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authorThomas Vander Stichele2005-09-06 09:05:50 -0500
committerThomas Vander Stichele2005-09-06 09:05:50 -0500
commitc320202b4175bc2c3f451d997bc4622c103ee678 (patch)
tree40c507edd9bc5e957d0bac4a650a63328b3cfa5a /README
parent012dfb8b33969b582f9132ac9f95402b3098ff43 (diff)
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releasing 0.9.1
Original commit message from CVS: releasing 0.9.1
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1WHAT IT IS 1WHAT IT IS
2---------- 2----------
3This is gst-plugins, a set of plug-ins for GStreamer. 3This is GStreamer Bad Plug-ins.
4
5This package is in the 0.9.x series. This means that this is a
6development series leading up to a stable 0.10.x series.
7You have been warned.
8
9GStreamer 0.9 development series - Hung by a Thread
10---------------------------------------------------
11
12Starring
13
14 GSTREAMER
15
16The core around which all other modules revolve. Base functionality and
17libraries, some essential elements, documentation, and testing.
18
19 BASE
20
21A well-groomed and well-maintained collection of GStreamer plug-ins and
22elements, spanning the range of possible types of elements one would want
23to write for GStreamer.
24
25And introducing, for the first time ever, on the development screen ...
26
27 THE GOOD
28
29 --- "Such ingratitude. After all the times I've saved your life."
30
31A collection of plug-ins you'd want to have right next to you on the
32battlefield. Shooting sharp and making no mistakes, these plug-ins have it
33all: good looks, good code, and good licensing. Documented and dressed up
34in tests. If you're looking for a role model to base your own plug-in on,
35here it is.
36
37If you find a plot hole or a badly lip-synced line of code in them,
38let us know - it is a matter of honour for us to ensure Blondie doesn't look
39like he's been walking 100 miles through the desert without water.
40
41 THE UGLY
42
43 --- "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
44
45There are times when the world needs a color between black and white.
46Quality code to match the good's, but two-timing, backstabbing and ready to
47sell your freedom down the river. These plug-ins might have a patent noose
48around their neck, or a lock-up license, or any other problem that makes you
49think twice about shipping them.
50
51We don't call them ugly because we like them less. Does a mother love her
52son less because he's not as pretty as the other ones ? No - she commends
53him on his great personality. These plug-ins are the life of the party.
54And we'll still step in and set them straight if you report any unacceptable
55behaviour - because there are two kinds of people in the world, my friend:
56those with a rope around their neck and the people who do the cutting.
57
58 THE BAD
59
60 --- "That an accusation?"
61
62No perfectly groomed moustache or any amount of fine clothing is going to
63cover up the truth - these plug-ins are Bad with a capital B.
64They look fine on the outside, and might even appear to get the job done, but
65at the end of the day they're a black sheep. Without a golden-haired angel
66to watch over them, they'll probably land in an unmarked grave at the final
67showdown.
68
69Don't bug us about their quality - exercise your Free Software rights,
70patch up the offender and send us the patch on the fastest steed you can
71steal from the Confederates. Because you see, in this world, there's two
72kinds of people, my friend: those with loaded guns and those who dig.
73You dig.
74
75The Lowdown
76-----------
77
78 --- "I've never seen so many plug-ins wasted so badly."
79
80GStreamer Plug-ins has grown so big that it's hard to separate the wheat from
81the chaff. Also, distributors have brought up issues about the legal status
82of some of the plug-ins we ship. To remedy this, we've divided the previous
83set of available plug-ins into four modules:
84
85- gst-plugins-base: a small and fixed set of plug-ins, covering a wide range
86 of possible types of elements; these are continuously kept up-to-date
87 with any core changes during the development series.
88
89 - We believe distributors can safely ship these plug-ins.
90 - People writing elements should base their code on these elements.
91 - These elements come with examples, documentation, and regression tests.
92
93- gst-plugins-good: a set of plug-ins that we consider to have good quality
94 code, correct functionality, our preferred license (LGPL for the plug-in
95 code, LGPL or LGPL-compatible for the supporting library).
96
97 - We believe distributors can safely ship these plug-ins.
98 - People writing elements should base their code on these elements.
