| <refentry id="gst-running" revision="08 Oct 2005"> |
| <refmeta> |
| <refentrytitle>Running GStreamer Applications</refentrytitle> |
| <manvolnum>3</manvolnum> |
| <refmiscinfo>GStreamer Core</refmiscinfo> |
| </refmeta> |
| |
| <refnamediv> |
| <refname>Running GStreamer Applications</refname> |
| <refpurpose> |
| How to run and debug your GStreamer application |
| </refpurpose> |
| </refnamediv> |
| |
| <refsect1> |
| <title>Running and debugging GStreamer Applications</title> |
| |
| <refsect2> |
| <title>Environment variables</title> |
| |
| <para> |
| GStreamer inspects a few of environment variables in addition to standard |
| variables like <envar>LANG</envar>, <envar>PATH</envar> or <envar>HOME</envar>. |
| </para> |
| |
| <formalpara id="GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH"> |
| <title><envar>GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH</envar></title> |
| |
| <para> |
| |
| This environment variable can be set to a colon-separated list of paths. |
| If this variable is not set, GStreamer will fill in this list for you |
| with |
| <itemizedlist> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| plug-ins in the user's home directory. These are stored in a directory called |
| <filename>plugins</filename> inside the |
| <filename>.gstreamer-&GST_MAJORMINOR;</filename> directory in the user's |
| home directory. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| plug-ins installed system-wide. On this system, they are stored in |
| <filename>&GST_PLUGINS_DIR;</filename>. |
| </para> |
| |
| </listitem> |
| </itemizedlist> |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| GStreamer will scan these paths for GStreamer plug-ins. These plug-ins will |
| be loaded after the plug-ins in the GST_PLUGIN_PATH variable below. |
| |
| The paths are scanned in the given order. This allows a user to override |
| system-installed plug-ins with his own versions. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Setting this variable to an empty string will cause GStreamer not to scan any |
| system paths at all for plug-ins. This can be useful if you're running |
| uninstalled (for development purposes) or while running testsuites. |
| </para> |
| |
| </formalpara> |
| |
| <formalpara id="GST_PLUGIN_PATH"> |
| <title><envar>GST_PLUGIN_PATH</envar></title> |
| |
| <para> |
| This environment variable can be set to a colon-separated list of paths. |
| GStreamer will scan these paths for GStreamer plug-ins. These plug-ins will |
| be loaded in addition to, and before, the plug-ins in the system paths. |
| </para> |
| |
| </formalpara> |
| |
| <formalpara id="GST_DEBUG"> |
| <title><envar>GST_DEBUG</envar></title> |
| |
| <para> |
| If GStreamer has been configured with <option>--enable-gst-debug=yes</option>, |
| this variable can be set to a list of debug options, which cause GStreamer |
| to print out different types of debugging information to stderr. |
| </para> |
| <para> |
| The variable takes a comma-separated list of "category_name:level" pairs |
| to set specific levels for the individual categories. |
| The level value ranges from 0 (nothing) to 5 (LOG). |
| <variablelist> |
| |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>1 - <option>ERROR</option></term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| Logs all fatal errors. These are errors that do not allow the core or elements |
| to perform the requested action. The application can still recover if |
| programmed to handle the conditions that triggered the error. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>2 - <option>WARNING</option></term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| Logs all warnings. Typically these are non-fatal, but user-visible problems |
| are expected to happen. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>3 - <option>INFO</option></term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| Logs all informational messages. These are typically used for events in |
| the system that only happen once, or are important and rare enough to be |
| logged at this level. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>4 - <option>DEBUG</option></term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| Logs all debug messages. These are general debug messages for events |
| that happen only a limited number of times during an object's lifetime; |
| these include setup, teardown, change of parameters, ... |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| |
| <varlistentry> |
| <term>5 - <option>LOG</option></term> |
| <listitem> |
| <para> |
| Logs all log messages. These are messages for events |
| that happen repeatedly during an object's lifetime; |
| these include streaming and steady-state conditions. |
| </para> |
| </listitem> |
| </varlistentry> |
| </variablelist> |
| |
| The category_name can contain "<option>*"</option> as a wildcard. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| For example, setting <envar>GST_DEBUG</envar> to |
| <option>GST_AUTOPLUG:5,GST_ELEMENT_*:3</option>, will cause the |
| <option>GST_AUTOPLUG</option> category to be logged at full |
| <option>LOG</option> level, while all categories starting with |
| <option>GST_ELEMENT_</option> will be logged at <option>INFO</option> level. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| To get all possible debug output, set |
| <envar>GST_DEBUG</envar> |
| to <option>*:5</option> |
| </para> |
| |
| </formalpara> |
| |
| <formalpara id="GST_DEBUG_NO_COLOR"> |
| <title><envar>GST_DEBUG_NO_COLOR</envar></title> |
| |
| <para> |
| Set this environment variable to any value ("1" typically) to switch off |
| colouring in GST_DEBUG output. This has the same effect as specifying the |
| <option>--gst-debug-no-color</option> command line option to well-behaved |
| GStreamer applications (ie. those that pass command-line options correctly to |
| GStreamer). |
| This is particularly useful to reduce the size of debug output and also allows |
| for the output to be compressed much better than with colours turned on. |
| </para> |
| |
| </formalpara> |
| |
| <formalpara id="GST_DEBUG_DUMP_DOT_DIR"> |
| <title><envar>GST_DEBUG_DUMP_DOT_DIR</envar></title> |
| |
| <para> |
| Set this environment variable to a path to turn on all |
| #GST_DEBUG_BIN_TO_DOT_FILE or #GST_DEBUG_BIN_TO_DOT_FILE_WITH_TS calls |
| and have the dot files in that location. |
| </para> |
| |
| </formalpara> |
| |
| <formalpara id="GST_REGISTRY_FORK"> |
| <title><envar>GST_REGISTRY_FORK</envar></title> |
| |
| <para> |
| Set this environment variable to "no" to prevent GStreamer from forking on |
| startup in order to update the plugin registry. This is useful for debugging |
| purposes, but should not be used under normal circumstances, since it means |
| that plugins may be loaded into memory even if they are not needed by the |
| application. |
| </para> |
| |
| </formalpara> |
| |
| <formalpara id="GST_REGISTRY_UPDATE"> |
| <title><envar>GST_REGISTRY_UPDATE</envar></title> |
| |
| <para> |
| Set this environment variable to "no" to prevent GStreamer from updating the |
| plugin registry. This is useful for embedded device which is not updating the |
| plugins frequently, it will save time when doing gst_init(). |
| </para> |
| |
| </formalpara> |
| |
| </refsect2> |
| |
| </refsect1> |
| |
| </refentry> |