CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ffmpegffprobe
Multihunter
Multihunter

Reputation: 5948

Where to find old ffmpeg/ffprobe documentation?

There are several different versions of ffmpeg and ffprobe flying around, and each version has a different API.

If I apt-get install ffmpeg on Ubuntu 16.04, I get ffmpeg version 2.8.15-0ubuntu0.16.04.1. If I install apt-get install ffmpeg on Ubuntu 18.04, I get version 3.4.4-0ubuntu0.18.04.1.

When I visit the ffmpeg documentation, it says "The following documentation is regenerated nightly, and corresponds to the newest FFmpeg revision. Consult your locally installed documentation for older versions." That is, the hosted documentation is neither of those two versions.

So I have two questions:

Upvotes: 1

Views: 673

Answers (2)

Multihunter
Multihunter

Reputation: 5948

For anyone who uses docker and wants to just host the docs without thinking too much, this is the Dockerfile I came up with.

FROM ubuntu:18.04

# Install requirements for ffmpeg doc generation
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y git build-essential texinfo yasm
# Install requirements for minimal webserver
RUN apt-get install -y webfs mime-support && update-mime

RUN git clone https://git.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.git

# Checkout the version that you want
RUN cd ffmpeg \
  && git checkout tags/n2.8.15 \
  && ./configure \
  && make doc

WORKDIR /ffmpeg/doc

CMD webfsd -F -p 80

Then you can

docker build -t ffmpeg-doc .
docker run --rm -it -p 80:80 ffmpeg-doc

And visit http://localhost for the list of generated files. The common ones will be http://localhost/ffmpeg.html or http://localhost/ffprobe.html.

Upvotes: 2

llogan
llogan

Reputation: 134093

What does it mean "your locally installed documentation"? Is it only talking about man ffmpeg?

It is referring to the various man pages and ffmpeg -h.

Are there any places that simply host the older versions of the ffmpeg documentation?

You can make it yourself. Install the build-essential and texinfo packages, download the source code for your FFmpeg version, then make the HTML documentation:

./configure
make doc

The HTML files will be located in the doc directory.

Alternatively, and more recommended, download or compile a recent version from the git master branch and use the online documentation.

Upvotes: 2

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