Ansible Role: FFmpeg

Installs FFmpeg on Ubuntu/Debian systems. Supports both system packages (fast) and compilation from source (full control).

Based on the official FFmpeg compilation guide.

Requirements

• Ansible 2.10+
• Ubuntu 20.04+ or Debian 11+

Installation

ansible-galaxy install kovalevsky.ffmpeg

Or add to requirements.yml:

roles:
  - name: kovalevsky.ffmpeg
    src: https://github.com/kovalevsky/ansible-ffmpeg

Role Variables

Basic Configuration

# Action: install, uninstall, or update
ffmpeg_role_action: install

# Use system packages (fast) or compile from source
ffmpeg_compile_codecs: false

# Remove apt dependencies on uninstall
ffmpeg_remove_deps: false

Directory Configuration

ffmpeg_root_dir: "/home/{{ ansible_user }}"
ffmpeg_build_dir: "{{ ffmpeg_root_dir }}/ffmpeg_build"
ffmpeg_source_dir: "{{ ffmpeg_root_dir }}/ffmpeg_sources"
ffmpeg_bin_dir: "{{ ffmpeg_root_dir }}/bin"

Compilation Options

When ffmpeg_compile_codecs: true, FFmpeg is compiled with these libraries:

• x264 (H.264 encoder)
• x265 (HEVC encoder)
• fdk-aac (AAC encoder)
• opus (Opus codec)
• libvpx (VP8/VP9)

Example Playbook

Quick install (system packages)

- hosts: servers
  roles:
    - role: kovalevsky.ffmpeg

Compile from source

- hosts: servers
  roles:
    - role: kovalevsky.ffmpeg
      ffmpeg_compile_codecs: true

Uninstall

- hosts: servers
  roles:
    - role: kovalevsky.ffmpeg
      ffmpeg_role_action: uninstall
      ffmpeg_remove_deps: true

Testing

This role uses Molecule for testing:

# Install dependencies
pip install molecule molecule-docker ansible-lint

# Run tests
molecule test

Supported Platforms

• Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal)
• Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy)
• Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble)
• Debian 11 (Bullseye)
• Debian 12 (Bookworm)

License

BSD-3-Clause

Author

Sergey Kovalevsky / HttpLab