[gst-devel] gst-ffmpeg pre-releases and new build system

[Edward Hervey]

Hi all,

  Don't rub your eyes, you ARE awake and the topic of this mail is
correct, close to 12 months after the last release we are finally going
to do a new release of gst-ffmpeg.

  BUT hold on to your horses ! This still uses the same ffmpeg checkout
as the last one, so don't expect any new codecs. None the less a lot of
bugfixes have gone into the gstreamer side of things, which improves
playback and usability.

  Due to the fact that the release was so long ago, I will wait at least
a week for people to try out the pre-releases and file blocker bugs
before making the actual release.

  You can find the 0.10.2.2 tarballs here:
http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/src/gst-ffmpeg/pre/



  I would like to take the opportunity in this mail to also mention that
we are also working on a new build system for gst-ffmpeg that no longer
uses a mirror, but instead relies on upstream ffmpeg revision numbers.
This is available in the GST_FFMPEG_NO_MIRROR branch of gst-ffmpeg,
people interested can try it out. If all goes well, we will switch to
that system after the 0.10.3 release.

  What is the idea behind this build system ? This will first of all
enable the developers to easily (one field to modify in a file) try
gst-ffmpeg with different ffmpeg revisions, see if there's no
regressions, change the plugin code for their ever-changing API, and in
a general fashion be more reactive to upstream ffmpeg.

  The releases will then be validated against a specific ffmpeg revision
and we will ONLY support releases using that EXACT ffmpeg revision. In
the same way as for distribution packagers compiling gst-ffmpeg against
system-wide ffmpeg, we will NOT support bugs regarding gst-ffmpeg built
with other revision numbers.

  On the downside, this means that we will no longer be able to apply
patches on the ffmpeg libraries we use, but instead will have to submit
them upstream... and be persuasive about why those patches are needed.
For the time being, none of the patches in our current mirror need to be
applied, so it's looking good.

  So, try the pre-releases, try the new branch, file your bugs, share
your experience, and let's make gst-ffmpeg a quality gstreamer plugin !


    Edward