Ubuntu Manpage: gst-launch-1.0 - build and run a GStreamer pipeline

Provided by: gstreamer1.0-tools_1.24.10-2_amd64

NAME

       gst-launch-1.0 - build and run a GStreamer pipeline

SYNOPSIS

       gst-launch-1.0 [OPTION...] PIPELINE-DESCRIPTION

DESCRIPTION

       gst-launch-1.0 is a tool that builds and runs basic GStreamer pipelines.

       In  simple  form,  a  PIPELINE-DESCRIPTION  is a list of elements separated by exclamation
       marks (!). Properties may be appended to elements, in the form property=value. A  "preset"
       can also be set using the @preset=<preset name> syntax.

       For  a  complete  description  of  possible PIPELINE-DESCRIPTIONS see the section pipeline
       description below or consult the GStreamer documentation.

       Please note that gst-launch-1.0 is primarily a debugging tool for  developers  and  users.
       You   should   not   build   applications   on  top  of  it.  For  applications,  use  the
       gst_parse_launch() function of the GStreamer API as an easy  way  to  construct  pipelines
       from pipeline descriptions.

OPTIONS

gst-launch-1.0 accepts the following options:

--help Print help synopsis and available FLAGS

-v, --verbose
Output status information and property notifications

-q, --quiet
Do not print any progress information

-m, --messages
Output messages posted on the pipeline's bus

-t, --tags
Output tags (also known as metadata)

-e, --eos-on-shutdown
Force an EOS event on sources before shutting the pipeline down. This is useful to
make sure muxers create readable files when a muxing pipeline is shut down
forcefully via Control-C.

-i, --index
Gather and print index statistics. This is mostly useful for playback or recording
pipelines.

-f, --no-fault
Do not install a fault handler

-T, --trace
Print memory allocation traces. The feature must be enabled at compile time to
work.

--no-position
Do not print current position of pipeline. If this option is unspecified, the
position will be printed when stdout is a TTY. To enable printing position when
stdout is not a TTY, use "force-position" option.

--force-position
Allow printing current position of pipeline even if stdout is not a TTY. This
option has no effect if the "no-position" option is specified.

GSTREAMER OPTIONS
gst-launch-1.0 also accepts the following options that are common to all GStreamer
applications:

--gst-version
Prints the version string of the GStreamer core library.

--gst-fatal-warnings
Causes GStreamer to abort if a warning message occurs. This is equivalent to
setting the environment variable G_DEBUG to 'fatal_warnings' (see the section
environment variables below for further information).

--gst-debug=STRING
A comma separated list of category_name:level pairs to specify debugging levels
for each category. Level is in the range 0-9 where 0 will show no messages, and 9
will show all messages. The wildcard * can be used to match category names. Note
that the order of categories and levels is important, wildcards at the end may
override levels set earlier. The log levels are: 1=ERROR, 2=WARNING, 3=FIXME,
4=INFO, 5=DEBUG, 6=LOG, 7=TRACE, 9=MEMDUMP. Since GStreamer 1.2 one can also use
the debug level names, e.g. --gst-debug=*sink:LOG. A full description of the
various debug levels can be found in the GStreamer core library API documentation,
in the "Running GStreamer Applications" section.

Use --gst-debug-help to show category names

Example: GST_CAT:5,GST_ELEMENT_*:3,oggdemux:5

--gst-debug-level=LEVEL
Sets the threshold for printing debugging messages. A higher level will print
more messages. The useful range is 0-9, with the default being 0. Level 6 (LOG
level) will show all information that is usually required for debugging purposes.
Higher levels are only useful in very specific cases. See above for the full list
of levels.

--gst-debug-no-color
GStreamer normally prints debugging messages so that the messages are color-coded
when printed to a terminal that handles ANSI escape sequences. Using this option
causes GStreamer to print messages without color. Setting the GST_DEBUG_NO_COLOR
environment variable will achieve the same thing.

--gst-debug-color-mode
GStreamer normally prints debugging messages so that the messages are color-coded
when printed to a terminal that handles ANSI escape sequences (on *nix), or uses
W32 console API to color the messages printed into a console (on W32). Using this
option causes GStreamer to print messages without color ('off' or 'disable'),
print messages with default colors ('on' or 'auto'), or print messages using ANSI
escape sequences for coloring ('unix'). Setting the GST_DEBUG_COLOR_MODE
environment variable will achieve the same thing.

--gst-debug-disable
Disables debugging.

--gst-debug-help
Prints a list of available debug categories and their default debugging level.

