index 12c0836526578112db2c0534da363d7d1ca5c655..554653dfe97f642ddeb162f17b0bf41ed7aee86e 100644 (file)
--- a/README
+++ b/README
WHAT IT IS
----------
-This is GStreamer, a framework for streaming media. The
-fundamental design comes from the video pipeline at Oregon Graduate
-Institute, as well as some ideas from DirectMedia. It's based on plug-ins
-that will provide the various codec and other functionality. The
-interface hopefully is generic enough for various companies (ahem, Apple)
-to release binary codecs for Linux, until such time as they get a clue and
-release the source.
-
-COMPILING FROM SOURCE
+
+This is GStreamer, a framework for streaming media.
+
+WHERE TO START
+--------------
+
+We have a website at
+http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/
+
+You should start by going through our FAQ at
+http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/faq/html/
+
+There is more documentation; go to
+http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation
+
+You can subscribe to our mailing lists; see the website for details.
+
+We track bugs in GNOME's bugzilla; see the website for details.
+
+You can join us on IRC - #gstreamer on irc.freenode.org
+
+GStreamer 0.10 series
---------------------
+
+Starring
+
+ GSTREAMER
+
+The core around which all other modules revolve. Base functionality and
+libraries, some essential elements, documentation, and testing.
+
+ BASE
+
+A well-groomed and well-maintained collection of GStreamer plug-ins and
+elements, spanning the range of possible types of elements one would want
+to write for GStreamer.
+
+And introducing, for the first time ever, on the development screen ...
+
+ THE GOOD
+
+ --- "Such ingratitude. After all the times I've saved your life."
+
+A collection of plug-ins you'd want to have right next to you on the
+battlefield. Shooting sharp and making no mistakes, these plug-ins have it
+all: good looks, good code, and good licensing. Documented and dressed up
+in tests. If you're looking for a role model to base your own plug-in on,
+here it is.
+
+If you find a plot hole or a badly lip-synced line of code in them,
+let us know - it is a matter of honour for us to ensure Blondie doesn't look
+like he's been walking 100 miles through the desert without water.
+
+ THE UGLY
+
+ --- "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk."
+
+There are times when the world needs a color between black and white.
+Quality code to match the good's, but two-timing, backstabbing and ready to
+sell your freedom down the river. These plug-ins might have a patent noose
+around their neck, or a lock-up license, or any other problem that makes you
+think twice about shipping them.
+
+We don't call them ugly because we like them less. Does a mother love her
+son less because he's not as pretty as the other ones ? No - she commends
+him on his great personality. These plug-ins are the life of the party.
+And we'll still step in and set them straight if you report any unacceptable
+behaviour - because there are two kinds of people in the world, my friend:
+those with a rope around their neck and the people who do the cutting.
+
+ THE BAD
+
+ --- "That an accusation?"
+
+No perfectly groomed moustache or any amount of fine clothing is going to
+cover up the truth - these plug-ins are Bad with a capital B.
+They look fine on the outside, and might even appear to get the job done, but
+at the end of the day they're a black sheep. Without a golden-haired angel
+to watch over them, they'll probably land in an unmarked grave at the final
+showdown.
+
+Don't bug us about their quality - exercise your Free Software rights,
+patch up the offender and send us the patch on the fastest steed you can
+steal from the Confederates. Because you see, in this world, there's two
+kinds of people, my friend: those with loaded guns and those who dig.
+You dig.
+
+The Lowdown
+-----------
+
+ --- "I've never seen so many plug-ins wasted so badly."
+
+GStreamer Plug-ins has grown so big that it's hard to separate the wheat from
+the chaff. Also, distributors have brought up issues about the legal status
+of some of the plug-ins we ship. To remedy this, we've divided the previous
+set of available plug-ins into four modules:
+
+- gst-plugins-base: a small and fixed set of plug-ins, covering a wide range
+ of possible types of elements; these are continuously kept up-to-date
+ with any core changes during the development series.
+
+ - We believe distributors can safely ship these plug-ins.
+ - People writing elements should base their code on these elements.
+ - These elements come with examples, documentation, and regression tests.
+
+- gst-plugins-good: a set of plug-ins that we consider to have good quality
+ code, correct functionality, our preferred license (LGPL for the plug-in
+ code, LGPL or LGPL-compatible for the supporting library).
+
+ - We believe distributors can safely ship these plug-ins.
+ - People writing elements should base their code on these elements.
+
+- gst-plugins-ugly: a set of plug-ins that have good quality and correct
+ functionality, but distributing them might pose problems. The license
+ on either the plug-ins or the supporting libraries might not be how we'd
+ like. The code might be widely known to present patent problems.
+
+ - Distributors should check if they want/can ship these plug-ins.
+ - People writing elements should base their code on these elements.
