  • (If you want to make the binary installer) Install nsis: sudo apt-get install nsis nsis-doc
  • Cross-compile zlib and install it:
    wget http://zlib.net/zlib-1.2.7.tar.gz
    tar zxvf zlib-1.2.7.tar.gz
    cd zlib-1.2.7

    # For win32...
    make PREFIX=i686-w64-mingw32- -f win32/Makefile.gcc
    sudo make PREFIX=i686-w64-mingw32- \
      LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/i686-w64-mingw32/lib \
      INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/i686-w64-mingw32/include/ \
      BINARY_PATH=/dev/null \
      -f win32/Makefile.gcc install
    make -f win32/Makefile.gcc clean

    # For win64...
    make PREFIX=x86_64-w64-mingw32- -f win32/Makefile.gcc
    sudo make PREFIX=x86_64-w64-mingw32- \
      LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib \
      INCLUDE_PATH=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/ \
      BINARY_PATH=/dev/null \
      -f win32/Makefile.gcc install
  • Cross-compile bzlib and install it
    wget http://bzip.org/1.0.6/bzip2-1.0.6.tar.gz
    tar zxvf bzip2-1.0.6.tar.gz
    cd bzip2-1.0.6/

    # For win32...
    make CC=i686-w64-mingw32-gcc AR=i686-w64-mingw32-ar \
      RANLIB=i686-w64-mingw32-ranlib PREFIX=/usr/i686-w64-mingw32 libbz2.a
    sudo cp libbz2.a /usr/i686-w64-mingw32/lib/
    sudo cp bzlib.h /usr/i686-w64-mingw32/include/
    make clean

    # For win64...
    make CC=x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc AR=x86_64-w64-mingw32-ar \
      RANLIB=x86_64-w64-mingw32-ranlib PREFIX=/usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32 libbz2.a
    sudo cp libbz2.a /usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib/
    sudo cp bzlib.h /usr/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/
  • (For creating dist zipfile) Install 7-Zip: sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

  • Run ./build.sh [desired options and targets]

Caveats

AVbin is currently known to function on the following platforms

  • Linux x86 (32- and 64-bit)

  • Mac OS X 10.6 - 10.8 (32- and 64-bit)

  • Windows XP (32-bit)

  • Windows 7 (64-bit)

Creating a Distribution

  • Using the same value for platform as the build you just did, run:

    ./dist.sh [platform]

Creating Documentation

Installation and Usage

Run the binary installer, or place the resulting avbin.so, avbin.dylib or avbin.dll from the dist directory into the appropriate system directory.

The AVbin dynamic library exports all of Libav's functions from libavcodec, libavutil, libavformat, and libswscale. It also exports some higher-level functions which have a fixed ABI (they will not change in incompatible ways in future releases), documented in include/avbin.h.

License

Due to the linkage between AVbin and Libav, AVbin must be licensed under the LGPL or GPL. Currently all GPL features of the Libav configuration are disabled, and AVbin is licensed under the LGPL.

You should see the accompanying COPYING.LESSER file for details. In summary, you must note the usage of AVbin within the documentation of your application. If you make changes to either library, you must either contribute said changes upstream or include the sources of these changes within your distributed application.

Contributions

Who Role
Nathan Stocks Project maintainer
Alex Holkner Original author, original maintainer
Micah Richert Contributed original macosx-x86-64 and win64 build scripts
Anatoly Techtonik C++ integration
Jernej Virag C code additions and updates, build script updates
Jeremy Lujan OS X install script patches.
Tim Sheerman-Chase avbin_seek_file() patches and Visual Studio 2010 compatibility
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