--gst-plugin-path=PATH
Add directories separated with ':' to the plugin search path

--gst-plugin-load=PLUGINS
Preload plugins specified in a comma-separated list. Another way to specify
plugins to preload is to use the environment variable GST_PLUGIN_PATH

PIPELINE DESCRIPTION

       A  pipeline consists elements and links. Elements can be put into bins of different sorts.
       Elements, links and bins can be specified in a pipeline description in any order.

       Elements

       ELEMENTTYPE [PROPERTY1 ...]

       Creates an element of type ELEMENTTYPE and sets the PROPERTIES.

       Properties

       PROPERTY=VALUE ...

       Sets the property to the specified value. You can use gst-inspect-1.0(1) to find out about
       properties and allowed values of different elements.
       Enumeration properties can be set by name, nick or value.

       Presets

       @preset=<preset name> ...

       Sets  the  preset  on the element. you can use gst-inspect-1.0(1) to find out what presets
       are available for a specific element.

       Bins

       [BINTYPE.] ( [PROPERTY1 ...] PIPELINE-DESCRIPTION )

       Specifies that a bin of type BINTYPE is created and the given properties  are  set.  Every
       element  between  the  braces is put into the bin. Please note the dot that has to be used
       after the BINTYPE. You will almost never need this functionality, it is only really useful
       for  applications  using  the gst_launch_parse() API with 'bin' as bintype. That way it is
       possible to build partial pipelines instead of a full-fledged top-level pipeline.

       Links

       [[SRCELEMENT].[PAD1,...]] ! [[SINKELEMENT].[PAD1,...]]  [[SRCELEMENT].[PAD1,...]] ! CAPS !
       [[SINKELEMENT].[PAD1,...]]     [[SRCELEMENT].[PAD1,...]]    :   [[SINKELEMENT].[PAD1,...]]
       [[SRCELEMENT].[PAD1,...]] : CAPS : [[SINKELEMENT].[PAD1,...]]

       Links the element with name SRCELEMENT to the element with  name  SINKELEMENT,  using  the
       caps  specified in CAPS as a filter.  Names can be set on elements with the name property.
       If the name is omitted, the element that was specified directly in front of or  after  the
       link  is  used. This works across bins. If a padname is given, the link is done with these
       pads. If no pad names are given all possibilities are tried and a matching  pad  is  used.
       If multiple padnames are given, both sides must have the same number of pads specified and
       multiple links are done in the given order.
       So the simplest link is a simple exclamation mark, that links the element to the  left  of
       it to the element right of it.
       Linking using the : operator attempts to link all possible pads between the elements

       Caps

       MEDIATYPE [, PROPERTY[, PROPERTY ...]]] [; CAPS[; CAPS ...]]

       Creates  a  capability with the given media type and optionally with given properties. The
       media type can be escaped using " or '.  If you want to chain caps, you can add more  caps
       in the same format afterwards.

       Properties

       NAME=[(TYPE)]VALUE
       in lists and ranges: [(TYPE)]VALUE

       Sets  the  requested  property  in capabilities. The name is an alphanumeric value and the
       type can have the following case-insensitive values:
       - i or int for integer values or ranges
       - f or float for float values or ranges
       - b, bool or boolean for boolean values
       - s, str or string for strings
       - fraction for fractions (framerate, pixel-aspect-ratio)
       - l or list for lists
       If no type was given, the following order is tried: integer, float, boolean, string.
       Integer values must be parsable by strtol(), floats by strtod(). FOURCC values may  either
       be  integers  or strings. Boolean values are (case insensitive) yes, no, true or false and
       may like strings be escaped with " or '.
       Ranges are in this format:  [ VALUE, VALUE ]
       Lists use this format:      { VALUE [, VALUE ...] }

PIPELINE EXAMPLES

The examples below assume that you have the correct plug-ins available. In general,
"pulsesink" can be substituted with another audio output plug-in such as "alsasink" or
"osxaudiosink" Likewise, "xvimagesink" can be substituted with "ximagesink",
"glimagesink", or "osxvideosink". Keep in mind though that different sinks might accept
different formats and even the same sink might accept different formats on different
machines, so you might need to add converter elements like audioconvert and audioresample
(for audio) or videoconvert (for video) in front of the sink to make things work.

