Build FFmpeg with xfade-easing on Windows

Summary

A simple Bash script to automate building FFmpeg natively from source on Windows under MSYS2, optionally incorporating xfade-easing patches.

It can build:

• a shared (DLL) version with rich configuration using clang or gcc toolchains;
  this does not build external libraries but links them in from a package-managed FFmpeg installation
• a minimal static version with x264+zlib using MSVC or LLVM/clang-cl toolsets

This is much simpler than other build scripts for FFmpeg on Windows that build the external libraries too.

The xfade superset filter xfade-easing adds enhanced cross-fade video transition effects by default, but the -n option builds plain vanilla FFmpeg without it.

Usage

1. Follow the simple MSYS2 installation instructions.

2. Launch a MSYS2 Environment terminal from a shortcut in the Windows Start Menu (MSYS2 folder) or run C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd -env from a Command Prompt window where env is one of msys/urct64/clang64/clangarm64:

   • MSYS environment (default) for a minimal static build using the MSVC or LLVM toolchain and UCRT runtime
     • requires Microsoft Visual C++ installed and msys2-vcvars.sh in same directory as ffmpeg-makexe.sh
     • requires Visual Studio Clang components to use the optional MSVC-compatible clang-cl compiler
       (run the script with option -l)
   • UCRT64 environment for a shared build using the GCC toolchain and UCRT runtime
   • CLANG64 environment for a shared build using the Clang-LLVM toolchain and UCRT runtime
   • CLANGARM64 environment for a shared build using the Clang-LLVM toolchain (untested)

   The type of build is determined by environment variable MSYSTEM which defaults to MSYS.

3. If you are rebuilding FFmpeg the pacman system might need upgrading:
   run pacman -Syu to synchronise the system databases and update installed packages.

4. Download and run ffmpeg-makexe.sh; it creates executables in /opt/scriptituk/<env>/dist/ where <env> is the MSYS2 MinGW environment in lower-case, or msvc or clangcl for the MSYS environment (not msys).

5. To install into Windows, run the generated batch script from an Administrator Command Prompt:
   C:\msys64\opt\scriptituk\<env>\dist\install-ffmpeg.bat
   or manually copy/unzip the built binaries to "C:\Program Files\FFmpeg\".

6. The install-ffmpeg.bat script amends the Windows %Path% but to do so manually run:
   set Path=%Path%;"C:\Program Files\FFmpeg;".
   To persist the change use regedit to edit the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Path value.

All the required sources are downloaded automatically and all command tools and environment toolchains are installed using pacman.

CLI help

Run ./ffmpeg-makexe.sh -h for command-line usage and options:

Simple FFmpeg builder for the Windows platform, optionally with xfade-easing

Requires MSYS2: follow instructions at https://www.msys2.org
UCRT64/CLANG64/CLANGARM64 environment builds a feature-rich shared version
MSYS environment builds a basic static version (requires Microsoft Visual Studio)
 (to use LLVM/clang-cl instead of MSVC use option -l)
All requisite tools are installed as needed via a package manager (pacman)
 (ffmpeg too, to obviate building its constituent external libraries)
The FFmpeg release built is the latest version supported by pacman

Usage: ./ffmpeg-makexe.sh [options]
Options:
    -i <dir> set installation root (default /opt/scriptituk)
    -l use LLVM (clang-cl) Visual Studio toolset instead of MSVC (MSYS only)
    -g do not disable GPU options that can break configure (not MSYS)
    -c <opts> append options to ffmpeg configure command (not MSYS)
       (-c cannot enable external libraries that are not installed)
    -n do not patch in xfade-easing, just build plain vanilla FFmpeg instead
    -r rebuild from scratch (removes cached downloads and build trees)
    -d <flags> set debug flags (e.g. -d SL):
       S trace shell command execution (set -x)
       M trace makefile recipe execution (--debug=print)
       L enable logging to ./ffmpeg-makexe-<environment>.log
       T use ./tmp/ for temporary files and keep them on exit
    -h print this help message
Updates: first refresh pacman database and update installed packages: pacman -Syu

