=head1 NAME ffmpeg-protocols - FFmpeg protocols =head1 DESCRIPTION This document describes the input and output protocols provided by the libavformat library. =head1 PROTOCOLS Protocols are configured elements in FFmpeg that enable access to resources that require specific protocols. When you configure your FFmpeg build, all the supported protocols are enabled by default. You can list all available ones using the configure option "--list-protocols". You can disable all the protocols using the configure option "--disable-protocols", and selectively enable a protocol using the option "--enable-protocol=I", or you can disable a particular protocol using the option "--disable-protocol=I". The option "-protocols" of the ff* tools will display the list of supported protocols. A description of the currently available protocols follows. =head2 bluray Read BluRay playlist. The accepted options are: =over 4 =item B BluRay angle =item B Start chapter (1...N) =item B Playlist to read (BDMV/PLAYLIST/?????.mpls) =back Examples: Read longest playlist from BluRay mounted to /mnt/bluray: bluray:/mnt/bluray Read angle 2 of playlist 4 from BluRay mounted to /mnt/bluray, start from chapter 2: -playlist 4 -angle 2 -chapter 2 bluray:/mnt/bluray =head2 cache Caching wrapper for input stream. Cache the input stream to temporary file. It brings seeking capability to live streams. cache: =head2 concat Physical concatenation protocol. Allow to read and seek from many resource in sequence as if they were a unique resource. A URL accepted by this protocol has the syntax: concat:||...| where I, I, ..., I are the urls of the resource to be concatenated, each one possibly specifying a distinct protocol. For example to read a sequence of files F, F, F with B use the command: ffplay concat:split1.mpeg\|split2.mpeg\|split3.mpeg Note that you may need to escape the character "|" which is special for many shells. =head2 crypto AES-encrypted stream reading protocol. The accepted options are: =over 4 =item B Set the AES decryption key binary block from given hexadecimal representation. =item B Set the AES decryption initialization vector binary block from given hexadecimal representation. =back Accepted URL formats: crypto: crypto+ =head2 data Data in-line in the URI. See EBE. For example, to convert a GIF file given inline with B: ffmpeg -i "data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODdhCAAIAMIEAAAAAAAA//8AAP//AP///////////////ywAAAAACAAIAAADF0gEDLojDgdGiJdJqUX02iB4E8Q9jUMkADs=" smiley.png =head2 file File access protocol. Allow to read from or read to a file. For example to read from a file F with B use the command: ffmpeg -i file:input.mpeg output.mpeg The ff* tools default to the file protocol, that is a resource specified with the name "FILE.mpeg" is interpreted as the URL "file:FILE.mpeg". This protocol accepts the following options: =over 4 =item B Truncate existing files on write, if set to 1. A value of 0 prevents truncating. Default value is 1. =item B Set I/O operation maximum block size, in bytes. Default value is C, which results in not limiting the requested block size. Setting this value reasonably low improves user termination request reaction time, which is valuable for files on slow medium. =back =head2 ftp FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Allow to read from or write to remote resources using FTP protocol. Following syntax is required. ftp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]/path/to/remote/resource.mpeg This protocol accepts the following options. =over 4 =item B Set timeout of socket I/O operations used by the underlying low level operation. By default it is set to -1, which means that the timeout is not specified. =item B Password used when login as anonymous user. Typically an e-mail address should be used. =item B Control seekability of connection during encoding. If set to 1 the resource is supposed to be seekable, if set to 0 it is assumed not to be seekable. Default value is 0. =back NOTE: Protocol can be used as output, but it is recommended to not do it, unless special care is taken (tests, customized server configuration etc.). Different FTP servers behave in different way during seek operation. ff* tools may produce incomplete content due to server limitations. =head2 gopher Gopher protocol. =head2 hls Read Apple HTTP Live Streaming compliant segmented stream as a uniform one. The M3U8 playlists describing the segments can be remote HTTP resources or local files, accessed using the standard file protocol. The nested protocol is declared by specifying "+I" after the hls URI scheme name, where I is either "file" or "http". hls+http://host/path/to/remote/resource.m3u8 hls+file://path/to/local/resource.m3u8 Using this protocol is discouraged - the hls demuxer should work just as well (if not, please report the issues) and is more complete. To use the hls demuxer instead, simply use the direct URLs to the m3u8 files. =head2 http HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). This protocol accepts the following options. =over 4 =item B Control seekability of connection. If set to 1 the resource is supposed to be seekable, if set to 0 it is assumed not to be seekable, if set to -1 it will