Audio playback

Play the mp3 music file "music.mp3" using a libmpg123-based plug-in and output to an
Pulseaudio device
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=music.mp3 ! mpegaudioparse ! mpg123audiodec !
audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink

Play an Ogg Vorbis format file
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=music.ogg ! oggdemux ! vorbisdec ! audioconvert !
audioresample ! pulsesink

Play an mp3 file or an http stream using GIO
gst-launch-1.0 giosrc location=music.mp3 ! mpegaudioparse ! mpg123audiodec !
audioconvert ! pulsesink
gst-launch-1.0 giosrc location=http://domain.com/music.mp3 ! mpegaudioparse !
mpg123audiodec ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink

Use GIO to play an mp3 file located on an SMB server
gst-launch-1.0 giosrc location=smb://computer/music.mp3 ! mpegaudioparse !
mpg123audiodec ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink

Format conversion

Convert an mp3 music file to an Ogg Vorbis file
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=music.mp3 ! mpegaudioparse ! mpg123audiodec !
audioconvert ! vorbisenc ! oggmux ! filesink location=music.ogg

Convert to the FLAC format
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=music.mp3 ! mpegaudioparse ! mpg123audiodec !
audioconvert ! flacenc ! filesink location=test.flac

Other

Plays a .WAV file that contains raw audio data (PCM).
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=music.wav ! wavparse ! audioconvert !
audioresample ! pulsesink

Convert a .WAV file containing raw audio data into an Ogg Vorbis or mp3 file
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=music.wav ! wavparse ! audioconvert ! vorbisenc !
oggmux ! filesink location=music.ogg
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=music.wav ! wavparse ! audioconvert ! lamemp3enc !
filesink location=music.mp3

Rips all tracks from compact disc and convert them into a single mp3 file
gst-launch-1.0 cdparanoiasrc mode=continuous ! audioconvert ! lamemp3enc !
mpegaudioparse ! id3v2mux ! filesink location=cd.mp3

Rips track 5 from the CD and converts it into a single mp3 file
gst-launch-1.0 cdparanoiasrc track=5 ! audioconvert ! lamemp3enc ! mpegaudioparse
! id3v2mux ! filesink location=track5.mp3

Using gst-inspect-1.0(1), it is possible to discover settings like the above for
cdparanoiasrc that will tell it to rip the entire cd or only tracks of it. Alternatively,
you can use an URI and gst-launch-1.0 will find an element (such as cdparanoia) that
supports that protocol for you, e.g.:
gst-launch-1.0 cdda://5 ! lamemp3enc vbr=new vbr-quality=6 ! filesink
location=track5.mp3

Records sound from your audio input and encodes it into an ogg file
gst-launch-1.0 pulsesrc ! audioconvert ! vorbisenc ! oggmux ! filesink
location=input.ogg

Video

Display only the video portion of an MPEG-1 video file, outputting to an X display window
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=JB_FF9_TheGravityOfLove.mpg ! dvddemux !
mpegvideoparse ! mpeg2dec ! xvimagesink

Display the video portion of a .vob file (used on DVDs), outputting to an SDL window
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=/flflfj.vob ! dvddemux ! mpegvideoparse ! mpeg2dec
! sdlvideosink

Play both video and audio portions of an MPEG movie
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=movie.mpg ! dvddemux name=demuxer demuxer. !
queue ! mpegvideoparse ! mpeg2dec ! sdlvideosink demuxer. ! queue ! mpegaudioparse !
mpg123audiodec ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink

Play an AVI movie with an external text subtitle stream
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=movie.mpg ! mpegdemux name=demuxer demuxer. !
queue ! mpegvideoparse ! mpeg2dec ! videoconvert ! sdlvideosink demuxer. ! queue !
mpegaudioparse ! mpg123audiodec ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink

This example also shows how to refer to specific pads by name if an element (here:
textoverlay) has multiple sink or source pads.
gst-launch-1.0 textoverlay name=overlay ! videoconvert ! videoscale !
autovideosink filesrc location=movie.avi ! decodebin ! videoconvert ! overlay.video_sink
filesrc location=movie.srt ! subparse ! overlay.text_sink

Play an AVI movie with an external text subtitle stream using playbin
gst-launch-1.0 playbin uri=file:///path/to/movie.avi
suburi=file:///path/to/movie.srt

Network streaming

Stream video using RTP and network elements.

This command would be run on the transmitter
gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src ! video/x-raw,width=128,height=96,format=UYVY !
videoconvert ! ffenc_h263 ! video/x-h263 ! rtph263ppay pt=96 ! udpsink host=192.168.1.1
port=5000

Use this command on the receiver
gst-launch-1.0 udpsrc port=5000 ! application/x-rtp, clock-rate=90000,payload=96 !
rtph263pdepay queue-delay=0 ! ffdec_h263 ! xvimagesink

Diagnostic

Generate a null stream and ignore it (and print out details).
gst-launch-1.0 -v fakesrc num-buffers=16 ! fakesink

Generate a pure sine tone to test the audio output
gst-launch-1.0 audiotestsrc ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink

Generate a familiar test pattern to test the video output
gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! xvimagesink
gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! ximagesink

Automatic linking

You can use the decodebin element to automatically select the right elements to get a
working pipeline.

