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Building from source

As an alternative to using binary packages, you can build Jellyfin from source.

Jellyfin supports several methods of building for different platforms and instructions for all supported platforms are below.

All package builds begin with these two steps:

  1. Clone the repository.

    git clone https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-packaging.git
    cd jellyfin-packaging

  2. Initialize the submodules.

    git submodule update --init

Container image​

  1. Build the container image using Docker or Podman.

    docker build -t $USERNAME/jellyfin --file docker/Dockerfile .

    or

    podman build -t $USERNAME/jellyfin --file docker/Dockerfile .

    or use provided Python build script:

    ./build.py auto docker

    Replace "auto" with your own Jellyfin version tag if you want to.

  2. Run Jellyfin in a new container using Docker or Podman from the built container image.

    docker run -d -p 8096:8096 $USERNAME/jellyfin

    or

    podman run -d -p 8096:8096 $USERNAME/jellyfin

Linux or MacOS​

  1. Use the included build script to perform builds.

    ./build --help
    ./build --list-platforms
    ./build <platform> all

  2. The resulting archives can be found at ../bin/<platform>.

note

This will very likely be split out into a separate repository at some point in the future.

Windows​

  1. Install dotnet SDK 8.0 from Microsoft's Website and install Git for Windows. You must be on Powershell 3 or higher.

  2. From Powershell set the execution policy to unrestricted.

    set-executionpolicy unrestricted

  3. If you are building a version of Jellyfin newer than 10.6.4, you will need to download the build script from a separate repository.

    git clone https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-server-windows.git windows

  4. Run the Jellyfin build script.

    windows\build-jellyfin.ps1 -verbose

    • The -WindowsVersion and -Architecture flags can optimize the build for your current environment; the default is generic Windows x64.

    • The -InstallLocation flag lets you select where the compiled binaries go; the default is $Env:AppData\Jellyfin-Server\.

    • The -InstallFFMPEG flag will automatically pull the stable ffmpeg binaries appropriate to your architecture (x86/x64 only for now) from BtbN and place them in your Jellyfin directory.

    • The -InstallNSSM flag will automatically pull the stable nssm binary appropriate to your architecture (x86/x64 only for now) from NSSM's Website and place it in your Jellyfin directory.

  5. (Optional) Use NSSM to configure Jellyfin to run as a service.

  6. Jellyfin is now available in the default directory, or whichever directory you chose.

    • Start it from PowerShell.

      &"$env:APPDATA\Jellyfin-Server\jellyfin.exe"

    • Start it from CMD.

      %APPDATA%\Jellyfin-Server\jellyfin.exe
note

This will very likely be split out into a separate repository at some point in the future.