libmpv Build

Provides builds of libmpv for macOS & iOS, usable by media_kit, compatible with commercial use.

Heavily inspired by Homebrew and IINA.

Usage

$ brew install cmake golang go-task meson ninja
$ VERSION=v0.0.1 task
$ ls build/video/macos/universal/libs
libass.9.dylib
libavcodec.59.dylib
libavfilter.8.dylib
...
$ ls build/video/macos/universal/archives/libs
libmpv-libs-video-v0.0.1-macos-universal.tar.gz

Dependencies

flowchart LR

A(mpv) --> B(ffmpeg)
A(mpv) -.-> C(libass)
A(mpv) -.-> D(uchardet)

B -.-> H(libressl)

C --> E(freetype)
C --> F(harfbuzz)
C --> G(fribidi)

E -.-> F

Loading

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

• libass(optional): 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

• libressl (optional): A fork of OpenSSL that aims to provide a more secure and auditable implementation of the SSL/TLS protocols

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

Commercial Use

Dependency	Licence	Commercial use
mpv	LGPL-2.1 (-Dgpl=false)	✅
ffmpeg	LGPL-2.1 (--enable-gpl & --enable-nonfree omitted)	✅
libass	ISC	✅
freetype	FreeType	✅
harfbuzz	MIT	✅
fribidi	LGPL-2.1	✅
libressl	Apache-1.0, BSD-4-Clause, ISC, public domain	✅
uchardet	MPL-1.1, GPL-2, LGPL-2.1	✅

Notes

The minimum versions of macOS and iOS have been chosen for these reasons:

• macOS: the arm64 sdk force a minimum version of 11.0
• iOS: ffmpeg requires a minimum version of 13.0

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.

Project Layout

.
├── ...
├── cmd                              # golang scripts
├── pkg                              # golang packages
├── downloads                        # dependencies archives files
├── downloads.lock                   # lock file of dependencies archives
├── Taskfile.yaml                    # main build script
├── scripts                          # build scripts
├── cross-files                      # cross build files used by meson
├── build
│   ├── tool-versions.lock           # versions of tools used during build
│   ├── tools                        # "sanboxed" tools & pkg-config
│   ├── audio
│   └── video
│       ├── macos
│       └── ios
│           ├── universal            # amd64 & arm64 libs merged with lipo
│           ├── amd64
│           └── arm64
│               ├── sources          # archives are extracted here
│               ├── chroot           # cross built files
│               │   ├── include
│               │   └── lib
│               ├── libs             # cleaned libs from `chroot/lib`
│               ├── frameworks       # `.framework` built from `libs`
│               ├── xcframeworks     # `.xcframework` built from `frameworks`
│               └── archives
│                   ├──libs          # tar.gz of `libs`
│                   └──xcframeworks  # tar.gz of `xcframeworks`
└── ...

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

TODO

• libressl: mutualise the build between audio and video variants, currently built twice
• ffmpeg: improve variant configuration scripts, like what is done for mpv
• looking for a better build automation tool than Taskfile (if it exists)

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