Earlier quoted context omitted.
For those out of the loop, can you please explain your comment?
Netflix uses FFMPEG, will have to update
Have to? They don't have a kill switch in there, probably.
FFmpeg 8.0
191–200 of 207 posts
Re: FFmpeg 8.0
#192Is anyone else on the opinion that ffmpeg now ranks 4th as the most used lib after ssl, zlib, and sqlite... given video is like omnipresent in 2025?
*sad curl noises
Re: FFmpeg 8.0
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently this is now automatically determined by the file name, but I still habitually add the flag. 30 years of muscle memory is hard to break!
I tried it to check before making the comment. In Ubuntu 25.04 it does not automatically enable compression based on the filename. The automatic detection when extracting is based on file contents, not name.
If you add a for auto, it will choose the right compression based on the file name.
tar -caf foo.tar.xz foo
Will be an xz compressed tarball.
Re: FFmpeg 8.0
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
nope, that would be handling tar balls ffmpeg right after
I have so much of tar memorized. cpio is super funky to me, though.
cpio is not that hard.
A common use case is:
$ cpio -pdumv args
$ man cpio
Copy
Cpio supports a third type of operation which copies files. It is initiated with the pass-through option flag (p). This mode combines the copy-out and copy-in steps without actually creating any file archive. In this mode, cpio reads path names on standard input like the copy-out operation, but instead of creating an archive, it recreates the directories and files at a different location in the file system, as specified by the path given as a command line argument.
This example copies the directory tree starting at the current directory to another path new-path in the file system, preserving files modification times (flag m), creating directories as needed (d), replacing any existing files unconditionally (u), while producing a progress listing on standard output (v):
$ find . -depth -print | cpio -p -dumv new-path
Re: FFmpeg 8.0
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
> incantation FFmpeg arguments, the original prompt engineering
I'd also include Regex in the list of dark arts incantations.
Regex is only difficult because it's complicated, the primitives are all sensibly arranged and predictable. FFmpeg is layers of dark magic where the primitives are often inscrutable before you compose them.
Re: FFmpeg 8.0
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
with gemini-cli and claude-cli you can now prompt while it prompts ffmpeg, and it does work.
Yeah, you can give an LLM queries like “make this smaller with libx265 and add the hvc1 tag” or “concatenate these two videos” and it usually crushes it. They have a similar level of mastery over imagemagick, too!
It's funny because GPU stuff like what this article is about is where the LLMs totally fall apart. I can make any LLM produce volumes hallucinations at the drop of a hat by asking it how to construct ffmpeg commands that use hardware acceleration.
Re: FFmpeg 8.0
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have so much of tar memorized. cpio is super funky to me, though.
cpio is not that hard. A common use case is: $ cpio -pdumv args See: $ man cpio and here is an example from its Wikipedia page, under the "Operation and archive format" section, under the Copy subsection: Copy Cpio supports a third type of operation which copies files. It is initiated with the pass-through option flag (p). This mode combines the copy-out and copy-in steps without actually creating any file archive. I…
I think that it's the fact that it requires a pipe to work and that you add files by feeding stdin that throw me for a loop.
I also use it very infrequently compared to tar -- mostly in conjunction with swupdate. I've also run into file size limits, but that's not really a function of the command line interface to the tool.