99
100- gst-plugins-ugly: a set of plug-ins that have good quality and correct
101 functionality, but distributing them might pose problems. The license
102 on either the plug-ins or the supporting libraries might not be how we'd
103 like. The code might be widely known to present patent problems.
104
105 - Distributors should check if they want/can ship these plug-ins.
106 - People writing elements should base their code on these elements.
107
108- gst-plugins-bad: a set of plug-ins that aren't up to par compared to the
109 rest. They might be close to being good quality, but they're missing
110 something - be it a good code review, some documentation, a set of tests,
111 a real live maintainer, or some actual wide use.
112 If the blanks are filled in they might be upgraded to become part of
113 either gst-plugins-good or gst-plugins-ugly, depending on the other factors.
114
115 - If the plug-ins break, you can't complain - instead, you can fix the
116 problem and send us a patch, or bribe someone into fixing them for you.
117 - New contributors can start here for things to work on.
118
119INSTALLING FROM PACKAGES
120------------------------
121You should always prefer installing from packages first. GStreamer is
122well-maintained for a number of distributions, including Fedora, Debian,
123Ubuntu, Mandrake, Gentoo, ...
124
125Only in cases where you:
126- want to hack on GStreamer
127- want to verify that a bug has been fixed
128- do not have a sane distribution
129should you choose to build from source tarballs or CVS.
130
131Find more information about the various packages at
132http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/download/
133
134COMPILING FROM SOURCE TARBALLS
135------------------------------
136- again, make sure that you really need to install from source !
137 If GStreamer is one of your first projects ever that you build from source,
138 consider taking on an easier project.
4 139
5COMPILING FROM SOURCE
6---------------------
7- make sure you compiled and at least did a test-run of GStreamer (core)
8- check output of ./configure --help to see if any options apply to you 140- check output of ./configure --help to see if any options apply to you
9- configure the source tree: 141- run
10 - if you installed GStreamer, then do: 142 ./configure
11 ./configure
12 If configure complains about missing GStreamer, you should try the
13 following command:
14 $export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=prefix/lib/pkgconfig
15 where prefix should be replaced by the prefix you used to configure
16 GStreamer. (Be mindful NOT to ADD a trailing / to that option !).
17 After that, rerun ./configure. If this doesn't fix it, you have other
18 issues ;)
19
20 - if you didn't install GStreamer, you can still compile the plug-ins.
21 Add the path to gstreamer-uninstalled.pc (which lives in the gstreamer
22 source tree) to PKG_CONFIG_PATH
23 or run configure --with-pkg-config-path=(path to gstreamer uninstalled)
24
25 - the output of configure will give you a list of plug-ins with external
26 dependencies (ie, depending on other libs, see below). By no means
27 should you try to get them all built on your first run. This is hard
28 enough as it is ;) Resist the urge to get the most features for now.
29 It doesn't list all of the non-depending plug-ins, which get built
30 regardless (unless you explicitly asked it not to).
31
32- build the tree:
33 make 143 make
34 If any plug-in causes a problem at this stage, you should re-configure 144
35 with --disable-(dependency) 145 to build GStreamer.
36 and doublecheck if configure reports this plug-in as being disabled. 146- if you want to install it (not required), run
37 Then re-run make. 147 make install
38 148- You should create a registry for things to work.
39- install: 149 If you ran make install in the previous step, run
40 - if you installed GStreamer, and want to install the plug-ins as well, run 150 gst-register
41 make install 151 as root.
42 and, as root, run 152
43 gst-register 153 If you didn't install, run
44 - if you installed GStreamer, but don't want to install the plug-ins, run 154 tools/gst-register
45 gst-register --gst-plugin-path=. 155 as a normal user.
46 - if you didn't install GStreamer, then do 156
47 path/to/gstreamer/tools/gst-register --gst-plugin-path=. 157- try out a simple test:
48 (Replace path/to/gstreamer obviously) 158 gst-launch fakesrc num_buffers=5 ! fakesink
49 159 (If you didn't install GStreamer, again prefix gst-launch with tools/)
50- test: 160
51 - run 161 If it outputs a bunch of messages from fakesrc and fakesink, everything is
52 gst-launch sinesrc ! fakesink 162 ok.
