Can't remove/re-install FFMPEG with Brew

[casperes1996]

Ah, I see.
Would a renaming like this also work?

$ cd /opt/local/bin
$ mv ffmpeg7 ffmpeg
$

If I understand it correctly, this means the paths should be defined in one single place, instead of having to change them everywhere (in all previous scripts etc).

This is what my .bash_profile looks like. Macports appears to have set the path correctly:

$ more ~/.bash_profile

# Setting PATH for Python 3.11
# The original version is saved in .bash_profile.pysave
PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH

# Setting PATH for Python 3.11
# The original version is saved in .bash_profile.pysave
PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH

# MacPorts Installer addition on 2025-02-01_at_17:33:42: adding an appropriate PATH variable for use with MacPorts.
export PATH="/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH"
# Finished adapting your PATH environment variable for use with MacPorts.

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
$

That worked a lot better!
I should probably get a better understanding of the Bash shell as you suggested, for the above problems and in general.



The problem is that I sometimes come across apps that need something extra to be installed which is beyond the usual Mac apps. At one stage I had to install Python (for a Firefox plugin I think), and for something else I needed Perl (I forget what that was for). There are probably others as well.
I was hoping that with Homebrew/Macports I could "leave the tricky stuff to the experts", but it seems it's not that easy. And now some of my existing Automator services scripts can't find EXIFtool any more.
Maybe there's no simple way to solve this other than install apps that are installable for novices (as @bogdanw suggested) and leave the trickier ones to Macports.

Renaming would work but would introduce issues as you’re messing with something owned by ports and it could cause it to get confused. I recommend sticking to the symlink


Your bash profile has duplicate entries for python and usr local bin. I recommend cleaning it up. Should still work but it just isn’t as elegant

 

[bogdanw]

At one stage I had to install Python (for a Firefox plugin I think), and for something else I needed Perl (I forget what that was for).

Python 3.9.6 is available in macOS once you have installed Apple Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

"Mac OS X already has Perl installed. Open a Terminal application (in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder) and run perl -v to find out which version." https://www.perl.org/get.html#osx
perl v5.34.1 in macOS 15.6.1

I would uninstall homebrew & macports, clean the bash profile, move to zsh, and install the official releases for ffmpeg and ExifTool. They would be in /usr/local/bin and available for any Automator services.

Change the default shell in Terminal on Mac
https://support.apple.com/guide/terminal/trml113/mac

 

[Grumpus]

Python 3.9.6 is available in macOS once you have installed Apple Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

On Mojave, only python 2.7 is available, even after xcode-select --install. I believe that @macstatic has a newer version installed from Python.org (but the installed program is python3, not python).

"Mac OS X already has Perl installed. Open a Terminal application (in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder) and run perl -v to find out which version." https://www.perl.org/get.html#osx
perl v5.34.1 in macOS 15.6.1

It's perl 5.18 for Mojave. exiftool uses whatever perl is in the user's path, and 5.18 works at least to print the exiftool documentation when run with no arguments.

I would uninstall homebrew & macports, clean the bash profile, move to zsh, and install the official releases for ffmpeg and ExifTool. They would be in /usr/local/bin and available for any Automator services.

While I certainly don't consider MacPorts to be trash, if @macstatic has no need of anything beyond ffmpeg and exiftool it might be simpler. I believe the original confusion might've been due to the fact that ffprobe is a separate download on the download page. We'll have to agree to disagree on zsh. I believe that Apple switched to avoid GPLv3 rather than for any technical reasons.

 

[bogdanw]

I’m sorry. Among so many words, I missed that this is about Mojave.

By trash I was referring to the large number of unnecessary additional packages installed, that increases the likelihood of errors and conflicts.

To build the ffmpeg binary, Homebrew and MacPorts installs all these dependencies that are not necessary to run ffmpeg afterwards

https://github.com/Homebrew/homebre...21d021206e5707f214f42e1bf/Formula/f/ffmpeg.rb

https://ports.macports.org/port/ffmpeg/details/

 

[macstatic]

Renaming would work but would introduce issues as you’re messing with something owned by ports and it could cause it to get confused. I recommend sticking to the symlink

Got it.

