rtsp-simple-server

rtsp-simple-server is a simple, ready-to-use and zero-dependency RTSP server and RTSP proxy, a software that allows multiple users to publish, read and proxy live video and audio streams over time. RTSP is a standard protocol that describes how to perform these operations with the help of a server, that is contacted by both publishers and readers and relays the publisher's streams to the readers.

Features:

• Read and publish live streams with UDP and TCP
• Each stream can have multiple video and audio tracks, encoded with any codec (including H264, H265, VP8, VP9, MP3, AAC, Opus, PCM)
• Serve multiple streams at once in separate paths
• Pull and serve streams from other RTSP or RTMP servers, always or on-demand (RTSP proxy)
• Authenticate readers and publishers separately
• Redirect to other RTSP servers (load balancing)
• Run custom commands when clients connect, disconnect, read or publish streams
• Reload the configuration without disconnecting existing clients (hot reloading)
• Compatible with Linux, Windows and macOS, does not require any dependency or interpreter, it's a single executable

Installation and basic usage

1. Download and extract a precompiled binary from the release page.

2. Start the server:

   ./rtsp-simple-server
   

3. Publish a stream. For instance, you can publish a video/audio file with FFmpeg:

   ffmpeg -re -stream_loop -1 -i file.ts -c copy -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:8554/mystream
   

   or GStreamer:

   gst-launch-1.0 rtspclientsink name=s location=rtsp://localhost:8554/mystream filesrc location=file.mp4 ! qtdemux name=d d.video_0 ! queue ! s.sink_0 d.audio_0 ! queue ! s.sink_1
   

4. Open the stream. For instance, you can open the stream with VLC:

   vlc rtsp://localhost:8554/mystream
   

   or GStreamer:

   gst-launch-1.0 rtspsrc location=rtsp://localhost:8554/mystream name=s s. ! application/x-rtp,media=video ! decodebin ! autovideosink s. ! application/x-rtp,media=audio ! decodebin ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! autoaudiosink
   

   or FFmpeg:

   ffmpeg -i rtsp://localhost:8554/mystream -c copy output.mp4
   

Advanced usage and FAQs

Usage with Docker

Download and launch the image:

docker run --rm -it --network=host aler9/rtsp-simple-server

The --network=host argument is mandatory since Docker can change the source port of UDP packets for routing reasons, and this makes RTSP routing impossible. This issue can be avoided by disabling UDP and exposing the RTSP port:

docker run --rm -it -e RTSP_PROTOCOLS=tcp -p 8554:8554 aler9/rtsp-simple-server

Configuration

To see or change the configuration, edit the rtsp-simple-server.yml file, that is:

• included the release bundle
• available in the root folder of the Docker image (/rtsp-simple-server.yml)
• also available here.

Every configuration parameter can be overridden by environment variables, in the format RTSP_PARAMNAME, where PARAMNAME is the uppercase name of a parameter. For instance, the rtspPort parameter can be overridden in the following way:

RTSP_RTSPPORT=8555 ./rtsp-simple-server

Parameters in maps can be overridden by using underscores, in the following way:

RTSP_PATHS_TEST_SOURCE=rtsp://myurl ./rtsp-simple-server

The configuration can be changed dinamically when the server is running (hot reloading) by writing to the configuration file. Changes are detected and applied without disconnecting existing clients, whenever it's possible.

RTSP proxy mode

rtsp-simple-server is also a RTSP proxy, that is usually deployed in one of these scenarios:

• when there are multiple users that are receiving a stream and the bandwidth is limited; the proxy is used to receive the stream once. Users can then connect to the proxy instead of the original source.
• when there's a NAT / firewall between a stream and the users; the proxy is installed on the NAT and makes the stream available to the outside world.

