AVIOContext是FFMPEG管理输入输出数据的结构体。下面我们来分析一下该结构体里重要变量的含义和作用。
首先我们先看一下结构体AVIOContext的定义的结构体源码(位于libavformat/avio.h)：
/**
* Bytestream IO Context.
* New fields can be added to the end with minor version bumps.
* Removal, reordering and changes to existing fields require a major
* version bump.
* sizeof(AVIOContext) must not be used outside libav*.
*
* @note None of the function pointers in AVIOContext should be called
* directly, they should only be set by the client application
* when implementing custom I/O. Normally these are set to the
* function pointers specified in avio_alloc_context()
*/
typedef struct {
/**
* A class for private options.
*
* If this AVIOContext is created by avio_open2(), av_class is set and
* passes the options down to protocols.
*
* If this AVIOContext is manually allocated, then av_class may be set by
* the caller.
*
* warning -- this field can be NULL, be sure to not pass this AVIOContext
* to any av_opt_* functions in that case.
*/
AVClass *av_class;
unsigned char *buffer; /**< Start of the buffer. */
int buffer_size; /**< Maximum buffer size */
unsigned char *buf_ptr; /**< Current position in the buffer */
unsigned char *buf_end; /**< End of the data, may be less than
buffer+buffer_size if the read function returned
less data than requested, e.g. for streams where
no more data has been received yet. */
void *opaque; /**< A private pointer, passed to the read/write/seek/...
functions. */
int (*read_packet)(void *opaque, uint8_t *buf, int buf_size);
int (*write_packet)(void *opaque, uint8_t *buf, int buf_size);
int64_t (*seek)(void *opaque, int64_t offset, int whence);
int64_t pos; /**< position in the file of the current buffer */
int must_flush; /**< true if the next seek should flush */
int eof_reached; /**< true if eof reached */
int write_flag; /**< true if open for writing */
int max_packet_size;
unsigned long checksum;
unsigned char *checksum_ptr;
unsigned long (*update_checksum)(unsigned long checksum, const uint8_t *buf, unsigned int size);
int error; /**< contains the error code or 0 if no error happened */
/**
* Pause or resume playback for network streaming protocols - e.g. MMS.
*/
int (*read_pause)(void *opaque, int pause);
/**
* Seek to a given timestamp in stream with the specified stream_index.
* Needed for some network streaming protocols which don't support seeking
* to byte position.
*/
int64_t (*read_seek)(void *opaque, int stream_index,
int64_t timestamp, int flags);
/**
* A combination of AVIO_SEEKABLE_ flags or 0 when the stream is not seekable.
*/
int seekable;
/**
* max filesize, used to limit allocations
* This field is internal to libavformat and access from outside is not allowed.
*/
int64_t maxsize;
} AVIOContext;
AVIOContext中有以下几个变量比较重要：
unsigned char *buffer：缓存开始位置
int buffer_size：缓存大小（默认32768）
unsigned char *buf_ptr：当前指针读取到的位置
unsigned char *buf_end：缓存结束的位置
void *opaque：URLContext结构体
在解码的情况下，buffer用于存储ffmpeg读入的数据。例如打开一个视频文件的时候，先把数据从硬盘读入buffer，然后在送给解码器用于解码。
其中opaque指向了URLContext。注意，这个结构体并不在FFMPEG提供的头文件中，而是在FFMPEG的源代码中。从FFMPEG源代码中翻出的定义如下所示：
typedef struct URLContext {
const AVClass *av_class; ///< information for av_log(). Set by url_open().
