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, message-
50 handlers. If not specified, all info is listed with the excep‐
51 tion of the message-handlers. If short is given, output is in a
52 tabular format, for easy parsing by scripts.
53 exit Asks the PulseAudio server to terminate.
55 upload-sample FILENAME [NAME]
57 Upload a sound from the specified audio file into the sample
58 cache. The file types supported are those understood by libsnd‐
59 file. The sample in the cache is named after the audio file, un‐
60 less the name is explicitly specified.
61 play-sample NAME [SINK]
63 Play the specified sample from the sample cache. It is played on
64 the default sink, unless the symbolic name or the numerical in‐
65 dex of the sink to play it on is specified.
66 remove-sample NAME
68 Remove the specified sample from the sample cache.
69 load-module NAME [ARGUMENTS ...]
71 Load the specified module with the specified arguments into the
72 running sound server. Prints the numeric index of the module
73 just loaded to STDOUT. You can use it to unload the module
74 later.
75 unload-module ID|NAME
77 Unload the module instance identified by the specified numeric
78 index or unload all modules by the specified name.
79 move-sink-input ID SINK
81 Move the specified playback stream (identified by its numerical
82 index) to the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or
83 numerical index).
84 move-source-output ID SOURCE
86 Move the specified recording stream (identified by its numerical
87 index) to the specified source (identified by its symbolic name
88 or numerical index).
89 suspend-sink SINK true|false
91 Suspend or resume the specified sink (which may be specified ei‐
92 ther by its symbolic name or numerical index), depending whether
93 true (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argument.
94 Suspending a sink will pause all playback. Depending on the mod‐
95 ule implementing the sink this might have the effect that the
96 underlying device is closed, making it available for other ap‐
97 plications to use. The exact behaviour depends on the module.
98 suspend-source SOURCE true|false
100 Suspend or resume the specified source (which may be specified
101 either by its symbolic name or numerical index), depending
102 whether true (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argu‐
103 ment. Suspending a source will pause all capturing. Depending on
104 the module implementing the source this might have the effect
105 that the underlying device is closed, making it available for
106 other applications to use. The exact behaviour depends on the
107 module.
108 set-card-profile CARD PROFILE
110 Set the specified card (identified by its symbolic name or nu‐
111 merical index) to the specified profile (identified by its sym‐
112 bolic name).
113 get-default-sink
115 Returns the symbolic name of the default sink.
116 set-default-sink SINK
118 Make the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or nu‐
119 merical index) the default sink.
120 set-sink-port SINK PORT
122 Set the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or nu‐
123 merical index) to the specified port (identified by its symbolic
124 name).
125 get-default-source
127 Returns the symbolic name of the default source.
128 set-default-source SOURCE
130 Make the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or
131 numerical index) the default source.
132 set-source-port SOURCE PORT
134 Set the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or nu‐
135 merical index) to the specified port (identified by its symbolic
136 name).
137 set-port-latency-offset CARD PORT OFFSET
139 Set a latency offset to a specified port (identified by its sym‐
140 bolic name) that belongs to a card (identified by its symbolic
141 name or numerical index). OFFSET is a number which represents
142 the latency offset in microseconds
143 get-sink-volume SINK
145 Get the volume of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic
146 name or numerical index) displayed in the same format as the
147 `info` command.
148 set-sink-volume SINK VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
150 Set the volume of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic
151 name or numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer
152 (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a per‐
153 centage (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If
154 the volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjust‐
155 ment will be relative to the current sink volume. A single vol‐
156 ume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
157 given their number has to match the sink's number of channels.
158 get-source-volume SOURCE
160 ``` Get the volume of the specified source (identified by its
161 symbolic name or numerical index) displayed in the same format
162 as the `info` command.
163 set-source-volume SOURCE VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
165 Set the volume of the specified source (identified by its sym‐
166 bolic name or numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an
167 integer (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a
168 percentage (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB).
169 If the volume specification start with a + or - the volume ad‐
170 justment will be relative to the current source volume. A single
171 volume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
172 given their number has to match the source's number of channels.
173 set-sink-input-volume INPUT VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
175 Set the volume of the specified sink input (identified by its
176 numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer (e.g.
177 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage
178 (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the
179 volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjustment
180 will be relative to the current sink input volume. A single vol‐
181 ume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
182 given their number has to match the sink input's number of chan‐
183 nels.
184 set-source-output-volume OUTPUT VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
186 Set the volume of the specified source output (identified by its
187 numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer (e.g.
188 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage
189 (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the
190 volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjustment
191 will be relative to the current source output volume. A single
192 volume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
193 given their number has to match the source output's number of
194 channels.
195 get-sink-mute SINK
197 Get the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its
198 symbolic name or numerical index).
199 set-sink-mute SINK 1|0|toggle
201 Set the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its
202 symbolic name or numerical index).
203 get-source-mute SOURCE
205 Get the mute status of the specified source (identified by its
206 symbolic name or numerical index).
207 set-source-mute SOURCE 1|0|toggle
209 Set the mute status of the specified source (identified by its
210 symbolic name or numerical index).
211 set-sink-input-mute INPUT 1|0|toggle
213 Set the mute status of the specified sink input (identified by
214 its numerical index).
215 set-source-output-mute OUTPUT 1|0|toggle
217 Set the mute status of the specified source output (identified
218 by its numerical index).
219 set-sink-formats SINK FORMATS
221 Set the supported formats of the specified sink (identified by
222 its numerical index) if supported by the sink. FORMATS is speci‐
223 fied as a semi-colon (;) separated list of formats in the form
224 'encoding[, key1=value1, key2=value2, ...]' (for example, AC3 at
225 32000, 44100 and 48000 Hz would be specified as 'ac3-iec61937,
226 format.rate = "[ 32000, 44100, 48000 ]"'). See
227 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documenta‐
228 tion/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for possible encodings.
229 send-message RECIPIENT MESSAGE MESSAGE_PARAMETERS
231 Send a message to the specified recipient object. If applicable
232 an additional string containing message parameters can be speci‐
233 fied. A string is returned as a response to the message. For
234 available messages see https://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseau‐
235 dio/pulseaudio/tree/doc/messaging_api.txt.
236 subscribe
238 Subscribe to events, pactl does not exit by itself, but keeps
239 waiting for new events.
240
242 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
243 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
244 dio.org/
245
247 pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
248Manuals User pactl(1)