See https://github.com/scriptituk/ffmpeg-makexe for more information
See https://github.com/scriptituk/msys2-mcvars used to ingest MSVC environment
See https://github.com/scriptituk/xfade-easing for xfade-easing usage

Release

The version built is the latest FFmpeg release supported by pacman. This is because external library dependencies work with that release but may not work with earlier releases.

xfade-easing

You can remove xfade-easing support with the -n option. This does not cause configure to re-run; it just re-compiles libavfilter/vf_xfade.c and re-installs. So for a plain vanilla FFmpeg build, run ./ffmpeg-makexe.sh -n.

Details

There are two versions: a basic static ffmpeg.exe and a more functional tar archive containing ffmpeg.exe and dependent DLLs. Both include the ffprobe utility.

Static Visual Studio builds

The MSYS environment builds a minimal static ffmpeg.exe with x264 encoding and zlib for PNG decoding based on Roxlu’s guide.

It executes the Visual Studio vcvarsall.bat script to ingest the MSVC development environment using msys2-vcvars.

If more than one instance of vcvarsall.bat is found then set VCVARSALL_PATH to the absolute path (Windows or Unix format) of the required instance.

To compile with LLVM clang-cl instead of MSVC cl, use option -l.

Static binaries

The built executables ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe and install script install-ffmpeg.bat are at:

• /opt/scriptituk/clangcl/dist/ for LLVM/clang-cl (option -l)
  = C:\msys64\opt\scriptituk\clangcl\dist\ from Windows
• /opt/scriptituk/msvc/dist/ for MSVC
  = C:\msys64\opt\scriptituk\msvc\dist\ from Windows

Static installer

This is install-ffmpeg.bat for MSVC; only the source path differs.

@if exist "C:\Program Files\FFmpeg" del /q "C:\Program Files\FFmpeg"
xcopy C:\msys64\opt\scriptituk\msvc\dist\ff*.exe "C:\Program Files\FFmpeg\" /y
@rem TODO: set HKLM Path without changing REG_EXPAND_SZ to REG_SZ type
@if "%Path%"=="%Path:C:\Program Files\FFmpeg;=%" set Path=%Path%;C:\Program Files\FFmpeg;

Static configuration

This is for MSVC; clang-cl has the same components.

configuration:
  --extra-version=scriptituk/ffmpeg-makexe --prefix=/opt/scriptituk/msvc
  --enable-static --disable-shared
  --target-os=win64 --arch=x86_64 --pkg-config-flags=--static
  --toolchain=msvc
  --extra-cflags='-utf-8 -MT -wd4090 -wd4101 -wd4113 -wd4114 -wd4133 -Wv:12'
  --disable-ffplay --disable-debug --disable-doc
  --enable-gpl --enable-libx264 --enable-zlib

Shared clang/gcc builds

The CLANG64/UCRT64/etc. environments build a ffmpeg.tar archive containing ffmpeg.exe and all its constituent DLLs. The tar tool was added to Windows 10 in 2018.

GPU options

FFmpeg options that use GPU hardware acceleration can break configuration tests, especially when building with virtualization tools or WSL pre- Windows 11. These are disabled by default but option -g restores them.

Shared binaries

The built executables ffmpeg.exe, ffprobe.exe and shared DLLs are archived into ffmpeg.tar. That and the install script install-ffmpeg.bat are at:

• /opt/scriptituk/clang64/dist/ for LLVM/Clang
  = C:\msys64\opt\scriptituk\clang64\dist\ from Windows
• /opt/scriptituk/ucrt64/dist/ for gcc
  = C:\msys64\opt\scriptituk\ucrt64\dist\ from Windows

Shared installer

This is install-ffmpeg.bat for CLANG64; only the source path differs.