struct URLProtocol *prot;
int flags;
int is_streamed; /**< true if streamed (no seek possible), default = false */
int max_packet_size; /**< if non zero, the stream is packetized with this max packet size */
void *priv_data;
char *filename; /**< specified URL */
int is_connected;
AVIOInterruptCB interrupt_callback;
} URLContext;
URLContext结构体中还有一个结构体URLProtocol。注：每种协议（rtp，rtmp，file等）对应一个URLProtocol。这个结构体也不在FFMPEG提供的头文件中。从FFMPEG源代码中翻出其的定义：
typedef struct URLProtocol {
const char *name;
int (*url_open)(URLContext *h, const char *url, int flags);
int (*url_read)(URLContext *h, unsigned char *buf, int size);
int (*url_write)(URLContext *h, const unsigned char *buf, int size);
int64_t (*url_seek)(URLContext *h, int64_t pos, int whence);
int (*url_close)(URLContext *h);
struct URLProtocol *next;
int (*url_read_pause)(URLContext *h, int pause);
int64_t (*url_read_seek)(URLContext *h, int stream_index,
int64_t timestamp, int flags);
int (*url_get_file_handle)(URLContext *h);
int priv_data_size;
const AVClass *priv_data_class;
int flags;
int (*url_check)(URLContext *h, int mask);
} URLProtocol;
在这个结构体中，除了一些回调函数接口之外，有一个变量const char *name，该变量存储了协议的名称。每一种输入协议都对应这样一个结构体。
比如说，文件协议中代码如下（file.c）：
URLProtocol ff_file_protocol = {
.name = "file",
.url_open = file_open,
.url_read = file_read,
.url_write = file_write,
.url_seek = file_seek,
.url_close = file_close,
.url_get_file_handle = file_get_handle,
.url_check = file_check,
};
libRTMP中代码如下（libRTMP.c）：
URLProtocol ff_rtmp_protocol = {
.name = "rtmp",
.url_open = rtmp_open,
.url_read = rtmp_read,
.url_write = rtmp_write,
.url_close = rtmp_close,
.url_read_pause = rtmp_read_pause,
.url_read_seek = rtmp_read_seek,
.url_get_file_handle = rtmp_get_file_handle,
.priv_data_size = sizeof(RTMP),
.flags = URL_PROTOCOL_FLAG_NETWORK,
};
udp协议代码如下（udp.c）：
URLProtocol ff_udp_protocol = {
.name = "udp",
.url_open = udp_open,
.url_read = udp_read,
.url_write = udp_write,
.url_close = udp_close,
.url_get_file_handle = udp_get_file_handle,
.priv_data_size = sizeof(UDPContext),
.flags = URL_PROTOCOL_FLAG_NETWORK,
};
等号右边的函数是完成具体读写功能的函数。可以看一下file协议的几个函数（其实就是读文件，写文件这样的操作）（file.c）：
/* standard file protocol */
static int file_read(URLContext *h, unsigned char *buf, int size)
{
int fd = (intptr_t) h->priv_data;
int r = read(fd, buf, size);
return (-1 == r)?AVERROR(errno):r;
}
static int file_write(URLContext *h, const unsigned char *buf, int size)
{
int fd = (intptr_t) h->priv_data;
int r = write(fd, buf, size);
return (-1 == r)?AVERROR(errno):r;
}
static int file_get_handle(URLContext *h)
{
return (intptr_t) h->priv_data;
}
static int file_check(URLContext *h, int mask)
{
struct stat st;
int ret = stat(h->filename, &st);
if (ret < 0)
return AVERROR(errno);
ret |= st.st_mode&S_IRUSR ? mask&AVIO_FLAG_READ : 0;
ret |= st.st_mode&S_IWUSR ? mask&AVIO_FLAG_WRITE : 0;
return ret;
}
#if CONFIG_FILE_PROTOCOL
static int file_open(URLContext *h, const char *filename, int flags)
{
int access;
int fd;
av_strstart(filename, "file:", &filename);
if (flags & AVIO_FLAG_WRITE && flags & AVIO_FLAG_READ) {
access = O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_RDWR;
} else if (flags & AVIO_FLAG_WRITE) {
access = O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_WRONLY;
} else {
access = O_RDONLY;
}
#ifdef O_BINARY
access |= O_BINARY;
#endif
fd = open(filename, access, 0666);
if (fd == -1)
return AVERROR(errno);
h->priv_data = (void *) (intptr_t) fd;
return 0;
}
/* XXX: use llseek */
static int64_t file_seek(URLContext *h, int64_t pos, int whence)
{
int fd = (intptr_t) h->priv_data;
if (whence == AVSEEK_SIZE) {
struct stat st;
int ret = fstat(fd, &st);
return ret < 0 ? AVERROR(errno) : st.st_size;
}
return lseek(fd, pos, whence);
}
static int file_close(URLContext *h)
{
int fd = (intptr_t) h->priv_data;
return close(fd);
}