how to use the `-f` and `-w` flags together

[hydrargyrum]

When trying to use ffcvt with an input file path, it fails:

% ffcvt -w . -f /some/where/file.mp4
2022/09/13 16:45:58 [ffcvt] Error: work directory
		  (/tmp)
		 is the same as the source directory
		  (/tmp).

that's incorrect, source directory is /some/where.

[suntong]

Oh, sorry about the confusing. Here is a summary of how to use the -f and -w flags.

First of all,

-w work directory that hold output files (FFCVT_W)

i.e., the -w flag is for specifying the output directory. It should better be -o or -d but both of the flags have already been taken when it was added.

Now, the best way to to use the -f and -w flags together is,

• cd into the source directory
• use -f with relative path from the current source directory
• specify the output directory with the -w flag (either relative path or absolute path are OK)

Give it a try.

HTH

[hydrargyrum]

indeed it works better, maybe that could be an improvement on options handling?

[suntong]

haha, yeah, that's an option, but I'd like to keep my options handling as dumb as possible ☺️, but keep working on enhancing my document. As you can see from above, once we are on the right track, things are much smoother.

I know my options handling is only covering 10 ~ 20% of the cases, but I don't want to spent my efforts on the rest 80 ~ 90% of something that can be clearly avoided by following a good document.

cheers