[FFmpeg-devel] On in-tree external headers

[Mark Thompson]

On 31/10/17 16:34, Timo Rothenpieler wrote:
> Removing the nvenc/cuvid headers from the tree would imply the following procedure for anyone wanting to build ffmpeg with nvenc/cuvid:
> 
> Register with nvidia to get access to their Video SDK Downloads.
> Extract the headers from their massive SDK.
> Patch them so that ffmpeg can make use of them. The vanilla headers are not useful for ffmpeg, as they are not in a format that can be easily included. All the headers in the tree are slightly modified to avoid some type-collision, extend compatibility(for example with Cygwin) and for the dynamic loading we do.
> 
> Putting that state of headers into an external repository that someone maintains seems like a giant and confusing mess for every user and distributor. And I don't see any benefit in doing that.
> 
> The headers are MIT licensed, so there is no license issue to be found here. They don't cause any issues on any platform where they are used by default.
> 
> I also do not see any problem with including the new single-header AMD encoder, it makes everyone's life easier and avoid confusing proxy libraries.
> 
> We're not bundling entire 3rd party libs in-tree here, just API headers for system/driver APIs.

What exactly would the policy be, then?

"External headers for a system/driver API may be included in tree if it makes building with support for this feature easier for users" would cover pretty much everything.

I'm definitely against a free-for-all where libmfx, V4L2, etc. all get included.

- Mark