Gnash - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Introduction

Gnash is a GNU Flash movie player. Previously, it was only possible to play flash movies with proprietary software. While there are some other free flash players, none support anything beyond SWF v4. Gnash is based on GameSWF, and supports many SWF v7 features.

The main developer's web site for Gnash is located on the Free Software Foundation's Savannah project support server. This site allows you to file bugs, or view the sources in CVS.

Features

Runs standalone

Gnash can run standalone to play flash movies.

Browser plugin

Gnash can also run as a plugin from within most Mozilla derived browsers, such as Firefox. Gnash also has support for Konqueror.

SWF v7 compliant

Gnash can play many current flash movies.

XML Message server

Gnash also supports an XML based message system as documented in the Flash Format specification.

High Quality Output

Gnash uses OpenGL for rendering the graphics on the desktop, and AntiGrain (AGG) for embedded framebuffer only devices.

Free Software

Gnash is 100% free software. For more information on the GPL, go to the Free Software Foundation web site.

Better Security

Gnash pays extra attention to all network connections, and allows the user to control access.

Get the Software

Downloading Gnash

Gnash is being actively developed at the moment. Therefore, although many features work, not all movies play successfully. The the second alpha release message describes the functionality you can expect.

Gnash releases can be found in the subdirectory /gnu/gnash/ on your favourite GNU mirror. Win32 users can download an executable based on a CVS snapshot. NOTE: these are unsupported executables as they are based on a CVS snapshot! Please DO NOT file bug reports on these executables!

CVS Access to Sources

The latest gnash development sources are available via anonymous CVS. Use the following commands to check them out (just hit return when you are prompted for the password):

export CVS_RSH="ssh"
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sv.gnu.org:/sources/gnash co gnash

For more detailed information on CVS usage at gnu.org, read CVS Usage at gnu.org. You can also browse the sources.

If you cannot use ssh because you only have access to the internet through a proxy, you can still get the latest version from a directory of daily cvs snapshots on the web.

For other ways to obtain Gnash, please read How to get GNU Software

Documentation

The rough draft of the manual describing the most recent release (0.7.2) is available in a variety of formats.

A snapshot of the current CVS revision of the manual in HTML is also available. Alternately, you may build the documentation from your checkout. Please refer to the instructions in the current manual for instructions on how to do this.

You can also view Doxygen produced documentation that is automatically generated by scanning the sources. This is aimed at developers, but can be useful to others as well.

Mailing Lists/Newsgroups

Gnash has three mailing lists hosted at gnu.org. Archives of these lists are stored at http://mail.gnu.org/pipermail/:

gnash-dev@gnu.org is for discussion of gnash development, porting to new platforms, and ideas for the future. This is the best list for technical questions. To subscribe, go the http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnash-dev
gnash@gnu.org is for discussion of Gnash. This list addresses ideas for the future, general gnash usage or problems, and so on. New alpha and stable releases are announced here. To subscribe, go the http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnash Volume is typically low.
gnash-commit@gnu.org is where summaries of changes committed to the CVS repository are automatically posted. If you wish to see these changes as they happen, http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnash-commit Volume is sporadic.

Announcements about Gnash and most other GNU Software are made on <info-gnu@gnu.org>.

Request an Enhancement

If you would like any new feature to be included in future versions of Gnash, please send a request to <gnash-dev@gnu.org>. Please remember that development of Gnash is a volunteer effort, and you can also contribute to its development. The best way to contribute to Gnash's development is to join the mailing lists, join the discussions, and contribute patches. For information about contributing to the GNU Project itself, please read How to help GNU.

Report a Bug

If you think you have found a bug in Gnash, then you should send as complete a report as possible at https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=gnash. When filing a bug report, please include information on which operating system and which cpu you are experiencing this problem on. Often it is likely the bug you have noticed has already been filed, please review existing bug reports before submitting a new one.

Maintainer

Gnash is currently being maintained by Rob Savoye. Other members of the current development team are Sandro Santilli, Bastiaan Jacques, Vitaly Alexeev, Tomas Groth, Udo Giacomozzi, Hannes Mayr, Markus Gothe, Ann Barcomb, plus a host of others.

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