Play any supported audio format
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=musicfile ! decodebin ! audioconvert !
audioresample ! pulsesink

Play any supported video format with video and audio output. Threads are used
automatically. To make this even easier, you can use the playbin element:
gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=videofile ! decodebin name=decoder decoder. !
queue ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink decoder. ! videoconvert ! xvimagesink
gst-launch-1.0 playbin uri=file:///home/joe/foo.avi

Filtered connections

These examples show you how to use filtered caps.

Show a test image and use the YUY2 or YV12 video format for this.
gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! 'video/x-raw,format=YUY2;video/x-raw,format=YV12' !
xvimagesink

Record audio and write it to a .wav file. Force usage of signed 16 to 32 bit samples and a
sample rate between 32kHz and 64KHz.
gst-launch-1.0 pulsesrc !
'audio/x-raw,rate=[32000,64000],format={S16LE,S24LE,S32LE}' ! wavenc ! filesink
location=recording.wav

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

GST_DEBUG
Comma-separated list of debug categories and levels (e.g.
GST_DEBUG=totem:4,typefind:5). '*' is allowed as a wildcard as part of debug
category names (e.g. GST_DEBUG=*sink:6,*audio*:6). Since 1.2.0 it is also possible
to specify the log level by name (1=ERROR, 2=WARN, 3=FIXME, 4=INFO, 5=DEBUG, 6=LOG,
7=TRACE, 9=MEMDUMP) (e.g. GST_DEBUG=*audio*:LOG)

GST_DEBUG_NO_COLOR
When this environment variable is set, coloured debug output is disabled.

GST_DEBUG_DUMP_DOT_DIR
When set to a filesystem path, store 'dot' files of pipeline graphs there. These
can then later be converted into an image using the 'dot' utility from the graphviz
set of tools, like this: dot foo.dot -Tsvg -o foo.svg (png or jpg are also possible
as output format). There is also a utility called 'xdot' which allows you to view
the .dot file directly without converting it first.
When the pipeline changes state through NULL to PLAYING and back to NULL, a dot
file is generated on each state change. To write a snapshot of the pipeline state,
send a SIGHUP to the process.

GST_REGISTRY
Path of the plugin registry file. Default is
~/.cache/gstreamer-1.0/registry-CPU.bin where CPU is the machine/cpu type GStreamer
was compiled for, e.g. 'i486', 'i686', 'x86-64', 'ppc', etc. (check the output of
"uname -i" and "uname -m" for details).

GST_REGISTRY_UPDATE
Set to "no" to force GStreamer to assume that no plugins have changed, been added
or been removed. This will make GStreamer skip the initial check whether a rebuild
of the registry cache is required or not. This may be useful in embedded
environments where the installed plugins never change. Do not use this option in
any other setup.

GST_PLUGIN_PATH
Specifies a list of directories to scan for additional plugins. These take
precedence over the system plugins.

GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH
Specifies a list of plugins that are always loaded by default. If not set, this
defaults to the system-installed path, and the plugins installed in the user's home
directory

GST_DEBUG_FILE
Set this variable to a file path to redirect all GStreamer debug messages to this
file. If left unset, debug messages with be output unto the standard error.

ORC_CODE
Useful Orc environment variable. Set ORC_CODE=debug to enable debuggers such as gdb
to create useful backtraces from Orc-generated code. Set ORC_CODE=backup or
ORC_CODE=emulate if you suspect Orc's SIMD code generator is producing incorrect
code. (Quite a few important GStreamer plugins like videotestsrc, audioconvert or
audioresample use Orc).

G_DEBUG
Useful GLib environment variable. Set G_DEBUG=fatal_warnings to make GStreamer
programs abort when a critical warning such as an assertion failure occurs. This is
useful if you want to find out which part of the code caused that warning to be
triggered and under what circumstances. Simply set G_DEBUG as mentioned above and
run the program in gdb (or let it core dump). Then get a stack trace in the usual
way.

FILES

       ~/.cache/gstreamer-1.0/registry-*.bin
               The  plugin  cache;  can  be deleted at any time, will be re-created automatically
               when it does not exist yet or plugins change. Based on XDG_CACHE_DIR, so may be in
               a different location than the one suggested.

AUTHOR

       The GStreamer team at http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/

                                             May 2007                                GStreamer(1)