Your bash profile has duplicate entries for python and usr local bin. I recommend cleaning it up. Should still work but it just isn’t as elegant

You're referring to the two identical lines at the end, right?

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"

Yeah, I thought that looked strange. I've removed the last line now.

Python 3.9.6 is available in macOS once you have installed Apple Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

I have version 2.7.16

$ python --version
Python 2.7.16
$

"Mac OS X already has Perl installed. Open a Terminal application (in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder) and run perl -v to find out which version." https://www.perl.org/get.html#osx
perl v5.34.1 in macOS 15.6.1

$ perl -v

This is perl 5, version 34, subversion 3 (v5.34.3) built for darwin-thread-multi-2level

I'm using MacOS 10.14.6 (Mojave).

I would uninstall homebrew & macports, clean the bash profile, move to zsh, and install the official releases for ffmpeg and ExifTool. They would be in /usr/local/bin and available for any Automator services.

Change the default shell in Terminal on Mac
https://support.apple.com/guide/terminal/trml113/mac

Why do you suggest I change the shell?
I have no experience with zsh and only use the shell for very basic stuff anyway.

Since FFMPEG now works as intended (once the symbolic links from ffmpeg7, ffprobe7 and ffplay7 were done for the standard names instead) common sense tells me to leave that alone (if it works, don't fix it!), but for EXIFtool I could uninstall it (through Macports), then reinstall EXIFtool from the official installer. to get my old scripts working again, and also the one I'm working on, hopefully.

On Mojave, only python 2.7 is available, even after xcode-select --install. I believe that @macstatic has a newer version installed from Python.org (but the installed program is python3, not python).

I'm confused. I have Python 2.7.16.
But I also found this:

$ which python3
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/bin/python3
$

Does this all mean there are "offical" and "unofficial" versions to choose from?

It's perl 5.18 for Mojave. exiftool uses whatever perl is in the user's path, and 5.18 works at least to print the exiftool documentation when run with no arguments.

Mine is Perl version 5.34.3.
I'm guessing it got installed alongside EXIFtool through Macports.

While I certainly don't consider MacPorts to be trash, if @macstatic has no need of anything beyond ffmpeg and exiftool it might be simpler. I believe the original confusion might've been due to the fact that ffprobe is a separate download on the download page. We'll have to agree to disagree on zsh. I believe that Apple switched to avoid GPLv3 rather than for any technical reasons.

I want/need to keep it simple.
I'm comfortable using the MacOS Terminal, (for basic stuff, or following step-by-step guides), but also know how easy it is to mess up things, so I prefer not experimenting too much if I get stuck (like now, hence all my questions).

Perhaps the solution (for me) would be some middle ground: use the "official" installers whenever available and let Macports do the stuff you need to be an "expert" (not me) to install.

I’m sorry. Among so many words, I missed that this is about Mojave.

By trash I was referring to the large number of unnecessary additional packages installed, that increases the likelihood of errors and conflicts.

Isn't this what the command "sudo port reclaim" cleans up?

 

[macstatic]

I think I've cleaned up the mess now 👍
Now EXIFtool appears to work again with my older scripts, as well as FFMPEG.

So first I removed EXIFtool (which was previously installed through Macports):

$ which exiftool
/opt/local/bin/exiftool
$
$ sudo port uninstall exiftool
Password:
--->  Deactivating exiftool @13.340.0_0+perl5_34
--->  Cleaning exiftool
--->  Uninstalling exiftool @13.340.0_0+perl5_34
--->  Cleaning exiftool
$

Then I downloaded the latest Mac version of EXIFtool from the official EXIFtool website.
There's a Mac installation guide available here, but it came in form of a standard Mac installer and I had no problems installing it. Also the path was fine (/usr/local/bin/), so I didn't have to mess around with the .bash_profile file again.
I believe that's the "standard" path for new Terminal commands/apps, and now both FFMPEG and EXIFtool are located there:

$ which exiftool
/usr/local/bin/exiftool
$
$ which ffmpeg
/usr/local/bin/ffmpeg
$

Getting the tools working is one challenge solved 👍
Next is getting my H.265 to H.264 Automator script working. One step at a time

Thanks to everybody here who's helped!!