try to autodetect if it is seekable. Default value is -1. =item B If set to 1 use chunked transfer-encoding for posts, default is 1. =item B Set custom HTTP headers, can override built in default headers. The value must be a string encoding the headers. =item B Force a content type. =item B Override User-Agent header. If not specified the protocol will use a string describing the libavformat build. =item B Use persistent connections if set to 1. By default it is 0. =item B Set custom HTTP post data. =item B Set timeout of socket I/O operations used by the underlying low level operation. By default it is set to -1, which means that the timeout is not specified. =item B Set MIME type. =item B If set to 1 request ICY (SHOUTcast) metadata from the server. If the server supports this, the metadata has to be retrieved by the application by reading the B and B options. The default is 0. =item B If the server supports ICY metadata, this contains the ICY specific HTTP reply headers, separated with newline characters. =item B If the server supports ICY metadata, and B was set to 1, this contains the last non-empty metadata packet sent by the server. =item B Set the cookies to be sent in future requests. The format of each cookie is the same as the value of a Set-Cookie HTTP response field. Multiple cookies can be delimited by a newline character. =back =head3 HTTP Cookies Some HTTP requests will be denied unless cookie values are passed in with the request. The B option allows these cookies to be specified. At the very least, each cookie must specify a value along with a path and domain. HTTP requests that match both the domain and path will automatically include the cookie value in the HTTP Cookie header field. Multiple cookies can be delimited by a newline. The required syntax to play a stream specifying a cookie is: ffplay -cookies "nlqptid=nltid=tsn; path=/; domain=somedomain.com;" http://somedomain.com/somestream.m3u8 =head2 mmst MMS (Microsoft Media Server) protocol over TCP. =head2 mmsh MMS (Microsoft Media Server) protocol over HTTP. The required syntax is: mmsh://[:][/][/] =head2 md5 MD5 output protocol. Computes the MD5 hash of the data to be written, and on close writes this to the designated output or stdout if none is specified. It can be used to test muxers without writing an actual file. Some examples follow. # Write the MD5 hash of the encoded AVI file to the file output.avi.md5. ffmpeg -i input.flv -f avi -y md5:output.avi.md5 # Write the MD5 hash of the encoded AVI file to stdout. ffmpeg -i input.flv -f avi -y md5: Note that some formats (typically MOV) require the output protocol to be seekable, so they will fail with the MD5 output protocol. =head2 pipe UNIX pipe access protocol. Allow to read and write from UNIX pipes. The accepted syntax is: pipe:[] I is the number corresponding to the file descriptor of the pipe (e.g. 0 for stdin, 1 for stdout, 2 for stderr). If I is not specified, by default the stdout file descriptor will be used for writing, stdin for reading. For example to read from stdin with B: cat test.wav | ffmpeg -i pipe:0 # ...this is the same as... cat test.wav | ffmpeg -i pipe: For writing to stdout with B: ffmpeg -i test.wav -f avi pipe:1 | cat > test.avi # ...this is the same as... ffmpeg -i test.wav -f avi pipe: | cat > test.avi This protocol accepts the following options: =over 4 =item B Set I/O operation maximum block size, in bytes. Default value is C, which results in not limiting the requested block size. Setting this value reasonably low improves user termination request reaction time, which is valuable if data transmission is slow. =back Note that some formats (typically MOV), require the output protocol to be seekable, so they will fail with the pipe output protocol. =head2 rtmp Real-Time Messaging Protocol. The Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is used for streaming multimedia content across a TCP/IP network. The required syntax is: rtmp://[:@][:][/][/][/] The accepted parameters are: =over 4 =item B An optional username (mostly for publishing). =item B An optional password (mostly for publishing). =item B The address of the RTMP server. =item B The number of the TCP port to use (by default is 1935). =item B It is the name of the application to access. It usually corresponds to the path where the application is installed on the RTMP server (e.g. F, F, etc.). You can override the value parsed from the URI through the C option, too. =item B It is the path or name of the resource to play with reference to the application specified in I, may be prefixed by "mp4:". You can override the value parsed from the URI through the C option, too. =item B Act as a server, listening for an incoming connection. =item B Maximum time to wait for the incoming connection. Implies listen. =back Additionally, the following parameters can be set via command line options (or in code via Cs): =over 4 =item B Name of application to connect on the RTMP server. This option overrides the parameter specified in the URI. =item B Set the client buffer time in milliseconds. The default is 3000. =item B Extra arbitrary AMF connection parameters, parsed from a string, e.g. like C. Each value is prefixed by a single