GStreamer(1)

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, write a little python script or Rust application (or use whatever other programming language you prefer) and 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 (especially in case of `mp4mux` and `qtmux` where the created file will be unreadable if the file has not been finalised properly).

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

--no-position
    Do not print the 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 the "--force-position" option.

--force-position
    Allow printing the 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", "osxaudiosink" or "wasapisink".
Likewise, "xvimagesink" can be substituted with "d3dvideosink", "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 videoconvertscale (for video) in front of the sink to make things work. Audio playback Note: For audio/video playback it's best to use the playbin3 or uridecodebin3 elements, these are just example pipelines.
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 ! xingmux ! id3v2mux ! 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 ! xingmux ! 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 ! xingmux ! 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 Note: For audio/video playback it's best to use the playbin3 or uridecodebin3 elements, these are just example pipelines.
Display only the video portion of an MPEG-2 PS video file, outputting to an X display window
        gst-launch-1.0 filesrc location=JB_FF9_TheGravityOfLove.mpg ! mpegdemux ! mpegvideoparse ! mpeg2dec ! videoconvert ! 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 ! videoconvert ! 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 ! videoconvert ! sdlvideosink demuxer. ! queue ! mpegaudioparse ! mpg123audiodec ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink Play an AVI movie with an external text subtitle stream
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 ! decodebin3 ! videoconvert ! overlay.video_sink filesrc location=movie.srt ! subparse ! overlay.text_sink Play an AVI movie with an external text subtitle stream using playbin3
        gst-launch-1.0 playbin3 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 ! queue ! videoconvert ! x264enc tune=zerolatency key-int-max=15 ! video/x-h264,profile=main !rtph264pay pt=96 config-interval=-1 ! 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 ! rtpjitterbuffer ! rtph264depay ! h264parse ! avdec_h264 ! videoconvert ! xvimagesink Diagnostic Generate a null stream and ignore it (and print out details).
        gst-launch-1.0 -v fakesrc num-buffers=16 ! fakesink silent=false 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 ! decodebin3 ! 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 ! decodebin3 name=decoder decoder. ! queue ! audioconvert ! audioresample ! pulsesink decoder. ! videoconvert ! xvimagesink
        gst-launch-1.0 playbin3 uri=file:///home/joe/foo.avi
        gst-launch-1.0 playbin3 uri=https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/media/sintel_trailer-480p.webm 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
        gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src ! image/jpeg ! queue ! decodebin3 ! videoconvert ! autovideosink 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 or use the pipeline_snapshot tracer from the GStreamer Rust plugins.

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. 'x86_64', 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 will be output to the standard error output.

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.

SEE ALSO
gst-inspect-1.0(1), gst-launch-1.0(1),

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