1pulse-daemon.conf(5) File Formats Manual pulse-daemon.conf(5)
2
6 pulse-daemon.conf - PulseAudio daemon configuration file
7
9 ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf
10 ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf.d/*.conf
12 /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
14 /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/*.conf
16
18 The PulseAudio sound server reads configuration directives from a con‐
19 figuration file on startup. If the per-user file ~/.config/pulse/dae‐
20 mon.conf exists, it is used, otherwise the system configuration file
21 /etc/pulse/daemon.conf is used. In addition to those main files, con‐
22 figuration directives can also be put in files under directories
23 ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf.d/ and /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/. Those
24 files have to have the .conf file name extension, but otherwise the
25 file names can be chosen freely. The files under daemon.conf.d are pro‐
26 cessed in alphabetical order. In case the same option is set in multi‐
27 ple files, the last file to set an option overrides earlier files. The
28 main daemon.conf file is processed first, so options set in files under
29 daemon.conf.d override the main file.
30 Please note that the server also reads a configuration script on
32 startup. See default.pa(5).
33 The configuration file is a simple collection of variable declarations.
35 If the configuration file parser encounters either ; or # it ignores
36 the rest of the line until its end.
37 For the settings that take a boolean argument the values true, yes, on
39 and 1 are equivalent, resp. false, no, off, 0.
40
42 daemonize= Daemonize after startup. Takes a boolean value, defaults to
43 no. The --daemonize command line option takes precedence.
44 fail= Fail to start up if any of the directives in the configuration
46 script default.pa fail. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. The
47 --fail command line option takes precedence.
48 allow-module-loading= Allow/disallow module loading after startup. This
50 is a security feature that if disabled makes sure that no further mod‐
51 ules may be loaded into the PulseAudio server after startup completed.
52 It is recommended to disable this when system-instance is enabled.
53 Please note that certain features like automatic hot-plug support will
54 not work if this option is enabled. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
55 to yes. The --disallow-module-loading command line option takes prece‐
56 dence.
57 allow-exit= Allow/disallow exit on user request. Defaults to yes.
59 resample-method= The resampling algorithm to use. Use one of src-sinc-
61 best-quality, src-sinc-medium-quality, src-sinc-fastest, src-zero-
62 order-hold, src-linear, trivial, speex-float-N, speex-fixed-N, ffmpeg,
63 soxr-mq, soxr-hq, soxr-vhq. See the documentation of libsamplerate and
64 speex for explanations of the different src- and speex- methods,
65 respectively. The method trivial is the most basic algorithm imple‐
66 mented. If you're tight on CPU consider using this. On the other hand
67 it has the worst quality of them all. The Speex resamplers take an
68 integer quality setting in the range 0..10 (bad...good). They exist in
69 two flavours: fixed and float. The former uses fixed point numbers, the
70 latter relies on floating point numbers. On most desktop CPUs the float
71 point resampler is a lot faster, and it also offers slightly better
72 quality. The soxr-family methods are based on libsoxr, a resampler
73 library from the SoX sound processing utility. The mq variant has the
74 best performance of the three. The hq is more expensive and, according
75 to SoX developers, is considered the best choice for audio of up to 16
76 bits per sample. The vhq variant has more precision than hq and is more
77 suitable for larger samples. The Soxr resamplers generally offer better
78 quality at less CPU compared to other resamplers, such as speex. The
79 downside is that they can add a significant delay to the output (usu‐
80 ally up to around 20 ms, in rare cases more). See the output of dump-
81 resample-methods for a complete list of all available resamplers.
82 Defaults to speex-float-1. The --resample-method command line option
83 takes precedence. Note that some modules overwrite or allow overwriting
84 of the resampler to use.
85 avoid-resampling= If set, try to configure the device to avoid resam‐
87 pling. This only works on devices which support reconfiguring their
88 rate, and when no other streams are already playing or capturing audio.
89 The device will also not be configured to a rate less than the default
90 and alternate sample rates.
91 enable-remixing= If disabled never upmix or downmix channels to differ‐
93 ent channel maps. Instead, do a simple name-based matching only.
