So, learned a few things here. Three files, all within the .vscode directory, manage the process.

• launch.json deals with the “run and debug” process.
• c_cpp_properties.json deals with intellisense but NOT compilation.
• tasks.json deals with the build and compile process.

Although I was able to determine that in order to “run” the ‘pkg-config –cflags –libs gstreamer-1.0’ it needed to be surrounded in double quotes, then reverse single quote, I could never get any of the tooling to work harmoniously that way.

Instead, just run $ pkg-config --cflags --libs gstreamer-1.0 in the terminal (without quotes). That shell command returns:

-pthread -I/usr/include/gstreamer-1.0 -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/glib-2.0/include -lgstreamer-1.0 -lgobject-2.0 -lglib-2.0

Manually grab those include (-I) and library (-l) elements and place them in the appropriate places within tasks.json and c_cpp_properties.json files. And that works. I can use intellisense to understand the code, I can debug step thru the content.

There were a couple of tricks along the way. Use VS Code to generate each of the three files. tasks.json and launch.json will propagate when you try to “Run and debug”. And you can generate the c_cpp_properties.json file by finding an intellisense red squiggly line error. Look for the light bulb icon, select it. Add xxx or edit xxx to generate the c_cpp_properties.json file within your project for you.

And although its a bit lengthy, here are the three .json control files for GStreamer hello world.

launch.json:

{
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "gcc - Build and debug active file",
            "type": "cppdbg",
            "request": "launch",
            "program": "${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
            "args": [],
            "stopAtEntry": false,
            "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
            "environment": [],
            "externalConsole": false,
            "MIMode": "gdb",
            "setupCommands": [
                {
                    "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
                    "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
                    "ignoreFailures": true
                }
            ],
            "preLaunchTask": "C/C++: gcc build active file",
            "miDebuggerPath": "/usr/bin/gdb"
        }
    ]
}

tasks.json:

{
    "tasks": [
        {
            "type": "cppbuild",
            "label": "C/C++: gcc build active file",
            "command": "/usr/bin/gcc",
            "args": [
                "-g",
                "${file}",
                "-o",
                "${fileDirname}/${fileBasenameNoExtension}",
                "-pthread",
                "-I/usr/include/gstreamer-1.0",
                "-I/usr/include/glib-2.0",
                "-I/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/glib-2.0/include",
                "-lgstreamer-1.0",
                "-lgobject-2.0",
                "-lglib-2.0"
            ],
            "options": {
                "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}"
            },
            "problemMatcher": [
                "$gcc"
            ],
            "group": "build",
            "detail": "Task generated by Debugger."
        }
    ],
    "version": "2.0.0"
}

and c_cpp_properties.json:

{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Linux",
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/**",
                "/usr/include/gstreamer-1.0/**",
                "/usr/include/glib-2.0",
                "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/glib-2.0/include"
            ],
            "defines": [],
            "compilerPath": "/usr/bin/gcc",
            "cStandard": "gnu17",
            "cppStandard": "gnu++14",
            "intelliSenseMode": "linux-gcc-x64",
            "compilerArgs": [
                "-pthread",
                "-lgstreamer-1.0",
                "-lgobject-2.0",
                "-lglib-2.0"
            ]
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

I’m writing this as an answer because I don’t have enough reputation to comment (literally just made an account). In case you have not stumbled upon this already, you can directly run the pkg-config command in tasks.json by using "`pkg-config --libs --cflags gstreamer-1.0`" in “args”.

Found this from here originally and recently found this which shows the updated functionality.

You could do all that….

or in one line you can just add "gstreamer" to your vcpkg.json, run vcpkg install and you’d be done