This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org: --- Title : Record your Linux Desktop with ffmpeg and slop to any format Author : Remy van Elst Date : 17-03-2021 URL : https://raymii.org/s/snippets/Record_your_Linux_Desktop_with_ffmpeg_and_slop.html Format : Markdown/HTML --- This two-line shell script allows you to record a region of your linux desktop to a video file, or a `.gif`, using `slop` and `ffmpeg`. I use it often when a screenshot is not enough, or when you need to explain a sequence of events to someone. Here is a `.gif` recorded of my current KDE desktop: ![desktop][3]

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This script was adapted from the examples given in the `slop` [README][1]. ### Recording with slop and ffmpeg By combining two programs, `slop`, to get the screen region to record, and `ffmpeg` to do the actual recording, you can select a region of your screen to record, in any format `ffmpeg` supports. I often do it as a `gif` or `.mp4`. [slop][1] is a small and simple tool that does one thing, the [manpage][2] describes it best: slop is an application that queries for a selection from the user and prints the region to stdout. It grabs the mouse and turns it into a crosshair, lets the user click and drag to make a selection (or click on a window) while drawing a pretty box around it, then finally prints the selection's dimensions to stdout. `ffmpeg` is a very fast audio and video converter, also able to do live stuff and in this case, record the desktop. Both tools are in the Ubuntu repository, so you can install them with the package manager: apt install slop ffpmeg Place the following in a script, I named it `recgif.sh`: #!/bin/bash geometry=$(slop -f "-video_size %wx%h -i :0.0+%x,%y") ffmpeg -framerate 30 -f x11grab $geometry "$1" Make sure it is in your `$PATH` so you can execute it in any terminal. I have the folder `$HOME/bin` in my `$PATH`, which is where all my scripts live, including this one. You can set the `$PATH` in multiple places, but I have it in my `~/.bashrc` file: PATH="/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/snap/bin:$HOME/bin:$HOME/.bin:$PATH" Try it out in your shell, by typing: recgif.sh test.gif Your cursor changes to a crosshair which you use to select a region. Then recording starts, until you kill the shell command with `CTRL+C`. If you specify a different extension, the video save format will reflect that: recgif.sh test.mkv `.gif` files are rather large, the image at the top of this page is almost 50 MB whereas the same recording in `.mkv` is about 0,5 MB. [1]: https://github.com/naelstrof/slop [2]: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/en/man1/slop.1.html [3]: /s/inc/img/recgif.gif --- License: All the text on this website is free as in freedom unless stated otherwise. This means you can use it in any way you want, you can copy it, change it the way you like and republish it, as long as you release the (modified) content under the same license to give others the same freedoms you've got and place my name and a link to this site with the article as source. This site uses Google Analytics for statistics and Google Adwords for advertisements. You are tracked and Google knows everything about you. Use an adblocker like ublock-origin if you don't want it. All the code on this website is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 license unless already licensed under a license which does not allows this form of licensing or if another license is stated on that page / in that software: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see . Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you screw something up. Use common sense, do not 'rm -rf /' as root for example. If you have any questions then do not hesitate to contact me. See https://raymii.org/s/static/About.html for details.