GPAC selected for the Google Summer Of Code (GSoC) 2016

General

GPAC GSoC page: https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/organizations/6481702784335872/

Subjects: http://gpac.io/jobs/google-summer-of-code-ideas/

The timeline to see the subject and apply is quite short (25 March for student application deadline): https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline

Please pass along the message. GSoC is a good opportunity for projects to improve and find contributors!

If you have any question, please contact gsoc@gpac.io.

Open positions in our lab

General

The GPAC team at Telecom ParisTech has two new open positions:

We also have an open PhD position on peer-to-peer streaming in web browsers, description available here.

If you would like to join us in our offices in Paris and participate in our open-source and R&D activities, don’t hesitate to contact us!

 

GPAC: build MP4Box only (all platforms)

Compiling, ,

Dear readers,

As many of you know, GPAC is a full framework providing authoring tools, packagers, streamers, a player and now some js stuff. This can make GPAC cumbersome to build.

However many of you are mainly interested in MP4Box which is easy to build. Whether you are on Linux, Windows or MacOS, here is the definite guide to build MP4Box easily 🙂

Edit 2015/11/03: added MSVC MP4Box minimal build.

Build MP4Box with Visual Studio

We published a minimal solution to build MP4Box.exe only, with zero dependency. No DLL to distribute.

You need Visual Studio 2010 or more recent (a pop-up will ask you to upgrade your projects, just accept). Open build/msvc10/gpac_mp4box_mini.sln and build (Debug or Release).

That’s all!

Build MP4Box with Make

On your system, you need the following tools installed on your system:

  • git
  • gcc
  • make
  • libpthread-dev (should be available on any development system)

In your favorite terminal, type:

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git clone https://github.com/gpac/gpac.git
cd gpac
./configure --static-mp4box --use-zlib=no
make -j4

To execute MP4Box, assuming you are still in the same directory (i.e. the root of the GPAC repository), you will find the MP4Box executable at:

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bin/gcc/MP4Box

To install MP4Box on your system:

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sudo make install

Check installation

now when you type

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$ which MP4Box

you should see

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/usr/local/bin/MP4Box

which is the default install folder for the version we have just built. You can tweak this with the ‘-prefix=’ configure option.

If you see /usr/bin/MP4Box (no “local/” in here), uninstall GPAC from your local packager. On MacOS, go to Finder and unmount the app on the left panel, or uninstall it from your package manager (‘port’ or ‘homebrew’ or ‘fink’).

Update to a newer revision

Of course you want to keep updated with the latest build without having to download the full repository again or re-execute the configuration when not necessary (it may be necessary sometimes, see below “Clean your build” if things go unexpectedly):

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cd gpac
git pull
make -j4
sudo make install

That’s all!

Clean your build

If things go wrong and you suspect there is an issue in your configuration, the fastest way to restart a clean build is:

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cd gpac
make distclean
./configure --static-mp4box --use-zlib=no
make -j4

Cross-compilation

Cross-compiling GPAC is quite standard, and requires only a modification at the ‘configure’ step. Use ‘–extra-cflags=’ and ‘–extra-ldflags=’ to add your environmment flags:

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cd gpac
./configure --target-os=$OS --cross-prefix="$crossPrefix" --extra-cflags="-I$PREFIX/$host/include" --extra-ldflags="-L$PREFIX/$host/lib" --prefix=$PREFIX/$host --static-mp4box --use-zlib=no
make -j4

For example, to use the ‘x86_64-w64-mingw32’ toolchain to cross-build from Linux to Windows:

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cd gpac
./configure --target-os=mingw32 --cross-prefix=x86_64-w64-mingw32- --prefix=build/x86_64-w64-mingw32 --static-mp4box --use-zlib=no --extra-cflags="-Ibuild/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include" --extra-ldflags="-Lbuild/x86_64-w64-mingw32/lib"
make -j4

You can find more examples in our TravisCI script.

Next Step

We have started a multimedia component-level build system called Zenbuild. Zenbuild builds FFmpeg/libav, VLC or GPAC with most of their features enabled (librtmp, jack, openHEVC, etc.). You can start using Zenbuild, it is fully operational!

Using GDB in Visual Studio

Compiling

Dear followers,

One of the target platform for GPAC is Windows. Developing for Windows in a comfortable manner requires Visual Studio, in particular for debugging. Microsoft recently announced great changes that will make Visual Studio users (including the GPAC developers) happy:

Edit: update from Microsoft on 2015/11/18.

Setup for local debugging

Install software:

  • Install Visual Studio 2015. Install the “Tools for Visual C++ Mobile Development” in a sub-menu (disabled by default).
  • Install gdb/gdbserver. Use MinGW-w64 binaries and put them in your PATH (you can rely on the excellent MSYS2 for a full development environment).
    /!\ Legacy MinGW and Cygwin gdb binaries are known to fail /!\

Build:

  • Use your usual build system and gcc or clang compiler. Don’t forget to enable debugging!

Debugging:

  • In your command-line, launch:
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    gdbserver host:port path/to/executable
  • In Visual Studio:
    • Open the “command window” (either press CTRL+ALT+A or click: View menu -> Other Windows -> Command Window)
    • Launch:
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      Debug.GDBLaunch /Executable:path\to\executable /GDBPath:path\to\gdb.exe /GDBServerAddress:host:port /TargetArchitecture:x64

That’s all! Once Debug.GDBLaunch is attached your program will run. Breakpoints are effective. And you can enjoy the Visual Studio debugging experience:

20150610_msvs_gdb

Setup for remote debugging

This is an extension of the gdbserver we used above.  It allows to debug mobile (android/iOS) or any platform (linux, …) executables from a remote

For specific remote parameters, see: