This project is an unofficial archive and mirror of the source code of the LIVE555 Streaming Media libraries. It collects the source tarballs released on the server live555.com/liveMedia/public/.
All collected tarballs are listed briefly in the tarball table. For more information for a specific tarball, e.g. including checksums and the changelog, see the tarball list. Both sites contain download links to the tarballs.
If you want to work with the code directly in a git repository, please have a look at live555-unofficial-git-archive. It’s a repository that contains all collected live555 tarballs as git tags and the tarballs since 2023 as a git commit history.
-tree suffixExample usage:
$ git clone https://github.com/lengfeld/live555-unofficial-git-archive.git
$ cd live555-unofficial-git-archive
$ git tag # list all versions/tags
$ git diff v2024.04.19-tree v2024.05.05-tree # compare two versions
# Checkout the source code without creating a branch
$ git switch --detach v2024.04.19-treeNote: The tags have the suffix -tree. The git
tags point to commit objects without a history. They only contain the
file contents of the tarballs. So git log does not
work!
-tree
suffixSince the live555 release 2022-12-01 the tarballs are
also committed, tagged and linked in a commit history. So
git log does work!
Example usage:
$ git clone https://github.com/lengfeld/live555-unofficial-git-archive.git
$ cd live555-unofficial-git-archive
$ git switch -c main origin/main
$ git logThe last command shows the history of the live555 releases, including
the changelog in the commit message, until the release
2022-12-01. This makes it very easy to see the code changes
between the different releases.
Example usage of an tag:
$ git tag # Get a list of all tags
$ git switch --detach v2024.05.15The original author of the libraries does not maintain historical versions of the source code. The reasons are stated in the FAQ:
Why do you not make the code available under a ‘source code repository’?
Unlike some other open source projects, the source code for this project is provided as a ‘tarball’, rather than in a source code repository - because old versions of the code are not supported. (A source code repository might also encourage developers to extend the source code by modifying it ‘in place’ (and then upgrading the code by ‘merging diffs’). As noted above, modifying the supplied code ‘in place’ is something that we discourage; instead, developers should use C++ subclassing to extend the code.)
I can follow the reasoning that only the newest and current version is supported. That’s a fair decision.
Nevertheless I also value traceability. This means that you can follow the development process. E.g. when a bug was fixed or a feature was introduced. This can only achieved if you have a development history as a source code repository or historical archives. Relying on third parties for this goal has a couple of issues.
See also this [Live-devel] older source archives thread on the live555 mailing list for more details about the decisions.
You will never know for sure! Since the original author does not maintain a reference archive of the historical source code, you have to rely on third parties, like this project, to provide the old tarballs. Since the published tarballs are not signed by the original author, you can only rely on trust.
I can assure that the tarballs I collected should be fine and authentic. Nevertheless you have to trust me for this. For the other tarballs that are collected from third parties’ archives, like gentoo, you have to trust them.
But the code is open source. Inspecting the code is always possible.
Yes, it’s legal. The original author released the live555 source code under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). This makes it free software and redistributing the source code is allowed. See also the FAQ entry: What is the copyright on the source code, and how is it licensed? What are my obligations under this license?
And the original author also explicitly states that other websites may keep older archives and redistribute them.
I’m not ‘hiding’ older versions; I’m just not putting them on our web site. (Because this is ope source, other people, if they wish, may keep copies of older versions, but I’m not.) […]
See [Live-devel] older source archives.
The expected audience of this website are
Security researchers should be able to inspect the source code of older live555 releases, e.g. when they investigate an insecure hardware device that ships an out-of-date version of live555 and other software.
When this site provides stable URLs, also package maintainers for Linux distributions, like Ubuntu or debian, and maintainers for embedded build systems, like openwrt, buildroot or Yocto, can use this site. It provides stable URLs of all the released tarballs that can be put in build scripts and package recipes.
Not yet. For now the links to the live555 tarballs are direct links into the git repository on github. I don’t consider these links as stable. They may change in the future.
Nevertheless, being a mirror is definitely planned and reasonable. There will be a single directory that contains all tarballs and has stable links. So it can be used like other distributions or software project source code archives.
If you need this feature now, please send me an email.
The project is hosted on github in the repository live555-unofficial-archive. If you like to contribute, open a PR or create an issue. New sources of historical tarballs are especially welcomed. The goal of this project is to have the most complete set of source code archives for live555.
If you have questions, just send me a mail or open a github issue.
The need for a live555 tarball backup is also seen by other people. I know of the following sister projects that also provide an up to date tarball backup:
The following project adds tarballs as git commits. It uses a github action for automation:
The following project added the tarballs including the changelog text as git commits, but updates have stalled:
This website is created and maintained by
The source code of this wobsite and all tools for mirroring can be found at github.com/lengfeld/live555-unofficial-archive.