1pw-cat(1)                   General Commands Manual                  pw-cat(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       pw-cat - Play and record media with PipeWire
7

SYNOPSIS

9       pw-cat [options] [FILE]
10
11       pw-play [options] [FILE]
12
13       pw-record [options] [FILE]
14
15       pw-midiplay [options] [FILE]
16
17       pw-midirecord [options] [FILE]
18

DESCRIPTION

20       pw-cat  is  a  simple tool for playing back or capturing raw or encoded
21       media files on a PipeWire server. It understands all audio file formats
22       supported by libsndfile.
23

OPTIONS

25       -h | --help
26              Show help.
27
28       --version
29              Show version information.
30
31       -v | --verbose
32              Verbose operation.
33
34       -R | --remote=NAME
35              The name the remote instance to connect to. If left unspecified,
36              a connection is made to the default PipeWire instance.
37
38       -p | --playback
39              Playback mode. Read data from the specified file,  and  play  it
40              back.  If  the  tool  is  called  under  the name pw-play or pw-
41              midiplay this is the default.
42
43       -r | --record
44              Recording mode. Capture data and write it to the specified file.
45              If  the tool is called under the name pw-record or pw-midirecord
46              this is the default.
47
48       -m | --midi
49              Midi mode. FILE is a midi file. If the tool is called under  the
50              name pw-midiplay or pw-midirecord this is the default.
51
52       --media-type=VALUE
53              Set  the  media  type  property (default Audio/Midi depending on
54              mode). The media type is used by the session manager to select a
55              suitable target to link to.
56
57       --media-category=VALUE
58              Set  the  media  category property (default Playback/Capture de‐
59              pending on mode). The media type is used by the session  manager
60              to select a suitable target to link to.
61
62       --media-role=VALUE
63              Set  the  media role property (default Music). The media type is
64              used by the session manager to select a suitable target to  link
65              to.
66
67       --target=VALUE
68              Set  a node target (default auto). The value can be: auto: Auto‐
69              matically select (Default), 0: Don't  try  to  link  this  node,
70              <id>: The id of a target node
71
72       --latency=VALUE[units]
73              Set the node latency (default 100ms)
74
75              The latency determines the minimum amount of time it takes for a
76              sample to travel from application to device (playback) and  from
77              device to application (capture).
78
79              The latency determines the size of the buffers that the applica‐
80              tion will be able to fill. Lower latency means  smaller  buffers
81              but  higher  overhead.  Higher  latency means larger buffers and
82              lower overhead.
83
84              Units can be s for seconds, ms  for  milliseconds,  us  for  mi‐
85              croseconds,  ns  for nanoseconds. If no units are given, the la‐
86              tency value is samples with the samplerate of the file.
87
88       --list-targets
89              List the available targets for --target
90
91       -q | --quality=VALUE
92              Resampler quality. When the samplerate of the source or destina‐
93              tion  file does not match the samplerate of the server, the data
94              will be resampled. Higher quality uses more CPU. Values  between
95              0 and 15 are allowed, the default quality is 4.
96
97       --rate=VALUE
98              The sample rate, default 48000.
99
100       --channels=VALUE
101              The number of channels, default 2.
102
103       --channel-map=VALUE
104              The  channelmap.  Possible  values  include:  mono, stereo, sur‐
105              round-21,  quad,  surround-22,  surround-40,  surround-31,  sur‐
106              round-41,  surround-50,  surround-51, surround-51r, surround-70,
107              surround-71 or a comma separated list of channel names: FL,  FR,
108              FC,  LFE,  SL, SR, FLC, FRC, RC, RL, RR, TC, TFL, TFC, TFR, TRL,
109              TRC, TRR, RLC, RRC, FLW, FRW, LFE2, FLH, FCH, FRH,  TFLC,  TFRC,
110              TSL, TSR, LLFR, RLFE, BC, BLC, BRC
111
112       --format=VALUE
113              The  sample  format to use. One of: s8, s16 (default), s24, s32,
114              f32, f64.
115
116       --volume=VALUE
117              The stream volume, default 1.000.
118

AUTHORS

120       The        PipeWire        Developers         <https://gitlab.freedesk
121       top.org/pipewire/pipewire/issues>;    PipeWire    is   available   from
122       http://pipewire.org
123

SEE ALSO

125       pipewire(1), pw-mon(1),
126
127
128
129Manuals                              User                            pw-cat(1)
Impressum