HandBrake post-0.7.1

[Jona Joachim]

Hi!
The version of HandBrake in the ports is 0.7.1. This version doesn't
build anymore because it is incompatible with the recent versions of
ffmpeg and mpeg4ip.
I tried porting handbrake 0.9.1 but I encountered several difficulties:
Handbrake doesn't rely on libraries installed on the system when it
builds. Instead it will download the source code for all necessary
libraries, build them and then statically link the whole stuff into a
big handbrake binary.
The patches of the multimedia/handbrake port heavily modify the
handbrake Makefile to actually use system libraries instead of
downloading everything.
I was told on IRC that this is *strongly* disencouraged. It shouldn't be
done with 0.7.1 and it is actually impossible with versions after 0.7.1
because they apply a lot of handbrake specific patches to the different
libraries before building them.
While that method works well on Linux, we as FreeBSD people have a
problem in that these multimedia libraries (ffmpeg, ogg/vorbis,
matroska, ...) need FreeBSD specific patches to build. The handbrake
port would have to include all those patches for the different
libraries. I tried to make it work but it was very frustrating.

However there is one advantage to the statical linking: the resulting
binary can run standalone without any dependency/library problems.
That's why I would recommend the creation of a linux-handbrake port.
The Linux binary that you can download from their site works under
Linux compatibility without any problem on FreeBSD.

What's your point of view on this?


Best regards,
Jona

-- 
"I am chaos. I am the substance from which your artists and scientists
build rhythms. I am the spirit with which your children and clowns
laugh in happy anarchy. I am chaos. I am alive, and tell you that you
are free." Eris, Goddess Of Chaos, Discord & Confusion