1pulse-daemon.conf(5)          File Formats Manual         pulse-daemon.conf(5)
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NAME

6       pulse-daemon.conf - PulseAudio daemon configuration file
7

SYNOPSIS

9       ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf
10
11       ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf.d/*.conf
12
13       /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
14
15       /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/*.conf
16

DESCRIPTION

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
31       Please note that the  server  also  reads  a  configuration  script  on
32       startup. See default.pa(5).
33
34       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
38       For  the settings that take a boolean argument the values true, yes, on
39       and 1 are equivalent, resp. false, no, off, 0.
40

GENERAL DIRECTIVES

42       daemonize= Daemonize after startup. Takes a boolean value, defaults  to
43       no. The --daemonize command line option takes precedence.
44
45       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
49       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
58       allow-exit= Allow/disallow exit on user request. Defaults to yes.
59
60       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
86       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
92       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
98       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
103       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
108       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
116       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
121       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
124       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
131       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
137       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
141       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
152       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
156       enable-memfd=. Enable memfd shared memory. Takes  a  boolean  argument,
157       defaults to yes.
158
159       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
165       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
170       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
174       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

SCHEDULING

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
191       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
201       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
207       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

IDLE TIMES

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
217              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
225              When  PulseAudio  runs  in  the  system  mode, automatic exit is
226              always disabled, so this option does nothing.
227
228       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

PATHS

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
238       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
247       load-default-script-file= Load the default configuration script file as
248       specified in default-script-file=. Defaults to yes.
249

LOGGING

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
261       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
266       log-meta= With each logged message log the code  location  the  message
267       was generated from. Defaults to no.
268
269       log-time= With each logged message log the relative time since startup.
270       Defaults to no.
271
272       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

RESOURCE LIMITS

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
280       rlimit-as Defaults to -1.
281
282       rlimit-rss Defaults to -1.
283
284       rlimit-core Defaults to -1.
285
286       rlimit-data Defaults to -1.
287
288       rlimit-fsize Defaults to -1.
289
290       rlimit-nofile Defaults to 256.
291
292       rlimit-stack Defaults to -1.
293
294       rlimit-nproc Defaults to -1.
295
296       rlimit-locks Defaults to -1.
297
298       rlimit-sigpending Defaults to -1.
299
300       rlimit-msgqueue Defaults to -1.
301
302       rlimit-memlock  Defaults  to  16  KiB. Please note that the JACK client
303       libraries may require more locked memory.
304
305       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
309       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
314       rlimit-rttime Defaults to 1000000.
315

DEFAULT DEVICE SETTINGS

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
321       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
325       default-sample-rate= The default sample frequency.
326
327       default-sample-channels The default number of channels.
328
329       default-channel-map The default channel map.
330
331       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

DEFAULT FRAGMENT SETTINGS

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
346       default-fragments= The default number of fragments. Defaults to 4.
347
348       default-fragment-size-msec=The  duration of a single fragment. Defaults
349       to 25ms (i.e. the total buffer is thus 100ms long).
350

DEFAULT DEFERRED VOLUME SETTINGS

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
363       enable-deferred-volume=  Enable deferred volume for the sinks that sup‐
364       port it. This feature is enabled by default.
365
366       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
370       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

AUTHORS

375       The  PulseAudio  Developers  <pulseaudio-discuss   (at)   lists   (dot)
376       freedesktop  (dot)  org>;  PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau
377       dio.org/
378

SEE ALSO

380       pulse-client.conf(5), default.pa(5), pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
381
382
383
384Manuals                              User                 pulse-daemon.conf(5)
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