diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index a2164cd..9c6e3ba 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,11 @@
+2012-12-02  Thomas Vander Stichele  <thomas at apestaart dot org>
+
+	* morituri/test/test_common_gstreamer.py (added):
+	* morituri/common/gstreamer.py:
+	* morituri/test/Makefile.am:
+	  add functions to get versions of gstreamer, gst-python,
+	  and element factory plugins.
+
 2012-12-02  Thomas Vander Stichele  <thomas at apestaart dot org>
 
 	* morituri/rip/debug.py:
diff --git a/morituri/common/gstreamer.py b/morituri/common/gstreamer.py
index 2f0b1f5..16fdbb6 100644
--- a/morituri/common/gstreamer.py
+++ b/morituri/common/gstreamer.py
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with morituri.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 
+import re
+import commands
+
 from morituri.common import log
 
 # workaround for issue #64
@@ -48,3 +51,34 @@ def removeAudioParsers():
             return
 
         registry.remove_plugin(plugin)
+
+def gstreamerVersion():
+    import gst
+    return _versionify(gst.version())
+
+def gstPythonVersion():
+    import gst
+    return _versionify(gst.pygst_version)
+
+_VERSION_RE = re.compile(
+    "Version:\s*(?P<version>[\d.]+)")
+
+def elementFactoryVersion(name):
+    # surprisingly, there is no python way to get from an element factory
+    # to its plugin and its version directly; you can only compare
+    # with required versions
+    # Let's use gst-inspect-0.10 and wave hands and assume it points to the
+    # same version that python uses
+    output = commands.getoutput('gst-inspect-0.10 %s | grep Version' % name)
+    m = _VERSION_RE.search(output)
+    if not m:
+        return None
+    return m.group('version')
+
+
+def _versionify(tup):
+    l = list(tup)
+    if len(l) == 4 and l[3] == 0:
+        l = l[:3]
+    v = [str(n) for n in l]
+    return ".".join(v)
diff --git a/morituri/test/Makefile.am b/morituri/test/Makefile.am
index deb8b9a..396ccd1 100644
--- a/morituri/test/Makefile.am
+++ b/morituri/test/Makefile.am
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ EXTRA_DIST = \
 	test_common_config.py \
 	test_common_drive.py \
 	test_common_encode.py \
+	test_common_gstreamer.py \
 	test_common_musicbrainzngs.py \
 	test_common_program.py \
 	test_common_renamer.py \
diff --git a/morituri/test/test_common_gstreamer.py b/morituri/test/test_common_gstreamer.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94de5c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/morituri/test/test_common_gstreamer.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# -*- Mode: Python -*-
+# vi:si:et:sw=4:sts=4:ts=4
+
+from morituri.common import gstreamer
+
+from morituri.test import common
+
+
+class VersionTestCase(common.TestCase):
+
+    def testGStreamer(self):
+        version = gstreamer.gstreamerVersion()
+        self.failUnless(version.startswith('0.'))
+
+    def testGSTPython(self):
+        version = gstreamer.gstPythonVersion()
+        self.failUnless(version.startswith('0.'))
+
+    def testFlacEnc(self):
+        version = gstreamer.elementFactoryVersion('flacenc')
+        self.failUnless(version.startswith('0.'))