1pactl(1) General Commands Manual pactl(1)
2
6 pactl - Control a running PulseAudio sound server
7
9 pactl [options] COMMAND [ARGS ...]
10 pactl --help
12 pactl --version
14
16 pactl can be used to issue control commands to the PulseAudio sound
17 server.
18 pactl only exposes a subset of the available operations. For the full
20 set use the pacmd(1).
21
23 -h | --help
24 Show help.
25 --version
27 Show version information.
28 -s | --server=SERVER
30 Choose the server to connect to.
31 -f | --format=FORMAT
33 Choose output format, available options are "text" or "json".
34 -n | --client-name=NAME
36 Specify the client name pactl shall pass to the server when con‐
37 necting.
38
40 When supplied as arguments to the commands below, the special names
41 @DEFAULT_SINK@, @DEFAULT_SOURCE@ and @DEFAULT_MONITOR@ can be used to
42 specify the default sink, source and monitor respectively.
43 stat Dump a few statistics about the memory usage of the PulseAudio
45 daemon.
46 info Dump some info about the PulseAudio daemon.
48 list [short] [TYPE]
50 Dump all currently loaded modules, available sinks, sources,
51 streams, etc. TYPE must be one of: modules, sinks, sources,
52 sink-inputs, source-outputs, clients, samples, cards, message-
53 handlers. If not specified, all info is listed with the excep‐
54 tion of the message-handlers. If short is given, output is in a
55 tabular format, for easy parsing by scripts.
56 exit Asks the PulseAudio server to terminate.
58 upload-sample FILENAME [NAME]
60 Upload a sound from the specified audio file into the sample
61 cache. The file types supported are those understood by libsnd‐
62 file. The sample in the cache is named after the audio file, un‐
63 less the name is explicitly specified.
64 play-sample NAME [SINK]
66 Play the specified sample from the sample cache. It is played on
67 the default sink, unless the symbolic name or the numerical in‐
68 dex of the sink to play it on is specified.
69 remove-sample NAME
71 Remove the specified sample from the sample cache.
72 load-module NAME [ARGUMENTS ...]
74 Load the specified module with the specified arguments into the
75 running sound server. Prints the numeric index of the module
76 just loaded to STDOUT. You can use it to unload the module
77 later.
78 unload-module ID|NAME
80 Unload the module instance identified by the specified numeric
81 index or unload all modules by the specified name.
82 move-sink-input ID SINK
84 Move the specified playback stream (identified by its numerical
85 index) to the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or
86 numerical index).
87 move-source-output ID SOURCE
89 Move the specified recording stream (identified by its numerical
90 index) to the specified source (identified by its symbolic name
91 or numerical index).
92 suspend-sink SINK true|false
94 Suspend or resume the specified sink (which may be specified ei‐
95 ther by its symbolic name or numerical index), depending whether
96 true (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argument.
97 Suspending a sink will pause all playback. Depending on the mod‐
98 ule implementing the sink this might have the effect that the
99 underlying device is closed, making it available for other ap‐
100 plications to use. The exact behaviour depends on the module.
101 suspend-source SOURCE true|false
103 Suspend or resume the specified source (which may be specified
104 either by its symbolic name or numerical index), depending
105 whether true (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argu‐
106 ment. Suspending a source will pause all capturing. Depending on
107 the module implementing the source this might have the effect
108 that the underlying device is closed, making it available for
109 other applications to use. The exact behaviour depends on the
110 module.
111 set-card-profile CARD PROFILE
113 Set the specified card (identified by its symbolic name or nu‐
114 merical index) to the specified profile (identified by its sym‐
115 bolic name).
116 get-default-sink
118 Returns the symbolic name of the default sink.
119 set-default-sink SINK
121 Make the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or nu‐
122 merical index) the default sink.
123 set-sink-port SINK PORT
125 Set the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or nu‐
126 merical index) to the specified port (identified by its symbolic
127 name).
