---
title: Metadata
...

# Metadata

GStreamer makes a clear distinction between two types of metadata, and
has support for both types. The first is stream tags, which describe the
content of a stream in a non-technical way. Examples include the author
of a song, the title of that very same song or the album it is a part
of. The other type of metadata is stream-info, which is a somewhat
technical description of the properties of a stream. This can include
video size, audio samplerate, codecs used and so on. Tags are handled
using the GStreamer tagging system. Stream-info can be retrieved from a
`GstPad` by getting the current (negotiated) `GstCaps` for that pad.

# Metadata reading

Stream information can most easily be read by reading it from a
`GstPad`. This has already been discussed before in [Using capabilities
for metadata](manual-pads.md#using-capabilities-for-metadata).
Therefore, we will skip it here. Note that this requires access to all
pads of which you want stream information.

Tag reading is done through a bus in GStreamer, which has been discussed
previously in [Bus](manual-bus.md). You can listen for
`GST_MESSAGE_TAG` messages and handle them as you wish.

Note, however, that the `GST_MESSAGE_TAG` message may be fired multiple
times in the pipeline. It is the application's responsibility to put all
those tags together and display them to the user in a nice, coherent
way. Usually, using `gst_tag_list_merge ()` is a good enough way of
doing this; make sure to empty the cache when loading a new song, or
after every few minutes when listening to internet radio. Also, make
sure you use `GST_TAG_MERGE_PREPEND` as merging mode, so that a new
title (which came in later) has a preference over the old one for
display.

The following example will extract tags from a file and print them:

``` c
/* compile with:
 * gcc -o tags tags.c `pkg-config --cflags --libs gstreamer-1.0` */
#include <gst/gst.h>

static void
print_one_tag (const GstTagList * list, const gchar * tag, gpointer user_data)
{
  int i, num;

  num = gst_tag_list_get_tag_size (list, tag);
  for (i = 0; i < num; ++i) {
    const GValue *val;

    /* Note: when looking for specific tags, use the gst_tag_list_get_xyz() API,
     * we only use the GValue approach here because it is more generic */
    val = gst_tag_list_get_value_index (list, tag, i);
    if (G_VALUE_HOLDS_STRING (val)) {
      g_print ("\t%20s : %s\n", tag, g_value_get_string (val));
    } else if (G_VALUE_HOLDS_UINT (val)) {
      g_print ("\t%20s : %u\n", tag, g_value_get_uint (val));
    } else if (G_VALUE_HOLDS_DOUBLE (val)) {
      g_print ("\t%20s : %g\n", tag, g_value_get_double (val));
    } else if (G_VALUE_HOLDS_BOOLEAN (val)) {
      g_print ("\t%20s : %s\n", tag,
          (g_value_get_boolean (val)) ? "true" : "false");
    } else if (GST_VALUE_HOLDS_BUFFER (val)) {
      GstBuffer *buf = gst_value_get_buffer (val);
      guint buffer_size = gst_buffer_get_size (buf);

      g_print ("\t%20s : buffer of size %u\n", tag, buffer_size);
    } else if (GST_VALUE_HOLDS_DATE_TIME (val)) {
      GstDateTime *dt = g_value_get_boxed (val);
      gchar *dt_str = gst_date_time_to_iso8601_string (dt);

      g_print ("\t%20s : %s\n", tag, dt_str);
      g_free (dt_str);
    } else {
      g_print ("\t%20s : tag of type '%s'\n", tag, G_VALUE_TYPE_NAME (val));
    }
  }
}

static void
on_new_pad (GstElement * dec, GstPad * pad, GstElement * fakesink)
{
  GstPad *sinkpad;

  sinkpad = gst_element_get_static_pad (fakesink, "sink");
  if (!gst_pad_is_linked (sinkpad)) {
    if (gst_pad_link (pad, sinkpad) != GST_PAD_LINK_OK)
      g_error ("Failed to link pads!");
  }
  gst_object_unref (sinkpad);
}

int
main (int argc, char ** argv)
{
  GstElement *pipe, *dec, *sink;
  GstMessage *msg;
  gchar *uri;

  gst_init (&argc, &argv);

  if (argc < 2)
    g_error ("Usage: %s FILE or URI", argv[0]);

  if (gst_uri_is_valid (argv[1])) {
    uri = g_strdup (argv[1]);
  } else {
    uri = gst_filename_to_uri (argv[1], NULL);
  }

  pipe = gst_pipeline_new ("pipeline");

  dec = gst_element_factory_make ("uridecodebin", NULL);
  g_object_set (dec, "uri", uri, NULL);
  gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipe), dec);

  sink = gst_element_factory_make ("fakesink", NULL);
  gst_bin_add (GST_BIN (pipe), sink);

  g_signal_connect (dec, "pad-added", G_CALLBACK (on_new_pad), sink);

  gst_element_set_state (pipe, GST_STATE_PAUSED);

  while (TRUE) {
    GstTagList *tags = NULL;

    msg = gst_bus_timed_pop_filtered (GST_ELEMENT_BUS (pipe),
        GST_CLOCK_TIME_NONE,
        GST_MESSAGE_ASYNC_DONE | GST_MESSAGE_TAG | GST_MESSAGE_ERROR);

    if (GST_MESSAGE_TYPE (msg) != GST_MESSAGE_TAG) /* error or async_done */
      break;

    gst_message_parse_tag (msg, &tags);

    g_print ("Got tags from element %s:\n", GST_OBJECT_NAME (msg->src));
    gst_tag_list_foreach (tags, print_one_tag, NULL);
    g_print ("\n");
    gst_tag_list_unref (tags);

    gst_message_unref (msg);
  }

  if (GST_MESSAGE_TYPE (msg) == GST_MESSAGE_ERROR) {
    GError *err = NULL;

    gst_message_parse_error (msg, &err, NULL);
    g_printerr ("Got error: %s\n", err->message);
    g_error_free (err);
  }

  gst_message_unref (msg);
  gst_element_set_state (pipe, GST_STATE_NULL);
  gst_object_unref (pipe);
  g_free (uri);
  return 0;
}
    
```

# Tag writing

Tag writing is done using the
[`GstTagSetter`](http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/stable/gstreamer/html/GstTagSetter.html)
interface. All that's required is a tag-set-supporting element in your
pipeline. In order to see if any of the elements in your pipeline
supports tag writing, you can use the function
`gst_bin_iterate_all_by_interface (pipeline,
GST_TYPE_TAG_SETTER)`. On the resulting element, usually an encoder or
muxer, you can use `gst_tag_setter_merge
()` (with a taglist) or `gst_tag_setter_add
()` (with individual tags) to set tags on it.

A nice extra feature in GStreamer tag support is that tags are preserved
in pipelines. This means that if you transcode one file containing tags
into another media type, and that new media type supports tags too, then
the tags will be handled as part of the data stream and be merged into
the newly written media file, too.