1pulse-cli-syntax(5) File Formats Manual pulse-cli-syntax(5)
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6 pulse-cli-syntax - PulseAudio Command Line Interface Syntax
7
9 ~/.config/pulse/default.pa
10 /etc/pulse/default.pa
12 /etc/pulse/system.pa
14
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 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
27 help Show a quick help on the commands available.
28
30 list-modules
31 Show all currently loaded modules with their arguments.
32 list-cards
34 Show all currently registered cards
35 list-sinks or list-sources
37 Show all currently registered sinks (resp. sources).
38 list-clients
40 Show all currently active clients.
41 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 stat Show some simple statistics about the allocated memory blocks
47 and the space used by them.
48 info or ls or list
50 A combination of all status commands described above (all three
51 commands are synonyms).
52
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.
57 unload-module index|name
59 Unload a module, specified either by its index in the module
60 list or its name.
61 describe-module name
63 Give information about a module specified by its name.
64
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).
73 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).
78 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.
83 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
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 Note that defaults may be overridden by various policy modules
95 or by specific stream configurations.
96 set-card-profile index|name profile-name
98 Change the profile of a card.
99 set-sink-port|set-source-port index|name port-name
101 Change the profile of a sink (resp. source).
102 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 suspend-sink|suspend-source index|name boolean
108 Suspend (i.e. disconnect from the underlying hardware) a sink
109 (resp. source).
110 suspend boolean
112 Suspend all sinks and sources.
113
115 move-sink-input|move-source-output index sink-index|sink-name
116 Move sink input (resp. source output) to another sink (resp.
117 source).
118
120 update-sink-proplist|update-source-proplist index|name properties
121 Update the properties of a sink (resp. source) specified by name
122 or index. The property is specified as e.g. device.descrip‐
123 tion="My Preferred Name"
124 update-sink-input-proplist|update-source-output-proplist index proper‐
126 ties
127 Update the properties of a sink input (resp. source output)
128 specified by index. The properties are specified as above.
129
131 list-samples
132 Lists the contents of the sample cache.
133 play-sample name sink-index|sink-name
135 Play a sample cache entry to a sink.
136 remove-sample name
138 Remove an entry from the sample cache.
139 load-sample name filename
141 Load an audio file to the sample cache.
142 load-sample-lazy name filename
144 Create a new entry in the sample cache, but don't load the sam‐
145 ple immediately. The sample is loaded only when it is first
146 used. After a certain idle time it is freed again.
147 load-sample-dir-lazy path
149 Load all entries in the specified directory into the sample
150 cache as lazy entries. A shell globbing expression (e.g. *.wav)
151 may be appended to the path of the directory to add.
152
154 kill-client index
155 Remove a client forcibly from the server. There is no protection
156 against the client reconnecting immediately.
157 kill-sink-input|kill-source-output index
159 Remove a sink input (resp. source output) forcibly from the
160 server. This will not remove the owning client or any other
161 streams opened by the same client from the server.
162
164 set-log-level numeric-level
165 Change the log level.
166 set-log-meta boolean
168 Show source code location in log messages.
169 set-log-target target
171 Change the log target (null, auto, journal, syslog, stderr,
172 file:PATH, newfile:PATH).
173 set-log-time boolean
175 Show timestamps in log messages.
176 set-log-backtrace num-frames
178 Show backtrace in log messages.
179
181 play-file filename sink-index|sink-name
182 Play an audio file to a sink.
183 dump Dump the daemon's current configuration in CLI commands.
185 dump-volumes
187 Debug: Shows the current state of all volumes.
188 shared Debug: Show shared properties.
190 exit Terminate the daemon. If you want to terminate a CLI connection
192 ("log out") you might want to use ctrl+d
193
195 In addition to the commands described above there are a few meta direc‐
196 tives supported by the command line interpreter.
197 .include filename|folder
199 Executes the commands from the specified script file or in all
200 of the *.pa files within the folder.
201 .fail and .nofail
203 Enable (resp. disable) that following failing commands will can‐
204 cel the execution of the current script file. This is ignored
205 when used on the interactive command line.
206 .ifexists filename
208 Execute the subsequent block of commands only if the specified
209 file exists. Typically filename indicates a module. Relative
210 paths are resolved using the module directory as the base. By
211 using an absolute path, the existance of other files can be
212 checked as well.
213 .else and .endif
215 A block of commands is delimited by an .else or .endif meta com‐
216 mand. Nesting conditional commands is not supported.
217
219 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
220 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
221 dio.org/
222
224 default.pa(5), pacmd(1), pulseaudio(1)
225Manuals User pulse-cli-syntax(5)