install_on_win: Install FFmpeg on Windows

In tidymedia: Media File Preprocessing and Metadata for the 'tidyverse'

Install FFmpeg on Windows

Description

install_on_win() downloads a Windows build of FFmpeg and unpacks it. Then it saves the locations of ffmpeg, ffprobe and ffplay, as set_program() does. After that, the package can find these programs.

By default, the call downloads the latest "essentials" build from gyan.dev. It unpacks the build into the ffmpeg folder under tools::R_user_dir("tidymedia", "data").

By default, the call asks you to confirm before it does anything. The question names each file it will download and the folder it will unpack into. It also names the saved program locations that the install can replace. If you say no, the call returns FALSE and changes nothing.

This function works on Windows only. On any other system, it gives an error before it asks, writes or downloads anything. The error names the system it found. On macOS, you can install FFmpeg with ⁠brew install ffmpeg⁠. On Linux, you can use ⁠sudo apt-get install ffmpeg⁠. On any system, set_program() tells the package where an installed FFmpeg is.

Usage

install_on_win(
  download_url = NULL,
  install_dir = NULL,
  confirm = TRUE,
  archive_checksum = NULL
)

Arguments

download_url	A string with the address of the FFmpeg archive. If NULL, the call uses the latest "essentials" build from gyan.dev, a ⁠.7z⁠ archive.
install_dir	A string with the folder to install FFmpeg into. If NULL, the call uses the ffmpeg folder under tools::R_user_dir("tidymedia", "data"). CRAN allows packages to keep user data in that place.
confirm	TRUE or FALSE. Whether to ask before the call downloads or installs anything. Defaults to TRUE. In a session where no one can answer, TRUE gives an error that names the same items as the question. Pass confirm = FALSE to install without the question.
archive_checksum	A string with the expected SHA-256 checksum of the archive, as 64 hexadecimal characters in upper or lower case. Defaults to NULL. If you give a checksum, the call uses it for any source and downloads no checksum. If it is NULL and download_url is not the default source, the call checks nothing and says so.

Details

Before the call unpacks the archive, it checks the archive against a SHA-256 checksum. A checksum is a fingerprint of the file's contents. For the default source, the call downloads the checksum that gyan.dev publishes next to each build. That file has the archive's address with .sha256 added. For any other source, give the checksum in archive_checksum.

The published checksum comes from the same site as the archive, over the same connection. So the check finds a damaged or incomplete download. It does not find a source that someone has tampered with.

After the unpack, the call checks each program before it saves any location. The path must be one that R finds as a program. It must be a file, not a folder, and the file must not be empty. The call does not run the program. So a build for the wrong type of processor can pass this check.

The package needs ffmpeg and ffprobe. If either one fails the check, the call saves no location and gives an error. The error names each failed program and its full path. If ffplay is missing or fails the check, the install finishes. A message says that the call did not save ffplay.

Value

TRUE when the install finished. FALSE when you said no to the question, or when the call could not create the install folder. Other failures give an error. The section "Errors" lists the error classes the call gives. A wrong argument gives an error before any of these.

What a failed install leaves behind

When the call gives an error, it tries to leave the install folder as it found it. It removes the files that a failed unpack wrote. It removes a folder that the call created. It does not touch the files that were already in the folder, with one exception.

The exception is a file of yours that the failed unpack wrote over. The call removes that file too, because the file no longer holds what you put there.

On Windows, the removal can fail. After a failed unpack, the unpack library can still hold a file open. Windows does not delete a file that is open.

The error names by full path the entries of the first case below that applies:

• each unpacked file that the call could not remove

• each folder that the call created and could not remove

• each file of yours that the call removed

Two errors come after a successful unpack: tidymedia_program_not_extracted and tidymedia_program_unusable. These errors leave the unpacked files in the folder, and they say so.

The call learns which files the unpack made from the archive's own list and from the folder. A program that the list names but that is not in the folder counts as not unpacked. For example, antivirus software can remove a program right after the unpack. The error then says that the unpack reported writing that file.

If none of the unpacked files are in the folder, tidymedia_program_not_extracted follows the usual rule. The call removes a folder that it created, and the error says so.

Errors

The call gives an error of its own class in these cases:

• tidymedia_wrong_platform: the session is not running on Windows.

• tidymedia_confirmation_unavailable: the call must ask you to confirm, but no one can answer in this session.

• tidymedia_download_unavailable: the archive did not download, or nothing readable arrived.

• tidymedia_checksum_unavailable: the call could not download or read the published checksum.

• tidymedia_checksum_mismatch: the downloaded archive does not match its checksum.

• tidymedia_archive_unreadable: the call could not unpack the archive.

• tidymedia_program_not_extracted: ffmpeg or ffprobe is not at the path where the install would put it.

• tidymedia_program_unusable: the archive made ffmpeg or ffprobe, but the file cannot be used.

See Also

set_program() to save the location of a program you already have, and find_ffmpeg() to check where the package finds a program.

Other program management functions: find_ffmpeg(), program_status(), set_program(), unset_program()

Examples

## Not run: 
# Download and install a static FFmpeg build (Windows)
install_on_win()

## End(Not run)

tidymedia documentation built on Oct. 11, 2026, 5:08 p.m.