1pulse-cli-syntax(5)           File Formats Manual          pulse-cli-syntax(5)
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NAME

6       pulse-cli-syntax - PulseAudio Command Line Interface Syntax
7

SYNOPSIS

9       ~/.config/pulse/default.pa
10
11       /etc/pulse/default.pa
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13       /etc/pulse/system.pa
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DESCRIPTION

16       PulseAudio  provides  a simple command line language used by configura‐
17       tion scripts, the pacmd interactive shell, and the  modules  module-cli
18       and  module-cli-protocol-{unix,tcp}.  Empty  lines  and lines beginning
19       with a hashmark (#) are silently ignored.  Several  commands  are  sup‐
20       ported.
21
22       Note  that  any  boolean arguments can be given positively as '1', 't',
23       'y', 'true', 'yes' or 'on'. Likewise, negative values can be  given  as
24       '0', 'f', 'n', 'false', 'no' or 'off'. Case is ignored.
25

GENERAL COMMANDS

27       help   Show a quick help on the commands available.
28

STATUS COMMANDS

30       list-modules
31              Show all currently loaded modules with their arguments.
32
33       list-cards
34              Show all currently registered cards
35
36       list-sinks or list-sources
37              Show all currently registered sinks (resp. sources).
38
39       list-clients
40              Show all currently active clients.
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42       list-sink-inputs or list-source-outputs
43              Show  all  currently  active  inputs  to  sinks  a.k.a. playback
44              streams (resp. outputs of sources a.k.a. recording streams).
45
46       stat   Show some simple statistics about the  allocated  memory  blocks
47              and the space used by them.
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49       info or ls or list
50              A  combination of all status commands described above (all three
51              commands are synonyms).
52

MODULE MANAGEMENT

54       load-module name [arguments...]
55              Load a module specified by its name and arguments. For most mod‐
56              ules it is OK to be loaded more than once.
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58       unload-module index|name
59              Unload  a  module,  specified  either by its index in the module
60              list or its name.
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62       describe-module name
63              Give information about a module specified by its name.
64

VOLUME COMMANDS

66       set-sink-volume|set-source-volume index|name volume
67              Set the volume of the specified sink  (resp.  source).  You  may
68              specify  the  sink  (resp.  source)  either  by its index in the
69              sink/source list or by its name. The volume should be an integer
70              value greater or equal than 0 (muted). Volume 65536 (0x10000) is
71              'normal' volume a.k.a. 100%. Values greater  than  this  amplify
72              the audio signal (with clipping).
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74       set-sink-mute|set-source-mute index|name boolean
75              Mute  or unmute the specified sink (resp. source). You may spec‐
76              ify the sink (resp. source) either by its index or by its  name.
77              The mute value is either 0 (not muted) or 1 (muted).
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79       set-sink-input-volume|set-source-output-volume index volume
80              Set  the  volume of a sink input (resp. source output) specified
81              by its index. The same volume rules apply as with  set-sink-vol‐
82              ume.
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84       set-sink-input-mute|set-source-output-mute index boolean
85              Mute  or  unmute a sink input (resp. source output) specified by
86              its index. The same mute rules apply as with set-sink-mute.
87

CONFIGURATION COMMANDS

89       set-default-sink|set-default-source index|name
90              Make a sink (resp. source) the default. You may specify the sink
91              (resp.  source)  by its index in the sink (resp. source) list or
92              by its name.
93
94              Note that defaults may be overridden by various  policy  modules
95              or by specific stream configurations.
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97       set-card-profile index|name profile-name
98              Change the profile of a card.
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100       set-sink-port|set-source-port index|name port-name
101              Change the profile of a sink (resp. source).
102
103       set-port-latency-offset card-index|card-name port-name offset
104              Change  the  latency offset of a port belonging to the specified
105              card
106
107       suspend-sink|suspend-source name|index true|false
108              Suspend or resume the specified sink or  source  (which  may  be
109              specified  either  by its name or index), depending whether true
110              (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argument. Suspend‐
111              ing  a sink will pause all playback and suspending a source will
112              pause all capturing. Depending on the  module  implementing  the
113              sink  or  source  this might have the effect that the underlying
114              device is closed, making it available for other applications  to
115              use. The exact behaviour depends on the module.
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117       suspend boolean
118              Suspend all sinks and sources.
119

