[FFmpeg-devel] Re: [PATCH] fftools: add -ignore_unknown_options for forward-compatible CLI usage

[Michael Niedermayer via ffmpeg-devel <ffmpeg-devel@ffmpeg.org>]

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Hi

On Sun, Feb 08, 2026 at 10:26:21AM +0530, Om Bhandankar via ffmpeg-devel wrote:
> From: ombhandankar <om.bhandankar@gmail.com>
> 
> Add a new global option -ignore_unknown_options that downgrades the
> "Unrecognized option" fatal error to a non-fatal warning, allowing
> processing to continue.
> 
> This enables scripts and programs that invoke FFmpeg to include options
> from newer versions while maintaining compatibility with older ones.
> The option must appear before any unrecognized options on the command
> line.
> 
> Both option parsing paths are handled: split_commandline() used by
> ffmpeg, and parse_options() used by ffplay/ffprobe. The option is
> defined in CMDUTILS_COMMON_OPTIONS so all tools support it.
> 
> When an unrecognized option is skipped, its potential argument is not
> consumed, as there is no reliable way to determine whether an unknown
> option expects an argument.
> 
> Ref: https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/11626
> 
> Signed-off-by: Om Bhandankar <om.bhandankar@gmail.com>
> Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>
> ---
>  Changelog                    |  1 +
>  doc/fftools-common-opts.texi | 14 ++++++++++++++
>  fftools/cmdutils.c           | 15 ++++++++++++++-
>  fftools/cmdutils.h           |  1 +
>  fftools/opt_common.h         |  1 +
>  5 files changed, 31 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

instead of a bool, it may be better to list the specific options for which
their failure should be ignored.

-ignore_unknown_options "fancynewoption,anotherfancynewoption" -fancynewoption 123

in principle this would allow also to specify if the option takes an argument
that should be skipped

But before accepting an implemenattion of that idea above, id like to see how this looks.
This is a feature which is ok if its simple, clean and easy maintainable.

thx

[...]
-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

Take away the freedom of one citizen and you will be jailed, take away
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