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screen_cast/docs/RUNBOOK.md
T
fegger 3f8e92c6af fix(codec): bound keyframe bursts with VBV and microsecond time_base
The first real sender/receiver run failed permanently: the receiver
reported 'non-existing PPS 0' for every frame. Without a VBV, a
2256x1504 IDR keyframe bursts hundreds of kilobytes of back-to-back
FU-A packets, overflowing the ~208KB default UDP receive buffer; the
resulting sequence gap made the depacketizer drop whole keyframes
including their in-band SPS/PPS, so the decoder never initialized and
never recovered, because every keyframe burst overflowed again.

- Encoder: add rc_max_rate = bitrate and rc_buffer_size =
  bitrate*2/fps, capping any single frame to about two frame periods
  of bytes (~40KB at the 4Mbps default).
- Encoder: switch the time_base to microseconds. It was derived from
  the configured frame rate, which quantized capture-rate timestamps
  and duplicated pts; RTP timestamps are now lossless.
- Transport: request a 4MB SO_RCVBUF on the receive socket
  (best-effort; the kernel clamps to net.core.rmem_max).

meson test 4/4, valgrind clean (loopback + codec).
2026-09-07 11:06:03 +02:00

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Markdown

# Runbook — build and validation commands
Reusable validation steps for this repository. Run the relevant ones before
considering a change complete.
## Build and test
```sh
meson setup build # once
meson compile -C build
meson test -C build --print-errorlogs
```
## Memory and correctness checks (codec changes)
Run the codec round-trip test under valgrind after touching the encoder or
decoder:
```sh
valgrind --leak-check=full --errors-for-leak-kinds=definite \
build/tests/test_codec_roundtrip
```
Expected: no "definitely lost" bytes and no "Invalid read/write" errors.
FFmpeg may keep some "still reachable" allocations at exit; that is normal.
This check caught two real defects in the Phase 2 decoder: a per-packet
payload leak and an unpadded extradata buffer over-read. Keep using it.
## Capture smoke test (Phase 3, manual)
Requires a running desktop session with `xdg-desktop-portal` and a backend
that implements the ScreenCast portal (e.g. Hyprland, GNOME, KDE). The
portal shows an interactive source picker, so this cannot run unattended.
```sh
meson compile -C build # builds tools/capture_smoke
./build/tools/capture_smoke 10 out.h264 # captures 10 frames
ffprobe -v error -show_entries stream=codec_name,width,height out.h264
```
Expected: the tool prints the negotiated resolution/format/stride and
writes a non-empty file; `ffprobe` reports `codec_name=h264` and the correct
width/height. The encoder prepends its Annex-B SPS/PPS extradata so the
file is a self-contained elementary stream.
If you see `impl_ext_end_proxy called from wrong context` warnings, a
PipeWire proxy operation ran without the thread-loop lock — all pw
calls that send messages (connect, stream, core) must happen under
`pw_thread_loop_lock`.
## Sender / receiver loopback (Phase 5, manual)
Two terminals on the same desktop session:
```sh
./build/src/app/screencast --receive # terminal 1: window appears
./build/src/app/screencast --send # terminal 2: portal source picker
```
Expected: the receiver window shows the captured desktop in near real time.
If the receiver starts after the sender, a few `non-existing PPS` decode
errors are normal until the next keyframe arrives (the GOP is ~0.4s);
video should appear within a second. Stop either side with Ctrl-C.
Optional flags: `--port`, `--peer HOST[:PORT]`, `--bitrate KBPS`,
`--target window`.
Notes: the encoder runs a VBV that caps keyframe bursts to roughly two
frame periods of bytes, and the receiver requests a 4MB UDP receive
buffer (clamped by `net.core.rmem_max`). For very high `--bitrate`
values, raise `net.core.rmem_max` on the receiver machine.
The headless equivalent runs as part of `meson test` (`udp loopback` test):
synthetic frames → encode → packetize → localhost UDP → depacketize →
decode, no portal or window involved.
## Formatting
```sh
find include src tests -type f \( -name '*.cpp' -o -name '*.h' \) \
-exec clang-format --dry-run --Werror {} +
```