source: trunk/third/gstreamer/testsuite/plugin/README @ 18714

The following plugin modes are supported:

1) registry based 
-----------------

All known plugins are listed in the registry file.

  gst_plugin_find ("pluginname");

Works right after gst_init (), along with the elements in it.
dynamic loading of the plugin is performed when a feature inside 
it is requested.

example: registry.c. (You might want to run gstreamer-register with
the --gst-plugin-path=. to added the test dir to the plugin path so
that the testplugins can be found)


2) non registry based, dynmic loading
-------------------------------------

Plugins are know after a gst_plugin_load ("pluginname"). This 
function will scan de plugin paths, so you might want to perform
a gst_plugin_add_path ("path").

After the gst_plugin_load(), the features are available without any
further actions.

example: dynamic.c


3) non registry based, shared linking
-------------------------------------

You can add the plugin .so (or equivalent) file to the LDFLAGS at 
compile time. The plugin will be known after the gst_init() without
any further actions.

example: linked.c


4) non registry based, static linking
-------------------------------------

Plugin compiled with the GST_PLUGIN_STATIC defined can be statically
linked to the executable. The plugin is available after gst_init () 
without any further actions.

example: static.c (plugins are statically linked from another file)
         static2.c (plugins are included in the main file)


Any combination of the above is possible too, for example, you can use
a registry, have some plugins load dynamically and have another few
linked in as a shared lib. 

You cannot statically link multiple plugins that are compiled without the
GST_PLUGIN_STATIC symbol defined (this will cause multiple defined at link
time for obvious reasons)