MOVING STREAMS

121       move-sink-input|move-source-output index sink-index|sink-name
122              Move  sink  input  (resp.  source output) to another sink (resp.
123              source).
124

PROPERTY LISTS

126       update-sink-proplist|update-source-proplist index|name properties
127              Update the properties of a sink (resp. source) specified by name
128              or  index.  The  property  is  specified as e.g. device.descrip‐
129              tion="My Preferred Name"
130
131       update-sink-input-proplist|update-source-output-proplist index  proper‐
132       ties
133              Update  the  properties  of  a  sink input (resp. source output)
134              specified by index. The properties are specified as above.
135

SAMPLE CACHE

137       list-samples
138              Lists the contents of the sample cache.
139
140       play-sample name sink-index|sink-name
141              Play a sample cache entry to a sink.
142
143       remove-sample name
144              Remove an entry from the sample cache.
145
146       load-sample name filename
147              Load an audio file to the sample cache.
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149       load-sample-lazy name filename
150              Create a new entry in the sample cache, but don't load the  sam‐
151              ple  immediately.  The  sample  is  loaded only when it is first
152              used. After a certain idle time it is freed again.
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154       load-sample-dir-lazy path
155              Load all entries in the  specified  directory  into  the  sample
156              cache  as lazy entries. A shell globbing expression (e.g. *.wav)
157              may be appended to the path of the directory to add.
158

KILLING CLIENTS/STREAMS

160       kill-client index
161              Remove a client forcibly from the server. There is no protection
162              against the client reconnecting immediately.
163
164       kill-sink-input|kill-source-output index
165              Remove  a  sink  input  (resp.  source output) forcibly from the
166              server. This will not remove the  owning  client  or  any  other
167              streams opened by the same client from the server.
168

LOG COMMANDS

170       set-log-level numeric-level
171              Change the log level.
172
173       set-log-meta boolean
174              Show source code location in log messages.
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176       set-log-target target
177              Change  the  log  target  (null,  auto, journal, syslog, stderr,
178              file:PATH, newfile:PATH).
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180       set-log-time boolean
181              Show timestamps in log messages.
182
183       set-log-backtrace num-frames
184              Show backtrace in log messages.
185

MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS

187       play-file filename sink-index|sink-name
188              Play an audio file to a sink.
189
190       dump   Dump the daemon's current configuration in CLI commands.
191
192       dump-volumes
193              Debug: Shows the current state of all volumes.
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195       shared Debug: Show shared properties.
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197       exit   Terminate the daemon. If you want to terminate a CLI  connection
198              ("log out") you might want to use ctrl+d
199

META COMMANDS

201       In addition to the commands described above there are a few meta direc‐
202       tives supported by the command line interpreter.
203
204       .include filename|folder
205              Executes the commands from the specified script file or  in  all
206              of the *.pa files within the folder.
207
208       .fail and .nofail
209              Enable (resp. disable) that following failing commands will can‐
210              cel the execution of the current script file.  This  is  ignored
211              when used on the interactive command line.
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213       .ifexists filename
214              Execute  the  subsequent block of commands only if the specified
215              file exists. Typically filename  indicates  a  module.  Relative
216              paths  are  resolved  using the module directory as the base. By
217              using an absolute path, the existence  of  other  files  can  be
218              checked as well.
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220       .else and .endif
221              A block of commands is delimited by an .else or .endif meta com‐
222              mand. Nesting conditional commands is not supported.
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AUTHORS

225       The  PulseAudio  Developers  <pulseaudio-discuss   (at)   lists   (dot)
226       freedesktop  (dot)  org>;  PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau
227       dio.org/
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SEE ALSO

230       default.pa(5), pacmd(1), pulseaudio(1)
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