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libcubeb - Cross-platform Audio I/O Library

3rdparty/cubeb/README.md

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libcubeb - Cross-platform Audio I/O Library

libcubeb is a cross-platform C library for high and low-latency audio input/output. It provides a simple, consistent API for audio playback and recording across multiple platforms and audio backends. It is written in C, C++ and Rust, with a C ABI and Rust bindings. While originally written for use in the Firefox Web browser, a number of other software projects have adopted it.

Features

  • Cross-platform support: Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and other platforms
  • Versatile: Optimized for low-latency real-time audio applications, or power efficient higher latency playback
  • A/V sync: Latency compensated audio clock reporting for easy audio/video synchronization
  • Full-duplex support: Simultaneous audio input and output, reclocked
  • Device enumeration: Query available audio devices
  • Audio processing for speech: Can use VoiceProcessing IO on recent macOS

Supported Backends & status

BackendSupport LevelPlatform versionNotes
PulseAudio (Rust)Tier-1Main Linux desktop backend
AudioUnit (Rust)Tier-1Main macOS backend
WASAPITier-1Windows >= 7Main Windows backend
AAudioTier-1Android >= 8Main Android backend for most devices
OpenSLTier-1Android >= 2.3Android backend for older devices
OSSTier-2
sndioTier-2
SunTier-2
WinMMTier-3Windows XPWas Tier-1, Firefox minimum Windows version 7.
AudioTrackTier-3Android < 2.3Was Tier-1, Firefox minimum Android version 4.1.
ALSATier-3
JACKTier-3
KAITier-3
PulseAudio (C)Tier-4Was Tier-1, superseded by Rust
AudioUnit (C++)Tier-4Was Tier-1, superseded by Rust

Tier-1: Actively maintained. Should have CI coverage. Critical for Firefox.

Tier-2: Actively maintained by contributors. CI coverage appreciated.

Tier-3: Maintainers/patches accepted. Status unclear.

Tier-4: Deprecated, obsolete. Scheduled to be removed.

Note that the support level is not a judgement of the relative merits of a backend, only the current state of support, which is informed by Firefox's needs, the responsiveness of a backend's maintainer, and the level of contributions to that backend.

Building

Prerequisites

  • CMake 3.15 or later
  • Non-ancient MSVC, clang or gcc, for compiling both C and C++
  • Platform-specific audio libraries (automatically detected)
  • Optional but recommended: Rust compiler to compile and link more recent backends for macOS and PulseAudio

Quick build

bash
git clone https://github.com/mozilla/cubeb.git
cd cubeb
cmake -B build
cmake --build build

Better build with Rust backends

bash
git clone --recursive https://github.com/mozilla/cubeb.git
cd cubeb
cmake -B build -DBUILD_RUST_LIBS=ON
cmake --build build

Platform-Specific Notes

Windows: Supports Visual Studio 2015+ and MinGW-w64. Use -G "Visual Studio 16 2019" or -G "MinGW Makefiles".

macOS: Requires Xcode command line tools. Audio frameworks are automatically linked.

Linux: Development packages for desired backends:

bash
# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install libpulse-dev libasound2-dev libjack-dev

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install pulseaudio-libs-devel alsa-lib-devel jack-audio-connection-kit-devel

Android: Use with Android NDK. AAudio requires API level 26+.

Testing

Run the test suite:

bash
cd build
ctest

Use the interactive test tool:

bash
./cubeb-test

License

Licensed under an ISC-style license. See LICENSE for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see the contribution guidelines and check the issue tracker.