Building on Windows with a focus on generating PDB files

Fri Sep 6 00:02:06 UTC 2019

...for example, this is basically all the information I have without the
PDB files at the moment for an error I'm encountering. I will try getting
those PDB files soon and figuring this out:

[image: image.png]

On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 7:00 PM Ben Rush <ben at ben-rush.net> wrote:

> I think getting the PDB files and analyzing specific cases will be
> important as right now my descriptions will be vague without stack traces,
> et al. Now that I realize there are actual PDB files, I will try to get
> more information.
>
> I also try getting a build going so that I can fix issues I find on
> Windows and make suggestions.
>
> On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 6:25 PM Nicolas Dufresne <nicolas at ndufresne.ca>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Le jeu. 5 sept. 2019 16 h 40, Ben Rush <ben at ben-rush.net> a écrit :
>>
>>> Hi, thanks, David. I really appreciate your response. That clears up a
>>> lot.
>>>
>>> So, this brings me to a straightforward question: is GStreamer generally
>>> more stable on Linux than Windows? Or at least, more used? I ask not to be
>>> negative but to essentially confirm a belief I have picked up after using
>>> it on Windows for a while. Honestly, I have dealt with quite a few more
>>> ephemeral issues: random access violations, performance issues, etc. on
>>> Windows than I have on Linux. Also, comments about it taking so long to
>>> build on Windows, and that there are known bugs that people are potentially
>>> not tracking, also makes me think Windows isn't as much the focus.
>>>
>>> None of this is meant to be negative (honest), and I definitely believe
>>> major products are using it on Windows, but I'm just curious if there is a
>>> basis for these feelings? That perhaps getting it to work as well on
>>> Windows as it does on Linux perhaps simply means more work for me.
>>>
>>
>> It always depends on what features you are using. But even though windows
>> maintenance is getting bigger, CI now exist and may be able to run
>> automatically in near future, the level or maintenance and testing remains
>> bigger on Linux then any other platforms.
>>
>> Best is do bring some specific case, specific plugins and from there we
>> can guide you through the known issues, or toward different solutions. It
>> may also just help bringing some attention to specific issue. We have
>> around 3K issues filed in gitlab, so of course we don't remember all of
>> them, and may not hit them in our day to day work.
>>
>>
>>> Thanks again.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 2:43 PM David Ing <ding at panopto.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> The official Windows binaries are built using this tool:
>>>> https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/cerbero
>>>>
>>>> The official WIndows binaries are built on a Windows machine, although
>>>> it is possible to build the mingw binaries from Linux using a cross-compile
>>>> (through cerbero).  The MSVC build is great because it provides *.pdb
>>>> files, but not all components can be built using msvc, the remainder are
>>>> built via mingw.  Unfortunately, building on a WIndows machine takes a
>>>> really really really long time.  (The cross-compile from Linux is much
>>>> faster.)
>>>>
>>>> With Cerbero, the 1.16 branches use a very old version of the mingw
>>>> toolchain.  The master branch uses a newer version of the mingw toolchain.
>>>>
>>>> There are a number of known bugs with the Windows version of gstreamer
>>>> which do not exist on Linux.  (I do not know if anybody is maintaining a
>>>> list of those bugs.)
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Sep 5, 2019 at 11:51 AM Ben Rush <ben at ben-rush.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I have a desire to build Gstreamer on Windows, more specifically a
>>>>> debug build so that I can track down some crashes that are occurring.
>>>>> Unfortunately, it seems as though this isn't a thing that's well-traveled,
>>>>> or I'm at least getting conflicting information on forums and blog posts
>>>>> about the process. I thought I'd ask on here about the latest state of
>>>>> things since blog posts/forum posts can be depreciated quickly with
>>>>> updates. I'm cool with RTFM, but some sources I'm reading say the manual
>>>>> itself is out of date.
>>>>>
>>>>> For example, a couple of blog posts (such as this one:
>>>>> https://cardinalpeak.com/blog/build-gstreamer-on-windows-an-advanced-tutorial/)
>>>>> that don't appear too old, mention the existing instructions are, and I
>>>>> quote, "woefully out of date" (presumably when specifically targeting
>>>>> Windows) and that the task is "fairly complex". There are Windows builds,
>>>>> and so presumably there is a well-tested method for generating these
>>>>> binaries on Windows. If so, surely there are well-tested steps out there
>>>>> for doing what I want. But if instructions available to me (I'm assuming
>>>>> this blog post meant the official instructions) are out of date, I'd like
>>>>> to keep that in mind as I'm using them. Or if HE is wrong, I'd like to know
>>>>> that. And if the official instructions are NOT out of date, I'm wondering
>>>>> if anyone has had any luck using them to generate any other than release
>>>>> builds?
>>>>>
>>>>> Any advice? Pointers? Feedback? Thanks for your time.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> gstreamer-devel mailing list
>>>>> gstreamer-devel at lists.freedesktop.org
>>>>> https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/gstreamer-devel
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
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>>
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