1pulse-daemon.conf(5) File Formats Manual pulse-daemon.conf(5)
2
6 pulse-daemon.conf - PulseAudio daemon configuration file
7
9 ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf
10 ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf.d/*.conf
12 /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
14 /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/*.conf
16
18 The PulseAudio sound server reads configuration directives from a con‐
19 figuration file on startup. If the per-user file ~/.config/pulse/dae‐
20 mon.conf exists, it is used, otherwise the system configuration file
21 /etc/pulse/daemon.conf is used. In addition to those main files, con‐
22 figuration directives can also be put in files under directories
23 ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf.d/ and /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/. Those
24 files have to have the .conf file name extension, but otherwise the
25 file names can be chosen freely. The files under daemon.conf.d are pro‐
26 cessed in alphabetical order. In case the same option is set in multi‐
27 ple files, the last file to set an option overrides earlier files. The
28 main daemon.conf file is processed first, so options set in files under
29 daemon.conf.d override the main file.
30 Please note that the server also reads a configuration script on
32 startup. See default.pa(5).
33 The configuration file is a simple collection of variable declarations.
35 If the configuration file parser encounters either ; or # it ignores
36 the rest of the line until its end.
37 For the settings that take a boolean argument the values true, yes, on
39 and 1 are equivalent, resp. false, no, off, 0.
40
42 daemonize= Daemonize after startup. Takes a boolean value, defaults to
43 no. The --daemonize command line option takes precedence.
44 fail= Fail to start up if any of the directives in the configuration
46 script default.pa fail. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. The
47 --fail command line option takes precedence.
48 allow-module-loading= Allow/disallow module loading after startup. This
50 is a security feature that if disabled makes sure that no further mod‐
51 ules may be loaded into the PulseAudio server after startup completed.
52 It is recommended to disable this when system-instance is enabled.
53 Please note that certain features like automatic hot-plug support will
54 not work if this option is enabled. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
55 to yes. The --disallow-module-loading command line option takes prece‐
56 dence.
57 allow-exit= Allow/disallow exit on user request. Defaults to yes.
59 resample-method= The resampling algorithm to use. Use one of src-sinc-
61 best-quality, src-sinc-medium-quality, src-sinc-fastest, src-zero-
62 order-hold, src-linear, trivial, speex-float-N, speex-fixed-N, ffmpeg,
63 soxr-mq, soxr-hq, soxr-vhq. See the documentation of libsamplerate and
64 speex for explanations of the different src- and speex- methods,
65 respectively. The method trivial is the most basic algorithm imple‐
66 mented. If you're tight on CPU consider using this. On the other hand
67 it has the worst quality of them all. The Speex resamplers take an
68 integer quality setting in the range 0..10 (bad...good). They exist in
69 two flavours: fixed and float. The former uses fixed point numbers, the
70 latter relies on floating point numbers. On most desktop CPUs the float
71 point resampler is a lot faster, and it also offers slightly better
72 quality. The soxr-family methods are based on libsoxr, a resampler
73 library from the SoX sound processing utility. The mq variant has the
74 best performance of the three. The hq is more expensive and, according
75 to SoX developers, is considered the best choice for audio of up to 16
76 bits per sample. The vhq variant has more precision than hq and is more
77 suitable for larger samples. The Soxr resamplers generally offer better
78 quality at less CPU compared to other resamplers, such as speex. The
79 downside is that they can add a significant delay to the output (usu‐
80 ally up to around 20 ms, in rare cases more). See the output of dump-
81 resample-methods for a complete list of all available resamplers.
82 Defaults to speex-float-1. The --resample-method command line option
83 takes precedence. Note that some modules overwrite or allow overwriting
84 of the resampler to use.
85 enable-remixing= If disabled never upmix or downmix channels to differ‐
87 ent channel maps. Instead, do a simple name-based matching only.
88 Defaults to yes.
89 enable-lfe-remixing= If disabled when upmixing or downmixing ignore LFE
91 channels. When this option is disabled the output LFE channel will only
92 get a signal when an input LFE channel is available as well. If no
93 input LFE channel is available the output LFE channel will always be 0.
94 If no output LFE channel is available the signal on the input LFE chan‐
95 nel will be ignored. Defaults to no.
96 lfe-crossover-freq= The crossover frequency (in Hz) for the LFE filter.
98 Set it to 0 to disable the LFE filter. Defaults to 0.
99 use-pid-file= Create a PID file in the runtime directory ($XDG_RUN‐
101 TIME_DIR/pulse/pid). If this is enabled you may use commands like
102 --kill or --check. If you are planning to start more than one PulseAu‐
103 dio process per user, you better disable this option since it effec‐
104 tively disables multiple instances. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
105 to yes. The --use-pid-file command line option takes precedence.
