All, really appreciate your help with this - burned way to much time on something that should be dead simple. Read through the documentation very carefully, and no joy ... the library file exists, permissions are good, not a symbolic link
/usr/bin/ld: warning: link.res conyains output sections; did you forget -T
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -l./lib/libavutil
Code (ignore typos - had to manually type
Unit ffmpeg_interface
{$mode objfpc}{$H+}
Interface
Uses
Classes, CTypes, SysUtils ;
Function avutil_version() ; cuint ; cdecl; external './lib/libavutil.so' ;
Implementation
End.