Ubuntu ffmpeg command -i not found

Question

I'm a beginner with Ubuntu and I need to setup a streaming server for my company, I've installed NGINX and FFMPEG, but when I call ffmpeg -i in the ~/ffmpeg/ffmpeg directory it returns an error command not found but when I call ./ffmpeg -i it returns a list with configurations.. why does ffmpeg -i not work and how can I fix it?

I think that the Path Enviroment Variable is incorrect but how would I go abouts changing said variable? I'm not that experienced with Ubuntu / CMD programming / FFMPEG configuration.

Sources - https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/CompilationGuide/Ubuntu https://github.com/arut/nginx-rtmp-module/wiki/Control-module and http://docs.unified-streaming.com/tutorials/live/broadcast-247.html#continuous-timestamps

What if you do sudo apt-get install ffmpeg? Also, you can just add export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/ffmpeg/executable into your ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile — , Apr 12 '16 at 14:34
I've tried the export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/ffmpeg/executable but it doesn't work :( — Gerwin, Apr 12 '16 at 14:35
I hope you replaced /path/to/ffmpeg/executable with the actual path to the ffmpeg executable? — , Apr 12 '16 at 14:37
What Ubuntu version are you using? How did you install ffmpeg? If you followed a guide please provide the link. It is likely you will not need to use export or edit ~/.profile, or mess with anything like that. — llogan, Apr 12 '16 at 17:44

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 12 '16 at 14:36

You need to add the directory where you've installed ffmpeg to your $PATH, the list of directories where executables can be found. The simplest way is to add this line to your ~/.profile:

export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/ffmpeg

Note that you need to add the directory containing the ffmpeg executable and not the executable itself. Then, log out and log back in again (or just run . ~/.profile) and you should be able to execute it from anywhere.

Ubuntu ffmpeg command -i not found

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