Building from Source

If you prefer to compile Media Sort yourself, you will need the Rust toolchain (version 1.96 or later) and Clang (needed to build bindings via libmpv-sys). Media Sort also requires libmpv at runtime for video playback support.

Build Prerequisites

Before compiling, install the required compiler tools and development libraries:

Linux

Arch Linux / CachyOS

sudo pacman -S clang mpv cmake dav1d

On x86_64, also install nasm (needed for the vendored libjpeg-turbo SIMD build):

sudo pacman -S nasm

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt install clang libclang-dev libmpv-dev libasound2-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libx11-dev libvulkan-dev cmake nasm libdav1d-dev

macOS

Install Xcode Command Line Tools and Homebrew dependencies:

xcode-select --install
brew install mpv dav1d cmake

Windows

Install the following prerequisites:

Rust toolchain (1.96 or later)
Microsoft Visual Studio Build Tools (for the MSVC linker)
LLVM / Clang
mpv development files via vcpkg:
Terminal window
```
vcpkg install mpv
```
meson and ninja via pip, and nasm (x64/x86 only) via Chocolatey (needed for the vendored libjpeg-turbo SIMD build):
Terminal window
```
pip install meson ninja
choco install nasm
```

Compiling the Project

Clone the project repository:

git clone https://github.com/Lolle2000la/Media-Sort.git
cd Media-Sort

Compile the workspace using Cargo:
Terminal window
```
cargo build --release
```
The compiled binary will be generated under the target directory:
Terminal window
```
./target/release/media-sort-gui
```

Runtime Requirements

After building, libmpv must be installed on your system for video playback. Without it, Media Sort still functions for images and audio, but in-app video and GIF playback will be disabled. Video files are still detected and browsable, though thumbnails will not be available for them.

For faster video thumbnails, Media Sort can also use ffmpeg when it is available. Official Windows and macOS packages bundle it automatically; on Linux you can install it via your package manager. It is optional — without it, video thumbnails fall back to mpv.