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 avoid-resampling= If set, try to configure the device to avoid resam‐
87 pling. This only works on devices which support reconfiguring their
88 rate, and when no other streams are already playing or capturing audio.
89 The device will also not be configured to a rate less than the default
90 and alternate sample rates.
91 enable-remixing= If disabled never upmix or downmix channels to differ‐
93 ent channel maps. Instead, do a simple name-based matching only.
94 Defaults to yes.
95 remixing-use-all-sink-channels= If enabled, use all sink channels when
97 remixing. Otherwise, remix to the minimal set of sink channels needed
98 to reproduce all of the source channels. (This has no effect on LFE
99 remixing.) Defaults to yes.
100 enable-lfe-remixing= If disabled when upmixing or downmixing ignore LFE
102 channels. When this option is disabled the output LFE channel will only
103 get a signal when an input LFE channel is available as well. If no
104 input LFE channel is available the output LFE channel will always be 0.
105 If no output LFE channel is available the signal on the input LFE chan‐
106 nel will be ignored. Defaults to no.
107 lfe-crossover-freq= The crossover frequency (in Hz) for the LFE filter.
109 Set it to 0 to disable the LFE filter. Defaults to 0.
110 use-pid-file= Create a PID file in the runtime directory ($XDG_RUN‐
112 TIME_DIR/pulse/pid). If this is enabled you may use commands like
113 --kill or --check. If you are planning to start more than one PulseAu‐
114 dio process per user, you better disable this option since it effec‐
115 tively disables multiple instances. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
116 to yes. The --use-pid-file command line option takes precedence.
117 cpu-limit= If disabled do not install the CPU load limiter, even on
119 platforms where it is supported. This option is useful when debug‐
120 ging/profiling PulseAudio to disable disturbing SIGXCPU signals. Takes
121 a boolean argument, defaults to no. The --no-cpu-limit command line
122 argument takes precedence.
123 system-instance= Run the daemon as system-wide instance, requires root
125 privileges. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to no. The --system com‐
126 mand line argument takes precedence.
127 local-server-type= Please don't use this option if you don't have to!
129 This option is currently only useful when you want D-Bus clients to use
130 a remote server. This option may be removed in future versions. If you
131 only want to run PulseAudio in the system mode, use the system-instance
132 option. This option takes one of user, system or none as the argument.
133 This is essentially a duplicate for the system-instance option. The
134 difference is the none option, which is useful when you want to use a
135 remote server with D-Bus clients. If both this and system-instance are
136 defined, this option takes precedence. Defaults to whatever the system-
137 instance is set.
138 enable-shm= Enable data transfer via POSIX or memfd shared memory.
140 Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. The --disable-shm command
141 line argument takes precedence.
142 enable-memfd=. Enable memfd shared memory. Takes a boolean argument,
144 defaults to yes.
145 shm-size-bytes= Sets the shared memory segment size for the daemon, in
147 bytes. If left unspecified or is set to 0 it will default to some sys‐
148 tem-specific default, usually 64 MiB. Please note that usually there is
149 no need to change this value, unless you are running an OS kernel that
150 does not do memory overcommit.
151 lock-memory= Locks the entire PulseAudio process into memory. While
153 this might increase drop-out safety when used in conjunction with real-
154 time scheduling this takes away a lot of memory from other processes
155 and might hence considerably slow down your system. Defaults to no.
156 flat-volumes= Enable 'flat' volumes, i.e. where possible let the sink
158 volume equal the maximum of the volumes of the inputs connected to it.
159 Takes a boolean argument, defaults to no.
160
162 high-priority= Renice the daemon after startup to become a high-prior‐
163 ity process. This a good idea if you experience drop-outs during play‐
164 back. However, this is a certain security issue, since it works when
165 called SUID root only, or RLIMIT_NICE is used. root is dropped immedi‐
166 ately after gaining the nice level on startup, thus it is presumably
167 safe. See pulseaudio(1) for more information. Takes a boolean argument,
168 defaults to yes. The --high-priority command line option takes prece‐
169 dence.
170 realtime-scheduling= Try to acquire SCHED_FIFO scheduling for the IO
172 threads. The same security concerns as mentioned above apply. However,
173 if PA enters an endless loop, realtime scheduling causes a system
174 lockup. Thus, realtime scheduling should only be enabled on trusted
175 machines for now. Please note that only the IO threads of PulseAudio
176 are made real-time. The controlling thread is left a normally scheduled
177 thread. Thus enabling the high-priority option is orthogonal. See
178 pulseaudio(1) for more information. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
179 to yes. The --realtime command line option takes precedence.
180 realtime-priority= The realtime priority to acquire, if realtime-sched‐
182 uling is enabled. Note: JACK uses 10 by default, 9 for clients. Thus it
183 is recommended to choose the PulseAudio real-time priorities lower.
184 Some PulseAudio threads might choose a priority a little lower or
185 higher than the specified value. Defaults to 5.
186 nice-level= The nice level to acquire for the daemon, if high-priority
188 is enabled. Note: on some distributions X11 uses -10 by default.
189 Defaults to -11.
190
192 exit-idle-time= Terminate the daemon after the last client quit and
193 this time in seconds passed. Use a negative value to disable this fea‐
194 ture. Defaults to 20. The --exit-idle-time command line option takes
195 precedence.
196 scache-idle-time= Unload autoloaded sample cache entries after being
198 idle for this time in seconds. Defaults to 20. The --scache-idle-time
199 command line option takes precedence.
200
202 dl-search-path= The path where to look for dynamic shared objects
203 (DSOs/plugins). You may specify more than one path separated by colons.
204 The default path depends on compile time settings. The --dl-search-path
205 command line option takes precedence.
206 default-script-file= The default configuration script file to load.
