FrostWire FWPlayer is a custom, audio-only mplayer build included with FrostWire for Desktop. This repository contains a comprehensive build system for creating minimal, audio-focused player binaries for multiple platforms:

• Windows: fwplayer.exe (cross-compiled from Linux for x86_64)
• macOS: fwplayer_macos.x86_64 or fwplayer_macos.arm64 (native builds)
• Linux: fwplayer_linux.x86_64 or fwplayer_linux.arm64 (native builds)

The build system is pure bash - no C compilation required. All scripts are portable and work across different environments without needing to compile helper utilities.

The build system is managed through a simple Makefile. Just run:

make help                # Show all available commands
make                     # Display help (same as make help)

To set up your build environment (install dependencies and build OpenSSL):

make setup

This single command will:

1. Check for system dependencies
2. Install any missing tools (MinGW on Linux, Homebrew packages on macOS)
3. Build OpenSSL for your platform

The simplest way - automatically detects your OS and architecture:

make build

This will create:

• On Linux x86_64: fwplayer_linux.x86_64
• On Linux arm64: fwplayer_linux.arm64
• On macOS x86_64: fwplayer_macos.x86_64
• On macOS arm64: fwplayer_macos.arm64

To cross-compile for Windows x86_64:

make build-windows

Creates: fwplayer.exe

Explicitly build for a specific platform:

make build-linux       # Linux native build
make build-macos       # macOS native build
make build-windows     # Windows cross-compile (Linux only)

The setup command handles this automatically, but if you need to rebuild OpenSSL:

Build OpenSSL for your current platform:

make build-openssl-native

For Windows cross-compilation:

make build-openssl-windows

Run make help to see all available commands, or reference this list:

FrostWire FWPlayer supports comprehensive audio codec support:

• Streaming: MP3, AAC, Opus, Vorbis
• Lossless: FLAC, ALAC, WavPack, TTA
• Surround Sound: AC3, EAC3, DTS/DCA, TrueHD
• Legacy: MP2, WMA v1/v2, ADPCM G.726

The player is optimized as an audio-only application with zero video support:

• Video decoders: None (all removed)
• Video output drivers: Completely disabled
• Video-related tools: PNG output disabled

This results in:

• Significantly smaller binaries
• Faster compilation times
• Minimal dependencies
• No video processing overhead

Before building, verify everything is configured correctly:

make show-config

This displays:

• Your operating system and architecture
• MPlayer and FFmpeg source status

macOS builds are intentionally audio-only. CoreVideo, VideoToolbox, and the macOS video output stack are disabled so the resulting binary remains small while continuing to use CoreAudio for playback.

UPX (binary compressor) is skipped entirely on macOS (both x86_64 and arm64) because the tool isn't reliable on that platform. The stripped binary is copied directly after the build completes.

All standard Linux distributions with GCC are supported. The build script automatically handles both x86_64 and arm64 architectures.

Windows builds are only possible from Linux using the MinGW cross-compilation toolchain. The setup process handles this automatically.

To remove all compiled files and start fresh:

make clean

To see detailed information about your build setup:

make info

The build system automatically detects your host architecture and builds for it:

• x86_64: Supported on Linux and macOS
• arm64: Supported on Linux and macOS (Apple Silicon)
• Windows: Always builds for x86_64 when cross-compiling from Linux

See the individual build scripts for advanced options:

• build_windows.sh - Windows cross-compilation
• build_macos.sh - macOS native build
• build_linux.sh - Linux native build
• build-openssl.sh - OpenSSL building
• prepare_ffmpeg_flags.sh - FFmpeg codec flag generation

Or check the Makefile itself for implementation details.

The build system uses pure bash scripting for maximum portability and no external compilation overhead:

• No C compilation required - The previous prepare-ffmpeg-flags.c has been ported to prepare_ffmpeg_flags.sh
• Platform detection - Uses standard uname command for OS and architecture detection
• Portable scripts - All scripts work across Linux, macOS, and Windows (cross-compile)
• Zero helper utilities - Everything is self-contained bash code

This approach ensures:

• Faster setup (no waiting for compilation)
• Better portability (works in any environment with bash)
• Easier maintenance and modification
• No platform-specific compilation issues