rtsp-simple-server

rtsp-simple-server is a simple, ready-to-use and zero-dependency RTSP server, a program that allows multiple users to read or publish live video and audio streams. RTSP a standardized protocol that defines how to perform these operations with the help of a server, that is contacted by both readers and publishers in order to negotiate a streaming protocol and read or write data. The server is then responsible of linking the publisher stream with the readers.

This software was developed with the aim of simulating a live camera feed for debugging purposes, and therefore to use files instead of real streams. Another reason for the development was the deprecation of FFserver, the component of the FFmpeg project that allowed to create a RTSP server (but this server is not bounded to FFmpeg and can be used with any software that supports publishing to RTSP).

Features:

• Read and publish streams via UDP and TCP
• Publish multiple streams at once, each in a separate path, that can be read by multiple users
• Each stream can have multiple video and audio tracks
• Supports the RTP/RTCP streaming protocol
• Optional authentication mechanism for publishers
• Compatible with Linux and Windows, does not require any dependency or interpreter, it's a single executable

Installation

Precompiled binaries are available in the release page. Just download and extract the executable.

Usage

Basic usage

1. Start the server:

   ./rtsp-simple-server
   

2. In another terminal, publish something with FFmpeg (in this example it's a video file, but it can be anything you want):

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

3. Open the stream with VLC:

   vlc rtsp://localhost:8554/mystream
   

   you can alternatively use GStreamer:

   gst-launch-1.0 -v rtspsrc location=rtsp://localhost:8554/mystream ! rtph264depay ! decodebin ! autovideosink
   

Publisher authentication

1. Start the server and set a publish key:

   ./rtsp-simple-server --publish-key=IU23yyfaw6324
   

2. Only publishers which have the key will be able to publish:

   ffmpeg -re -stream_loop -1 -i file.ts -c copy -f rtsp rtsp://localhost:8554/mystream?key=IU23yyfaw6324
   

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 rtsp-simple-server version
  --rtsp-port=8554  port of the RTSP TCP listener
  --rtp-port=8000   port of the RTP UDP listener
  --rtcp-port=8001  port of the RTCP UDP listener
  --publish-key=""  optional authentication key required to publish

Links

IETF Standard

• https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7826