Where should I put FFMPEG?

Question

I have installed ffmpeg and ffprobe, but they just appeared in my downloads folder. I should put them somewhere useful.

I am using macOS Sierra

What is the recommended place to put such downloads? I will then edit my bash $PATH to find them there.

Solution

/usr/local/bin is the standard location for your own binaries. It's in the default macOS PATH, however after /bin and /usr/bin. Binaries placed in /usr/local/bin won't override the standard macOS binaries. If you want to use binaries with the same names as default binaries, you should still use this location though and instead edit the PATH to place /usr/local/bin before the others.

Comments

[Admin]

Are you using them mostly with scripts or manually in the terminal?

[Admin]

I am only accessing it by a python subprocess command. For now, I have put it in usr/local/bin.

[Elisa Cha Cha]

There is no need to edit the PATH: doing so will not be beneficial because there should never be a ffmpeg binary in /bin or /usr/bin, and ffmpeg will never be a "standard macOS binary". Putting it in /usr/local/bin should be work just fine without messing around with the PATH.

[grg]

@LordNeckbeard The question said "such downloads" which I inferred could mean any other binaries too. I've edited my answer to clarify though.

[Elisa Cha Cha]

I inferred the mentioned ffmpeg and ffprobe, but your edit clears up any potential confusion.