pw-cat(1)

1PW-CAT(1)                   General Commands Manual                  PW-CAT(1)
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NAME

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

9       pw-cat [options] [FILE | -]
10       pw-play [options] [FILE | -]
11       pw-record [options] [FILE | -]
12       pw-midiplay [options] [FILE | -]
13       pw-midirecord [options] [FILE | -]
14       pw-dsdplay [options] [FILE | -]
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16

DESCRIPTION

18       pw-cat  is  a  simple tool for playing back or capturing raw or encoded
19       media files on a PipeWire server. It understands all audio file formats
20       supported by libsndfile for PCM capture and playback.
21
22       It understands standard MIDI files for playback and recording,
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24       DSD playback is supported with the DSF file format.
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26       When  the  FILE is - input and output will be from STDIN and STDOUT re‐
27       spectively.
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OPTIONS

30       -h | --help
31              Show help.
32
33       --version
34              Show version information.
35
36       -v | --verbose
37              Verbose operation.
38
39       -R | --remote=NAME
40              The name the remote instance to connect to. If left unspecified,
41              a connection is made to the default PipeWire instance.
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43       -p | --playback
44              Playback  mode.  Read  data from the specified file, and play it
45              back.  If  the  tool  is  called  under  the  name  pw-play   or
46              pw-midiplay this is the default.
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48       -r | --record
49              Recording mode. Capture data and write it to the specified file.
50              If the tool is called under the name pw-record or  pw-midirecord
51              this is the default.
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53       -m | --midi
54              MIDI  mode. FILE is a MIDI file. If the tool is called under the
55              name pw-midiplay or pw-midirecord this is the default.
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57       -d | --dsd
58              DSD mode. FILE is a DSF file. If the tool is  called  under  the
59              name pw-dsdplay this is the default.
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61       --media-type=VALUE
62              Set  the  media  type  property (default Audio/Midi depending on
63              mode).  The media type is used by the session manager to  select
64              a suitable target to link to.
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66       --media-category=VALUE
67              Set  the  media  category property (default Playback/Capture de‐
68              pending on mode).  The media type is used by the session manager
69              to select a suitable target to link to.
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71       --media-role=VALUE
72              Set  the media role property (default Music).  The media type is
73              used by the session manager to select a suitable target to  link
74              to.
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76       --target=VALUE
77              Set a node target (default auto). The value can be:
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79              auto   Automatically select (Default)
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81              0      Don't try to link this node
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83              <id>   The object.serial or the node.name of a target node
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85       --latency=VALUE[units]
86              Set the node latency (default 100ms)
87
88              The latency determines the minimum amount of time it takes for a
89              sample to travel from application to device (playback) and  from
90              device to application (capture).
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92              The latency determines the size of the buffers that the applica‐
93              tion will be able to fill. Lower latency means  smaller  buffers
94              but  higher  overhead.  Higher  latency means larger buffers and
95              lower overhead.
96
97              Units can be s for seconds, ms  for  milliseconds,  us  for  mi‐
98              croseconds,  ns for nanoseconds.  If no units are given, the la‐
99              tency value is samples with the samplerate of the file.
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101       -P | --properties=VALUE
102              Set extra stream properties as a JSON object.
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104       -q | --quality=VALUE
105              Resampler quality. When the samplerate of the source or destina‐
106              tion  file does not match the samplerate of the server, the data
107              will be resampled. Higher quality uses more CPU. Values  between
108              0 and 15 are allowed, the default quality is 4.
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110       --rate=VALUE
111              The sample rate, default 48000.
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113       --channels=VALUE
114              The number of channels, default 2.
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116       --channel-map=VALUE
117              The  channelmap.  Possible  values  include:  mono, stereo, sur‐
118              round-21,  quad,  surround-22,  surround-40,  surround-31,  sur‐
119              round-41,  surround-50,  surround-51, surround-51r, surround-70,
120              surround-71 or a comma separated list of channel names: FL,  FR,
121              FC,  LFE,  SL, SR, FLC, FRC, RC, RL, RR, TC, TFL, TFC, TFR, TRL,
122              TRC, TRR, RLC, RRC, FLW, FRW, LFE2, FLH, FCH, FRH,  TFLC,  TFRC,
123              TSL, TSR, LLFR, RLFE, BC, BLC, BRC
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125       --format=VALUE
126              The  sample  format  to use. One of: u8, s8, s16 (default), s24,
127              s32, f32, f64.
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129       --volume=VALUE
130              The stream volume, default 1.000.  Depending on the  locale  you
131              have  configured, "," or "." may be used as a decimal seperator.
132              Check with locale command.
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AUTHORS

135       The                PipeWire                Developers                <‐
136       https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/issues>;  PipeWire  is
137       available from https://pipewire.org
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NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

AUTHORS

SEE ALSO