media

go-media

This module provides Go bindings and utilities for FFmpeg, including:

• Low-level CGO bindings for FFmpeg 8.0 (in sys/ffmpeg80)
• High-level Go API for media operations (in pkg/ffmpeg)
• Task manager for common media operations (in pkg/ffmpeg/task)
• Audio fingerprinting with Chromaprint/AcoustID (in pkg/chromaprint)
• Command-line tool gomedia for media inspection and manipulation
• HTTP server for media services

Current Status

This module is in development (meaning the API might change). FFmpeg 8.0 bindings are complete with support for:

• Codecs, formats, filters, pixel formats, sample formats
• Audio channel layouts
• Demuxing, muxing, remuxing
• Audio and video decoding/encoding (transcoding is TBC)
• Filtering and resampling
• Metadata extraction
• Hardware acceleration support

Requirements

Building FFmpeg

The module includes scripts to build FFmpeg with common codecs. Install dependencies first:

macOS (Homebrew):

# Basic dependencies (required)
brew install pkg-config cmake freetype lame opus libvorbis libvpx x264 x265

# Optional: Install homebrew-ffmpeg tap for more codecs
brew tap homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg
brew install homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg/ffmpeg \
  --with-fdk-aac --with-libbluray --with-libsoxr --with-libvidstab \
  --with-libvmaf --with-openh264 --with-openjpeg --with-rav1e \
  --with-srt --with-svt-av1 --with-webp --with-xvid --with-zimg

Debian/Ubuntu:

apt install pkg-config cmake libfreetype-dev libmp3lame-dev libopus-dev \
  libvorbis-dev libvpx-dev libx264-dev libx265-dev libnuma-dev libzvbi-dev

Fedora:

dnf install pkg-config cmake freetype-devel lame-devel opus-devel \
  libvorbis-devel libvpx-devel x264-devel x265-devel numactl-devel zvbi-devel

Vulkan Hardware Support (Linux):

For Vulkan-based hardware acceleration on Linux, install:

# Debian/Ubuntu
apt install libvulkan-dev

# Fedora
dnf install vulkan-loader-devel

Then build FFmpeg:

git clone https://github.com/mutablelogic/go-media
cd go-media
make ffmpeg chromaprint

This creates static libraries in build/install with the necessary pkg-config files.

Building the Go Module

The module uses CGO and requires the FFmpeg libraries. The Makefile handles the necessary environment variables:

make              # Build the gomedia command-line tool
make test         # Run all tests
make test-sys     # Run system/FFmpeg binding tests only

To build manually:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="${PWD}/build/install/lib/pkgconfig"
export CGO_LDFLAGS_ALLOW="-(W|D).*"
export CGO_LDFLAGS="-lstdc++ -Wl,-no_warn_duplicate_libraries"
go build -o build/gomedia ./cmd/gomedia

Usage

Command-Line Tool

The gomedia tool provides various media operations:

# List available codecs
gomedia list-codecs

# List available filters  
gomedia list-filters

# List supported formats
gomedia list-formats

# List pixel/sample formats
gomedia list-pixel-formats
gomedia list-sample-formats

# Probe a media file
gomedia probe <file>

# Remux a file (change container without re-encoding)
gomedia remux --input <input> --output <output>

# Audio fingerprinting and lookup (requires AcoustID API key)
export CHROMAPRINT_KEY=<your-key>
gomedia audio-lookup <file>

# Run HTTP server
gomedia server run

Go API - Task Manager

The task manager provides a high-level API for media operations:

package main

import (
 "context"
 "fmt"
 
 task "github.com/mutablelogic/go-media/pkg/ffmpeg/task"
 schema "github.com/mutablelogic/go-media/pkg/ffmpeg/schema"
)

func main() {
 // Create a task manager
 manager, err := task.NewManager()
 if err != nil {
  panic(err)
 }

 // List all video codecs
 codecs, err := manager.ListCodecs(context.Background(), &schema.ListCodecRequest{
  Type: "video",
 })
 if err != nil {
  panic(err)
 }
 
 for _, codec := range codecs {
  fmt.Printf("%s: %s\n", codec.Name, codec.LongName)
 }

 // Probe a media file
 info, err := manager.Probe(context.Background(), &schema.ProbeRequest{
  Input: "video.mp4",
 })
 if err != nil {
  panic(err)
 }
 
 fmt.Printf("Format: %s\n", info.Format)
 fmt.Printf("Duration: %v\n", info.Duration)
 for _, stream := range info.Streams {
  fmt.Printf("Stream %d: %s\n", stream.Index, stream.Type)
 }
}

