GStreamerCppHelpers

GStreamerCppHelpers is a set of lightweight C++ headers designed to simplify working with GStreamer from C++, without requiring full C++ bindings or introspection.

Who Is This For?

This library is intended for C++ developers who need to work with GStreamer but prefer not to use complete C++ binding libraries (such as gstreamermm) or rely on GObject introspection.

Features

• Header-only: no need to compile or install anything beyond the headers themselves.
• Zero external dependencies, aside from GStreamer.
• No use of .gir introspection files or generated wrappers.

⚠️ Note for Visual Studio users:
Make sure your CMake setup properly enables C++17. You may need to explicitly add:

target_compile_options(<YOUR_TARGET> PRIVATE "/Zc:__cplusplus")

Available Components

• GstPtr<>
  A smart pointer for managing GStreamer object lifetimes, wrapping ref/unref in a safe, RAII-style interface.
  It provides functionality similar to std::shared_ptr, but tailored for GStreamer types.

Building the Project

This library is header-only, so building is only required for running tests.

Prerequisites

• clang-tidy ≥ 10
• Python ≥ 3.8
• Conan ≥ 2.0
  (the build system will automatically detect or generate a default profile if needed)

Build Steps

cmake -Bbuild -DCONAN_BUILD_MISSING=ON
cmake --build build

Using as a Conan Dependency

A Conan 2.x recipe is provided under /conan_recipe.

1. Export the Recipe

cd conan_recipe
conan export . --name gstreamercpphelpers --version=0.0.3

⚠️ Make sure your Conan profile is configured with C++17 or higher.

2. Add the Dependency to Your conanfile.txt or Similar

[requires]
gstreamercpphelpers/0.0.3

3. Link with CMake

find_package(gstreamercpphelpers REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(<YOUR TARGET> gstreamercpphelpers::gstreamercpphelpers)