Edit rtsp-simple-server.yml and replace everything inside section paths with the following content:

paths:
  proxied:
    # url of the source stream, in the format rtsp://user:pass@host:port/path
    source: rtsp://original-url

After starting the server, users can connect to rtsp://localhost:8554/proxied, instead of connecting to the original url. The server supports any number of source streams, it's enough to add additional entries to the paths section:

paths:
  proxied1:
    source: rtsp://url1

  proxied2:
    source: rtsp://url1

It's possible to save bandwidth by enabling the on-demand mode: the stream will be pulled only when at least a client is connected:

paths:
  proxied:
    source: rtsp://original-url
    sourceOnDemand: yes

Publish a webcam

Edit rtsp-simple-server.yml and replace everything inside section paths with the following content:

paths:
  cam:
    runOnInit: ffmpeg -f v4l2 -i /dev/video0 -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH
    runOnInitRestart: yes

If the platform is Windows:

paths:
  cam:
    runOnInit: ffmpeg -f dshow -i video="USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam" -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH
    runOnInitRestart: yes

Where USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam is the name of your webcam, that can be obtained with:

ffmpeg -list_devices true -f dshow -i dummy

After starting the server, the webcam can be reached on rtsp://localhost:8554/cam.

Publish a Raspberry Pi Camera

Install dependencies:

1. Gstreamer

   sudo apt install -y gstreamer1.0-tools gstreamer1.0-rtsp
   

2. gst-rpicamsrc, by following instruction here

Then edit rtsp-simple-server.yml and replace everything inside section paths with the following content:

paths:
  cam:
    runOnInit: gst-launch-1.0 rpicamsrc preview=false bitrate=2000000 keyframe-interval=50 ! video/x-h264,width=1920,height=1080,framerate=25/1 ! rtspclientsink location=rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH
    runOnInitRestart: yes

After starting the server, the webcam is available on rtsp://localhost:8554/cam.

Generate HLS

Edit rtsp-simple-server.yml and replace everything inside section paths with the following content:

paths:
  all:
    runOnPublish: ffmpeg -re -i rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH -c copy -f hls -hls_time 1 -hls_list_size 3 -hls_flags delete_segments -hls_allow_cache 0 stream.m3u8
    runOnPublishRestart: yes

Every time someone publishes a stream, the server will produce HLS segments, that can be served by a web server.

The example above makes the assumption that the incoming stream is encoded with H264 and AAC, since they are the only codecs supported by HLS; if the incoming stream is encoded with different codecs, it must be converted:

paths:
  all:
    runOnPublish: ffmpeg -re -i rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH -c:a aac -b:a 64k -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -b:v 500k -f hls -hls_time 1 -hls_list_size 3 -hls_flags delete_segments -hls_allow_cache 0 stream.m3u8
    runOnPublishRestart: yes

Remuxing, re-encoding, compression

To change the format, codec or compression of a stream, use FFmpeg or Gstreamer together with rtsp-simple-server. For instance, to re-encode an existing stream, that is available in the /original path, and publish the resulting stream in the /compressed path, edit rtsp-simple-server.yml and replace everything inside section paths with the following content:

paths:
  all:
  original:
    runOnPublish: ffmpeg -i rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH -c:v libx264 -preset ultrafast -b:v 500k -max_muxing_queue_size 1024 -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/compressed
    runOnPublishRestart: yes

On-demand publishing

Edit rtsp-simple-server.yml and replace everything inside section paths with the following content:

paths:
  ondemand:
    runOnDemand: ffmpeg -re -stream_loop -1 -i file.ts -c copy -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:$RTSP_PORT/$RTSP_PATH
    runOnDemandRestart: yes

The command inserted into runOnDemand will start only when a client requests the path ondemand, therefore the file will start streaming only when requested.

Redirect to another server

To redirect to another server, use the redirect source:

paths:
  redirected:
    source: redirect
    sourceRedirect: rtsp://otherurl/otherpath

Fallback stream

If no one is publishing to the server, readers can be redirected to a fallback URL that is serving a fallback stream:

paths:
  withfallback:
    fallback: rtsp://otherurl/otherpath

Authentication

Edit rtsp-simple-server.yml and replace everything inside section paths with the following content:

paths:
  all:
    publishUser: admin
    publishPass: mypassword

Only publishers that provide both username and password will be able to proceed:

ffmpeg -re -stream_loop -1 -i file.ts -c copy -f rtsp rtsp://admin:mypassword@localhost:8554/mystream

It's possible to setup authentication for readers too:

paths:
  all:
    publishUser: admin
    publishPass: mypassword

    readUser: user
    readPass: userpassword

WARNING: RTSP is a plain protocol, and the credentials can be intercepted and read by malicious users (even if hashed, since the only supported hash method is md5, which is broken). If you need a secure channel, use RTSP inside a VPN.