Available Task Manager Methods

The task manager (pkg/ffmpeg/task.Manager) provides these methods:

Query Operations:

• ListCodecs(ctx, *ListCodecRequest) (ListCodecResponse, error) - List available codecs
• ListFilters(ctx, *ListFilterRequest) (ListFilterResponse, error) - List available filters
• ListFormats(ctx, *ListFormatRequest) (ListFormatResponse, error) - List formats and devices
• ListPixelFormats(ctx, *ListPixelFormatRequest) (ListPixelFormatResponse, error) - List pixel formats
• ListSampleFormats(ctx, *ListSampleFormatRequest) (ListSampleFormatResponse, error) - List sample formats
• ListAudioChannelLayouts(ctx, *ListAudioChannelLayoutRequest) (ListAudioChannelLayoutResponse, error) - List audio layouts

Media Operations:

• Probe(ctx, *ProbeRequest) (*ProbeResponse, error) - Inspect media files
• Remux(ctx, *RemuxRequest) error - Remux media without re-encoding
• AudioFingerprint(ctx, *AudioFingerprintRequest) (*AudioFingerprintResponse, error) - Generate fingerprints and lookup

Low-Level FFmpeg Bindings

For direct FFmpeg access, use the sys/ffmpeg80 package:

import (
 ff "github.com/mutablelogic/go-media/sys/ffmpeg80"
)

// Low-level FFmpeg operations
filter := ff.AVFilter_get_by_name("scale")
graph := ff.AVFilterGraph_alloc()
// ... etc

HTTP Server

The module includes an HTTP server exposing the task manager via REST API:

# Start server
gomedia server run --url http://localhost:8080/api

# Query endpoints
curl http://localhost:8080/api/codec
curl http://localhost:8080/api/filter?name=scale
curl http://localhost:8080/api/format?type=muxer

Audio Fingerprinting

import (
 chromaprint "github.com/mutablelogic/go-media/pkg/chromaprint"
)

// Requires CHROMAPRINT_KEY environment variable or explicit API key
client, err := chromaprint.NewClient(apiKey)
if err != nil {
 panic(err)
}

// Generate fingerprint and lookup
result, err := client.Lookup(context.Background(), "audio.mp3")
if err != nil {
 panic(err)
}

fmt.Printf("Title: %s\n", result.Title)
fmt.Printf("Artist: %s\n", result.Artist)

Docker

Build a Docker image with all dependencies:

DOCKER_REGISTRY=docker.io/user make docker

For GPU-accelerated encoding/decoding with Vulkan, see Docker GPU Setup for instructions on passing through GPU devices from the host.

Project Structure

sys/ffmpeg80/          # Low-level CGO FFmpeg bindings
pkg/ffmpeg/            # High-level Go API
  task/                # Task manager for common operations
  schema/              # Request/response schemas
  httphandler/         # HTTP handlers
pkg/chromaprint/       # Audio fingerprinting
cmd/gomedia/           # Command-line tool

License & Distribution

This software is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.

go-media
https://github.com/mutablelogic/go-media/
Copyright (c) 2021-2026 David Thorpe, All rights reserved.

Under the Apache License 2.0, you are free to use, modify, and distribute this software for any purpose, including commercial applications. You may statically or dynamically link to this library without affecting your own code's license. Attribution requirement: When redistributing this software or derivative works (in source or binary form), you must include the copyright notice above and a copy of the LICENSE file. If you modify the code, you must state your changes. See the Apache License 2.0 for complete terms.

Important: When distributing binaries that include this software, you must also comply with the licenses of the linked libraries (FFmpeg LGPL and Chromaprint MIT) as described below.

FFmpeg LGPL Notice

This software statically links to FFmpeg libraries, which are licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) v2.1.

LGPL Compliance: Under the LGPL, you may:

• Use this software for commercial or non-commercial purposes
• Distribute this software in its compiled form
• Modify the go-media source code under Apache 2.0

Requirements when distributing binaries:

1. Include this notice and the FFmpeg LGPL license
2. Provide access to the FFmpeg source code used (available at build/ffmpeg-8.0.1/ after building)
3. Allow users to relink the application with modified FFmpeg libraries

The FFmpeg source code is automatically downloaded during the build process. See Makefile for details.

Contributing

Please file feature requests and bugs at github.com/mutablelogic/go-media/issues. Pull Requests are welcome, after discussion of the proposed changes.

References

• FFmpeg 8.0 Documentation
• Go Package Documentation
• AcoustID API