# gstreamer-rs [](https://crates.io/crates/gstreamer) [](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gstreamer-rs/commits/main)
[GStreamer](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/) bindings for Rust.
Documentation can be found [here](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/rust/stable/latest/docs/gstreamer/).
These bindings are providing a safe API that can be used to interface with
GStreamer, e.g. for writing GStreamer-based applications and GStreamer plugins.
The bindings are mostly autogenerated with [gir](https://github.com/gtk-rs/gir/)
based on the [GObject-Introspection](https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GObjectIntrospection/)
API metadata provided by the GStreamer project.
## Why is this separate from the GStreamer monorepo with an independent release schedule?
The GStreamer Rust bindings (`gstreamer-rs`) and the GStreamer plugins written
in Rust (`gst-plugins-rs`) use separate git repositories and an independent
release schedule, unlike for example the Python bindings which are part of the
main GStreamer repository. This will not change in the foreseeable future.
This separation does not mean that `gstreamer-rs` and `gst-plugins-rs` are not
part of the GStreamer project or second-class citizens in GStreamer. The separation
is due to technical reasons.
* **Release cycle alignment**: Both repositories depend on
[`gtk-rs`](https://gtk-rs.org) for GLib and GObject bindings. Since
`gtk-rs` follows GNOME's six-monthly release cycle, `gstreamer-rs` and
`gst-plugins-rs` are aligned to this release cycle as well. This ensures
that the APIs stay synchronized as breaking API changes happen every 6, 12
or 18 months. The crates follow `cargo`'s [semantic versioning
rules](https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/semver.html) to make
these breaking API changes easier to handle for users.
* **cargo ecosystem integration**: Cargo-based Rust projects expect to be able to pull in
functionality via crates, and to facilitate that, each plugin in `gst-plugins-rs`
is published as a crate. When a project wants to use the git version of a plugin,
or the bindings, forcing them to pull in the entire GStreamer mono repository is excessive.
Doing so would introduce unnecessary overhead in network bandwidth, disk usage and build
times.
Note that depending on plugins as cargo dependency is explicitly supported and
widely used for Rust projects to statically link plugins into applications.
For this purpose all plugins are also published to crates.io but depending on
git versions is supported as well.
## Table of Contents
1. [Installation](#installation)
1. [Linux/BSDs](#installation-linux)
1. [macOS](#installation-macos)
1. [Windows](#installation-windows)
1. [Getting Started](#getting-started)
1. [License](#license)
1. [Contribution](#contribution)
## Installation
To build the GStreamer bindings or anything depending on them, you need to
have at least GStreamer 1.14 and gst-plugins-base 1.14 installed. In addition,
some of the examples/tutorials require various GStreamer plugins to be
available, which can be found in gst-plugins-base, gst-plugins-good,
gst-plugins-bad, gst-plugins-ugly and/or gst-libav.
### Linux/BSDs
You need to install the above mentioned packages with your distributions
package manager, or build them from source.
On Debian/Ubuntu they can be installed with
```console
$ apt-get install libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \
gstreamer1.0-libav libgstrtspserver-1.0-dev libges-1.0-dev
```
On Fedora:
```console
dnf install gstreamer1-devel gstreamer1-plugins-base-devel \
gstreamer1-plugins-good gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free \
gstreamer1-plugin-libav gstreamer1-rtsp-server-devel \
gst-editing-services-devel
```
More Fedora packages are available in [RPMFusion](https://rpmfusion.org/):
```console
dnf install gstreamer1-plugins-bad-freeworld gstreamer1-plugins-ugly
```
The minimum required version of the above libraries is >= 1.14. If you
build the gstreamer-player sub-crate, or any of the examples that
depend on gstreamer-player, you must ensure that in addition to the above
packages, `libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev` is installed. See the `Cargo.toml`
files for the full details,
```console
$ apt-get install libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev
```
On Fedora:
```console
dnf install gstreamer1-plugins-bad-free-devel
```
Package names on other distributions should be similar.
Please submit a pull request with instructions for yours.
### macOS
You can install GStreamer and the plugins via [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) or
by installing the [binaries](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/pkg/osx/)
provided by the GStreamer project.
We recommend using the official GStreamer binaries over Homebrew, especially
as GStreamer in Homebrew is [currently broken](https://github.com/orgs/Homebrew/discussions/3740#discussioncomment-3804964).
