Tutorial: Honey, I Shrunk GStreamer: Using Meson to Slim Down Dependencies
summary
Meson replaces typical autotools workflows to cross-compile GStreamer for Android using an Android NDK cross file and wrapdb subprojects, producing a minimal runtime by disabling plugins with --auto-features, installing only runtime files and stripping symbols with meson install --tag runtime and --strip, and switching to static linking (--default-library=static). A full feature build starts ~150 MB; pruning to needed plugins yields ~48 MB, stripping drops to ~11 MB, and static linking falls to ~5 MB (down to ~4 MB with extra options).
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Intro
- 1:30Compile a simple C/C++ project
- 3:35Build both shared and static libraries
- 4:33Cross compile for target device
- 8:17Any Meson project can be a subproject Application using libexample
- 10:17WrapDB to the rescue
- 11:24Dependencies goes wild...
- 13:38Build only needed features
- 19:26Install only runtime files
- 20:32Strip binaries
- 21:16Static build GStreamer
- 26:39Remove GVariant ABI
- 28:12Replace GLib unicode support
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