Where is the VLC app?

Check this article to compile for Android
https://wiki.videolan.org/AndroidCompile/

@weasel I think those who have worked on the VLC builds are all burnt out from the amazing shittiness of that build system, and from all the related grumpy comments. So no one is currently tracking it that closely. It needs some fresh eyes working on it.

Ok Iā€™ll repeat my question for the last time, since nobody got my point.
That page I linked above says that you already have VLC 2.0.6 working.
VLC on GooglePlayStore is v 2.0.6 .
VLC on the official website is 2.0.6 .
The question here is not why the later developing versions canā€™t build, I donā€™t care. What I ask is why you donā€™t make v 2.0.6 available on Fdroid?
Thank you

Because itā€™s difficult to build.
Fdroid team is not the team behind VLC development.
Why donā€™t you grab a dev of VLC and ask him to come on this forum to help Fdroid team?

The question here is not why the later developing versions canā€™t build, I donā€™t care. What I ask is why you donā€™t make v 2.0.6 available on Fdroid?

Upstream does not want us to distribute outdated versions: https://twitter.com/videolan/status/748448942141091840

Check this article to compile for Android

VLC build instructions look simple and straightforward until you start following them. Even minor differences in build environment can cause issues (like automake 1.15 vs 1.15.1).

Sometimes they forget to update their source code.

For example, VLC 2.5.2 requires libvlc to be built from commit 1c02164. But the version they distribute was built with libvlc from ef7c26f5a7 (you can get this from logcat, grep ā€œcore libvlc: revisionā€). BTW, this mismatch can be the reason why F-Droidā€™s VLC 2.5.2 crashes.

Official 2.5.3 uses libvlc built from cbfa98bd98, which has not been published at all.

Hopefully those examples explain why we cannot build VLC.

But 2.0.6 is the current version, no?

So you donā€™t want to publish it until we can assure that at least the next version will work too?

But 2.0.6 is the current version, no?

Theyā€™ve pushed 2.5.4 to the Play Store, so I guess that is the latest stable version.

So you donā€™t want to publish it until we can assure that at least the next version will work too?

Yes. I think we should publish something only if we are sure that we will be able to deliver future updates.

Added:

2.5.4 includes libvlc built from 7b7f88f3af. Again, no such commit in the source code repository (git://git.videolan.org/vlc.git).

Hi,
anybody tell what is vlc appā€¦??? i know only vlc media player is that app discuss is onā€¦ :smiley:

Thatā€™s the one, yes, the player.

Too bad that it still isnā€™t available :frowning:

Sorry for reviving this thread, butā€¦

Apparently some brave sould went through the pain of creating an up-to-date version of VLC player in F-Droid. The build is green and the latest released upstream version (2.5.12) is available :+1:
So why can I only find the VLC app in the F-Droid archive repositories? There are no known vulnabilities for that version and it is up-to-date, no? Can somebody enlighten me on this?

Thanks!

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So why can I only find the VLC app in the F-Droid archive repositories?

See my comments above. VLC on F-Droid is abandoned because nobody has time to package it. There are only 3 maintainers per about 170 regularly updated apps.

Feel free to pick up VLC maintainence.

I submitted: Improve the build recepie for Android

I feel like Iā€™ve already tried to help in a previous ticket, but Iā€™m still willing to do so.

We use docker images to build pretty much everything on our build servers. The Android one is there: vlc-debian-android/Dockerfile Ā· master Ā· VideoLAN / docker-images Ā· GitLab it should be fairly self-explanatory.

Then you should only have to run ./compile.sh from your vlc-android repo.

For instance, this jenkins configuration:
only runs this:

export ANDROID_NDK=ā€˜/sdk/android-ndkā€™
export ANDROID_SDK=ā€˜/sdk/android-sdk-linuxā€™

./compile.sh -a arm64-v8a
https://jenkins.videolan.org/job/vlc-android-nightly/job/nightly-android-bin-arm64-v8a/

I donā€™t build packages, I just want to thank you for reaching out.

I donā€™t get it: ā€œnobody has time to package itā€ but ARCHIVE contains tens
of versions, of which at least 6 were build during the last year by YOU.
Including the very LAST, FRESHEST version.
So why on earth itā€™s not in the main repo?
BTW this update rate is much, much better then for the most apps in main
repo. :smiley:

@hans Can you please participate in: Improve the build recepie for Android

F-Droid is basically the same as a distro like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. F-Droid builds apps from source using a standard build environment, just like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. F-Droid requires that anything included in the official repositories be built from source on its own builders, just like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc. If that isnā€™t feasible, VLC or anyone could host an fdroid repo of binaries. Some random docker image would not be an acceptable build system for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, etc., and it is also not accepted by F-Droid.

I donā€™t use VLC on Android, so Iā€™m not the person to continue this discussion.

The Dockerfile is mostly provided to show what packages we need. It uses standard Debian packages, and the Android NDK/SDK, nothing more.

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@chouquette, thanks for pointing to the Dockerfile, itā€™s indeed useful as a reference.

Could you clarify how to figure out which versions are stable and which are pre-release? This is not reflected in tags names or NEWS file.

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