Integrating FFmpeg into Your CMake Project

This guide explains how to link a prebuilt FFmpeg distribution (shared, MSVC) into your own CMake project using FindFFmpeg.cmake.

Prerequisites

Download a shared prebuilt FFmpeg archive (binary or develop) from the releases page or GitHub Pages.

Extract the .zip — the resulting directory contains bin/, lib/, include/, and share/ffmpeg/. This path is your FFMPEG_ROOT.

Note: The static variant does not include headers or libraries and cannot be used for development. Use a shared variant instead.

How It Works

User passes FFMPEG_ROOT
         │
         ▼
CMakeLists.txt appends to CMAKE_MODULE_PATH
  → list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${FFMPEG_ROOT}/share/ffmpeg")
         │
         ▼
find_package(FFmpeg MODULE) loads FindFFmpeg.cmake
  → scans FFMPEG_ROOT/include and FFMPEG_ROOT/lib
  → caches results (re-configure skips scan)
  → detects DLLs on Windows shared builds
  → creates imported targets with proper locations
         │
         ▼
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE FFmpeg::FFmpeg)
  → CMake wires up include dirs, import libs, DLL paths,
    and per-config (Debug/Release) switching

Quick Start Snippets

Copy one of the following into your own CMakeLists.txt and pass -DFFMPEG_ROOT=<absolute_path> at configure time.

Minimal version

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.21)
project(myapp C)

# ---- Required: point to the extracted FFmpeg archive ----
if(NOT DEFINED FFMPEG_ROOT)
    message(FATAL_ERROR "\n  Pass -DFFMPEG_ROOT=<absolute_path> to cmake\n")
endif()
list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${FFMPEG_ROOT}/share/ffmpeg")

find_package(FFmpeg 5.0 MODULE REQUIRED)

add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE FFmpeg::FFmpeg)

With DLL deployment (Windows shared builds)

Adds automatic DLL copying at build time and install time.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.21)
project(myapp C)

if(NOT DEFINED FFMPEG_ROOT)
    message(FATAL_ERROR "\n  Pass -DFFMPEG_ROOT=<absolute_path> to cmake\n")
endif()
list(APPEND CMAKE_MODULE_PATH "${FFMPEG_ROOT}/share/ffmpeg")

find_package(FFmpeg 5.0 MODULE REQUIRED)

add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE FFmpeg::FFmpeg)

# Copy DLLs to the build output directory
add_custom_command(TARGET myapp POST_BUILD
    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E copy_if_different
        "$<TARGET_RUNTIME_DLLS:myapp>" "$<TARGET_FILE_DIR:myapp>"
    COMMAND_EXPAND_LISTS
)

# Install executable + DLLs
install(TARGETS myapp RUNTIME DESTINATION bin)
install(FILES $<TARGET_RUNTIME_DLLS:myapp> DESTINATION bin)

Legacy variable approach

If you cannot use CMake targets.

find_package(FFmpeg 5.0 MODULE REQUIRED)

add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_include_directories(myapp PRIVATE ${FFMPEG_INCLUDE_DIRS})
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE ${FFMPEG_LIBRARIES})

Linking individual modules (without umbrella)

find_package(FFmpeg 5.0 MODULE REQUIRED)

add_executable(myapp main.c)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE
    FFmpeg::avformat
    FFmpeg::avcodec
    FFmpeg::avutil
)

Available Targets

Each FFmpeg module is exposed as a CMake imported target:

Target	Description
FFmpeg::FFmpeg	Umbrella target — links all modules and sets include dirs
FFMPEG::ffmpeg	Alias for FFmpeg::FFmpeg (legacy)
FFmpeg::avutil	libavutil — common utilities
FFmpeg::avcodec	libavcodec — audio/video codecs
FFmpeg::avformat	libavformat — muxers/demuxers
FFmpeg::avfilter	libavfilter — filter graphs
FFmpeg::avdevice	libavdevice — device I/O
FFmpeg::swresample	libswresample — audio resampling
FFmpeg::swscale	libswscale — image scaling / color conversion

Each module target is also available under the legacy FFMPEG:: namespace (e.g. FFMPEG::avcodec).

Available Variables

Global variables

Variable	Description
FFMPEG_FOUND	True if FFmpeg was found
FFMPEG_VERSION	FFmpeg version string
FFMPEG_INCLUDE_DIRS	Header file search paths
FFMPEG_LIBRARY_DIRS	Library search paths
FFMPEG_LIBRARIES	Full list of library paths
FFMPEG_LIBRARY	Same as FFMPEG_LIBRARIES

Per-module variables

For each module <name> in {avutil, avcodec, avformat, avfilter, avdevice, swresample, swscale}:

Variable	Description
FFMPEG_lib<name>_FOUND	Whether this module was found
FFMPEG_lib<name>_INCLUDE_DIRS	Module-specific include dirs
FFMPEG_lib<name>_LIBRARY	Module library path (Debug/Release aware)
FFMPEG_lib<name>_LIBRARY_RELEASE	Release library path
FFMPEG_lib<name>_LIBRARY_DEBUG	Debug library path
FFMPEG_lib<name>_VERSION	Module version (e.g. 61.19.100)
FFMPEG_lib<name>_DLL_RELEASE	Release DLL path (Windows shared only)
FFMPEG_lib<name>_DLL_DEBUG	Debug DLL path (Windows shared only)
FFMPEG_lib<name>_DEPS_LIBRARY	External dependency libraries for this module

Compatibility

The old FFMPEG::ffmpeg / FFMPEG::avformat names are kept as aliases. Both naming schemes work:

target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE FFmpeg::FFmpeg)   # new (recommended)
target_link_libraries(myapp PRIVATE FFMPEG::ffmpeg)    # old (compat)

Example: ffmeta

A complete runnable example is available under examples/ in the repository. It demonstrates all three linking methods and includes a CMakePresets.json for quick configuration.

See examples/README.md for build instructions.