webpmux reading arguments from a file error

Eduardo Wolff Carvalho

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Sep 10, 2023, 2:54:53 AM9/10/23

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As stated in the documentation (https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/webpmux), webpmux is supposed to work with an argument file.

As the animated webp files I am creating can have more than a hundred frames, I assumed this would be the only way to make it work, so I created a script to generate the argument file, but when I try to run it:

D:\3D\_cmd>webpmux WebPAnimscript.txt
Error: Reading arguments from a file is a feature unavailable with Unicode binaries.

I am on a Windows 10 PC, and I downloaded the "precompiled" latest binaries from the official source, currently on version 1.3.1.

Does this error mean the only way for me to use webpmux with an argument file is to compile it myself?

Yannis Guyon

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Sep 11, 2023, 10:30:43 AM9/11/23

to WebP Discussion, edu....@gmail.com

For context, this is the change that introduced Unicode support:

https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libwebp/+/9cf9841b5e1669cc6678991419cdcb7b5e879237

I remember that handling Unicode file arguments on Windows seemed too time-demanding compared to the use case,

and thus that part was postponed, considering that users could still use argument files but with non-Unicode binaries.

Unicode support was also toggled on by default in binary releases, making the argument file feature unavailable.

> Does this error mean the only way for me to use webpmux with an argument file is to compile it myself?

Unfortunately, as of today, yes. I wonder if we could bundle some webpmux_no_unicode binary into the archive next time, or if the added confusion is not worth the feature.

James Zern

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Sep 11, 2023, 6:48:44 PM9/11/23

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On Mon, Sep 11, 2023 at 7:30 AM 'Yannis Guyon' via WebP Discussion <webp-d...@webmproject.org> wrote:

For context, this is the change that introduced Unicode support:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libwebp/+/9cf9841b5e1669cc6678991419cdcb7b5e879237

I remember that handling Unicode file arguments on Windows seemed too time-demanding compared to the use case,
and thus that part was postponed, considering that users could still use argument files but with non-Unicode binaries.
Unicode support was also toggled on by default in binary releases, making the argument file feature unavailable.

> Does this error mean the only way for me to use webpmux with an argument file is to compile it myself?
Unfortunately, as of today, yes. I wonder if we could bundle some webpmux_no_unicode binary into the archive next time, or if the added confusion is not worth the feature.

I had a work in progress fix for this some time ago, but never got back to it, partially for lack of demand. I think we can get this fixed, but given schedules I can't promise it for the next release.

On Sunday, September 10, 2023 at 8:54:53 AM UTC+2 edu....@gmail.com wrote:
As stated in the documentation (https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/webpmux), webpmux is supposed to work with an argument file.

As the animated webp files I am creating can have more than a hundred frames, I assumed this would be the only way to make it work, so I created a script to generate the argument file, but when I try to run it:

D:\3D\_cmd>webpmux WebPAnimscript.txt
Error: Reading arguments from a file is a feature unavailable with Unicode binaries.

I am on a Windows 10 PC, and I downloaded the "precompiled" latest binaries from the official source, currently on version 1.3.1.

Does this error mean the only way for me to use webpmux with an argument file is to compile it myself?

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Eduardo Wolff Carvalho

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Sep 13, 2023, 7:02:54 PM9/13/23

to WebP Discussion, Yannis Guyon, edu....@gmail.com

Thanks for the replies, James and Yannis,

"I had a work in progress fix for this some time ago, but never got back to it, partially for lack of demand. I think we can get this fixed, but given schedules I can't promise it for the next release." - James

No worries regarding which version ahead gets updated to support argument file back. I am not in a hurry to get this. I found out very few of my animations actually require the parameter file, I have been able to create most of them using a string variable in the batch script, and for the few ones where I cannot assemble the animation straight in webp format with webpmux, I can assemble them in PNG format into an APNG and use APNG2WEBP to convert the whole animation to webp, so I get the end result and it is very similar.

"For context, this is the change that introduced Unicode support:

https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libwebp/+/9cf9841b5e1669cc6678991419cdcb7b5e879237" - Yannis

I suppose by identifying the change that initiated the "arguments from a file" issue, you possibly can tell which version of the package that change was first applied to. From following the link you sent I was not able to identify the version number. Would you mind? I wonder how far back would I need to go to get a precompiled webpmux.exe that accepts a file for parameters...

James Zern

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Sep 14, 2023, 1:10:27 AM9/14/23

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Hi,

On Wed, Sep 13, 2023 at 4:02 PM Eduardo Wolff Carvalho <edu....@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks for the replies, James and Yannis,

"I had a work in progress fix for this some time ago, but never got back to it, partially for lack of demand. I think we can get this fixed, but given schedules I can't promise it for the next release." - James

No worries regarding which version ahead gets updated to support argument file back. I am not in a hurry to get this. I found out very few of my animations actually require the parameter file, I have been able to create most of them using a string variable in the batch script, and for the few ones where I cannot assemble the animation straight in webp format with webpmux, I can assemble them in PNG format into an APNG and use APNG2WEBP to convert the whole animation to webp, so I get the end result and it is very similar.

"For context, this is the change that introduced Unicode support:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libwebp/+/9cf9841b5e1669cc6678991419cdcb7b5e879237" - Yannis

I suppose by identifying the change that initiated the "arguments from a file" issue, you possibly can tell which version of the package that change was first applied to. From following the link you sent I was not able to identify the version number. Would you mind? I wonder how far back would I need to go to get a precompiled webpmux.exe that accepts a file for parameters...

You'd need to go back before 1.2.3:

https://crbug.com/webp/559#c7

Em segunda-feira, 11 de setembro de 2023 às 11:30:43 UTC-3, Yannis Guyon escreveu:
For context, this is the change that introduced Unicode support:
https://chromium.googlesource.com/webm/libwebp/+/9cf9841b5e1669cc6678991419cdcb7b5e879237

I remember that handling Unicode file arguments on Windows seemed too time-demanding compared to the use case,
and thus that part was postponed, considering that users could still use argument files but with non-Unicode binaries.
Unicode support was also toggled on by default in binary releases, making the argument file feature unavailable.

> Does this error mean the only way for me to use webpmux with an argument file is to compile it myself?
Unfortunately, as of today, yes. I wonder if we could bundle some webpmux_no_unicode binary into the archive next time, or if the added confusion is not worth the feature.

On Sunday, September 10, 2023 at 8:54:53 AM UTC+2 edu....@gmail.com wrote:
As stated in the documentation (https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/docs/webpmux), webpmux is supposed to work with an argument file.

As the animated webp files I am creating can have more than a hundred frames, I assumed this would be the only way to make it work, so I created a script to generate the argument file, but when I try to run it:

D:\3D\_cmd>webpmux WebPAnimscript.txt
Error: Reading arguments from a file is a feature unavailable with Unicode binaries.

I am on a Windows 10 PC, and I downloaded the "precompiled" latest binaries from the official source, currently on version 1.3.1.

Does this error mean the only way for me to use webpmux with an argument file is to compile it myself?

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