1pacat(1) General Commands Manual pacat(1)
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6 pacat - Play back or record raw or encoded audio streams on a PulseAu‐
7 dio sound server
8
10 paplay [options] [FILE]
11 parecord [options] [FILE]
13 pacat [options] [FILE]
15 parec [options] [FILE]
17 pamon [options] [FILE]
19 pacat --help
21 pacat --version
23
25 pacat is a simple tool for playing back or capturing raw or encoded au‐
26 dio files on a PulseAudio sound server. It understands all audio file
27 formats supported by libsndfile.
28
30 -h | --help
31 Show help.
32 --version
34 Show version information.
35 -r | --record
37 Capture audio data and write it to the specified file or to STD‐
38 OUT if none is specified. If the tool is called under the name
39 parec this is the default.
40 -p | --playback
42 Read audio data from the specified file or STDIN if none is
43 specified, and play it back. If the tool is called under the
44 name pacat this is the default.
45 -v | --verbose
47 Enable verbose operation. Dumps the current playback time to
48 STDERR during playback/capturing.
49 -s | --server=SERVER
51 Choose the server to connect to.
52 -d | --device=SINKORSOURCE
54 Specify the symbolic name of the sink/source to play/record this
55 stream on/from. The special names , and can be used to specify
56 the default sink, source and monitor respectively.
57 --monitor-stream=INDEX
59 Record from the sink input with index INDEX.
60 -n | --client-name=NAME
62 Specify the client name paplay shall pass to the server when
63 connecting.
64 --stream-name=NAME
66 Specify the stream name paplay shall pass to the server when
67 creating the stream.
68 --volume=VOLUME
70 Specify the initial playback volume to use. Choose a value be‐
71 tween 0 (silent) and 65536 (100% volume).
72 --rate=SAMPLERATE
74 Capture or play back audio with the specified sample rate. De‐
75 faults to 44100 Hz.
76 --format=FORMAT
78 Capture or play back audio with the specified sample format. See
79 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documenta‐
80 tion/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for supported values. Defaults
81 to s16ne.
82 --channels=CHANNELS
84 Capture or play back audio with the specified number of chan‐
85 nels. If more than two channels are used it is recommended to
86 use the --channel-map option below. Defaults to 2.
87 --channel-map=CHANNELMAP
89 Explicitly choose a channel map when playing back this stream.
90 The argument should be a comma separated list of channel names:
91 front-left, front-right, mono, front-center, rear-left, rear-
92 right, rear-center, lfe, front-left-of-center, front-right-of-
93 center, side-left, side-right, top-center, top-front-center,
94 top-front-left, top-front-right, top-rear-left, top-rear-right,
95 top-rear-center, or any of the 32 auxiliary channel names aux0
96 to aux31.
97 --fix-format
99 If passed, the sample format of the stream is changed to the na‐
100 tive format of the sink the stream is connected to.
101 --fix-rate
103 If passed, the sampling rate of the stream is changed to the na‐
104 tive rate of the sink the stream is connected to.
105 --fix-channels
107 If passed, the number of channels and the channel map of the
108 stream is changed to the native number of channels and the na‐
109 tive channel map of the sink the stream is connected to.
110 --no-remix
112 Never upmix or downmix channels.
113 --no-remap
115 Never remap channels. Instead of mapping channels by their name
116 this will match them solely by their index/order.
117 --latency=BYTES
119 Explicitly configure the latency, with a time specified in bytes
120 in the selected sample format. If left out the server will pick
121 the latency, usually relatively high for power saving reasons.
122 Use either this option or --latency-msec, but not both.
123 --latency-msec=MSEC
125 Explicitly configure the latency, with a time specified in mil‐
126 liseconds. If left out the server will pick the latency, usually
127 relatively high for power saving reasons. Use either this option
128 or --latency, but not both.
129 --process-time=BYTES
131 Explicitly configure the process time, with a time specified in
132 bytes in the selected sample format. If left out the server will
133 pick the process time. Use either this option or --process-time-
134 msec, but not both.
135 --process-time-msec=MSEC
137 Explicitly configure the process time, with a time specified in
138 milliseconds. If left out the server will pick the process time.
139 Use either this option or --process-time, but not both.
140 --property=PROPERTY=VALUE
142 Attach a property to the client and stream. May be used multiple
143 times
144 --raw Play/record raw audio data. This is the default if this program
146 is invoked as pacat, parec or pamon.
147 --file-format[=FFORMAT]
149 Play/record encoded audio data in the file format specified.
150 This is the default if this program is invoked as paplay and
151 parecord.
152 --list-file-formats
154 List supported file formats.
155
157 Due to a limitation in libsndfile paplay currently does not always set
158 the correct channel mapping for playback of multichannel (i.e. sur‐
159 round) audio files, even if the channel mapping information is avail‐
160 able in the audio file.
161
163 The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
164 freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
165 dio.org/
166
168 pulseaudio(1), pactl(1)
169Manuals User pacat(1)