3 GStreamer [meson](http://mesonbuild.com/) based repositories aggregrator.
5 Check out this module and run meson on it, and it will git clone the other
6 GStreamer modules as [meson subprojects](http://mesonbuild.com/Subprojects.html)
7 and build everything in one go. Once that is done you can switch into an
8 development environment which allows you to easily develop and test the latest
9 version of GStreamer without the need to install anything or touch an existing
10 GStreamer system installation.
14 ### Install git and python 3.5+
16 If you're on Linux, you probably already have these. On macOS, you can use the
17 [official Python installer](https://www.python.org/downloads/mac-osx/).
19 You can find [instructions for Windows below](#windows-prerequisites-setup).
21 ### Install meson and ninja
23 Meson 0.52 or newer is required.
25 For cross-compilation Meson 0.54 or newer is required.
27 On Linux and macOS you can get meson through your package manager or using:
29 $ pip3 install --user meson
31 This will install meson into `~/.local/bin` which may or may not be included
32 automatically in your PATH by default.
34 You should get `ninja` using your package manager or download the [official
35 release](https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases) and put the `ninja`
38 You can find [instructions for Windows below](#windows-prerequisites-setup).
40 ### Build GStreamer and its modules
42 You can get all GStreamer built running:
49 This will automatically create the `build` directory and build everything
52 NOTE: On Windows, you *must* run this from [inside the Visual Studio command
53 prompt](#running-meson-on-windows) of the appropriate architecture and version.
55 ### External dependencies
57 All mandatory dependencies of GStreamer are included as [meson subprojects](https://mesonbuild.com/Subprojects.html):
58 libintl, zlib, libffi, glib. Some optional dependencies are also included as
59 subprojects, such as ffmpeg, x264, json-glib, graphene, openh264, orc, etc.
61 Mandatory dependencies will be automatically built if meson cannot find them on
62 your system using pkg-config. The same is true for optional dependencies that
63 are included as subprojects. You can find a full list by looking at the
64 `subprojects` directory.
66 Plugins that need optional dependencies that aren't included can only be built
67 if they are provided by the system. Instructions on how to build some common
68 ones such as Qt5/QML are listed below. If you do not know how to provide an
69 optional dependency needed by a plugin, you should use [Cerbero](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/cerbero/#description)
70 which handles this for you automatically.
72 Plugins will be automatically enabled if possible, but you can ensure that
73 a particular plugin (especially if it has external dependencies) is built by
74 enabling the gstreamer repository that ships it and the plugin inside it. For
75 example, to enable the Qt5 plugin in the gst-plugins-good repository, you need
76 to run meson as follows:
79 meson -Dgood=enabled -Dgst-plugins-good:qt5=enabled builddir
82 This will cause Meson to error out if the plugin could not be enabled. You can
83 also flip the default and disable all plugins except those explicitly enabled
87 meson -Dauto_features=disabled -Dgstreamer:tools=enabled -Dbad=enabled -Dgst-plugins-bad:openh264=enabled
90 This will disable all optional features and then enable the `openh264` plugin
91 and the tools that ship with the core gstreamer repository: `gst-inspect-1.0`,
92 `gst-launch-1.0`, etc. As usual, you can change these values on a builddir that
93 has already been setup with `meson configure -Doption=value`.
95 ### Building the Qt5 QML plugin
97 If `qmake` is not in `PATH` and pkgconfig files are not available, you can
98 point the `QMAKE` env var to the Qt5 installation of your choosing before
99 running `meson` as shown above.
101 The plugin will be automatically enabled if possible, but you can ensure that
102 it is built by passing `-Dgood=enabled -Dgst-plugins-good:qt5=enabled` to `meson`.
104 ### Building the Intel MSDK plugin
106 On Linux, you need to have development files for `libmfx` installed. On
107 Windows, if you have the [Intel Media SDK](https://software.intel.com/en-us/media-sdk),
108 it will set the `INTELMEDIASDKROOT` environment variable, which will be used by
109 the build files to find `libmfx`.
