gstreamer/docs/manual/init.xml

<chapter id="cha-initialisation">
  <title>Initializing <application>GStreamer</application></title>
  <para> 
    When writing a <application>GStreamer</application> application, you can
    simply include gst/gst.h to get access to the library functions.
  </para> 
  <para> 
    Before the <application>GStreamer</application> libraries can be used
    gst_init () has to be performed from the main app. this call will perform
    first initialisation and will parse the GStreamer specific command line 
    options. 
  </para>
  <para> 
    A typical program would start like this:
  </para>

  <programlisting>
#include &lt;gst/gst.h&gt;

...

int
main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
  ...
  gst_init (&amp;argc, &amp;argv);
  ...
}
  </programlisting>
  <para>
    It is also possible to call the gst_init method with two NULL arguments.
  </para>
  <para> 
    Use the GST_VERSION_MAJOR, GST_VERSION_MINOR and GST_VERSION_MICRO macros to
    get the <application>GStreamer</application> version you are building against or
    use gst_version() to get the version you are linked against.
  </para>
  <sect1>
    <title>The popt interface</title>
    <para>
      You can also use a popt table to initialize your own parameters as shown in the next code fragment:
    </para>
    <programlisting>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  gboolean silent = FALSE;
  gchar *savefile = NULL;
  struct poptOption options[] = {
    {"silent",	's',  POPT_ARG_NONE|POPT_ARGFLAG_STRIP,   &amp;silent,   0,
     "do not output status information", NULL},
    {"output",	'o',  POPT_ARG_STRING|POPT_ARGFLAG_STRIP, &amp;savefile, 0,
     "save xml representation of pipeline to FILE and exit", "FILE"},
    POPT_TABLEEND
  };

  gst_init_with_popt_table (&amp;argc, &amp;argv, options);

  ...
    </programlisting>
  </sect1>

</chapter>