53 and prefix gst-launch with the path to gstreamer/tools if you didn't install 163
54 GStreamer. 164- After this, you're ready to install gst-plugins, which will provide the
55 If this doesn't give any errors, you can abort it. 165 functionality you're probably looking for by now, so go on and read
56 166 that README.
57 - try replacing fakesink with your choice of
58 osssink/esdsink/artsdsink/alsasink/jacksink (depending on what output
59 method you have available) and see if you hear a C tone.
60
61- After this, you should look into installing an application, like
62 gst-player, gst-editor or monkey-media with rhythmbox.
63 167
64COMPILING FROM CVS 168COMPILING FROM CVS
65------------------ 169------------------
66When building from CVS sources, you will need to run autogen.sh to generate 170When building from CVS sources, you will need to run autogen.sh to generate
67the build system files. 171the build system files.
68 172
69GStreamer is cutting-edge stuff. To be a CVS developer, you need 173You will need a set of additional tools typical for building from CVS,
70what used to be considered cutting-edge tools. 174including:
71 175- autoconf
72ATM, most of us have at least these versions : 176- automake
73 177- libtool
74* autoconf 2.52 (NOT 2.52d)
75* automake 1.5
76* gettext 0.11.5
77* libtool 1.4 (NOT Gentoo's genetic failure 1.4.2)
78* pkg-config 0.8.0
79 178
80autogen.sh will check for these versions and complain if you don't have 179autogen.sh will check for recent enough versions and complain if you don't have
81them. You can also specify specific versions of automake and autoconf with 180them. You can also specify specific versions of automake and autoconf with
82--with-automake and --with-autoconf 181--with-automake and --with-autoconf
83 182
@@ -87,8 +186,6 @@ autogen.sh can pass on arguments to configure - you just need to separate them
87from autogen.sh with -- between the two. 186from autogen.sh with -- between the two.
88prefix has been added to autogen.sh but will be passed on to configure because 187prefix has been added to autogen.sh but will be passed on to configure because
89some build scripts like that. 188some build scripts like that.
90You will probably have to pass at least --with-pkg-config-path to autogen.sh
91to point to the CVS version of GStreamer.
92 189
93When you have done this once, you can use autoregen.sh to re-autogen with 190When you have done this once, you can use autoregen.sh to re-autogen with
94the last passed options as a handy shortcut. Use it. 191the last passed options as a handy shortcut. Use it.
@@ -96,14 +193,25 @@ the last passed options as a handy shortcut. Use it.
96After the autogen.sh stage, you can follow the directions listed in 193After the autogen.sh stage, you can follow the directions listed in
97"COMPILING FROM SOURCE" 194"COMPILING FROM SOURCE"
98 195
196You can also run your whole cvs stack uninstalled. The script in
197the gstreamer module /docs/faq/gst-uninstalled) is helpful in setting
198up your environment for this.
199
99PLUG-IN DEPENDENCIES AND LICENSES 200PLUG-IN DEPENDENCIES AND LICENSES
100--------------------------------- 201---------------------------------
101GStreamer is developed under the terms of the LGPL (see LICENSE file for 202GStreamer is developed under the terms of the LGPL (see LICENSE file for
102details). Some of our plug-ins however rely on libraries which are available 203details). Some of our plug-ins however rely on libraries which are available
103under other licenses. This means that if you are using an application which 204under other licenses. This means that if you are using an application which
104has a non-GPL compatible license (for instance a closed-source application) 205has a non-GPL compatible license (for instance a closed-source application)
105with GStreamer, you have to make sure not to use GPL-linked plug-ins. 206with GStreamer, you have to make sure not to use GPL-linked plug-ins.
106When using GPL-linked plug-ins, GStreamer is for all practical reasons 207When using GPL-linked plug-ins, GStreamer is for all practical reasons
107under the GPL itself. 208under the GPL itself.
108 209
109There is a LICESENSE_readme file containing licensing information on the plugins 210HISTORY
211-------
212The fundamental design comes from the video pipeline at Oregon Graduate
213Institute, as well as some ideas from DirectMedia. It's based on plug-ins that
214will provide the various codec and other functionality. The interface
215hopefully is generic enough for various companies (ahem, Apple) to release
216binary codecs for Linux, until such time as they get a clue and release the
217source.