• Bug#1041714: ffmpeg package (dependencies) is enormous

    From David Tulloh@21:1/5 to All on Mon Mar 17 07:00:01 2025
    Following up on this as I ran into it too.

    The dependency on libsdl2 drags in a lot of additional dependencies, like libwayland and x11-common. This makes the package unsuitable for a server environment.

    libsdl2 and a number of other dependencies are only required for ffplay and x11grab. The compilation instructions at https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu specifically call out
    not including these for a server environment.

    Would it be possible to split this package into two?

    A new ffplay package would include ffplay and x11grab. It would depend on ffmpeg and the various GUI libraries.

    The ffmpeg package would just include ffmpeg and be suitable for server
    usage. The package would recommend ffplay so most users will see no impact
    or change. Server users can add --no-install-recommends to not drag in the
    GUI systems, which is the standard initial option when you get lots of
    unwanted dependencies.


    David

    <div dir="ltr"><div>Following up on this as I ran into it too.</div><br><div>The dependency on libsdl2 drags in a lot of additional dependencies, like libwayland and x11-common. This makes the package unsuitable for a server environment.</div><div><br></
    <div>libsdl2 and a number of other dependencies are only required for ffplay and x11grab.  The compilation instructions at <a href="https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu">https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu</a>
    specifically call out not including these for a server environment.</div><div><br></div><div>Would it be possible to split this package into two?</div><div><br></div><div>A new ffplay package would include ffplay and x11grab.  It would depend on ffmpeg
    and the various GUI libraries.</div><div><br></div><div>The ffmpeg package would just include ffmpeg and be suitable for server usage.  The package would recommend ffplay so most users will see no impact or change.  Server users can add --no-install-
    recommends to not drag in the GUI systems, which is the standard initial option when you get lots of unwanted dependencies.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>David</div></div>

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  • From Sebastian Ramacher@21:1/5 to David Tulloh on Mon Mar 17 09:10:03 2025
    On 2025-03-17 16:53:56 +1100, David Tulloh wrote:
    Following up on this as I ran into it too.

    The dependency on libsdl2 drags in a lot of additional dependencies, like libwayland and x11-common. This makes the package unsuitable for a server environment.

    libsdl2 and a number of other dependencies are only required for ffplay and x11grab. The compilation instructions at https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu specifically call out not including these for a server environment.

    Would it be possible to split this package into two?

    A new ffplay package would include ffplay and x11grab. It would depend on ffmpeg and the various GUI libraries.

    This does not change anything. libavdevice61 also depends on
    libsdl2-2.0-0 so except moving binaries around the effective dependency
    closure of ffmpeg does not change.

    If you have specific requirements and are starved for disk space, you
    are probably better off building your own packages satisfying your
    specific requirements.

    Cheers
    --
    Sebastian Ramacher

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