stream_http: add libcurl-based HTTP/HTTPS backend by kasper93 · Pull Request #17879 · mpv-player/mpv

kasper93 · 2026-05-06T22:58:41Z

No description provided.

Andarwinux · 2026-05-07T07:37:22Z

I tested this PR and confirmed it works, including HTTP3👍

mingw test build https://github.com/Andarwinux/mpv-winbuild/releases/download/2026-05-07-cfd818bcae/mpv-x86_64-v3-20260507-git-27cd42ff65.7z

github-actions · 2026-05-07T13:19:57Z

Download the artifacts for this pull request:

Windows

macOS

llyyr · 2026-05-07T15:59:40Z

+    void *curl_data = NULL;
+    int r = AVERROR(ENOSYS);
+    if (priv->opts->prefer_curl)
+        r = mp_curl_avio_open(demuxer, pb, &curl_data, url, flags);


There should be some logging for which backend was used, would be useful for debugging purposes. It would also be nice to have more logging in the curl backend itself

It would also be nice to have more logging in the curl backend itself

What logging do you need? headers can be enabled with msg-level=curl=trace and the reset is just few errors, opening logging is handled by common code.

There should be some logging for which backend was used

It's already logged, you will see either lavf or curl, depending on the logging parent.

[ 2.748475] curl: Opening ... [ 2.794586] curl: Mime-type: 'video/mp4'

headers can be enabled with msg-level=curl=trace

There are no logs for me with the "curl" module on your branch.

It's already logged, you will see either lavf or curl, depending on the logging parent.

[http] status=206 compressed=0 size=372656696 seekable=1
[http] resize stream to 131072 bytes, drop 0 bytes
[http] Mime-type: 'video/mp4'
[http] Stream opened successfully.

This is all I see. the only way I can tell it's using the curl backend is because of the first line

I've renamed it to curl (in your version it would be msg-level=http=trace), but you can know it was using it, because http tag was exclusively used by this stream.

kasper93 · 2026-05-08T00:55:49Z

Renamed to stream_curl. Resolved review comments. I have some local changes still, to few areas, will update later.

kasper93 · 2026-05-08T08:28:09Z

Added ftp/ftps support. This is significantly more stable than Lavf one.

na-na-hi · 2026-05-12T10:51:06Z

Play HLS livestream - press q to quit:

==7474==ERROR: AddressSanitizer: attempting free on address which was not malloc()-ed: 0x6080002263f0 in thread T0
    #0 0x7f8472c15fb0 in __interceptor_free (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libasan.so.5+0xe8fb0)
    #1 0x564888593723 in ffurl_closep (./mpv/build/mpv+0x15d3723)
    #2 0x564888593922 in ffurl_close (./mpv/build/mpv+0x15d3922)
    #3 0x5648885939b6 in avio_close (./mpv/build/mpv+0x15d39b6)
    #4 0x5648873ec5ac in demux_close_lavf ../demux/demux_lavf.c:1742
    #5 0x5648873a862c in demux_shutdown ../demux/demux.c:1089
    #6 0x5648873a8a72 in demux_free ../demux/demux.c:1124
    #7 0x56488742664f in close_lazy_segments ../demux/demux_timeline.c:203
    #8 0x56488742d52f in d_close ../demux/demux_timeline.c:821
    #9 0x5648873a862c in demux_shutdown ../demux/demux.c:1089
    #10 0x5648873a8a72 in demux_free ../demux/demux.c:1124
    #11 0x5648873a8dfc in demux_cancel_and_free ../demux/demux.c:1191
    #12 0x564887560347 in kill_demuxers_reentrant ../player/loadfile.c:153
    #13 0x564887560d11 in uninit_demuxer ../player/loadfile.c:234
    #14 0x564887573ef6 in play_current_file ../player/loadfile.c:2041
    #15 0x564887575748 in mp_play_files ../player/loadfile.c:2201
    #16 0x5648875783cf in mpv_main ../player/main.c:464
    #17 0x5648877e89ad in main ../osdep/main-fn-unix.c:5
    #18 0x7f84709fd09a in __libc_start_main ../csu/libc-start.c:308
    #19 0x564887339799 in _start (./mpv/build/mpv+0x379799)

0x6080002263f0 is located 80 bytes inside of 96-byte region [0x6080002263a0,0x608000226400)
allocated by thread T26 (demux) here:
    #0 0x7f8472c16518 in calloc (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libasan.so.5+0xe9518)
    #1 0x5648877197b2 in ta_zalloc_size ../ta/ta.c:156
    #2 0x564887734b90 in mp_curl_avio_open ../stream/stream_curl.c:1047
    #3 0x5648873e3c2f in nested_io_open ../demux/demux_lavf.c:954
    #4 0x5648885ad2ce in avformat_open_input (./mpv/build/mpv+0x15ed2ce)

Thread T26 (demux) created by T0 here:
    #0 0x7f8472b7ddb0 in __interceptor_pthread_create (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libasan.so.5+0x50db0)
    #1 0x5648873a8f14 in demux_start_thread ../demux/demux.c:1202
    #2 0x564887562ff3 in enable_demux_thread ../player/loadfile.c:440
    #3 0x5648875723ea in play_current_file ../player/loadfile.c:1859
    #4 0x564887575748 in mp_play_files ../player/loadfile.c:2201
    #5 0x5648875783cf in mpv_main ../player/main.c:464
    #6 0x5648877e89ad in main ../osdep/main-fn-unix.c:5
    #7 0x7f84709fd09a in __libc_start_main ../csu/libc-start.c:308

SUMMARY: AddressSanitizer: bad-free (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libasan.so.5+0xe8fb0) in __interceptor_free
==7474==ABORTING

kasper93 · 2026-05-12T10:53:05Z

Play HLS livestream - press q to quit:

Thanks for report! This is also reproducible with stream_lavf. I can take a look into fixing that when I have some time.

EDIT: Fixed by https://code.ffmpeg.org/FFmpeg/FFmpeg/pulls/23082

stream-lavf-o[cookies] only feeds the lavf stream backend. Instead of side-loading it, use core `--cookies-file` option.

Will be useful for future commits

Introduces stream_http, an internal libcurl-driven backend for http:// and https:// URLs. Runs all transfers on a dedicated curl multi thread with a producer-side ring buffer, and exposes HTTP/2 multiplexing, QUIC/HTTP/3 (when libcurl supports it), HSTS and TCP keep-alive. Should generally be more stable and faster than FFmpeg HTTP/1.1 impl, additionally connections are kept-alive between files open, so if you open playlist of network files and navigate through them, it will re-use the same connection. Build is gated on the new 'libcurl' meson option (auto). When disabled or unavailable, mpv silently falls back to FFmpeg's HTTP implementation.

Hook AVFormatContext.io_open so HLS/DASH segment fetches and other nested FFmpeg I/O go through stream_http when libcurl is available. This lets segments inherit the connection reuse, HTTP/2 multiplexing, mid-stream resume and conditional compression of the top-level stream. Falls back to FFmpeg's default I/O for non-HTTP URLs and when the curl backend is not built in.

Allow only subset of supported protocols by libcurl.

This is for stream_curl.

At the initial file open, the buffer may be populated with more data, than later requested by decoder, but don't drop this data. This fixes initial open to perform multiple reads of the area, especially for images that are likelly fully read for probbing already.

It's significantly more stable than Lavf. Fixes seeking out of cached ranges. Additionally correctly marks demuxer_is_network for ftp too.

kasper93 force-pushed the add-curl branch 3 times, most recently from 026fd5a to 12dee02 Compare May 6, 2026 23:50