94 Defaults to yes. There is no known valid use case for setting this
95 option to no, therefore, this option is deprecated and may be removed
96 in a future version of PulseAudio.
97 remixing-use-all-sink-channels= If enabled, use all sink channels when
99 remixing. Otherwise, remix to the minimal set of sink channels needed
100 to reproduce all of the source channels. (This has no effect on LFE
101 remixing.) Defaults to yes.
102 enable-lfe-remixing= This is a way to set remixing-produce-lfe and
104 remixing-consume-lfe to the same value at once. This option only exists
105 for backward compatibility and may be removed in a future version of
106 PulseAudio.
107 remixing-produce-lfe= If enabled, and the sink input does not have the
109 LFE channel, synthesize the output LFE channel as a (lowpass-filtered,
110 if lfe-crossover-freq is not 0) average of all input channels. Also,
111 when lfe-crossover-freq is not 0, filter out low frequencies from other
112 channels while producing a synthetic LFE output. If disabled, the out‐
113 put LFE channel will only get a signal when an input LFE channel is
114 available as well. Defaults to no.
115 remixing-consume-lfe= If enabled, and the sink does not have an LFE
117 channel, redirect the input LFE channel (if any) to other channels. If
118 disabled, the input LFE channel will remain unused unless the sink has
119 the LFE channel as well. Defaults to no.
120 lfe-crossover-freq= The crossover frequency (in Hz) for the LFE filter.
122 Set it to 0 to disable the LFE filter. Defaults to 0.
123 use-pid-file= Create a PID file in the runtime directory ($XDG_RUN‐
125 TIME_DIR/pulse/pid). If this is enabled you may use commands like
126 --kill or --check. If you are planning to start more than one PulseAu‐
127 dio process per user, you better disable this option since it effec‐
128 tively disables multiple instances. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
129 to yes. The --use-pid-file command line option takes precedence.
130 cpu-limit= If disabled do not install the CPU load limiter, even on
132 platforms where it is supported. This option is useful when debug‐
133 ging/profiling PulseAudio to disable disturbing SIGXCPU signals. Takes
134 a boolean argument, defaults to no. The --no-cpu-limit command line
135 argument takes precedence.
136 system-instance= Run the daemon as system-wide instance, requires root
138 privileges. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to no. The --system com‐
139 mand line argument takes precedence.
140 local-server-type= Please don't use this option if you don't have to!
142 This option is currently only useful when you want D-Bus clients to use
143 a remote server. This option may be removed in future versions. If you
144 only want to run PulseAudio in the system mode, use the system-instance
145 option. This option takes one of user, system or none as the argument.
146 This is essentially a duplicate for the system-instance option. The
147 difference is the none option, which is useful when you want to use a
148 remote server with D-Bus clients. If both this and system-instance are
149 defined, this option takes precedence. Defaults to whatever the system-
150 instance is set.
151 enable-shm= Enable data transfer via POSIX or memfd shared memory.
153 Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. The --disable-shm command
154 line argument takes precedence.
155 enable-memfd=. Enable memfd shared memory. Takes a boolean argument,
157 defaults to yes.
158 shm-size-bytes= Sets the shared memory segment size for the daemon, in
160 bytes. If left unspecified or is set to 0 it will default to some sys‐
161 tem-specific default, usually 64 MiB. Please note that usually there is
162 no need to change this value, unless you are running an OS kernel that
163 does not do memory overcommit.
164 lock-memory= Locks the entire PulseAudio process into memory. While
166 this might increase drop-out safety when used in conjunction with real-
167 time scheduling this takes away a lot of memory from other processes
168 and might hence considerably slow down your system. Defaults to no.
169 flat-volumes= Enable 'flat' volumes, i.e. where possible let the sink
171 volume equal the maximum of the volumes of the inputs connected to it.
172 Takes a boolean argument, defaults to no.
173 rescue-streams= Enable rescuing of streams if the used sink or source
175 becomes unavailable. Takes a boolean argument. If set to yes, pulseau‐
176 dio will try to move the streams from a sink or source that becomes
177 unavailable to the default sink or source. If set to no, streams will
178 be killed if the corresponding sink or source disappears. Defaults to
179 yes.
