Compile ffmpeg on CentOS 7

Recently I had to compile ffmpeg from scratch on CentOS 7. The reason? I wanted libfdk_aac support. Here are my notes on the procedure. The how-to on https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Centos was actually quite helpful and accurate.

Install necessary dependencies and set up build folder

yum install autoconf automake cmake freetype-devel gcc gcc-c++ git libtool make mercurial nasm pkgconfig zlib-devel
mkdir ~/ffmpeg_sources

Build necessary components
I only needed x264 and libfdk_aac, so that’s all I ended up doing:

#yasm
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
cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone --depth 1 git://git.videolan.org/x264
cd x264
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/ffmpeg_build/lib/pkgconfig" ./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --bindir="$HOME/bin" --enable-static
make
make install
make distclean
#libfdk_aac
cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone --depth 1 git://git.code.sf.net/p/opencore-amr/fdk-aac
cd fdk-aac
autoreconf -fiv
./configure --prefix="$HOME/ffmpeg_build" --disable-shared
make
make install
make distclean

Compile ffmpeg
I actually specified a git mirror because the sources at ffmpeg site were glacially slow.

cd ~/ffmpeg_sources
git clone https://github.com/FFmpeg/FFmpeg.git
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" --pkg-config-flags="--static" --enable-gpl --enable-nonfree --enable-libfdk-aac  --enable-libx264
make
make install
make distclean
hash -r

Optionally, remove existing ffmpeg

sudo yum remove ffmpeg

That was it! After a bit of compile time ffmpeg worked with the items I wanted it to.

2 thoughts on “Compile ffmpeg on CentOS 7”

  1. your compile script for ffmpeg uses uppercase FF which breaks the process.

    $HOME/ffmpeg_build on the dependencies

    and

    $HOME/FFmpeg_build on the ffmpeg part

    other than that it worked great, thanks for posting

  2. “I only needed x264 and libfdk_aac, so that’s all I ended up doing:”
    I don’t get this… You’re writing a guide, but then narrow it down to fit only your unique subset of requirements. I recall some friends throwing a summer cookout for a dozen or so people when we were all young. I was helping them set up the self-serve condiments table. “Where’s the mustard?” I asked. “We don’t like mustard,” was the reply.

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