libmpv build

Provides builds of libmpv for macOS & iOS, used by media_kit, compatible with commercial use for playback, and GPL use for encoding.

Heavily inspired by Homebrew and IINA.

Usage

$ brew install cmake golang meson ninja
$ VERSION=v0.0.1 make
$ ls build/output
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_ios-arm64-audio-default.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_ios-arm64-audio-full.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_ios-arm64-audio-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_ios-arm64-video-default.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_ios-arm64-video-full.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_ios-arm64-video-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_iossimulator-universal-audio-default.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_iossimulator-universal-audio-full.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_iossimulator-universal-audio-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_iossimulator-universal-video-default.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_iossimulator-universal-video-full.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_iossimulator-universal-video-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_macos-universal-audio-default.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_macos-universal-audio-full.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_macos-universal-audio-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_macos-universal-video-default.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_macos-universal-video-full.tar.gz
libmpv-libs_v0.0.1_macos-universal-video-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_ios-universal-audio-default.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_ios-universal-audio-full.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_ios-universal-audio-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_ios-universal-video-default.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_ios-universal-video-full.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_ios-universal-video-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_macos-universal-audio-default.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_macos-universal-audio-full.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_macos-universal-audio-encodersgpl.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_macos-universal-video-default.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_macos-universal-video-full.tar.gz
libmpv-xcframeworks_v0.0.1_macos-universal-video-encodersgpl.tar.gz

Naming convention

libmpv-<format>_<version>_<os>-<arch>-<variant>-<flavor>.tar.gz

Inclusion:

• Variants: $audio \subset video$
• Flavors: $audio \subset full \subset encodersgpl$

Minimum versions

Dependencies

flowchart LR
    subgraph legend[Legend]
        direction TB
        subgraph links
            P(node):::decoders -- "required" --> Q(node):::decoders
            R(node):::decoders -. "optional" .-> S(node):::decoders
        end

        subgraph variants
            T(audio & video):::decoders
            U{{video only}}:::decoders
        end

        subgraph flavors
            V(default, full):::decoders
            W(encodersgpl):::encoders
        end
    end

    subgraph content[ ]
        direction LR
        A(mpv):::decoders -.-> B{{uchardet}}:::decoders
        A                 -.-> C{{libass}}:::decoders
        A                 -->  D(ffmpeg):::decoders

        E(fftools-ffi):::encoders --> D

        %% libass
        C -->  F{{fribidi}}:::decoders
        C -->  G{{harfbuzz}}:::decoders
        C -->  H{{freetype}}:::decoders
        H -.-> G

        %% ffmpeg
        D -.-> I(mbedtls):::decoders
        D -.-> J{{dav1d}}:::decoders
        D -.-> K{{libxml2}}:::decoders
        D -.-> L(libvorbis):::encoders
        D -.-> M{{libvpx}}:::encoders
        D -.-> N{{libx264}}:::encoders
        L -->  O(libogg):::encoders
    end

    classDef decoders stroke:#888
    classDef encoders stroke:#14a,stroke-width:3px
    classDef legend fill:transparent,stroke:#8882
    classDef content fill:transparent,stroke:transparent
    classDef card fill:transparent,stroke:#888a

    legend:::legend
    content:::content
    links:::card
    variants:::card
    flavors:::card

• mpv: A free (as in freedom) media player for the command line. It supports a wide variety of media file formats, audio and video codecs, and subtitle types

• ffmpeg: A cross-platform solution for converting, streaming, and recording audio and video, with support for a wide range of codecs and formats

• fftools-ffi: FFmpeg's command-line interface exposed as a shared library for FFI usage

• libass: A library for rendering subtitles in videos, with support for advanced text formatting and positioning features (made optional with a patch)

• fribidi: A library for handling bidirectional text (such as Arabic or Hebrew) in Unicode strings, with support for complex shaping and layout

• freetype: A library for rendering high-quality text in graphics applications, with support for a wide range of font formats and glyph rendering techniques

• harfbuzz: A library for shaping and laying out text in multiple languages and scripts, with support for advanced typography features such as ligatures and kerning

• dav1d: A library for cross-platform AV1 decoding

• libogg: Reference implementation of the Ogg media container

• libvorbis: Reference implementation of the Ogg Vorbis audio format

• libvpx: Reference implementation of the VP8 and VP9 video formats

• libx264: Free software library for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression format

• mbedtls: An open source, portable, easy to use, readable and flexible TLS library

• libxml2: A library for processing XML data, used by ffmpeg to support the Dash protocol

• uchardet: A C++ port of the Universal Character Encoding Detector (used by Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird) for detecting the encoding of input text

Commercial use

Default, Full flavors

Encoders-GPL flavor

Notes

• Some dependencies, which are not needed at the moment, may be added in the future:

  • libbluray: A library for reading and parsing Blu-ray discs, with support for advanced features such as BD-J menus and seamless branching

  • libarchive: A library for reading various archive formats, including tar and zip, with support for compression and metadata, and a flexible API for reading and extracting archive contents

• We use meson as much as possible in order to simplify cross-compilation, at the cost of some heaviness regarding legacy packages

• If the build freezes, reboot macOS

• Command to visualize the workflow of a Makefile:

  $ make -Bnd | make2graph | dot -Grankdir=LR -Tpng -o graph.png

Project layout

.
├── ...
├── cmd                                   # golang scripts
├── pkg                                   # golang packages
├── downloads.lock                        # lock file of dependencies archives
├── Makefile                              # main build script
├── scripts                               # build scripts
├── cross-files                           # cross build files used by meson
├── build
│   ├── intermediate                      # intermediate build artifacts
│   │   ├── tool-versions.lock            # versions of tools used during build
│   │   ├── downloads                     # dependencies archives files
│   │   ├── links                         # symbolic links to host binaries
│   │   ├── <rule>_<os>-<arch>-<variant>
│   │   └── ...
│   ├── tmp
│   │   ├── <rule>_<os>-<arch>-<variant>
│   │   └── ...
│   └── output
│       ├── debug.zip                     # zip containing locks and logs
│       ├── libmpv-<format>_<version>_<os>-<arch>-<variant>.tar.gz
│       └── ...
└── ...

How the libass optional patch was created

As the dependency of mpv on libass is deeply embedded in the code, the simplest solution was to:

1. Remove the dynamic linking in meson.build.
2. Include the ass/ass.h and ass/ass_types.h headers directly in the code
3. Remove the call to ass_library_version in player/command.c
4. Remove the calls to ass_library_init, called by mp_ass_init, in sub/osd_libass.c and sub/sd_ass.c

Resources

• https://github.com/stps/mpv-ios-scripts
• https://github.com/iina/homebrew-mpv-iina
• https://github.com/mpv-android/mpv-android
• https://github.com/jnozsc/mpv-nightly-build
• https://github.com/smplayer-dev/mpv
• https://github.com/smplayer-dev/smplayer
• https://github.com/ldwardx/mpv-build-mac-iOS
• https://github.com/birros/godot_tl/tree/ca2fc4151bd8141241151dd6e29768608600473a/toolchains
• https://github.com/Vargol/ffmpeg-apple-arm64-build
• https://github.com/arthenica/ffmpeg-kit