How to add a path to an Azure app service in order to be able to access ffmeg and ffprobe

Question

How to add a path to an Azure app service in order to be able to access ffmeg and ffprobe

Rebecca Peltz 35

I'm using Azure AI Speech service. It needs ffmpeg and ffmpeg and ffprobe for speech recognition. The only files that persist between deployments are in /home/site/wwwroot. It doesn't do any good to install ffmpeg in to /usr/bin because they will go away on a future install. Instead I installed ffmpeg and ffprobe under /wwwroot. So these files persist now.

What I need is a was to add them to the path. I think that the path goes away when you leave kuda console. I've also used this in my GitHub workflow yml and the test for version always fails. I think this is because ~/.bashrc is always regenerated.

Is there any way to get ffmpeg and ffprobe installed an accessible to the AI speech service? I can manually install them in the /usr/bin directory, but I will have to do that every time I push something to GitHub. I could set up a docker file, but if there's a way to do it without using docker, let me know.

Thanks

- name: Set PATH for FFmpeg
        run: |
          echo "Adding /home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static to PATH"
          echo "export PATH=\$PATH:/home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static" >> ~/.bashrc
          source ~/.bashrc
    
      - name: Verify FFmpeg installation
        run: |
          ffmpeg -version

santoshkc 14,270 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-03-26T11:32:38.0966667+00:00
Hi @Rebecca Peltz,

Since the only persistent directory in Azure App Service is /home/site/wwwroot, you’ve correctly placed FFmpeg and FFprobe there. However, adding them to the PATH requires a persistent way to modify environment variables, as .bashrc is regenerated on each session.

To make FFmpeg and FFprobe accessible to the Azure AI Speech service, you can define an App Service Environment Variable in the Azure Portal or through Azure CLI. Set the variable PATH to include /home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static so that it remains available across deployments.

Ensures that FFmpeg is available to all processes within the App Service, including your AI Speech service.

For more details, refer to the following official Microsoft documentation:

Environment variables and app settings in Azure App Service.

Configure an App Service App.

Azure CLI - az webapp config appsettings.

Thank you.
Rebecca Peltz 35 Reputation points

2025-03-26T15:30:10.1066667+00:00
Thanks for chiming in.

I created an Environment variable in the Azure portal named PATH but it's not allowed ("Invalid or not allowed key name...". You get an error trying to save it. Since there is a .bashrc that is created with each new install, I was hoping to add my path to it, but that failed.

I tried adding this (below) to the GitHub Actions. I didn't get an error calling this, but it also didn't seem to work as it wasn't in my path and verifying with ffmpeg -version failed.

- name: Set PATH for FFmpeg run: | echo "Adding /home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static to PATH" echo "export PATH=\$PATH:/home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static" >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc

Manas Mohanty 3,205 Microsoft External Staff

Hi Rebecca Peltz

Please save the path of ffmpeg and ffprobe to $GITHUB_ENV instead and check the version.

name: CI/CD Pipeline
on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Set PATH for FFmpeg
      run: |
        echo "Adding /home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static to PATH"
        echo "/home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static" >> $GITHUB_ENV
    - name: Verify FFmpeg installation
      run: |
        ffmpeg -version
        ffprobe -version

Reference on system path

Hope it helps.

Thank you.

1 answer

Your answer

santoshkc 14,270 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-03-26T11:32:38.0966667+00:00

Hi @Rebecca Peltz,

Since the only persistent directory in Azure App Service is /home/site/wwwroot, you’ve correctly placed FFmpeg and FFprobe there. However, adding them to the PATH requires a persistent way to modify environment variables, as .bashrc is regenerated on each session.

To make FFmpeg and FFprobe accessible to the Azure AI Speech service, you can define an App Service Environment Variable in the Azure Portal or through Azure CLI. Set the variable PATH to include /home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static so that it remains available across deployments.

Ensures that FFmpeg is available to all processes within the App Service, including your AI Speech service.

For more details, refer to the following official Microsoft documentation:

Environment variables and app settings in Azure App Service.

Configure an App Service App.

Azure CLI - az webapp config appsettings.

Thank you.
Rebecca Peltz 35 Reputation points

2025-03-26T15:30:10.1066667+00:00

Thanks for chiming in.

I created an Environment variable in the Azure portal named PATH but it's not allowed ("Invalid or not allowed key name...". You get an error trying to save it. Since there is a .bashrc that is created with each new install, I was hoping to add my path to it, but that failed.

I tried adding this (below) to the GitHub Actions. I didn't get an error calling this, but it also didn't seem to work as it wasn't in my path and verifying with ffmpeg -version failed.

- name: Set PATH for FFmpeg run: | echo "Adding /home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static to PATH" echo "export PATH=\$PATH:/home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static" >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc
Manas Mohanty 3,205 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2025-03-28T15:10:54.72+00:00

Hi Rebecca Peltz

Please save the path of ffmpeg and ffprobe to $GITHUB_ENV instead and check the version.

name: CI/CD Pipeline on: push: branches: - main jobs: build: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Checkout code uses: actions/checkout@v2 - name: Set PATH for FFmpeg run: | echo "Adding /home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static to PATH" echo "/home/site/wwwroot/bin/ffmpeg-git-20240629-amd64-static" >> $GITHUB_ENV - name: Verify FFmpeg installation run: | ffmpeg -version ffprobe -version

Reference on system path

Hope it helps.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Rebecca Peltz 35

I also tried calling these from the GitHub actions workflow, but sudo only works for me in the kuda SSH.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg
echo "FFmpeg installed!"

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How to add a path to an Azure app service in order to be able to access ffmeg and ffprobe

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