How to use livego: run a Go live streaming server

What livego does and which protocols it supports

livego is described as a simple, efficient live broadcast server. It is written in pure Go and is cross-platform. You publish video to it and it serves that video back to viewers.

• Transport protocols: RTMP, AMF, HLS and HTTP-FLV
• Container formats: FLV and TS
• Encoding formats: H264, AAC and MP3

Install livego with Docker

The simplest route is the Docker image. Docker is the only prerequisite listed. The command below starts livego and maps the four ports it uses: 1935 for RTMP, 7001 for HTTP-FLV, 7002 for HLS and 8090 for the management interface.

If you prefer not to use Docker, the README says you can download a pre-built binary from the project's releases page and run it from the command line.

Build livego from source

If you want to read or change the code, clone the repository and build it. The README lists go build or make build as the build step from inside the livego directory.

• Requires the Go toolchain for building from source

Get a channel key and push a stream

Once the service is running, request a channel key from the management interface. The README uses a room named movie as the example. Copy the key it returns; you will use it in the push address.

Push your video to the RTMP address with the key. The default app name is live, so replace {appname} with live unless you have changed it. The README gives an ffmpeg example that reads a local FLV file and pushes it without re-encoding. You can also use broadcasting software that can publish to an RTMP URL.

• Get the key: http://localhost:8090/control/get?room=movie
• Push address: rtmp://localhost:1935/{appname}/{channelkey}

Play back the stream over RTMP, HTTP-FLV or HLS

Viewers can watch the same stream in three ways. Use the addresses below, with {appname} set to live by default. The example room name is movie.

HLS is the most widely compatible for browsers and mobile devices in general use, but the README only lists the URL and does not describe player setup. For HTTPS HLS, the README says to generate a server.key and server.crt pair, place them next to the executable, and set use_hls_https to true in livego.yaml (false by default).

• RTMP: rtmp://localhost:1935/{appname}/movie
• HTTP-FLV: http://127.0.0.1:7001/{appname}/movie.flv
• HLS: http://127.0.0.1:7002/{appname}/movie.m3u8
• HLS over HTTPS: set use_hls_https to true in livego.yaml after placing server.key and server.crt beside the executable

Configure livego with command-line options

You can change ports, log level and other behaviour with flags. Run the help command to see the full list on your build. Settings you may change include listen addresses for each server, the config file name, the FLV output directory and the HLS keep-after-end behaviour.

• --rtmp_addr: RTMP listen address
• --httpflv_addr: HTTP-FLV listen address (default :7001)
• --hls_addr: HLS listen address (default :7002)
• --api_addr: management interface address (default :8090)
• --config_file: configuration file name (default livego.yaml)
• --flv_dir: output directory for FLV files (default tmp)
• --hls_keep_after_end: keep HLS files after the stream ends
• --level: log level (default info)