+
+- gst-plugins-bad: a set of plug-ins that aren't up to par compared to the
+ rest. They might be close to being good quality, but they're missing
+ something - be it a good code review, some documentation, a set of tests,
+ a real live maintainer, or some actual wide use.
+ If the blanks are filled in they might be upgraded to become part of
+ either gst-plugins-good or gst-plugins-ugly, depending on the other factors.
+
+ - If the plug-ins break, you can't complain - instead, you can fix the
+ problem and send us a patch, or bribe someone into fixing them for you.
+ - New contributors can start here for things to work on.
+
+PLATFORMS
+---------
+
+- Linux is of course fully supported
+- FreeBSD is reported to work; other BSD's should work too
+- Solaris is reported to work; a specific sunaudiosink plugin has been written
+- MacOSX is reported to work; specific audio and video sinks have been written
+- Windows support is experimental but improving. Output sinks have been
+ written but are not yet included in the code. We support
+ - MSys/MinGW builds
+ - Microsoft Visual Studio 6 builds (see win32/README.txt)
+
+INSTALLING FROM PACKAGES
+------------------------
+
+You should always prefer installing from packages first. GStreamer is
+well-maintained for a number of distributions, including Fedora, Debian,
+Ubuntu, Mandrake, Gentoo, ...
+
+Only in cases where you:
+- want to hack on GStreamer
+- want to verify that a bug has been fixed
+- do not have a sane distribution
+should you choose to build from source tarballs or git.
+
+Find more information about the various packages at
+http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/download/
+
+COMPILING FROM SOURCE TARBALLS
+------------------------------
+
+- again, make sure that you really need to install from source !
+ If GStreamer is one of your first projects ever that you build from source,
+ consider taking on an easier project.
+
- check output of ./configure --help to see if any options apply to you
- run
./configure
make
to build GStreamer.
-- if you want to install it (not required), run
+- if you want to install it (not required, but what you usually want to do), run
make install
-- You should create a registry for things to work.
- If you ran make install in the previous step, run
- gst-register
- as root.
-
- If you didn't install, run
- tools/gst-register
- as a normal user.
- try out a simple test:
- gst-launch fakesrc num_buffers=5 ! fakesink
- (If you didn't install GStreamer, again prefix gst-launch with tools/)
+ gst-launch -v fakesrc num_buffers=5 ! fakesink
+ (If you didn't install GStreamer, prefix gst-launch with tools/)
If it outputs a bunch of messages from fakesrc and fakesink, everything is
ok.
+ If it did not work, keep in mind that you might need to adjust the
+ PATH and/or LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables to make the system
+ find GStreamer in the prefix where you installed (by default that is /usr/local).
+
- After this, you're ready to install gst-plugins, which will provide the
functionality you're probably looking for by now, so go on and read
that README.
-COMPILING FROM CVS
+COMPILING FROM GIT
------------------
-When building from CVS sources, you will need to run autogen.sh to generate
-the build system files.
-
-GStreamer is cutting-edge stuff. To be a CVS developer, you need
-what used to be considered cutting-edge tools.
-ATM, most of us have at least these versions :
+When building from git sources, you will need to run autogen.sh to generate
+the build system files.
-* autoconf 2.52 (NOT 2.52d)
-* automake 1.5
-* libtool 1.4 (NOT Gentoo's genetic failure 1.4.2)
-* pkg-config 0.8.0
+You will need a set of additional tools typical for building from git,
+including:
+- autoconf
+- automake
+- libtool
-autogen.sh will check for these versions and complain if you don't have
+autogen.sh will check for recent enough versions and complain if you don't have
them. You can also specify specific versions of automake and autoconf with
--with-automake and --with-autoconf
After the autogen.sh stage, you can follow the directions listed in
"COMPILING FROM SOURCE"
+
+You can also run your whole git stack uninstalled. The script in
+the gstreamer module /scripts/gst-uninstalled) is helpful in setting
+up your environment for this.
+
+PLUG-IN DEPENDENCIES AND LICENSES
+---------------------------------
+
+GStreamer is developed under the terms of the LGPL (see LICENSE file for
+details). Some of our plug-ins however rely on libraries which are available
+under other licenses. This means that if you are distributing an application
+which has a non-GPL compatible license (for instance a closed-source
+application) with GStreamer, you have to make sure not to distribute GPL-linked
+plug-ins.
+
+When using GPL-linked plug-ins, GStreamer is for all practical reasons
+under the GPL itself.
+
+HISTORY
+-------
+
+The fundamental design comes from the video pipeline at Oregon Graduate
+Institute, as well as some ideas from DirectMedia. It's based on plug-ins that
+will provide the various codec and other functionality. The interface
+hopefully is generic enough for various companies (ahem, Apple) to release
+binary codecs for Linux, until such time as they get a clue and release the
+source.