How do VLC and ffmpeg work together?

Question

I compiled VLC from the source code and it works well. When I do ". / Vlc" vlc runs. I also compiled ffmpeg from source and it works well too. When I do "ffmpeg-i-f toto.flv mp3-vn-acodec copy new_toto.mp3", the file named "new_toto.mp3" is generated. What I cannot understand is how VLC and ffmpeg work together? What part of VLC code uses ffmpeg code?

Is there a ffmpeg command to play (read) a video?

Answer 1

VLC does not embed FFmpeg as a sort of slave binary used internally, as you possibly could suppose. Instead, both FFmpeg and VLC are using libavcodec, a library which implement what ffmpeg exposes through its command line interface. So, FFmpeg supports VLC through supplying its libavcodec library to be one of the essential components on which the VLC is built as a player app.