gst-inspect-1.0

Print information on a plugin

$ gst-inspect-1.0 [plugin]

$ gst-inspect-1.0 [vaapi|nvcodec|...]

$ gst-inspect-1.0 [matroska|avi|ogg|isomp4|...]

$ gst-inspect-1.0 [opus|vorbis|flac|...]

$ gst-inspect-1.0 coreelements

$ gst-inspect-1.0 [vulkan|opengl|...]

$ gst-inspect-1.0 [png|jpeg|...]

$ gst-inspect-1.0

gst-inspect-1.0 [OPTION...] [ELEMENT-NAME|PLUGIN-NAME|FEATURE-NAME]

-h, --help
    Show help options and exit

-v, --verbose
    Output status information and property notifications

-V, --version
    Print version information and exit

-a, --all
    Show all available plugins

-A, --element-list
    List all available elements (excluding complex/inferface elements)

-b, --basename
    Print basenames of plugins only

--exists
    Exit 0 if element exists, else 1

-g, --gst-debug=LEVEL
    Set GStreamer debug level

-G, --gst-debug-no-color
    Debug in text-only mode (no color)

-m, --mode=MODE
    Inspect mode: plugin|class|property|signal|pad|template|index

-p, --print
    Print plugin contents including metadata

-r, --render
    Try to render element/bin (implies --verbose)

-s, --simple-help
    Show simple commandline help

-t, --templates
    Print pad templates

-x, --hierarchy
    Print hierarchical list of element tree

-X, --print-xmllint
    Print element tree in XML format

gst-inspect-1.0 is a command-line tool from the GStreamer multimedia framework used to query and display detailed information about installed plugins, elements, and their properties.

GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia processing framework for Linux and other platforms, enabling construction of complex media handling pipelines from modular components called elements (e.g., videotestsrc, videoconvert, alsasink).

This tool is essential for developers and users to discover available elements, understand their capabilities (like supported formats via Caps), pad templates (input/output connections), properties (configurable parameters), signals, and more. Running it without arguments lists all plugins; specifying an element name provides full details.

It supports various output modes, including verbose listings, pad templates, hierarchy views, and even DOT graphs for visualization. Useful for debugging pipelines, learning about plugin features, or scripting GStreamer usage. The tool triggers registry scans if needed, ensuring up-to-date info on dynamic plugins.

May trigger slow registry scans on first run or after plugin changes. Use GST_REGISTRY=/dev/null to disable caching. Output can be verbose; pipe to pager like less.

gst-inspect-1.0 # List all plugins
gst-inspect-1.0 videotestsrc # Inspect specific element
gst-inspect-1.0 -a | grep alsa # Search plugins
gst-inspect-1.0 --dot audioconvert > graph.dot # Generate DOT graph

Typical output includes: Plugin details, Element hierarchy, Pad Templates (src/sink), Caps (formats), Properties (with ranges/defaults), Signals.

Introduced with GStreamer 0.10 series (~2005); gst-inspect-1.0 stabilized in GStreamer 1.0 (2012) as part of the major API rewrite. Actively maintained in GStreamer 1.x branches for multimedia apps.

gst-launch-1.0(1), gst-play-1.0(1), gst-validate-1.0(1), gst-debug-1.0(1)