gstreamer-config is a script to get information about the installed version of GStreamer. This program "knows" what compiler switches are needed to compile programs that use GStreamer. gstreamer-config accepts the following options: --version Print the currently installed version of GStreamer on the standard output. --libs Print the linker flags that are necessary to link a GStreamer program. --cflags Print the compiler flags that are necessary to compile a GStreamer program. --prefix=PREFIX If specified, use PREFIX instead of the installation prefix that GStreamer was built with when computing the output for the --cflags and --libs options. This option is also used for the exec prefix if --exec-prefix was not specified. This option must be specified before any --libs or --cflags options. --exec-prefix=PREFIX If specified, use PREFIX instead of the installation exec prefix that GStreamer was built with when computing the output for the --cflags and --libs options. This option must be specified before any --libs or --cflags options. A simple Makefile will contain something like: CC = gcc helloworld2: helloworld2.c $(CC) -Wall `gstreamer-config --cflags --libs` helloworld2.c -o helloworld2 clean: rm -f *.o helloworld2 gstreamer-register is used to rebuild the database of plugins. It is used after a new plugin has been added to the system. The plugin database can be found in /etc/gstreamer/reg.xml. This is a tool that will construct pipelines based on a command-line syntax. A simple commandline looks like: gstreamer-launch disksrc hello.mp3 ! mp3parse ! mpg123 ! audiosink-oss A more complex pipeline looks like: gstreamer-launch disksrc redpill.vob ! css-descramble ! private_stream_1.0 ! \ (ac3parse ! ac3dec ! audiosink) video_0 ! (mpeg2dec ! videosink)