128 get-default-source
130 Returns the symbolic name of the default source.
131 set-default-source SOURCE
133 Make the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or
134 numerical index) the default source.
135 set-source-port SOURCE PORT
137 Set the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or nu‐
138 merical index) to the specified port (identified by its symbolic
139 name).
140 set-port-latency-offset CARD PORT OFFSET
142 Set a latency offset to a specified port (identified by its sym‐
143 bolic name) that belongs to a card (identified by its symbolic
144 name or numerical index). OFFSET is a number which represents
145 the latency offset in microseconds
146 get-sink-volume SINK
148 Get the volume of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic
149 name or numerical index) displayed in the same format as the
150 `info` command.
151 set-sink-volume SINK VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
153 Set the volume of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic
154 name or numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer
155 (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a per‐
156 centage (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If
157 the volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjust‐
158 ment will be relative to the current sink volume. A single vol‐
159 ume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
160 given their number has to match the sink's number of channels.
161 get-source-volume SOURCE
163 ``` Get the volume of the specified source (identified by its
164 symbolic name or numerical index) displayed in the same format
165 as the `info` command.
166 set-source-volume SOURCE VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
168 Set the volume of the specified source (identified by its sym‐
169 bolic name or numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an
170 integer (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a
171 percentage (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB).
172 If the volume specification start with a + or - the volume ad‐
173 justment will be relative to the current source volume. A single
174 volume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
175 given their number has to match the source's number of channels.
176 set-sink-input-volume INPUT VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
178 Set the volume of the specified sink input (identified by its
179 numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer (e.g.
180 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage
181 (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the
182 volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjustment
183 will be relative to the current sink input volume. A single vol‐
184 ume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
185 given their number has to match the sink input's number of chan‐
186 nels.
187 set-source-output-volume OUTPUT VOLUME [VOLUME ...]
189 Set the volume of the specified source output (identified by its
190 numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an integer (e.g.
191 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage
192 (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the
193 volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjustment
194 will be relative to the current source output volume. A single
195 volume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
196 given their number has to match the source output's number of
197 channels.
198 get-sink-mute SINK
200 Get the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its
201 symbolic name or numerical index).
202 set-sink-mute SINK 1|0|toggle
204 Set the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its
205 symbolic name or numerical index).
206 get-source-mute SOURCE
208 Get the mute status of the specified source (identified by its
209 symbolic name or numerical index).
210 set-source-mute SOURCE 1|0|toggle
212 Set the mute status of the specified source (identified by its
213 symbolic name or numerical index).
214 set-sink-input-mute INPUT 1|0|toggle
216 Set the mute status of the specified sink input (identified by
217 its numerical index).
218 set-source-output-mute OUTPUT 1|0|toggle
220 Set the mute status of the specified source output (identified
221 by its numerical index).
222 set-sink-formats SINK FORMATS
224 Set the supported formats of the specified sink (identified by
225 its numerical index) if supported by the sink. FORMATS is speci‐
226 fied as a semi-colon (;) separated list of formats in the form
227 'encoding[, key1=value1, key2=value2, ...]' (for example, AC3 at
228 32000, 44100 and 48000 Hz would be specified as 'ac3-iec61937,
229 format.rate = "[ 32000, 44100, 48000 ]"'). See
230 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documenta‐
231 tion/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for possible encodings.
232 send-message RECIPIENT MESSAGE MESSAGE_PARAMETERS
234 Send a message to the specified recipient object. If applicable
235 an additional string containing message parameters can be speci‐
236 fied. A string is returned as a response to the message. For
237 available messages see https://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseau‐
238 dio/pulseaudio/tree/doc/messaging_api.txt.
239 subscribe
241 Subscribe to events, pactl does not exit by itself, but keeps
242 waiting for new events.
243
245 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
246 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
247 dio.org/
248
250 pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
251Manuals User pactl(1)