[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] ipfsgateway: Remove default gateway

[Tomas Härdin]

tor 2022-08-11 klockan 19:35 +0200 skrev Timo Rothenpieler:
> On 11.08.2022 19:21, Mark Gaiser wrote:
> > 
> > Here's the conversation requesting this very feature:
> > https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2022-March/293835.html
> 
> I generally agree with the points brought up there.
> But my conclusion very much is not "just put a somewhat random
> default 
> into the code".
> Even a list of defaults is not Okay.
> We can't hardcode "magic servers".
> 
> If it's not possible to make the protocol work without them, it
> likely 
> shouldn't have been merged in the first place.
> Why can't it access the files directly, but only via some magic http 
> gateway?
> Why does it need special code in ffmpeg in the first place, if you
> can 
> just access it via that http proxy-gateway anyway?

I raised this very point several times when IPFS support was first
suggested, and raised that ipfsgateway.c amounts to business logic that
does not belong in lavf. I see now hat others in this thread, like
Derek, agree with me on this, which is nice. IIRC I even suggested that
users should solve this in bash, a suggestion that was shouted down as
being "insecure".

I also suggested we should actually implement ipfs or link to a library
that implements it rather than shoving more string mangling crap into
lavf. A default gateway didn't exist when I last looked at the
patchset. Seems I wasn't vigilant enough.

The correct place to solve this is at the OS level. There should be a
fully fledged protocol handler in the OS that lavf can rely on, and
neither lavf nor any other library should ever try to implement
protocols themselvess. But that's more plan9-ish, so it will likely not
happen in the Linux world any time soon.

/Tomas