Start on boot with systemd

Systemd is the service manager used by Ubuntu, Debian and many other Linux distributions, and allows to launch rtsp-simple-server on boot.

Download a release bundle from the release page, unzip it, and move the executable and configuration in the system:

sudo mv rtsp-simple-server /usr/local/bin/
sudo mv rtsp-simple-server.yml /usr/local/etc/

Create the service:

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/rtsp-simple-server.service >/dev/null << EOF
[Unit]
After=network.target
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/rtsp-simple-server /usr/local/etc/rtsp-simple-server.yml
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl enable rtsp-simple-server
sudo systemctl start rtsp-simple-server

Monitoring

There are multiple ways to monitor the server usage over time:

• The current number of clients, publishers and readers is printed in each log line; for instance, the line:

  2020/01/01 00:00:00 [2/1/1] [client 127.0.0.1:44428] OPTION
  

  means that there are 2 clients, 1 publisher and 1 reader.

• A metrics exporter, compatible with Prometheus, can be enabled with the parameter metrics: yes; then the server can be queried for metrics with Prometheus or with a simple HTTP request:

  wget -qO- localhost:9998
  

  Obtaining:

  rtsp_clients{state="idle"} 2 1596122687740
  rtsp_clients{state="publishing"} 15 1596122687740
  rtsp_clients{state="reading"} 8 1596122687740
  rtsp_sources{type="rtsp",state="idle"} 3 1596122687740
  rtsp_sources{type="rtsp",state="running"} 2 1596122687740
  rtsp_sources{type="rtmp",state="idle"} 1 1596122687740
  rtsp_sources{type="rtmp",state="running"} 0 1596122687740
  

  where:

  • rtsp_clients{state="idle"} is the count of clients that are neither publishing nor reading
  • rtsp_clients{state="publishing"} is the count of clients that are publishing
  • rtsp_clients{state="reading"} is the count of clients that are reading
  • rtsp_sources{type="rtsp",state="idle"} is the count of rtsp sources that are not running
  • rtsp_sources{type="rtsp",state="running"} is the count of rtsp sources that are running
  • rtsp_sources{type="rtmp",state="idle"} is the count of rtmp sources that are not running
  • rtsp_sources{type="rtmp",state="running"} is the count of rtmp sources that are running

• A performance monitor, compatible with pprof, can be enabled with the parameter pprof: yes; then the server can be queried for metrics with pprof-compatible tools, like:

  go tool pprof -text http://localhost:9999/debug/pprof/goroutine
  go tool pprof -text http://localhost:9999/debug/pprof/heap
  go tool pprof -text http://localhost:9999/debug/pprof/profile?seconds=30
  

Full command-line usage

usage: rtsp-simple-server [<flags>]

rtsp-simple-server v0.0.0

RTSP server.

Flags:
  --help     Show context-sensitive help (also try --help-long and --help-man).
  --version  print version

Args:
  [<confpath>]  path to a config file. The default is rtsp-simple-server.yml.

Compile and run from source

Install Go ≥ 1.15, download the repository, open a terminal in it and run:

go run .

You can perform the entire operation inside Docker:

make run

Links

Related projects

• https://github.com/aler9/gortsplib (RTSP library used internally)
• https://github.com/pion/sdp (SDP library used internally)
• https://github.com/pion/rtcp (RTCP library used internally)
• https://github.com/pion/rtp (RTP library used internally)
• https://github.com/notedit/rtmp (RTMP library used internally)
• https://github.com/flaviostutz/rtsp-relay

IETF Standards

• RTSP 1.0 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2326
• RTSP 2.0 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7826
• HTTP 1.1 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2616

Conventions

• https://github.com/golang-standards/project-layout