1pw-cat(1) General Commands Manual pw-cat(1)
2
6 pw-cat - Play and record media with PipeWire
7
9 pw-cat [options] [FILE]
10 pw-play [options] [FILE]
12 pw-record [options] [FILE]
14 pw-midiplay [options] [FILE]
16 pw-midirecord [options] [FILE]
18
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
25 -h | --help
26 Show help.
27 --version
29 Show version information.
30 -v | --verbose
32 Verbose operation.
33 -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 -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 -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 -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 --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 --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 --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 --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 --latency=VALUE[units]
73 Set the node latency (default 100ms)
74 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 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 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 --list-targets
89 List the available targets for --target
90 -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 --rate=VALUE
98 The sample rate, default 48000.
99 --channels=VALUE
101 The number of channels, default 2.
102 --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 --format=VALUE
113 The sample format to use. One of: s8, s16 (default), s24, s32,
114 f32, f64.
115 --volume=VALUE
117 The stream volume, default 1.000.
118
120 The PipeWire Developers <https://gitlab.freedesk‐
121 top.org/pipewire/pipewire/issues>; PipeWire is available from
122 http://pipewire.org
123
125 pipewire(1), pw-mon(1),
126Manuals User pw-cat(1)