x265 Installation Guide

This document describes how to install x265.

Environment Requirements

Hardware

OS

Software

Installing x265

After obtaining the x265 software package, perform the following steps to install it:

1. Create an installation directory, which can be customized.

   mkdir -p /home/x265/

2. Decompress the software package and copy it to the installation directory.

   unzip x265_install.zip
   cp -r x265_install /home/x265/

3. Change the prefix in the pkg-config configuration file to the x265 installation directory.

   sed -i 's|^prefix=.*|prefix=/home/x265/x265_install|' /home/x265/x265_install/lib/pkgconfig/x265.pc

Installing FFmpeg

To use x265 in video encoding, you need to install FFmpeg. After the installation process is complete, view the FFmpeg version to check whether the installation is successful. The installation directory, source code directory, and compilation directory provided in the following procedure are all examples. Replace them with actual ones.

1. Obtain the FFmpeg package and decompress it.

   cd /home
   wget https://ffmpeg.org/releases/ffmpeg-6.0.1.tar.gz
   tar -zxvf ffmpeg-6.0.1.tar.gz

2. Create the compilation and installation directories.

   mkdir -p /home/ffmpeg-6.0.1/build
   mkdir -p /home/ffmpeg-6.0.1/install

3. Set compilation parameters. The following table describes the related parameters.

   export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/home/x265/x265_install/lib/pkgconfig/
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/ffmpeg-6.0.1/install/lib/:/home/x265/x265_install/lib/:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}
   cd /home/ffmpeg-6.0.1/build
   /home/ffmpeg-6.0.1/configure --enable-libx265 --enable-gpl --enable-pthreads --disable-autodetect --enable-static --extra-cflags="-I/home/x265/x265_install/include" --extra-ldflags="-L/home/x265/x265_install/lib -lm -lstdc++" --prefix=/home/ffmpeg-6.0.1/install

   Parameter	Description
   export PKG_CONFIG_PATH	Sets the x265 installation location so that the x265 library files can be found in the subsequent compilation process.
   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH	Adds the FFmpeg and x265 library file directories to the dynamic link library (DLL) search path so that these library files can be found in the subsequent linking process.
   /home/ffmpeg/src/configure	Specifies the FFmpeg source code directory and runs the configure script in the directory to configure compilation options.
   --enable-libx265	Enables support for libx265, which will enable FFmpeg to encode and decode HEVC/H.265 videos.
   --enable-gpl	Enables the General Public License (GPL) to allow FFmpeg to use some libraries governed by the GPL license.
   --enable-pthreads	Enables thread support to enhance parallel performance on multi-core processors.
   --disable-autodetect	Disables automatic detection. You need to manually set the paths and options of the dependency libraries.
   --enable-static	Enables static linking. The dependency libraries are statically linked to the generated executable file during the compilation. If you require dynamic linking, set this parameter to --enable-shared.
   --extra-cflags="-I/home/x265/x265_install/include"	Adds the additional C compilation parameter to specify the header file path of the x265 library.
   --extra-ldflags="-L/home/x265/x265_install/lib -lm -lstdc++"	Adds the additional linker parameters to specify the link library path of the x265 library and link to the standard math library and C++ standard library.
   --prefix=/home/ffmpeg/install	Specifies the prefix of the installation directory. After the compilation is complete, the software is installed in the specified directory.

4. Compile and install the package.

   make -j 32
   make install

5. Go to the FFmpeg installation directory.

   cd /home/ffmpeg/install/bin

6. View the FFmpeg version.

   ./ffmpeg

   If the command output reads ffmpeg version 6.0.1 Copyright (c) 2000-2023 the FFmpeg developers, the installation is successful.