Getting GStreamer

How do I get GStreamer?

Generally speaking, you have three options, ranging from easy to hard :

• binary packages for Windows, macOS, iOS and Android

• distribution-specific packages

• source tarballs

• git

What is the difference between versions 0.10 and 1.0?

There seem to be different GStreamer versions, like 0.10 and 1.0? What's up with that?

GStreamer-0.10 and GStreamer-1.0 are the main version 'series' currently in use. For all practical purposes you should think of them as two completely different libraries which just happen to have a similar name. They can be installed in parallel and are completely independent.

GStreamer 1.x has been the main stable series since 2012. GStreamer 0.10 is no longer maintained.

For the 0.10 version you will need the 0.10 plugins and bindings (gst-plugins 0.10.x, gst-ffmpeg 0.10.x, gst-python 0.10.x etc.), while for the 1.0 version you will need the 1.0 plugins and bindings (ie. gst-plugins-base 1.0.x, gst-plugins-good 1.0.x, gst-plugins-ugly 1.0.x, gst-plugins-bad 1.0.x, gst-ffmpeg 1.0.x, gst-python 1.0.x). The micro version for each main version does not have to match exactly, only the major versions needs to be the same (ie. it may be that the current gst-plugins-good version is 1.0.6 and the current GStreamer core version is 1.0.13). GStreamer-1.0 will not see or use any of the GStreamer-0.10 plugins and vice versa.

All GStreamer command line tools are suffixed with their main version, e.g. gst-launch-1.0 and gst-inspect-1.0.

Applications will use either GStreamer-1.0 or GStreamer-0.10, since the 1.0 and 0.10 API/ABI are not compatible.

Odd-numbered versions such as 0.9.x, 0.11.x, 1.3.x, 1.5.x, 1.7.x etc. are unstable developer releases that should generally not be used.

So which GStreamer version should I get?

You should download GStreamer 1.x. GStreamer-0.10 is no longer maintained.

How can I install GStreamer from source?

We provide tarballs of our releases on our own site, at http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/src/

When compiling from source, make sure you set the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable correctly to the pkgconfig subdir of your install prefix's libdir, to make sure your newly-installed GStreamer versions are picked up when building against GStreamer. For example, if you configured GStreamer with the default prefix (which is /usr/local), then you need to:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig

before building GStreamer plugin modules. After installing GStreamer from source on Linux, run sudo ldconfig to make sure your new libs will be found.

Please note that GStreamer is not an easy thing to build from source, since it has so many interconnected pieces from multiple modules, which must all be installed just right and must all find each other in the right versions.

If you have GStreamer already installed from packages, it is strongly recommended that you find newer packages instead of installing from source, or upgrade to a distro version that ships newer packages. Installing from source into one prefix with distro packages in another prefix can cause problems if it's not done right, and it is very difficult for anyone to provide help with such a setup.

Are there premade binaries available?

Yes, we currently provide precompiled packages for Windows, OS/X, Android and iOS.

We currently do not provide packages for Linux distributions, but rather rely on the distributions for that. GStreamer packages should be available for all major (and minor) distributions.

Why don't you provide premade binaries for distribution XY?

GStreamer is run on a volunteer basis. The packages that are provided are made by non-paid people who do this on their own time. The distributions we support with binaries are the distributions that we have people who have volunteered to make binaries for. If you are interested in maintaining GStreamer binaries for other distributions or Unices we would be happy to hear from you. Contact us through the GStreamer Discourse or Matrix.

I am having trouble compiling GStreamer on my LFS installation, why?

If you are running LFS our basic opinion is that you should be knowledgeable enough to solve any build issues you get on your own. Being volunteered based we can't promise support to anyone of course, but are you using LFS consider yourself extra unsupported. We neither can or want to know enough, about how your unique system is configured, to be able to help you. That said, if you come to the Matrix rooms we might of course be able to give you some general hints and pointers.

How do I get GStreamer through git?

See this page : http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/dev/ for git access (anonymous and developer).