Libav currently uses a custom build system, this text attempts to document some of its obscure features and options. Options to make: make V=1 Build target with verbosity 1, instead of 1, 2 can be used too make SAMPLES= specify the path to the fate samples at make time Useful standard make commands: make -t Touch all files that otherwise would be build, this is useful to reduce unneeded rebuilding when changing headers, but note you must force rebuilds of files that actually need it by hand then. make -j rebuild with multiple jobs at the same time. Faster on multi processor systems make -k continue build in case of errors, this is useful for the regression tests sometimes but note it will still not run all reg tests. Targets to make: fate-list Will list all fate/regression test targets fate Run the fate test suite, note you must have installed it Setting up local fate: use the following command to get the fate test samples rsync -aL rsync://rsync.mplayerhq.hu:/samples/fate-suite/ fate/fate-suite pass --samples= to configure or pass the path with the SAMPLES variable to make