Foxws
Laravel Streamer

Configuration

You configure this package through the config/streamer.php file.

Publishing the configuration file

Publish it with:

php artisan vendor:publish --tag="streamer-config"

Configuration options

Streamer binary

Set the path to the Shaka Streamer binary:

'streamer' => [
    'streamer_binary' => env('STREAMER_BINARY', 'shaka-streamer'),
],

Environment Variable:

STREAMER_BINARY=shaka-streamer

Force generic input

Use generic input paths instead of absolute paths:

'force_generic_input' => env('STREAMER_FORCE_GENERIC_INPUT', true),

Environment Variable:

STREAMER_FORCE_GENERIC_INPUT=true

Timeout

Set the maximum execution time for streaming operations:

'timeout' => env('STREAMER_TIMEOUT', 60 * 60 * 4), // 4 hours in seconds

Environment Variable:

STREAMER_TIMEOUT=14400

Things that affect how long packaging takes:

  • Longer videos need more time
  • 4K content takes much longer than 1080p
  • Each extra quality variant adds to the processing time
  • Your server's PHP max_execution_time setting also matters

Logging

Enable logging to track streaming operations:

'log_channel' => env('STREAMER_LOG_CHANNEL', env('LOG_CHANNEL', 'stack')),

Environment Variables:

# Use default log channel
STREAMER_LOG_CHANNEL=stack

# Use custom channel
STREAMER_LOG_CHANNEL=streamer

Custom log channel: Define a custom channel in config/logging.php:

'channels' => [
    'streamer' => [
        'driver' => 'daily',
        'path' => storage_path('logs/streamer.log'),
        'level' => 'debug',
        'days' => 14,
    ],
],

Temporary files

Set where temporary files are stored:

'temporary_files_root' => env('STREAMER_TEMPORARY_FILES_ROOT', storage_path('app/streamer/temp')),

Environment Variable:

STREAMER_TEMPORARY_FILES_ROOT=/tmp/streamer

Notes:

  • Remote files (from S3 and similar) are copied here before processing
  • Make sure there's enough disk space
  • Clean this directory up regularly
  • Use a regular disk here, not RAM, so you don't eat into memory

Cache files

Set where cache files (encryption keys, manifests, and so on) are stored:

'cache_files_root' => env('STREAMER_CACHE_FILES_ROOT', '/dev/shm'),

Environment Variable:

STREAMER_CACHE_FILES_ROOT=/dev/shm

Note: /dev/shm (a RAM disk) is faster for small files, but it needs enough RAM available to hold them.

Storage space guards

These settings let you fail fast with a clear error instead of having a job die partway through because a storage location ran out of space.

'temporary_files_min_free' => env('STREAMER_TEMPORARY_MIN_FREE', 0),
'cache_files_min_free' => env('STREAMER_CACHE_MIN_FREE', 0),

Environment Variables:

STREAMER_TEMPORARY_MIN_FREE=1073741824   # 1 GiB floor on temporary_files_root
STREAMER_CACHE_MIN_FREE=10485760         # 10 MiB floor on cache_files_root

Both are off by default (0), and they're kept independent on purpose: cache_files_root is often a much smaller mount (e.g. /dev/shm) than temporary_files_root, so one shared floor couldn't protect both properly. Both throw Foxws\Streamer\Exceptions\InsufficientStorageException when triggered.

Streamer encodes via ffmpeg, so the output size doesn't closely track the input size — encoding down to delivery bitrates can shrink a file a lot. Because of that, there's no check here that estimates space needed per job; temporary_files_min_free is just a flat safety net, not a per-job estimate.

Example: Podman tmpfs for cache_files_root

Since temporary_files_root's space usage isn't predictable from the input file size (see above), putting it on a size-limited tmpfs is riskier than putting it on a regular disk-backed volume — prefer disk for temporary_files_root, as noted under Temporary files above.

cache_files_root (which only holds manifests and keys) is a safer fit for a RAM disk, since those files are small. If you're running queue workers in Podman:

# horizon.container (podman quadlet)
[Container]
...
ShmSize=128m

STREAMER_CACHE_FILES_ROOT=/dev/shm
STREAMER_CACHE_MIN_FREE=10485760   # 10 MiB - keep this well under ShmSize

Codecs & segment duration

These set the default audio/video codecs and segment duration. You can override any of them for an individual stream when you add it:

'audio_codecs' => env('STREAMER_AUDIO_CODECS', 'aac'),
'video_codecs' => env('STREAMER_VIDEO_CODECS', 'h264'),
'segment_duration' => env('STREAMER_SEGMENT_DURATION', 6),

Environment Variables:

STREAMER_AUDIO_CODECS=aac,opus
STREAMER_VIDEO_CODECS=hw:h264,hw:vp9
STREAMER_SEGMENT_DURATION=6

Prefix a video codec with hw: to use hardware-accelerated encoding (e.g. hw:h264).

Hardware acceleration

Set which hardware acceleration API to use for video encoding — vaapi, nvenc, videotoolbox, or qsv. Leave it unset to use software encoding instead.

'hwaccel_api' => env('STREAMER_HWACCEL_API', null),

STREAMER_HWACCEL_API=vaapi

Extra input arguments

Raw arguments passed directly to the packager's input. Useful for advanced scenarios, such as custom demuxer flags.

'extra_input_args' => env('STREAMER_EXTRA_INPUT_ARGS', null),

Streamer options

Extra configuration merged directly into the Shaka Streamer pipeline config — see the Shaka Streamer configuration fields for what's available.

'streamer_options' => [],

Concurrency workers

The maximum number of S3 uploads that can run at once when copying packaged files to an S3-backed disk (this is ignored for local disks). Each upload in progress holds an open file stream, so memory usage grows with this value.

'concurrency_workers' => env('STREAMER_CONCURRENCY_WORKERS', 30),

STREAMER_CONCURRENCY_WORKERS=30

Environment configuration

An example .env configuration:

STREAMER_BINARY=shaka-streamer
STREAMER_TIMEOUT=14400
STREAMER_LOG_CHANNEL=streamer
STREAMER_TEMPORARY_FILES_ROOT=/tmp/streamer
STREAMER_CACHE_FILES_ROOT=/dev/shm
STREAMER_FORCE_GENERIC_INPUT=true
STREAMER_TEMPORARY_MIN_FREE=1073741824
STREAMER_CACHE_MIN_FREE=10485760

Verification

After configuring the package, check that everything works:

php artisan streamer:info

This command checks that:

  • The binary exists and is executable
  • Version information can be retrieved
  • The configuration is set up correctly
  • The logger is working

Quick Reference

Usage