character denoting the type, B for Boolean, N for number, S for string, O for object, or Z for null, followed by a colon. For Booleans the data must be either 0 or 1 for FALSE or TRUE, respectively. Likewise for Objects the data must be 0 or 1 to end or begin an object, respectively. Data items in subobjects may be named, by prefixing the type with 'N' and specifying the name before the value (i.e. C). This option may be used multiple times to construct arbitrary AMF sequences. =item B Version of the Flash plugin used to run the SWF player. The default is LNX 9,0,124,2. (When publishing, the default is FMLE/3.0 (compatible; Elibavformat versionE).) =item B Number of packets flushed in the same request (RTMPT only). The default is 10. =item B Specify that the media is a live stream. No resuming or seeking in live streams is possible. The default value is C, which means the subscriber first tries to play the live stream specified in the playpath. If a live stream of that name is not found, it plays the recorded stream. The other possible values are C and C. =item B URL of the web page in which the media was embedded. By default no value will be sent. =item B Stream identifier to play or to publish. This option overrides the parameter specified in the URI. =item B Name of live stream to subscribe to. By default no value will be sent. It is only sent if the option is specified or if rtmp_live is set to live. =item B SHA256 hash of the decompressed SWF file (32 bytes). =item B Size of the decompressed SWF file, required for SWFVerification. =item B URL of the SWF player for the media. By default no value will be sent. =item B URL to player swf file, compute hash/size automatically. =item B URL of the target stream. Defaults to proto://host[:port]/app. =back For example to read with B a multimedia resource named "sample" from the application "vod" from an RTMP server "myserver": ffplay rtmp://myserver/vod/sample To publish to a password protected server, passing the playpath and app names separately: ffmpeg -re -i -f flv -rtmp_playpath some/long/path -rtmp_app long/app/name rtmp://username:password@myserver/ =head2 rtmpe Encrypted Real-Time Messaging Protocol. The Encrypted Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMPE) is used for streaming multimedia content within standard cryptographic primitives, consisting of Diffie-Hellman key exchange and HMACSHA256, generating a pair of RC4 keys. =head2 rtmps Real-Time Messaging Protocol over a secure SSL connection. The Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMPS) is used for streaming multimedia content across an encrypted connection. =head2 rtmpt Real-Time Messaging Protocol tunneled through HTTP. The Real-Time Messaging Protocol tunneled through HTTP (RTMPT) is used for streaming multimedia content within HTTP requests to traverse firewalls. =head2 rtmpte Encrypted Real-Time Messaging Protocol tunneled through HTTP. The Encrypted Real-Time Messaging Protocol tunneled through HTTP (RTMPTE) is used for streaming multimedia content within HTTP requests to traverse firewalls. =head2 rtmpts Real-Time Messaging Protocol tunneled through HTTPS. The Real-Time Messaging Protocol tunneled through HTTPS (RTMPTS) is used for streaming multimedia content within HTTPS requests to traverse firewalls. =head2 libssh Secure File Transfer Protocol via libssh Allow to read from or write to remote resources using SFTP protocol. Following syntax is required. sftp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]/path/to/remote/resource.mpeg This protocol accepts the following options. =over 4 =item B Set timeout of socket I/O operations used by the underlying low level operation. By default it is set to -1, which means that the timeout is not specified. =item B Truncate existing files on write, if set to 1. A value of 0 prevents truncating. Default value is 1. =back Example: Play a file stored on remote server. ffplay sftp://user:password@server_address:22/home/user/resource.mpeg =head2 librtmp rtmp, rtmpe, rtmps, rtmpt, rtmpte Real-Time Messaging Protocol and its variants supported through librtmp. Requires the presence of the librtmp headers and library during configuration. You need to explicitly configure the build with "--enable-librtmp". If enabled this will replace the native RTMP protocol. This protocol provides most client functions and a few server functions needed to support RTMP, RTMP tunneled in HTTP (RTMPT), encrypted RTMP (RTMPE), RTMP over SSL/TLS (RTMPS) and tunneled variants of these encrypted types (RTMPTE, RTMPTS). The required syntax is: ://[:][/][/] where I is one of the strings "rtmp", "rtmpt", "rtmpe", "rtmps", "rtmpte", "rtmpts" corresponding to each RTMP variant, and I, I, I and I have the same meaning as specified for the RTMP native protocol. I contains a list of space-separated options of the form I=I. See the librtmp manual page (man 3 librtmp) for more information. For example, to stream a file in real-time to an RTMP server using B: ffmpeg -re -i myfile -f flv rtmp://myserver/live/mystream To play the same stream using B: ffplay "rtmp://myserver/live/mystream live=1" =head2 rtp Real-time Transport Protocol. The required syntax for an RTP URL is: rtp://I[:I][?I