Video Packager Environment Variables

The Video Packager runs inside a Docker container and is configured via environment variables.

For an overview of the Video Packager, see the Video Packager User’s Guide.

Output Configuration

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_OUTPUT_TYPE`	`s3`	Output destination: `s3` or `file`

S3 Output

Used when R5AS_OUTPUT_TYPE=s3:

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_S3_BUCKET`	(none)	Required. S3 bucket name
`R5AS_S3_REGION`	`us-east-1`	AWS region
`R5AS_S3_PATH_PREFIX`	(none)	Optional prefix for S3 object keys
`R5AS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID`	(none)	AWS access key ID (or use IAM role)
`R5AS_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`	(none)	AWS secret access key (or use IAM role)

File Output

Used when R5AS_OUTPUT_TYPE=file:

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_FILE_OUTPUT_BASE_PATH`	`/var/hls`	Base directory for HLS output
`R5AS_FILE_OUTPUT_MAX_FILES`	`0`	Max segments to retain (0 = unlimited)
`R5AS_FILE_OUTPUT_CLEANUP_ON_END`	`false`	Delete stream directory when stream ends
`R5AS_FILE_OUTPUT_SEND_KEYFRAME_REQUESTS`	`true`	Request keyframes from source

Built-in File Server

Optional HTTP server for serving HLS files directly (file output mode only):

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_FILE_SERVE_ENABLED`	`false`	Enable built-in file server
`R5AS_FILE_SERVE_PORT`	`8080`	HTTP port for file server
`R5AS_FILE_SERVE_BIND_ADDRESS`	`0.0.0.0`	Bind address
`R5AS_FILE_SERVE_PATH_PREFIX`	`/hls`	URL path prefix
`R5AS_FILE_SERVE_CORS_ORIGINS`	`*`	CORS allowed origins

Command API

The HTTP API that receives requests from Stream Manager:

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_COMMAND_PORT`	`5080`	HTTP port for command API
`R5AS_COMMAND_BIND_ADDRESS`	`0.0.0.0`	Bind address

HLS Settings

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_HLS_SEGMENT_DURATION_SECONDS`	`10`	Target segment duration in seconds
`R5AS_HLS_PLAYLIST_LENGTH_SEGMENTS`	`10`	Number of segments in playlist
`R5AS_HLS_ENABLE_PROGRAM_DATE_TIME`	`true`	Include EXT-X-PROGRAM-DATE-TIME tags

Kafka Reporting

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_KAFKA_ENABLED`	`false`	Enable Kafka metrics reporting
`R5AS_KAFKA_REPORTING_INTERVAL_MS`	`1000`	Reporting interval in milliseconds

Kafka broker addresses and authentication are provided via nodeStartConfig.json, not environment variables.

Pipeline Limits

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_PIPELINE_MAX_CONCURRENT`	`10`	Maximum concurrent streams
`R5AS_PIPELINE_INACTIVITY_TIMEOUT_SECONDS`	`300`	Stop stream after N seconds of no data
`R5AS_PIPELINE_MAX_DURATION_SECONDS`	`86400`	Maximum stream duration (24 hours)

Logging

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_LOG_OUTPUT`	`journal`	Output target: `journal` or `file`
`R5AS_LOG_LEVEL`	`info`	Log level: `trace`, `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`
`R5AS_LOG_FILE_PATH`	`/var/log/video-packager/video-packager.log`	Log file path (when `R5AS_LOG_OUTPUT=file`)
`R5AS_LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE_MB`	`200`	Max log file size in MB
`R5AS_LOG_FILE_MAX_COUNT`	`5`	Max rotated log files to keep

The RUST_LOG environment variable can also be used to control log levels (e.g., RUST_LOG=debug).

Video Encoding

These settings control the video transcoding pipeline:

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_VIDEO_CODEC`	`x264enc`	GStreamer video encoder element
`R5AS_VIDEO_BITRATE`	`2500000`	Video bitrate in bits/second
`R5AS_VIDEO_PRESET`	`medium`	Encoder preset (ultrafast, superfast, veryfast, faster, fast, medium, slow, slower, veryslow)
`R5AS_VIDEO_TUNE`	`zerolatency`	Encoder tuning (zerolatency, film, animation, grain, stillimage, psnr, ssim, fastdecode)

Audio Encoding

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_AUDIO_CODEC`	`voaacenc`	GStreamer audio encoder element
`R5AS_AUDIO_BITRATE`	`128000`	Audio bitrate in bits/second
`R5AS_AUDIO_SAMPLE_RATE`	`48000`	Audio sample rate in Hz
`R5AS_AUDIO_CHANNELS`	`2`	Number of audio channels

GStreamer

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_GSTREAMER_PLUGIN_PATH`	`/usr/local/video-packager/lib/gstreamer-1.0`	Path to GStreamer plugins

Node Identity

Node identity is provided via nodeStartConfig.json, which is automatically created by Stream Manager and distributed to the node by Terraform.

Environment Variable	Default	Description
`R5AS_NODE_START_CONFIG`	(none)	Base64-encoded nodeStartConfig.json content

Docker Usage

Pass environment variables to the Docker container with -e:

docker run -d --name video-packager --network host 
  -e R5AS_NODE_START_CONFIG=$R5AS_NODE_START_CONFIG 
  -e R5AS_S3_BUCKET=my-bucket 
  -e R5AS_S3_REGION=us-west-2 
  -e R5AS_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID=AKIA... 
  -e R5AS_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=... 
  -v /usr/local/red5pro/nodeStartConfig.json:/usr/local/video-packager/conf/nodeStartConfig.json 
  your-registry/video-packager:latest