106 cpu-limit= If disabled do not install the CPU load limiter, even on
108 platforms where it is supported. This option is useful when debug‐
109 ging/profiling PulseAudio to disable disturbing SIGXCPU signals. Takes
110 a boolean argument, defaults to no. The --no-cpu-limit command line
111 argument takes precedence.
112 system-instance= Run the daemon as system-wide instance, requires root
114 privileges. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to no. The --system com‐
115 mand line argument takes precedence.
116 local-server-type= Please don't use this option if you don't have to!
118 This option is currently only useful when you want D-Bus clients to use
119 a remote server. This option may be removed in future versions. If you
120 only want to run PulseAudio in the system mode, use the system-instance
121 option. This option takes one of user, system or none as the argument.
122 This is essentially a duplicate for the system-instance option. The
123 difference is the none option, which is useful when you want to use a
124 remote server with D-Bus clients. If both this and system-instance are
125 defined, this option takes precedence. Defaults to whatever the system-
126 instance is set.
127 enable-shm= Enable data transfer via POSIX or memfd shared memory.
129 Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. The --disable-shm command
130 line argument takes precedence.
131 enable-memfd=. Enable memfd shared memory. Takes a boolean argument,
133 defaults to yes.
134 shm-size-bytes= Sets the shared memory segment size for the daemon, in
136 bytes. If left unspecified or is set to 0 it will default to some sys‐
137 tem-specific default, usually 64 MiB. Please note that usually there is
138 no need to change this value, unless you are running an OS kernel that
139 does not do memory overcommit.
140 lock-memory= Locks the entire PulseAudio process into memory. While
142 this might increase drop-out safety when used in conjunction with real-
143 time scheduling this takes away a lot of memory from other processes
144 and might hence considerably slow down your system. Defaults to no.
145 flat-volumes= Enable 'flat' volumes, i.e. where possible let the sink
147 volume equal the maximum of the volumes of the inputs connected to it.
148 Takes a boolean argument, defaults to no.
149
151 high-priority= Renice the daemon after startup to become a high-prior‐
152 ity process. This a good idea if you experience drop-outs during play‐
153 back. However, this is a certain security issue, since it works when
154 called SUID root only, or RLIMIT_NICE is used. root is dropped immedi‐
155 ately after gaining the nice level on startup, thus it is presumably
156 safe. See pulseaudio(1) for more information. Takes a boolean argument,
157 defaults to yes. The --high-priority command line option takes prece‐
158 dence.
159 realtime-scheduling= Try to acquire SCHED_FIFO scheduling for the IO
161 threads. The same security concerns as mentioned above apply. However,
162 if PA enters an endless loop, realtime scheduling causes a system
163 lockup. Thus, realtime scheduling should only be enabled on trusted
164 machines for now. Please note that only the IO threads of PulseAudio
165 are made real-time. The controlling thread is left a normally scheduled
166 thread. Thus enabling the high-priority option is orthogonal. See
167 pulseaudio(1) for more information. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
168 to yes. The --realtime command line option takes precedence.
169 realtime-priority= The realtime priority to acquire, if realtime-sched‐
171 uling is enabled. Note: JACK uses 10 by default, 9 for clients. Thus it
172 is recommended to choose the PulseAudio real-time priorities lower.
173 Some PulseAudio threads might choose a priority a little lower or
174 higher than the specified value. Defaults to 5.
175 nice-level= The nice level to acquire for the daemon, if high-priority
177 is enabled. Note: on some distributions X11 uses -10 by default.
178 Defaults to -11.
179
181 exit-idle-time= Terminate the daemon after the last client quit and
182 this time in seconds passed. Use a negative value to disable this fea‐
183 ture. Defaults to 20. The --exit-idle-time command line option takes
184 precedence.
185 scache-idle-time= Unload autoloaded sample cache entries after being
187 idle for this time in seconds. Defaults to 20. The --scache-idle-time
188 command line option takes precedence.
189
191 dl-search-path= The path where to look for dynamic shared objects
192 (DSOs/plugins). You may specify more than one path separated by colons.
193 The default path depends on compile time settings. The --dl-search-path
194 command line option takes precedence.
195 default-script-file= The default configuration script file to load.
197 Specify an empty string for not loading a default script file. The
198 default behaviour is to load ~/.config/pulse/default.pa, and if that
199 file does not exist fall back to the system wide installed version
200 /etc/pulse/default.pa. If run in system-wide mode the file
201 /etc/pulse/system.pa is used instead. If -n is passed on the command
202 line or default-script-file= is disabled the default configuration
203 script is ignored.
204 load-default-script-file= Load the default configuration script file as
206 specified in default-script-file=. Defaults to yes.
207
209 log-target= The default log target. Use either stderr, syslog, journal
210 (optional), auto, file:PATH or newfile:PATH. On traditional systems
211 auto is equivalent to syslog. On systemd-enabled systems, auto is
212 equivalent to journal, in case daemonize is enabled, and to stderr oth‐
213 erwise. If set to file:PATH, logging is directed to the file indicated
214 by PATH. newfile:PATH is otherwise the same as file:PATH, but existing
215 files are never overwritten. If the specified file already exists, a
216 suffix is added to the file name to avoid overwriting. Defaults to
217 auto. The --log-target command line option takes precedence.