208 Specify an empty string for not loading a default script file. The
209 default behaviour is to load ~/.config/pulse/default.pa, and if that
210 file does not exist fall back to the system wide installed version
211 /etc/pulse/default.pa. If run in system-wide mode the file
212 /etc/pulse/system.pa is used instead. If -n is passed on the command
213 line or default-script-file= is disabled the default configuration
214 script is ignored.
215 load-default-script-file= Load the default configuration script file as
217 specified in default-script-file=. Defaults to yes.
218
220 log-target= The default log target. Use either stderr, syslog, journal
221 (optional), auto, file:PATH or newfile:PATH. On traditional systems
222 auto is equivalent to syslog. On systemd-enabled systems, auto is
223 equivalent to journal, in case daemonize is enabled, and to stderr oth‐
224 erwise. If set to file:PATH, logging is directed to the file indicated
225 by PATH. newfile:PATH is otherwise the same as file:PATH, but existing
226 files are never overwritten. If the specified file already exists, a
227 suffix is added to the file name to avoid overwriting. Defaults to
228 auto. The --log-target command line option takes precedence.
229 log-level= Log level, one of debug, info, notice, warning, error. Log
231 messages with a lower log level than specified here are not logged.
232 Defaults to notice. The --log-level command line option takes prece‐
233 dence. The -v command line option might alter this setting.
234 log-meta= With each logged message log the code location the message
236 was generated from. Defaults to no.
237 log-time= With each logged message log the relative time since startup.
239 Defaults to no.
240 log-backtrace= When greater than 0, with each logged message log a code
242 stack trace up the specified number of stack frames. Defaults to 0.
243
245 See getrlimit(2) for more information. Set to -1 if PulseAudio shall
246 not touch the resource limit. Not all resource limits are available on
247 all operating systems.
248 rlimit-as Defaults to -1.
250 rlimit-rss Defaults to -1.
252 rlimit-core Defaults to -1.
254 rlimit-data Defaults to -1.
256 rlimit-fsize Defaults to -1.
258 rlimit-nofile Defaults to 256.
260 rlimit-stack Defaults to -1.
262 rlimit-nproc Defaults to -1.
264 rlimit-locks Defaults to -1.
266 rlimit-sigpending Defaults to -1.
268 rlimit-msgqueue Defaults to -1.
270 rlimit-memlock Defaults to 16 KiB. Please note that the JACK client
272 libraries may require more locked memory.
273 rlimit-nice Defaults to 31. Please make sure that the default nice
275 level as configured with nice-level fits in this resource limit, if
276 high-priority is enabled.
277 rlimit-rtprio Defaults to 9. Please make sure that the default real-
279 time priority level as configured with realtime-priority= fits in this
280 resource limit, if realtime-scheduling is enabled. The JACK client
281 libraries require a real-time priority of 9 by default.
282 rlimit-rttime Defaults to 1000000.
284
286 Most drivers try to open the audio device with these settings and then
287 fall back to lower settings. The default settings are CD quality: 16bit
288 native endian, 2 channels, 44100 Hz sampling.
289 default-sample-format= The default sampling format. Specify one of u8,
291 s16le, s16be, s24le, s24be, s24-32le, s24-32be, s32le, s32be float32le,
292 float32be, ulaw, alaw. Depending on the endianness of the CPU the for‐
293 mats s16ne, s16re, s24ne, s24re, s24-32ne, s24-32re, s32ne, s32re,
294 float32ne, float32re (for native, resp. reverse endian) are available
295 as aliases.
296 default-sample-rate= The default sample frequency.
298 default-sample-channels The default number of channels.
300 default-channel-map The default channel map.
302 alternate-sample-rate The alternate sample frequency. Sinks and sources
304 will use either the default-sample-rate value or this alternate value,
305 typically 44.1 or 48kHz. Switching between default and alternate values
306 is enabled only when the sinks/sources are suspended. This option is
307 ignored in passthrough mode where the stream rate will be used. If set
308 to the same value as the default sample rate, this feature is disabled.
309
311 Some hardware drivers require the hardware playback buffer to be subdi‐
312 vided into several fragments. It is possible to change these buffer
313 metrics for machines with high scheduling latencies. Not all possible
314 values that may be configured here are available in all hardware. The
315 driver will find the nearest setting supported. Modern drivers that
316 support timer-based scheduling ignore these options.
317 default-fragments= The default number of fragments. Defaults to 4.
319 default-fragment-size-msec=The duration of a single fragment. Defaults
321 to 25ms (i.e. the total buffer is thus 100ms long).
322
324 With the flat volume feature enabled, the sink HW volume is set to the
325 same level as the highest volume input stream. Any other streams (with
326 lower volumes) have the appropriate adjustment applied in SW to bring
327 them to the correct overall level. Sadly hardware mixer changes cannot
328 be timed accurately and thus this change of volumes can sometimes cause
329 the resulting output sound to be momentarily too loud or too soft. So
330 to ensure SW and HW volumes are applied concurrently without any
331 glitches, their application needs to be synchronized. The sink imple‐
332 mentation needs to support deferred volumes. The following parameters
333 can be used to refine the process.
334 enable-deferred-volume= Enable deferred volume for the sinks that sup‐
336 port it. This feature is enabled by default.
337 deferred-volume-safety-margin-usec= The amount of time (in usec) by
339 which the HW volume increases are delayed and HW volume decreases are
340 advanced. Defaults to 8000 usec.
341 deferred-volume-extra-delay-usec= The amount of time (in usec) by which
343 HW volume changes are delayed. Negative values are also allowed.
344 Defaults to 0.
345
347 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
348 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
349 dio.org/
350
352 pulse-client.conf(5), default.pa(5), pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
353Manuals User pulse-daemon.conf(5)