180
182 high-priority= Renice the daemon after startup to become a high-prior‐
183 ity process. This a good idea if you experience drop-outs during play‐
184 back. However, this is a certain security issue, since it works when
185 called SUID root only, or RLIMIT_NICE is used. root is dropped immedi‐
186 ately after gaining the nice level on startup, thus it is presumably
187 safe. See pulseaudio(1) for more information. Takes a boolean argument,
188 defaults to yes. The --high-priority command line option takes prece‐
189 dence.
190 realtime-scheduling= Try to acquire SCHED_FIFO scheduling for the IO
192 threads. The same security concerns as mentioned above apply. However,
193 if PA enters an endless loop, realtime scheduling causes a system
194 lockup. Thus, realtime scheduling should only be enabled on trusted
195 machines for now. Please note that only the IO threads of PulseAudio
196 are made real-time. The controlling thread is left a normally scheduled
197 thread. Thus enabling the high-priority option is orthogonal. See
198 pulseaudio(1) for more information. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
199 to yes. The --realtime command line option takes precedence.
200 realtime-priority= The realtime priority to acquire, if realtime-sched‐
202 uling is enabled. Note: JACK uses 10 by default, 9 for clients. Thus it
203 is recommended to choose the PulseAudio real-time priorities lower.
204 Some PulseAudio threads might choose a priority a little lower or
205 higher than the specified value. Defaults to 5.
206 nice-level= The nice level to acquire for the daemon, if high-priority
208 is enabled. Note: on some distributions X11 uses -10 by default.
209 Defaults to -11.
210
212 exit-idle-time= Terminate the daemon after the last client quit and
213 this time in seconds passed. Use a negative value to disable this fea‐
214 ture. Defaults to 20. The --exit-idle-time command line option takes
215 precedence.
216 When PulseAudio runs in the per-user mode and detects a login
218 session, then any positive value will be reset to 0 so that
219 PulseAudio will terminate immediately on logout. A positive
220 value therefore has effect only in environments where there's no
221 support for login session tracking (or if the user is logged in
222 without a session spawned, a.k.a. lingering). A negative value
223 can still be used to disable any automatic exit.
224 When PulseAudio runs in the system mode, automatic exit is
226 always disabled, so this option does nothing.
227 scache-idle-time= Unload autoloaded sample cache entries after being
229 idle for this time in seconds. Defaults to 20. The --scache-idle-time
230 command line option takes precedence.
231
233 dl-search-path= The path where to look for dynamic shared objects
234 (DSOs/plugins). You may specify more than one path separated by colons.
235 The default path depends on compile time settings. The --dl-search-path
236 command line option takes precedence.
237 default-script-file= The default configuration script file to load.
239 Specify an empty string for not loading a default script file. The
240 default behaviour is to load ~/.config/pulse/default.pa, and if that
241 file does not exist fall back to the system wide installed version
242 /etc/pulse/default.pa. If run in system-wide mode the file
243 /etc/pulse/system.pa is used instead. If -n is passed on the command
244 line or default-script-file= is disabled the default configuration
245 script is ignored.
246 load-default-script-file= Load the default configuration script file as
248 specified in default-script-file=. Defaults to yes.
249
251 log-target= The default log target. Use either stderr, syslog, journal
252 (optional), auto, file:PATH or newfile:PATH. On traditional systems
253 auto is equivalent to syslog. On systemd-enabled systems, auto is
254 equivalent to journal, in case daemonize is enabled, and to stderr oth‐
255 erwise. If set to file:PATH, logging is directed to the file indicated
256 by PATH. newfile:PATH is otherwise the same as file:PATH, but existing
257 files are never overwritten. If the specified file already exists, a
258 suffix is added to the file name to avoid overwriting. Defaults to
259 auto. The --log-target command line option takes precedence.
260 log-level= Log level, one of debug, info, notice, warning, error. Log
262 messages with a lower log level than specified here are not logged.
263 Defaults to notice. The --log-level command line option takes prece‐
264 dence. The -v command line option might alter this setting.
