dots

The Dots tracer handles dot file generation setup and integrates with the pipeline-snapshot tracer when available. It ensures proper directory setup to collaborate with the gst-dots-viewer tool, and it handles file cleanup.

The tracer determines the output directory in the following order:

1. Uses GST_DEBUG_DUMP_DOT_DIR if set
2. Falls back to $XDG_CACHE_HOME/gstreamer-dots otherwise

The determined directory is created if it doesn't exist and set as GST_DEBUG_DUMP_DOT_DIR for the entire process.

When available, it instantiates the pipeline-snapshot tracer with the following configuration:

• dots-viewer-ws-url=ws://127.0.0.1:3000/snapshot/
• xdg-cache=true
• folder-mode=numbered

Features

The features parameter controls which optional features are enabled. By default all features are enabled.

• snapshot: Enables the pipeline-snapshot tracer composition for use with the gst-dots-viewer tool. The pipeline-snapshot tracer is part of the Rust tracers plugin (rstracers), which is shipped as a separate distribution package or enabled in gst-plugins-rs subproject with, at least -Drs=enabled -Dauto_plugin_features=disabled -Dgst-plugins-rs:tracers=enabled (disabled by default). If the tracer is not installed, this flag has no effect.
• dump: If you only need the dot-dir setup without loading the pipeline-snapshot tracer and you want to disable the pipeline-snapshot tracer composition.

Examples:

# Basic usage - will delete existing .dot files, snapshot enabled (default)
GST_TRACERS=dots gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! autovideosink

# Keep existing .dot files
GST_TRACERS="dots(no-delete=true)" gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! autovideosink

# Disable pipeline-snapshot tracer composition (just dot-dir setup)
GST_TRACERS="dots(features=dump)" gst-launch-1.0 videotestsrc ! autovideosink