#### GStreamer Binaries
You need to download the *two* `.pkg` files from the GStreamer website and
install them, e.g. `gstreamer-1.0-1.20.4-universal.pkg` and
`gstreamer-1.0-devel-1.20.4-universal.pkg`.
After installation, you also need to set the `PATH` environment variable as
follows
```console
$ export PATH="/Library/Frameworks/GStreamer.framework/Versions/1.0/bin${PATH:+:$PATH}"
```
Also note that the `pkg-config` from GStreamer should be the first one in
the `PATH` as other versions have all kinds of quirks that will cause
problems.
#### Homebrew
The Homebrew `gstreamer` formula bundles all `gst-*` GStreamer plugin modules
```console
$ brew install gstreamer
```
Make sure the version is >= 1.14.
### Windows
You can install GStreamer and the plugins via [MSYS2](http://www.msys2.org/)
with `pacman` or by installing the
[binaries](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/pkg/windows/) provided by
the GStreamer project.
We recommend using the official GStreamer binaries over MSYS2.
#### GStreamer Binaries
You need to download the *two* `.msi` files for your platform from the
GStreamer website and install them, e.g. `gstreamer-1.0-x86_64-1.20.4.msi` and
`gstreamer-1.0-devel-x86_64-1.20.4.msi`. Make sure to select the version that
matches your Rust toolchain, i.e. MinGW or MSVC.
After installation set the ``PATH` environment variable as follows:
```console
# For a UNIX-style shell:
$ export PATH="c:/gstreamer/1.0/msvc_x86_64/bin${PATH:+:$PATH}"
# For cmd.exe:
$ set PATH=C:\gstreamer\1.0\msvc_x86_64\bin;%PATH%
```
Make sure to update the path to where you have actually installed GStreamer
and for the corresponding toolchain.
Also note that the `pkg-config.exe` from GStreamer should be the first one in
the `PATH` as other versions have all kinds of quirks that will cause
problems.
#### MSYS2 / pacman
```console
$ pacman -S glib2-devel pkg-config \
mingw-w64-x86_64-gstreamer mingw-w64-x86_64-gst-plugins-base \
mingw-w64-x86_64-gst-plugins-good mingw-w64-x86_64-gst-plugins-bad \
mingw-w64-x86_64-gst-plugins-ugly mingw-w64-x86_64-gst-libav \
mingw-w64-x86_64-gst-rtsp-server
```
Make sure the version of these libraries is >= 1.14.
Note that the version of `pkg-config` included in `MSYS2` is
[known to have problems](https://github.com/rust-lang/pkg-config-rs/issues/51#issuecomment-346300858)
compiling GStreamer, so you may need to install another version. One option
would be [`pkg-config-lite`](https://sourceforge.net/projects/pkgconfiglite/).
## Getting Started
The API reference can be found
[here](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/rust/stable/latest/docs/gstreamer/), however it is
only the Rust API reference and does not explain any of the concepts.
For getting started with GStreamer development, the best would be to follow
the [documentation](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/) on the
GStreamer website, especially the [Application Development
Manual](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/application-development/).
While being C-centric, it explains all the fundamental concepts of GStreamer
and the code examples should be relatively easily translatable to Rust. The
API is basically the same, function/struct names are the same and everything
is only more convenient (hopefully) and safer. The Rust APIs are annotated with
`#[doc(alias = "c_function_name")]`, so you can search for a C function name
in this documentation and find the corresponding Rust binding.
In addition there are
[tutorials](https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/documentation/tutorials/) on the
GStreamer website. Many of them were ported to Rust already and the code can
be found in the
[tutorials](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gstreamer-rs/tree/main/tutorials)
directory.
Some further examples for various aspects of GStreamer and how to use it from
Rust can be found in the
[examples](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gstreamer-rs/tree/main/examples)
directory.
Various GStreamer plugins written in Rust can be found in the
[gst-plugins-rs](https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gst-plugins-rs)
repository.
## LICENSE
gstreamer-rs and all crates contained in here are licensed under either of
* Apache License, Version 2.0, ([LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) or
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0)
* MIT license ([LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) or
http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT)
at your option.
GStreamer itself is licensed under the Lesser General Public License version
2.1 or (at your option) any later version:
https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-2.1.html
## Contribution
Any kinds of contributions are welcome as a pull request.
Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted
for inclusion in gstreamer-rs by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be
dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.