111 The plugin will be automatically enabled if possible, but you can ensure it by
112 passing `-Dbad=enabled -Dgst-plugins-bad:msdk=enabled` to `meson`.
114 # Development environment
116 ## Development environment target
118 gst-build also contains a special `devenv` target that lets you enter an
119 development environment where you will be able to work on GStreamer
120 easily. You can get into that environment running:
123 ninja -C builddir devenv
126 If your operating system handles symlinks, built modules source code will be
127 available at the root of `gst-build/` for example GStreamer core will be in
128 `gstreamer/`. Otherwise they will be present in `subprojects/`. You can simply
129 hack in there and to rebuild you just need to rerun `ninja -C builddir`.
131 NOTE: In the development environment, a fully usable prefix is also configured
132 in `gst-build/prefix` where you can install any extra dependency/project.
134 An external script can be run in development environment with:
137 ./gst-env.py external_script.sh
140 ## Update git subprojects
142 We added a special `update` target to update subprojects (it uses `git pull
143 --rebase` meaning you should always make sure the branches you work on are
144 following the right upstream branch, you can set it with `git branch
145 --set-upstream-to origin/master` if you are working on `gst-build` master
148 Update all GStreamer modules and rebuild:
151 ninja -C builddir update
154 Update all GStreamer modules without rebuilding:
157 ninja -C builddir git-update
160 ## Custom subprojects
162 We also added a meson option, `custom_subprojects`, that allows the user
163 to provide a comma-separated list of subprojects that should be built
164 alongside the default ones.
170 git clone my_subproject
172 rm -rf * && meson .. -Dcustom_subprojects=my_subproject
178 You can easily run the test of all the components:
184 To list all available tests:
187 meson test -C builddir --list
190 To run all the tests of a specific component:
193 meson test -C builddir --suite gst-plugins-base
196 Or to run a specific test file:
199 meson test -C builddir --suite gstreamer gst_gstbuffer
202 Run a specific test from a specific test file:
205 GST_CHECKS=test_subbuffer meson test -C builddir --suite gstreamer gst_gstbuffer
208 ## Optional Installation
210 `gst-build` has been created primarily for [development usage](#development-environment-target),
211 but you can also install everything that is built into a predetermined prefix like so:
214 meson --prefix=/path/to/install/prefix builddir
216 meson install -C builddir
219 Note that the installed files have `RPATH` stripped, so you will need to set
220 `LD_LIBRARY_PATH`, `DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH`, or `PATH` as appropriate for your
221 platform for things to work.
223 ## Checkout another branch using worktrees
225 If you need to have several versions of GStreamer coexisting (eg. `master` and `1.16`),
226 you can use the `gst-worktree.py` script provided by `gst-build`. It allows you
227 to create a new `gst-build` environment with new checkout of all the GStreamer modules as
228 [git worktrees](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-worktree).
230 For example to get a fresh checkout of `gst-1.16` from a `gst-build` repository
231 that is checked out at master, you can run:
234 ./gst-worktree.py add gst-build-1.16 origin/1.16
237 This will create a new ``gst-build-1.16`` directory pointing to the given branch `1.16`
238 for all the subprojects (gstreamer, gst-plugins-base, etc.)
241 ## Add information about GStreamer development environment in your prompt line
245 We automatically handle `bash` and set `$PS1` accordingly.
247 If the automatic `$PS1` override is not desired (maybe you have a fancy custom prompt), set the `$GST_BUILD_DISABLE_PS1_OVERRIDE` environment variable to `TRUE` and use `$GST_ENV` when setting the custom prompt, for example with a snippet like the following:
251 if [[ -n "${GST_ENV-}" ]];
253 PS1+="[ ${GST_ENV} ]"
260 In your powerline theme configuration file (by default in
261 `{POWERLINE INSTALLATION DIR}/config_files/themes/shell/default.json`)
262 you should add a new environment segment as follow:
266 "function": "powerline.segments.common.env.environment",
267 "args": { "variable": "GST_ENV" },
272 ## Windows Prerequisites Setup
274 On Windows, some of the components may require special care.
278 Use the [Git for Windows](https://gitforwindows.org/) installer. It will
279 install a `bash` prompt with basic shell utils and up-to-date git binaries.
