1pacat(1) General Commands Manual pacat(1)
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6 pacat - Play back or record raw or encoded audio streams on a PulseAu‐
7 dio sound server
8
10 paplay [options] [FILE]
11 parecord [options] [FILE]
13 pacat [options] [FILE]
15 parec [options] [FILE]
17 pamon [options] [FILE]
19 pacat --help
21 pacat --version
23
25 pacat is a simple tool for playing back or capturing raw or encoded au‐
26 dio files on a PulseAudio sound server. It understands all audio file
27 formats supported by libsndfile.
28
30 -h | --help
31 Show help.
32 --version
34 Show version information.
35 -r | --record
37 Capture audio data and write it to the specified file or to STD‐
38 OUT if none is specified. If the tool is called under the name
39 parec this is the default.
40 -p | --playback
42 Read audio data from the specified file or STDIN if none is
43 specified, and play it back. If the tool is called under the
44 name pacat this is the default.
45 -v | --verbose
47 Enable verbose operation. Dumps the current playback time to
48 STDERR during playback/capturing.
49 -s | --server=SERVER
51 Choose the server to connect to.
52 -d | --device=SINKORSOURCE
54 Specify the symbolic name of the sink/source to play/record this
55 stream on/from.
56 --monitor-stream=INDEX
58 Record from the sink input with index INDEX.
59 -n | --client-name=NAME
61 Specify the client name paplay shall pass to the server when
62 connecting.
63 --stream-name=NAME
65 Specify the stream name paplay shall pass to the server when
66 creating the stream.
67 --volume=VOLUME
69 Specify the initial playback volume to use. Choose a value be‐
70 tween 0 (silent) and 65536 (100% volume).
71 --rate=SAMPLERATE
73 Capture or play back audio with the specified sample rate. De‐
74 faults to 44100 Hz.
75 --format=FORMAT
77 Capture or play back audio with the specified sample format. See
78 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documenta‐
79 tion/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for supported values. Defaults
80 to s16ne.
81 --channels=CHANNELS
83 Capture or play back audio with the specified number of chan‐
84 nels. If more than two channels are used it is recommended to
85 use the --channel-map option below. Defaults to 2.
86 --channel-map=CHANNELMAP
88 Explicitly choose a channel map when playing back this stream.
89 The argument should be a comma separated list of channel names:
90 front-left, front-right, mono, front-center, rear-left, rear-
91 right, rear-center, lfe, front-left-of-center, front-right-of-
92 center, side-left, side-right, top-center, top-front-center,
93 top-front-left, top-front-right, top-rear-left, top-rear-right,
94 top-rear-center, or any of the 32 auxiliary channel names aux0
95 to aux31.
96 --fix-format
98 If passed, the sample format of the stream is changed to the na‐
99 tive format of the sink the stream is connected to.
100 --fix-rate
102 If passed, the sampling rate of the stream is changed to the na‐
103 tive rate of the sink the stream is connected to.
104 --fix-channels
106 If passed, the number of channels and the channel map of the
107 stream is changed to the native number of channels and the na‐
108 tive channel map of the sink the stream is connected to.
109 --no-remix
111 Never upmix or downmix channels.
112 --no-remap
114 Never remap channels. Instead of mapping channels by their name
115 this will match them solely by their index/order.
116 --latency=BYTES
118 Explicitly configure the latency, with a time specified in bytes
119 in the selected sample format. If left out the server will pick
120 the latency, usually relatively high for power saving reasons.
121 Use either this option or --latency-msec, but not both.
122 --latency-msec=MSEC
124 Explicitly configure the latency, with a time specified in mil‐
125 liseconds. If left out the server will pick the latency, usually
126 relatively high for power saving reasons. Use either this option
127 or --latency, but not both.
128 --process-time=BYTES
130 Explicitly configure the process time, with a time specified in
131 bytes in the selected sample format. If left out the server will
132 pick the process time. Use either this option or --process-time-
133 msec, but not both.
134 --process-time-msec=MSEC
136 Explicitly configure the process time, with a time specified in
137 milliseconds. If left out the server will pick the process time.
138 Use either this option or --process-time, but not both.
139 --property=PROPERTY=VALUE
141 Attach a property to the client and stream. May be used multiple
142 times
143 --raw Play/record raw audio data. This is the default if this program
145 is invoked as pacat, parec or pamon.
146 --file-format[=FFORMAT]
148 Play/record encoded audio data in the file format specified.
149 This is the default if this program is invoked as paplay and
150 parecord.
151 --list-file-formats
153 List supported file formats.
154
156 Due to a limitation in libsndfile paplay currently does not always set
157 the correct channel mapping for playback of multichannel (i.e. sur‐
158 round) audio files, even if the channel mapping information is avail‐
159 able in the audio file.
160
162 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
163 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
164 dio.org/
165
167 pulseaudio(1), pactl(1)
168Manuals User pacat(1)