1pulse-cli-syntax(5) File Formats Manual pulse-cli-syntax(5)
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6 pulse-cli-syntax - PulseAudio Command Line Interface Syntax
7
9 ~/.config/pulse/default.pa
10 /etc/pulse/default.pa
12 /etc/pulse/system.pa
14
16 PulseAudio provides a simple command line language used by configura‐
17 tion scripts, the pacmd interactive shell, and the modules module-cli
18 and module-cli-protocol-{unix,tcp}. Empty lines and lines beginning
19 with a hashmark (#) are silently ignored. Several commands are sup‐
20 ported.
21 Note that any boolean arguments can be given positively as '1', 't',
23 'y', 'true', 'yes' or 'on'. Likewise, negative values can be given as
24 '0', 'f', 'n', 'false', 'no' or 'off'. Case is ignored.
25
27 help Show a quick help on the commands available.
28
30 list-modules
31 Show all currently loaded modules with their arguments.
32 list-cards
34 Show all currently registered cards
35 list-sinks or list-sources
37 Show all currently registered sinks (resp. sources).
38 list-clients
40 Show all currently active clients.
41 list-sink-inputs or list-source-outputs
43 Show all currently active inputs to sinks a.k.a. playback
44 streams (resp. outputs of sources a.k.a. recording streams).
45 stat Show some simple statistics about the allocated memory blocks
47 and the space used by them.
48 info or ls or list
50 A combination of all status commands described above (all three
51 commands are synonyms).
52
54 load-module name [arguments...]
55 Load a module specified by its name and arguments. For most mod‐
56 ules it is OK to be loaded more than once.
57 unload-module index|name
59 Unload a module, specified either by its index in the module
60 list or its name.
61 describe-module name
63 Give information about a module specified by its name.
64
66 set-sink-volume|set-source-volume index|name volume
67 Set the volume of the specified sink (resp. source). You may
68 specify the sink (resp. source) either by its index in the
69 sink/source list or by its name. The volume should be an integer
70 value greater or equal than 0 (muted). Volume 65536 (0x10000) is
71 'normal' volume a.k.a. 100%. Values greater than this amplify
72 the audio signal (with clipping).
73 set-sink-mute|set-source-mute index|name boolean
75 Mute or unmute the specified sink (resp. source). You may spec‐
76 ify the sink (resp. source) either by its index or by its name.
77 The mute value is either 0 (not muted) or 1 (muted).
78 set-sink-input-volume|set-source-output-volume index volume
80 Set the volume of a sink input (resp. source output) specified
81 by its index. The same volume rules apply as with set-sink-vol‐
82 ume.
83 set-sink-input-mute|set-source-output-mute index boolean
85 Mute or unmute a sink input (resp. source output) specified by
86 its index. The same mute rules apply as with set-sink-mute.
87
89 set-default-sink|set-default-source index|name
90 Make a sink (resp. source) the default. You may specify the sink
91 (resp. source) by its index in the sink (resp. source) list or
92 by its name.
93 Note that defaults may be overridden by various policy modules
95 or by specific stream configurations.
96 set-card-profile index|name profile-name
98 Change the profile of a card.
99 set-sink-port|set-source-port index|name port-name
101 Change the profile of a sink (resp. source).
102 set-port-latency-offset card-index|card-name port-name offset
104 Change the latency offset of a port belonging to the specified
105 card
106 suspend-sink|suspend-source name|index true|false
108 Suspend or resume the specified sink or source (which may be
109 specified either by its name or index), depending whether true
110 (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argument. Suspend‐
111 ing a sink will pause all playback and suspending a source will
112 pause all capturing. Depending on the module implementing the
113 sink or source this might have the effect that the underlying
114 device is closed, making it available for other applications to
115 use. The exact behaviour depends on the module.
116 suspend boolean
118 Suspend all sinks and sources.
119
121 move-sink-input|move-source-output index sink-index|sink-name
122 Move sink input (resp. source output) to another sink (resp.
123 source).
124
126 update-sink-proplist|update-source-proplist index|name properties
127 Update the properties of a sink (resp. source) specified by name
128 or index. The property is specified as e.g. device.descrip‐
129 tion="My Preferred Name"
130 update-sink-input-proplist|update-source-output-proplist index proper‐
132 ties
133 Update the properties of a sink input (resp. source output)
134 specified by index. The properties are specified as above.
135
137 list-samples
138 Lists the contents of the sample cache.
139 play-sample name sink-index|sink-name
141 Play a sample cache entry to a sink.
142 remove-sample name
144 Remove an entry from the sample cache.
145 load-sample name filename
147 Load an audio file to the sample cache.
148 load-sample-lazy name filename
150 Create a new entry in the sample cache, but don't load the sam‐
151 ple immediately. The sample is loaded only when it is first
152 used. After a certain idle time it is freed again.
153 load-sample-dir-lazy path
155 Load all entries in the specified directory into the sample
156 cache as lazy entries. A shell globbing expression (e.g. *.wav)
157 may be appended to the path of the directory to add.
158
160 kill-client index
161 Remove a client forcibly from the server. There is no protection
162 against the client reconnecting immediately.
163 kill-sink-input|kill-source-output index
165 Remove a sink input (resp. source output) forcibly from the
166 server. This will not remove the owning client or any other
167 streams opened by the same client from the server.
168
170 set-log-level numeric-level
171 Change the log level.
172 set-log-meta boolean
174 Show source code location in log messages.
175 set-log-target target
177 Change the log target (null, auto, journal, syslog, stderr,
178 file:PATH, newfile:PATH).
179 set-log-time boolean
181 Show timestamps in log messages.
182 set-log-backtrace num-frames
184 Show backtrace in log messages.
185
187 play-file filename sink-index|sink-name
188 Play an audio file to a sink.
189 dump Dump the daemon's current configuration in CLI commands.
191 dump-volumes
193 Debug: Shows the current state of all volumes.
194 shared Debug: Show shared properties.
196 send-message recipient message message_parameters
198 Send a message to the specified recipient object. If applicable
199 an additional string containing message parameters can be speci‐
200 fied. A string is returned as a response to the message. For
201 available messages see https://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseau‐
202 dio/pulseaudio/tree/doc/messaging_api.txt.
203 exit Terminate the daemon. If you want to terminate a CLI connection
205 ("log out") you might want to use ctrl+d
206
208 In addition to the commands described above there are a few meta direc‐
209 tives supported by the command line interpreter.
210 .include filename|folder
212 Executes the commands from the specified script file or in all
213 of the *.pa files within the folder.
214 .fail and .nofail
216 Enable (resp. disable) that following failing commands will can‐
217 cel the execution of the current script file. This is ignored
218 when used on the interactive command line.
219 .ifexists filename
221 Execute the subsequent block of commands only if the specified
222 file exists. Typically filename indicates a module. Relative
223 paths are resolved using the module directory as the base. By
224 using an absolute path, the existence of other files can be
225 checked as well.
226 .else and .endif
228 A block of commands is delimited by an .else or .endif meta com‐
229 mand. Nesting conditional commands is not supported.
230
232 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
233 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
234 dio.org/
235
237 default.pa(5), pacmd(1), pulseaudio(1)
238Manuals User pulse-cli-syntax(5)