281 During installation, when prompted about `PATH`, you should select the
284 ![Select "Git from the command line and also from 3rd-party software"](/data/images/git-installer-PATH.png)
286 ### Python 3.5+ on Windows
288 Use the [official Python installer](https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/).
289 You must ensure that Python is installed into `PATH`:
291 ![Enable Add Python to PATH, then click Customize Installation](/data/images/py-installer-page1.png)
293 You may also want to customize the installation and install it into
294 a system-wide location such as `C:\PythonXY`, but this is not required.
298 The easiest way to install Ninja on Windows is with `pip3`, which will download
299 the compiled binary and place it into the `Scripts` directory inside your
306 You can also download the [official release](https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases)
307 and place it into `PATH`.
311 **IMPORTANT**: Do not use the Meson MSI installer since it is experimental and known to not
312 work with `gst-build`.
314 You can use `pip3` to install Meson, same as Ninja above:
320 Note that Meson is written entirely in Python, so you can also run it as-is
321 from the [git repository](https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/) if you want to
322 use the latest master branch for some reason.
324 **ARM64 native only**: You might need
325 [native upstream ARM64 support fix](https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/pull/7432)
326 which is expected to be a part of Meson 0.55.1.
327 If your Meson package version which was installed via `pip3` is lower than 0.55.1,
328 then you need to use [the latest master branch](https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson/).
330 ### Running Meson on Windows
332 At present, to build with Visual Studio, you need to run Meson from inside the
333 VS 2019 command prompt. Press `Start`, and search for `VS 2019`, and click on
334 `x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019`, or a prompt named similar to
337 ![x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019](/data/images/vs-2019-dev-prompt.png)
339 **ARM64 native only**: Since Visual Studio might not install dedicated command
340 prompt for native ARM64 build, you might need to run `vcvarsx86_arm64.bat` on CMD.
341 Please refer to [this document](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/build/building-on-the-command-line?view=vs-2019#developer_command_file_locations)
343 ### Setup a mingw/wine based development environment on linux
345 #### Install wine and mingw
350 sudo dnf install mingw64-gcc mingw64-gcc-c++ mingw64-pkg-config mingw64-winpthreads wine
353 FIXME: Figure out what needs to be installed on other distros
355 #### Get meson from git
357 This simplifies the process and allows us to use the cross files
358 defined in meson itself.
361 git clone https://github.com/mesonbuild/meson.git
364 #### Build and install
367 BUILDDIR=$PWD/winebuild/
368 export WINEPREFIX=$BUILDDIR/wine-prefix/ && mkdir -p $WINEPREFIX
369 # Setting the prefix is mandatory as it is used to setup symlinks during uninstalled development
370 meson/meson.py $BUILDDIR --cross-file meson/cross/linux-mingw-w64-64bit.txt -Dgst-plugins-bad:vulkan=disabled -Dorc:gtk_doc=disabled --prefix=$BUILDDIR/wininstall/ -Djson-glib:gtk_doc=disabled
371 meson/meson.py install -C $BUILDDIR/
374 > __NOTE__: You should use `meson install -C $BUILDDIR` each time you make a change
375 > instead of the usual `ninja -C build` as the environment is not uninstalled.
377 #### The development environment
379 You can get into the development environment the usual way:
382 ninja -C $BUILDDIR/ devenv
385 Alternatively, if you'd rather not start a shell in your workflow, you
386 can mutate the current environment into a suitable state like so:
389 gst-env.py --only-environment
392 This will print output suitable for an sh-compatible `eval` function,
393 just like `ssh-agent -s`.
395 After setting up [binfmt] to use wine for windows binaries,
396 you can run GStreamer tools under wine by running:
399 gst-launch-1.0.exe videotestsrc ! glimagesink
402 [binfmt]: http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/binfmt.d.5.html