@if exist "C:\Program Files\FFmpeg" del /q "C:\Program Files\FFmpeg"
tar -C "C:\Program Files" -xf C:\msys64\opt\scriptituk\clang64\dist\ffmpeg.tar
@rem TODO: set HKLM Path without changing REG_EXPAND_SZ to REG_SZ type
@if "%Path%"=="%Path:C:\Program Files\FFmpeg;=%" set Path=%Path%;C:\Program Files\FFmpeg;

Shared configuration

This is for CLANG64; UCRT64 etc. have the same components.

configuration:
  --extra-version=scriptituk/ffmpeg-makexe
  --prefix=/opt/scriptituk/clang64 --shlibdir=/opt/scriptituk/clang64/so
  --target-os=mingw32 --arch=x86_64 --cc=clang --cxx=clang++
  --disable-static --enable-shared --disable-debug --disable-ffplay --disable-doc
  --enable-dxva2 --enable-d3d11va --enable-d3d12va --enable-frei0r --enable-gmp
  --enable-gnutls --enable-gpl --enable-iconv --enable-libaom --enable-libass
  --enable-libbluray --enable-libcaca --enable-libdav1d --enable-libfontconfig
  --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm
  --enable-libharfbuzz --enable-libjxl --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame
  --enable-libopencore_amrnb --enable-libopencore_amrwb --enable-libopenjpeg
  --enable-libopus --enable-librtmp --enable-libssh --enable-libsoxr
  --enable-libspeex --enable-libsrt --enable-libtheora --enable-libvidstab
  --enable-libvorbis --enable-libx264 --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid
  --enable-libvpx --enable-libwebp --enable-libxml2 --enable-libzimg
  --enable-libzvbi --enable-openal --enable-pic --enable-runtime-cpudetect
  --enable-swresample --enable-version3 --enable-zlib --enable-libvpl
  --enable-liblc3 --enable-librav1e --enable-librsvg --enable-libsvtav1
  --enable-whisper

MSYS2 path

Running the shared-library ffmpeg from a MSYS2 terminal (not Windows Command) picks up the system executable and libraries, not the built ones, so, modify the $PATH:
PATH=/opt/scriptituk/clang64/bin:/opt/scriptituk/clang64/so:$PATH ffmpeg.exe
(change clang64 to ucrt64 for the gcc build).

Static build

Attempts to make a statically linked build using package-installed external components failed as it is quite convoluted but this may be revisited.

Performance

Here are empirical metrics for the time to make 5-second 720x576 videos of the xfade-easing ported GLSL transitions (currently 64). The test was run on a VirtualBox Windows 10 client, so is slower than a native run.

MSYS2 environment	build environment	build type	size (MB)	time (minutes)
MSYS	msvc	static	24.852	10:19
MSYS	clangcl	static	27.996	09:42
UCRT64	ucrt64	shared	169.155a	10:48
CLANG64	clang64	shared	154.542a	10:47
–	crossb	static	116.541	17:01

^a size includes uncompressed package-installed external DLLs
^b cross compiled on Ubuntu by ffmpeg-windows-build-helpers

See also

• scriptituk/xfade-easing – Easing and extensions for FFmpeg Xfade filter
• scriptituk/msys2-vcvars – Import MSVC environment variables into MSYS2
• MSYS2 Environments – Unix-like environments for building native software against the Windows APIs
• MinGW-w64 – headers, libraries and tools for compiler toolchains to generate Windows binaries
• Visual Studio Community Edition – free Microsoft Visual Studio Community edition
• ffmpeg-windows-build-helpers – cross compiles Windows 32/64-bit FFmpeg tools and dependencies
• media-autobuild_suite – Windows Batchscript, builds Mingw-w64/GCC FFmpeg and other media tools
• MultimediaTools-mingw-w64 – scripts to cross-compile multimedia tools, inc. FFmpeg, for Windows
• Roxlu’s guide – Compiling FFmpeg with X264 on Windows 10 using MSVC