218 log-level= Log level, one of debug, info, notice, warning, error. Log
220 messages with a lower log level than specified here are not logged.
221 Defaults to notice. The --log-level command line option takes prece‐
222 dence. The -v command line option might alter this setting.
223 log-meta= With each logged message log the code location the message
225 was generated from. Defaults to no.
226 log-time= With each logged message log the relative time since startup.
228 Defaults to no.
229 log-backtrace= When greater than 0, with each logged message log a code
231 stack trace up the specified number of stack frames. Defaults to 0.
232
234 See getrlimit(2) for more information. Set to -1 if PulseAudio shall
235 not touch the resource limit. Not all resource limits are available on
236 all operating systems.
237 rlimit-as Defaults to -1.
239 rlimit-rss Defaults to -1.
241 rlimit-core Defaults to -1.
243 rlimit-data Defaults to -1.
245 rlimit-fsize Defaults to -1.
247 rlimit-nofile Defaults to 256.
249 rlimit-stack Defaults to -1.
251 rlimit-nproc Defaults to -1.
253 rlimit-locks Defaults to -1.
255 rlimit-sigpending Defaults to -1.
257 rlimit-msgqueue Defaults to -1.
259 rlimit-memlock Defaults to 16 KiB. Please note that the JACK client
261 libraries may require more locked memory.
262 rlimit-nice Defaults to 31. Please make sure that the default nice
264 level as configured with nice-level fits in this resource limit, if
265 high-priority is enabled.
266 rlimit-rtprio Defaults to 9. Please make sure that the default real-
268 time priority level as configured with realtime-priority= fits in this
269 resource limit, if realtime-scheduling is enabled. The JACK client
270 libraries require a real-time priority of 9 by default.
271 rlimit-rttime Defaults to 1000000.
273
275 Most drivers try to open the audio device with these settings and then
276 fall back to lower settings. The default settings are CD quality: 16bit
277 native endian, 2 channels, 44100 Hz sampling.
278 default-sample-format= The default sampling format. Specify one of u8,
280 s16le, s16be, s24le, s24be, s24-32le, s24-32be, s32le, s32be float32le,
281 float32be, ulaw, alaw. Depending on the endianness of the CPU the for‐
282 mats s16ne, s16re, s24ne, s24re, s24-32ne, s24-32re, s32ne, s32re,
283 float32ne, float32re (for native, resp. reverse endian) are available
284 as aliases.
285 default-sample-rate= The default sample frequency.
287 default-sample-channels The default number of channels.
289 default-channel-map The default channel map.
291 alternate-sample-rate The alternate sample frequency. Sinks and sources
293 will use either the default-sample-rate value or this alternate value,
294 typically 44.1 or 48kHz. Switching between default and alternate values
295 is enabled only when the sinks/sources are suspended. This option is
296 ignored in passthrough mode where the stream rate will be used. If set
297 to the same value as the default sample rate, this feature is disabled.
298
300 Some hardware drivers require the hardware playback buffer to be subdi‐
301 vided into several fragments. It is possible to change these buffer
302 metrics for machines with high scheduling latencies. Not all possible
303 values that may be configured here are available in all hardware. The
304 driver will find the nearest setting supported. Modern drivers that
305 support timer-based scheduling ignore these options.
306 default-fragments= The default number of fragments. Defaults to 4.
308 default-fragment-size-msec=The duration of a single fragment. Defaults
310 to 25ms (i.e. the total buffer is thus 100ms long).
311
313 With the flat volume feature enabled, the sink HW volume is set to the
314 same level as the highest volume input stream. Any other streams (with
315 lower volumes) have the appropriate adjustment applied in SW to bring
316 them to the correct overall level. Sadly hardware mixer changes cannot
317 be timed accurately and thus this change of volumes can sometimes cause
318 the resulting output sound to be momentarily too loud or too soft. So
319 to ensure SW and HW volumes are applied concurrently without any
320 glitches, their application needs to be synchronized. The sink imple‐
321 mentation needs to support deferred volumes. The following parameters
322 can be used to refine the process.
323 enable-deferred-volume= Enable deferred volume for the sinks that sup‐
325 port it. This feature is enabled by default.
326 deferred-volume-safety-margin-usec= The amount of time (in usec) by
328 which the HW volume increases are delayed and HW volume decreases are
329 advanced. Defaults to 8000 usec.
330 deferred-volume-extra-delay-usec= The amount of time (in usec) by which
332 HW volume changes are delayed. Negative values are also allowed.
333 Defaults to 0.
334
336 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
337 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
338 dio.org/
339
341 pulse-client.conf(5), default.pa(5), pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
342Manuals User pulse-daemon.conf(5)