FFmpeg and libav

[Jonas Smedegaard]

Hi Romain,

(please mention if you are not subscribed to the list and need copy of 
replies - normal for Debian lists is to post only to list)

Quoting Romain Bouqueau (2013-09-25 14:23:46)
> I'm a contributor on the GPAC multimedia project. I'm writing to you 
> because we spend more and more time trying to keep our project 
> compatible with both FFmpeg and libav. This is not sustainable.

I understand your pain.


> We would need you to provide both FFmpeg and libav as separate 
> packages in Debian. However the libraries/headers in the packages have 
> the same names. AFAIU this makes our request impossible to fulfill.

Not impossible, but very difficult: Those actually doing the work in 
Debian consider it too much work for too little gain.


> What I see is: most of the work seems to be done at the libav side.

> However FFmpeg works better: it is more stable, the maintainers are 
> more reactive, the APIs are more stable and consistent.

Above seems subjective.  It will help the discussion tremendously if is 
supported by some factual non-biased comparison.


> This fork causes duplicated work (VLC, MPlayer, GStreamer, GPAC). I 
> think it would be a good idea not to involve project contributors in 
> this ego war and let them choose whichever is best for their projects.

Above is judgemental.  Please avoid that to keep discussion productive.


> Note that it was not an issue until the last year because they were 
> still fairly compatible. The Debian package maintainers also seem to 
> have kept this issue away by installing old libav versions.

Above seems misguided.  If you compare "released code" then beware that 
what Debian calls "stable" others might call "too boring", and what 
others call "stable Debian might call "testing" or "unstable".

Here is an overview of both how long-term and how bleeding edge Debian 
is regarding libav: http://packages.qa.debian.org/liba/libav.html


> Does anyone has an idea to improve the situation?

We need to first agree that there is a situation that needs improving.  
As my comments above indicate, I think your input - though no doubt good 
intended - does not help establish such agreement.


Kind regards,

 - Jonas

-- 
 * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt
 * Tlf.: +45 40843136  Website: http://dr.jones.dk/

 [x] quote me freely  [ ] ask before reusing  [ ] keep private
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