PulseAudio is a powerful sound server for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. It provides advanced audio routing and mixing capabilities, allowing for flexible management of sound devices and applications. This page details common PulseAudio commands for controlling and configuring the sound server.

PulseAudio Server Control

These commands are essential for managing the PulseAudio daemon itself.

# Start the PulseAudio sound server
pulseaudio --start

# Stop the PulseAudio sound server
pulseaudio --kill

PulseAudio Information and Configuration

Access version information, help, and configuration options.

# Check the version of PulseAudio
pulseaudio --version

# Display comprehensive help information
pulseaudio --help

# Start PulseAudio in a no-daemon mode (remains in the foreground, useful for debugging)
pulseaudio --no-daemon

# Log PulseAudio output to a specific file
pulseaudio --log-target=file:/path/to/logfile

# Increase the verbosity level of PulseAudio logging for detailed debugging
pulseaudio -vv

# Specify an alternate configuration file to use
pulseaudio --file=/path/to/config.file

Advanced PulseAudio Settings

Configure PulseAudio for specific performance or system requirements.

# Start PulseAudio with high-priority scheduling for better performance
pulseaudio --high-priority

# Disable real-time scheduling for PulseAudio, which can sometimes resolve conflicts
pulseaudio --disable-realtime

# Enable PulseAudio as a system-wide instance (requires root privileges)
sudo pulseaudio --system

Further Resources

• PulseAudio Official Website
• PulseAudio Man Page
• Arch Linux PulseAudio Wiki