Configuration

Config files use JSONC format (JSON with // comments, /* */ block comments, and trailing commas).

Config File Search Paths

Config is loaded from the first file found (in order):

1. FFMPEG_OVER_IP_SERVER_CONFIG / FFMPEG_OVER_IP_CLIENT_CONFIG env var
2. Next to the binary: <exe-dir>/ffmpeg-over-ip.{server,client}.jsonc
3. ./ffmpeg-over-ip.{server,client}.jsonc
4. ./.ffmpeg-over-ip.{server,client}.jsonc
5. ~/.ffmpeg-over-ip.{server,client}.jsonc
6. ~/.config/ffmpeg-over-ip.{server,client}.jsonc
7. /etc/ffmpeg-over-ip.{server,client}.jsonc
8. /usr/local/etc/ffmpeg-over-ip.{server,client}.jsonc

The server also accepts --config <path>.

On Windows, ~ is your user directory (e.g., C:\Users\<you>). Paths 7 and 8 don't apply — use the binary directory, current directory, or an environment variable instead.

To see which paths are searched on your system, run:

ffmpeg-over-ip-server --debug-print-search-paths
ffmpeg-over-ip-client --debug-print-search-paths

Server Config

{
  "address": "0.0.0.0:5050",
  "authSecret": "your-secret-here",
  // Optional: see "Log" section below (default: no logging)
  "log": "stdout",
  // Optional: log original and rewritten args for each command (default: false)
  "debug": true,
  // Optional: see "Rewrites" section below
  "rewrites": [
    ["h264_nvenc", "h264_qsv"],
  ],
}

The server looks for ffmpeg and ffprobe in the same directory as its own binary. Ship all three together.

Client Config

{
  "address": "192.168.1.100:5050",
  "authSecret": "your-secret-here",
  // Optional: see "Log" section below
  "log": "/tmp/ffmpeg-over-ip.log",
}

ffprobe

The client detects ffprobe mode from its binary name. Create a symlink (or copy) whose name contains "ffprobe":

# Linux / macOS
ln -s ffmpeg-over-ip-client ffprobe

# Windows
mklink ffprobe.exe ffmpeg-over-ip-client.exe

Any name containing "ffprobe" works — ffprobe, my-ffprobe, ffprobe-remote, etc.

Rewrites

Rewrites let the server substitute strings in ffmpeg arguments before running the command. This is useful when the client requests a codec the server doesn't have — for example, the client asks for h264_nvenc but the server has Intel QSV instead of NVIDIA.

{
  "rewrites": [
    ["h264_nvenc", "h264_qsv"],
    ["hevc_nvenc", "hevc_qsv"],
  ],
}

Each pair ["from", "to"] does a plain string replacement across all ffmpeg arguments. In the example above, any argument containing h264_nvenc is rewritten to h264_qsv.

Enable "debug": true to log original and rewritten arguments for each command.

Log

The log field controls where log output goes. Supported values:

Value	Behavior
"stdout"	Log to standard output
"stderr"	Log to standard error
false or omitted	Disable logging (default)
"/path/to/file.log"	Log to a file (created if missing, appended if exists)

Note: false must be the JSON boolean (no quotes). The string "false" would be treated as a file path.

File paths support $TMPDIR, $HOME, $USER, and $PWD interpolation (both $VAR and ${VAR} syntax):

// expands to e.g. /tmp/ffmpeg-over-ip.log
"log": "$TMPDIR/ffmpeg-over-ip.log"

// use braces to disambiguate from e.g. $HOMEDIR
"log": "${HOME}/logs/ffmpeg-over-ip.log"

If the parent directory doesn't exist or the file can't be opened, a warning is printed to stderr and logging falls back to stderr.

Address

The address field supports TCP and Unix domain sockets:

Format	Example	Description
host:port	"0.0.0.0:5050"	TCP (default)
hostname:port	"server.local:5050"	TCP with hostname
unix:/path	"unix:/tmp/ffmpeg.sock"	Unix domain socket

Unix domain sockets work on Linux, macOS, and Windows 10+. The server automatically cleans up the socket file on shutdown.