(you can seek to positions in the past on each live feed, provided you
specify a big enough feed storage in ffserver.conf).
+FFserver runs in daemon mode by default; that is, it puts itself in
+the background and detaches from its TTY, unless it is launched in
+debug mode or a NoDaemon option is specified in the configuration
+file.
+
This documentation covers only the streaming aspects of ffserver /
ffmpeg. All questions about parameters for ffmpeg, codec questions,
etc. are not covered here. Read @file{ffmpeg-doc.html} for more
information.
-@c man end
-@chapter QuickStart
+@section How does it work?
+
+FFserver receives prerecorded files or FFM streams from some ffmpeg
+instance as input, then streams them over RTP/RTSP/HTTP.
+
+An ffserver instance will listen on some port as specified in the
+configuration file. You can launch one or more instances of ffmpeg and
+send one or more FFM streams to the port where ffserver is expecting
+to receive them. Alternately, you can make ffserver launch such ffmpeg
+instances at startup.
+
+Input streams are called feeds, and each one is specified by a <Feed>
+section in the configuration file.
-[Contributed by Philip Gladstone, philip-ffserver at gladstonefamily dot net]
+For each feed you can have different output streams in various
+formats, each one specified by a <Stream> section in the configuration
+file.
+
+@section Status stream
+
+FFserver supports an HTTP interface which exposes the current status
+of the server.
+
+Simply point your browser to the address of the special status stream
+specified in the configuration file.
+
+For example if you have:
+@example
+<Stream status.html>
+Format status
+
+# Only allow local people to get the status
+ACL allow localhost
+ACL allow 192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255
+</Stream>
+@end example
+
+then the server will post a page with the status information when
+the special stream @file{status.html} is requested.
@section What can this do?
@section What do I need?
-I use Linux on a 900MHz Duron with a cheapo Bt848 based TV capture card. I'm
+I use Linux on a 900 MHz Duron with a cheapo Bt848 based TV capture card. I'm
using stock Linux 2.4.17 with the stock drivers. [Actually that isn't true,
I needed some special drivers for my motherboard-based sound card.]
LAME is important as it allows for streaming audio to Windows Media Player.
Don't ask why the other audio types do not work.
-As a simple test, just run the following two command lines (assuming that you
-have a V4L video capture card):
+As a simple test, just run the following two command lines where INPUTFILE
+is some file which you can decode with ffmpeg:
@example
./ffserver -f doc/ffserver.conf &
-./ffmpeg http://localhost:8090/feed1.ffm
+./ffmpeg -i INPUTFILE http://localhost:8090/feed1.ffm
@end example
At this point you should be able to go to your Windows machine and fire up
You use this by adding the ?date= to the end of the URL for the stream.
For example: @samp{http://localhost:8080/test.asf?date=2002-07-26T23:05:00}.
+@c man end
@chapter Invocation
@section Syntax
@section Options
@c man begin OPTIONS
+
+@include fftools-common-opts.texi
+
+@section Main options
+
@table @option
-@item -version
-Show version.
-@item -L
-Show license.
-@item -formats
-Show available formats, codecs, protocols, ...
-@item -h
-Show help.
@item -f @var{configfile}
Use @file{configfile} instead of @file{/etc/ffserver.conf}.
+@item -n
+Enable no-launch mode. This option disables all the Launch directives
+within the various <Stream> sections. FFserver will not launch any
+ffmpeg instance, so you will have to launch them manually.
+@item -d
+Enable debug mode. This option increases log verbosity, directs log
+messages to stdout and causes ffserver to run in the foreground
+rather than as a daemon.
@end table
@c man end
@ignore
-@setfilename ffsserver
+@setfilename ffserver
@settitle FFserver video server
@c man begin SEEALSO
projects / ffmpeg / blobdiff