265 log-meta= With each logged message log the code location the message
267 was generated from. Defaults to no.
268 log-time= With each logged message log the relative time since startup.
270 Defaults to no.
271 log-backtrace= When greater than 0, with each logged message log a code
273 stack trace up the specified number of stack frames. Defaults to 0.
274
276 See getrlimit(2) for more information. Set to -1 if PulseAudio shall
277 not touch the resource limit. Not all resource limits are available on
278 all operating systems.
279 rlimit-as Defaults to -1.
281 rlimit-rss Defaults to -1.
283 rlimit-core Defaults to -1.
285 rlimit-data Defaults to -1.
287 rlimit-fsize Defaults to -1.
289 rlimit-nofile Defaults to 256.
291 rlimit-stack Defaults to -1.
293 rlimit-nproc Defaults to -1.
295 rlimit-locks Defaults to -1.
297 rlimit-sigpending Defaults to -1.
299 rlimit-msgqueue Defaults to -1.
301 rlimit-memlock Defaults to 16 KiB. Please note that the JACK client
303 libraries may require more locked memory.
304 rlimit-nice Defaults to 31. Please make sure that the default nice
306 level as configured with nice-level fits in this resource limit, if
307 high-priority is enabled.
308 rlimit-rtprio Defaults to 9. Please make sure that the default real-
310 time priority level as configured with realtime-priority= fits in this
311 resource limit, if realtime-scheduling is enabled. The JACK client
312 libraries require a real-time priority of 9 by default.
313 rlimit-rttime Defaults to 1000000.
315
317 Most drivers try to open the audio device with these settings and then
318 fall back to lower settings. The default settings are CD quality: 16bit
319 native endian, 2 channels, 44100 Hz sampling.
320 default-sample-format= The default sampling format. See
322 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documenta‐
323 tion/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for possible values.
324 default-sample-rate= The default sample frequency.
326 default-sample-channels The default number of channels.
328 default-channel-map The default channel map.
330 alternate-sample-rate The alternate sample frequency. Sinks and sources
332 will use either the default-sample-rate value or this alternate value,
333 typically 44.1 or 48kHz. Switching between default and alternate values
334 is enabled only when the sinks/sources are suspended. This option is
335 ignored in passthrough mode where the stream rate will be used. If set
336 to the same value as the default sample rate, this feature is disabled.
337
339 Some hardware drivers require the hardware playback buffer to be subdi‐
340 vided into several fragments. It is possible to change these buffer
341 metrics for machines with high scheduling latencies. Not all possible
342 values that may be configured here are available in all hardware. The
343 driver will find the nearest setting supported. Modern drivers that
344 support timer-based scheduling ignore these options.
345 default-fragments= The default number of fragments. Defaults to 4.
347 default-fragment-size-msec=The duration of a single fragment. Defaults
349 to 25ms (i.e. the total buffer is thus 100ms long).
350
352 With the flat volume feature enabled, the sink HW volume is set to the
353 same level as the highest volume input stream. Any other streams (with
354 lower volumes) have the appropriate adjustment applied in SW to bring
355 them to the correct overall level. Sadly hardware mixer changes cannot
356 be timed accurately and thus this change of volumes can sometimes cause
357 the resulting output sound to be momentarily too loud or too soft. So
358 to ensure SW and HW volumes are applied concurrently without any
359 glitches, their application needs to be synchronized. The sink imple‐
360 mentation needs to support deferred volumes. The following parameters
361 can be used to refine the process.
362 enable-deferred-volume= Enable deferred volume for the sinks that sup‐
364 port it. This feature is enabled by default.
365 deferred-volume-safety-margin-usec= The amount of time (in usec) by
367 which the HW volume increases are delayed and HW volume decreases are
368 advanced. Defaults to 8000 usec.
369 deferred-volume-extra-delay-usec= The amount of time (in usec) by which
371 HW volume changes are delayed. Negative values are also allowed.
372 Defaults to 0.
373
375 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
376 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
377 dio.org/
378
380 pulse-client.conf(5), default.pa(5), pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
381Manuals User pulse-daemon.conf(5)