FFmpeg-update is a package manager for the FFmpeg suite, available as both a CLI tool and a Python library. It fetches pre-built, static binaries published by Martin Riedl.

Supported Platforms (Upstream): Linux amd64, Linux arm64v8, macOS Intel (Deprecated), Apple Silicon

Features

• Install [pre-built static binaries of] FFmpeg, FFprobe, and/or FFplay
• Fetch latest release or snapshot builds
• Configure custom installation location
• Update to latest version
• Check for updates
• Uninstall from system
• Smart permission handling
• Atomic file system operations
• Automatic operating system and machine architecture detection

Installation

pip install ffmpeg-update

The installation provides the ffup executable.

CLI Reference

Usage

ffup <install|update [--dry-run]|check|uninstall> [OPTIONS] [ffmpeg] [ffprobe] [ffplay]

Alternatively, can be invoked as a module with python -m ffmpeg_update <COMMAND>.

Hint: Multiple names can be passed, e.g. ffup install ffmpeg ffprobe

Note: Default is ffmpeg, if no name is passed

Parameters

• --dir: The path to the installation directory

  • Environment variable: $FFUP_DIR/$XDG_BIN_HOME
  • Default: ~/.local/bin
  • Functions: check, install, uninstall, update

• --build: The build type

  • Choices: release, snapshot
  • Environment Variable: $FFUP_BUILD
  • Default: snapshot
  • Functions: check, install, update

• --arch: The machine architecture

  • Choices: amd64, arm64
  • Environment Variable: $FFUP_ARCH
  • Default: Auto-detect using platform.machine()
  • Functions: check, install, update

• --os: The operating system

  • Choices: linux, macos
  • Environment Variable: $FFUP_OS
  • Default: Auto-detect using platform.system()
  • Functions: check, install, update

• --dry-run: A flag to skip download/install, and only check for updates

  • ffup check is an alias for ffup update --dry-run
  • Default: False
  • Functions: update

API Reference

Functions

• update(bins = {"ffmpeg"}, /, *, dry_run = False, dir, tempdir, progress, client) -> None
• install(bins = {"ffmpeg"}, /, *, dir, tempdir, progress, client) -> None
• uninstall(bins = {"ffmpeg"}, /, *, dir) -> None
• get_arch() -> Literal["amd64", "arm64"]
• get_os() -> Literal["linux", "macos"]

• bins: A set of binary names

  • Must contain one or more of "ffmpeg", "ffprobe", and "ffplay"

• dry_run: A bool indicating whether to skip download/install

• dir: A pathlib.Path to the installation directory

  • Must exist and be absolute

• tempdir: A tempfile.TemporaryDirectory[str] used to store and extract the downloaded archives

• progress: A rich.progress.Progress used to show progress bars in the terminal

• client: A niquests.Session used to make HTTP requests

  • Must set parameter base_url to f"https://ffmpeg.martin-riedl.de/redirect/latest/{os}/{arch}/{build}/"
  • build: "release", "snapshot"
  • arch: "amd64", "arm64"
  • os: "linux", "macos"

Error Handling

FileNotFoundError

• By design, all operations will fail if the path in question does not exist
• For new installations, ensure that the installation directory exists
• For other operations, ensure that the path points to the installed binary

HTTPError

• 404 Client Error: Not Found for url: ...
  • Caused by invalid values for one or more of build, arch, and os parameters

PermissionError

• Triggers automatic escalation via sudo
• The user is prompted for a password at stdin