1pacat(1) General Commands Manual pacat(1)
2
6 pacat - Play back or record raw or encoded audio streams on a PulseAu‐
7 dio sound server
8
10 paplay [options] [FILE]
11 parecord [options] [FILE]
13 pacat [options] [FILE]
15 parec [options] [FILE]
17 pamon [options] [FILE]
19 pacat --help
21 pacat --version
23
25 pacat is a simple tool for playing back or capturing raw or encoded
26 audio files on a PulseAudio sound server. It understands all audio file
27 formats supported by libsndfile.
28
30 -h | --help
31 Show help.
32 --version
34 Show version information.
35 -r | --record
37 Capture audio data and write it to the specified file or to STD‐
38 OUT if none is specified. If the tool is called under the name
39 parec this is the default.
40 -p | --playback
42 Read audio data from the specified file or STDIN if none is
43 specified, and play it back. If the tool is called under the
44 name pacat this is the default.
45 -v | --verbose
47 Enable verbose operation. Dumps the current playback time to
48 STDERR during playback/capturing.
49 -s | --server=SERVER
51 Choose the server to connect to.
52 -d | --device=SINKORSOURCE
54 Specify the symbolic name of the sink/source to play/record this
55 stream on/from.
56 --monitor-stream=INDEX
58 Record from the sink input with index INDEX.
59 -n | --client-name=NAME
61 Specify the client name paplay shall pass to the server when
62 connecting.
63 --stream-name=NAME
65 Specify the stream name paplay shall pass to the server when
66 creating the stream.
67 --volume=VOLUME
69 Specify the initial playback volume to use. Choose a value
70 between 0 (silent) and 65536 (100% volume).
71 --rate=SAMPLERATE
73 Capture or play back audio with the specified sample rate.
74 Defaults to 44100 Hz.
75 --format=FORMAT
77 Capture or play back audio with the specified sample format.
78 Specify one of u8, s16le, s16be, s32le, s32be, float32le,
79 float32be, ulaw, alaw, s32le, s32be, s24le, s24be, s24-32le,
80 s24-32be. Depending on the endianness of the CPU the formats
81 s16ne, s16re, s32ne, s32re, float32ne, float32re, s32ne, s32re,
82 s24ne, s24re, s24-32ne, s24-32re (for native, resp. reverse
83 endian) are available as aliases. Defaults to s16ne.
84 --channels=CHANNELS
86 Capture or play back audio with the specified number of chan‐
87 nels. If more than two channels are used it is recommended to
88 use the --channel-map option below. Defaults to 2.
89 --channel-map=CHANNELMAP
91 Explicitly choose a channel map when playing back this stream.
92 The argument should be a comma separated list of channel names:
93 front-left, front-right, mono, front-center, rear-left, rear-
94 right, rear-center, lfe, front-left-of-center, front-right-of-
95 center, side-left, side-right, top-center, top-front-center,
96 top-front-left, top-front-right, top-rear-left, top-rear-right,
97 top-rear-center, or any of the 32 auxiliary channel names aux0
98 to aux31.
99 --fix-format
101 If passed, the sample format of the stream is changed to the
102 native format of the sink the stream is connected to.
103 --fix-rate
105 If passed, the sampling rate of the stream is changed to the
106 native rate of the sink the stream is connected to.
107 --fix-channels
109 If passed, the number of channels and the channel map of the
110 stream is changed to the native number of channels and the
111 native channel map of the sink the stream is connected to.
112 --no-remix
114 Never upmix or downmix channels.
115 --no-remap
117 Never remap channels. Instead of mapping channels by their name
118 this will match them solely by their index/order.
119 --latency=BYTES
121 Explicitly configure the latency, with a time specified in bytes
122 in the selected sample format. If left out the server will pick
123 the latency, usually relatively high for power saving reasons.
124 Use either this option or --latency-msec, but not both.
125 --latency-msec=MSEC
127 Explicitly configure the latency, with a time specified in mil‐
128 liseconds. If left out the server will pick the latency, usually
129 relatively high for power saving reasons. Use either this option
130 or --latency, but not both.
131 --process-time=BYTES
133 Explicitly configure the process time, with a time specified in
134 bytes in the selected sample format. If left out the server will
135 pick the process time. Use either this option or --process-time-
136 msec, but not both.
137 --process-time-msec=MSEC
139 Explicitly configure the process time, with a time specified in
140 miliseconds. If left out the server will pick the process time.
141 Use either this option or --process-time, but not both.
142 --property=PROPERTY=VALUE
144 Attach a property to the client and stream. May be used multiple
145 times
146 --raw Play/record raw audio data. This is the default if this program
148 is invoked as pacat , parec or pamon
149 --file-format[=FFORMAT]
151 Play/record encoded audio data in the file format specified.
152 This is the default if this program is invoked as paplay and
153 parecord
154 --list-file-formats
156 List supported file formats.
157
159 Due to a limitation in libsndfile paplay currently does not always set
160 the correct channel mapping for playback of multichannel (i.e. sur‐
161 round) audio files, even if the channel mapping information is avail‐
162 able in the audio file.
163
165 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
166 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
167 dio.org/
168
170 pulseaudio(1), pactl(1)
171Manuals User pacat(1)