1pactl(1) General Commands Manual pactl(1)
2
6 pactl - Control a running PulseAudio sound server
7
9 pactl [options] COMMAND [ARGS ...]
10 pactl --help
12 pactl --version
14
16 pactl can be used to issue control commands to the PulseAudio sound
17 server.
18 pactl only exposes a subset of the available operations. For the full
20 set use the pacmd(1).
21
23 -h | --help
24 Show help.
25 --version
27 Show version information.
28 -s | --server=SERVER
30 Choose the server to connect to.
31 -n | --client-name=NAME
33 Specify the client name pactl shall pass to the server when con‐
34 necting.
35
37 When supplied as arguments to the commands below, the special names
38 @DEFAULT_SINK@, @DEFAULT_SOURCE@ and @DEFAULT_MONITOR@ can be used to
39 specify the default sink, source and monitor respectively.
40 stat Dump a few statistics about the memory usage of the PulseAudio
42 daemon.
43 info Dump some info about the PulseAudio daemon.
45 list [short] [TYPE]
47 Dump all currently loaded modules, available sinks, sources,
48 streams, etc. TYPE must be one of: modules, sinks, sources,
49 sink-inputs, source-outputs, clients, samples, cards. If not
50 specified, all info is listed. If short is given, output is in a
51 tabular format, for easy parsing by scripts.
52 exit Asks the PulseAudio server to terminate.
54 upload-sample FILENAME [NAME]
56 Upload a sound from the specified audio file into the sample
57 cache. The file types supported are those understood by libsnd‐
58 file. The sample in the cache is named after the audio file,
59 unless the name is explicitly specified.
60 play-sample NAME [SINK]
62 Play the specified sample from the sample cache. It is played on
63 the default sink, unless the symbolic name or the numerical
64 index of the sink to play it on is specified.
65 remove-sample NAME
67 Remove the specified sample from the sample cache.
68 load-module NAME [ARGUMENTS ...]
70 Load the specified module with the specified arguments into the
71 running sound server. Prints the numeric index of the module
72 just loaded to STDOUT. You can use it to unload the module
73 later.
74 unload-module ID|NAME
76 Unload the module instance identified by the specified numeric
77 index or unload all modules by the specified name.
78 move-sink-input ID SINK
80 Move the specified playback stream (identified by its numerical
81 index) to the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or
82 numerical index).
83 move-source-output ID SOURCE
85 Move the specified recording stream (identified by its numerical
86 index) to the specified source (identified by its symbolic name
87 or numerical index).
88 suspend-sink SINK true|false
90 Suspend or resume the specified sink (which may be specified
91 either by its name or index), depending whether true (suspend)
92 or false (resume) is passed as last argument. Suspending a sink
93 will pause all playback. Depending on the module implementing
94 the sink this might have the effect that the underlying device
95 is closed, making it available for other applications to use.
96 The exact behaviour depends on the module.
97 suspend-source SOURCE true|false
99 Suspend or resume the specified source (which may be specified
100 either by its name or index), depending whether true (suspend)
101 or false (resume) is passed as last argument. Suspending a
102 source will pause all capturing. Depending on the module imple‐
103 menting the source this might have the effect that the underly‐
104 ing device is closed, making it available for other applications
105 to use. The exact behaviour depends on the module.
106 set-card-profile CARD PROFILE
108 Set the specified card (identified by its symbolic name or
109 numerical index) to the specified profile (identified by its
110 symbolic name).
111 set-default-sink SINK
113 Make the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name) the
114 default sink.
115 set-sink-port SINK PORT
117 Set the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or
118 numerical index) to the specified port (identified by its sym‐
119 bolic name).
120 set-default-source SOURCE
122 Make the specified source (identified by its symbolic name) the
123 default source.
124 set-source-port SOURCE PORT
126 Set the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or
127 numerical index) to the specified port (identified by its sym‐
128 bolic name).
129 set-port-latency-offset CARD PORT OFFSET
131 Set a latency offset to a specified port (identified by its sym‐
132 bolic name) that belongs to a card (identified by its symbolic
133 name or numerical index). OFFSET is a number which represents
134 the latency offset in microseconds
135 set-sink-volume SINK VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
137 Set the volume of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic
138 name or numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer
139 (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a per‐
140 centage (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If
141 the volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjust‐
142 ment will be relative to the current sink volume. A single vol‐
143 ume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
144 given their number has to match the sink's number of channels.
145 set-source-volume SOURCE VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
147 Set the volume of the specified source (identified by its sym‐
148 bolic name or numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an
149 integer (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a
150 percentage (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB).
151 If the volume specification start with a + or - the volume
152 adjustment will be relative to the current source volume. A sin‐
153 gle volume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values
154 are given their number has to match the source's number of chan‐
155 nels.
156 set-sink-input-volume INPUT VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
158 Set the volume of the specified sink input (identified by its
159 numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer (e.g.
160 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage
161 (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the
162 volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjustment
163 will be relative to the current sink input volume. A single vol‐
164 ume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
165 given their number has to match the sink input's number of chan‐
166 nels.
167 set-source-output-volume OUTPUT VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
169 Set the volume of the specified source output (identified by its
170 numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer (e.g.
171 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage
172 (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the
173 volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjustment
174 will be relative to the current source output volume. A single
175 volume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
176 given their number has to match the source output's number of
177 channels.
178 set-sink-mute SINK 1|0|toggle
180 Set the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its
181 symbolic name or numerical index).
182 set-source-mute SOURCE 1|0|toggle
184 Set the mute status of the specified source (identified by its
185 symbolic name or numerical index).
186 set-sink-input-mute INPUT 1|0|toggle
188 Set the mute status of the specified sink input (identified by
189 its numerical index).
190 set-source-output-mute OUTPUT 1|0|toggle
192 Set the mute status of the specified source output (identified
193 by its numerical index).
194 set-sink-formats SINK FORMATS
196 Set the supported formats of the specified sink (identified by
197 its numerical index) if supported by the sink. FORMATS is speci‐
198 fied as a semi-colon (;) separated list of formats in the form
199 'encoding[, key1=value1, key2=value2, ...]' (for example, AC3 at
200 32000, 44100 and 48000 Hz would be specified as 'ac3-iec61937,
201 format.rate = "[ 32000, 44100, 48000 ]"'). See
202 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documenta‐
203 tion/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for possible encodings.
204 subscribe
206 Subscribe to events, pactl does not exit by itself, but keeps
207 waiting for new events.
208
210 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
211 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
212 dio.org/
213
215 pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
216Manuals User pactl(1)