pulse-cli-syntax - PulseAudio Command Line Interface Syntax

The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot) freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseaudio.org/

set-default-sink|set-default-sourceindex|name Make a sink (resp. source) the default. You may specify the sink (resp. source) by its index in the sink (resp. source) list or by its name. Use the special name @NONE@ to unset the user defined default sink or source. In this case, pulseaudio will return to the default sink or source selection based on priority. Note that defaults may be overridden by various policy modules or by specific stream configurations. set-card-profileindex|nameprofile-name Change the profile of a card. set-sink-port|set-source-portindex|nameport-name Change the profile of a sink (resp. source). set-port-latency-offsetcard-index|card-nameport-nameoffset Change the latency offset of a port belonging to the specified card suspend-sink|suspend-sourcename|indextrue|false Suspend or resume the specified sink or source (which may be specified either by its name or index), depending whether true (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argument. Suspending a sink will pause all playback and suspending a source will pause all capturing. Depending on the module implementing the sink or source this might have the effect that the underlying device is closed, making it available for other applications to use. The exact behaviour depends on the module. suspendboolean Suspend all sinks and sources.

PulseAudio provides a simple command line language used by configuration scripts, the pacmd interactive shell, and the modules module-cli and module-cli-protocol-{unix,tcp}. Empty lines and lines beginning with a hashmark (#) are silently ignored. Several commands are supported. Note that any boolean arguments can be given positively as '1', 't', 'y', 'true', 'yes' or 'on'. Likewise, negative values can be given as '0', 'f', 'n', 'false', 'no' or 'off'. Case is ignored.

help Show a quick help on the commands available.

kill-clientindex Remove a client forcibly from the server. There is no protection against the client reconnecting immediately. kill-sink-input|kill-source-outputindex Remove a sink input (resp. source output) forcibly from the server. This will not remove the owning client or any other streams opened by the same client from the server.

set-log-levelnumeric-level Change the log level. set-log-metaboolean Show source code location in log messages. set-log-targettarget Change the log target (null, auto, journal, syslog, stderr, file:PATH, newfile:PATH). set-log-timeboolean Show timestamps in log messages. set-log-backtracenum-frames Show backtrace in log messages.

In addition to the commands described above there are a few meta directives supported by the command line interpreter. .includefilename|folder Executes the commands from the specified script file or in all of the *.pa files within the folder. .fail and .nofail Enable (resp. disable) that following failing commands will cancel the execution of the current script file. This is ignored when used on the interactive command line. .ifexistsfilename Execute the subsequent block of commands only if the specified file exists. Typically filename indicates a module. Relative paths are resolved using the module directory as the base. By using an absolute path, the existence of other files can be checked as well. .else and .endif A block of commands is delimited by an .else or .endif meta command. Nesting conditional commands is not supported.

play-filefilenamesink-index|sink-name Play an audio file to a sink. dump Dump the daemon's current configuration in CLI commands. dump-volumes Debug: Shows the current state of all volumes. shared Debug: Show shared properties. send-messagerecipientmessagemessage_parameters Send a message to the specified recipient object. If applicable an additional string containing message parameters can be specified. A string is returned as a response to the message. For available messages see https://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/tree/doc/messaging_api.txt. exit Terminate the daemon. If you want to terminate a CLI connection ("log out") you might want to use ctrl+d

load-modulename [arguments...] Load a module specified by its name and arguments. For most modules it is OK to be loaded more than once. unload-moduleindex|name Unload a module, specified either by its index in the module list or its name. describe-modulename Give information about a module specified by its name.

move-sink-input|move-source-outputindexsink-index|sink-name Move sink input (resp. source output) to another sink (resp. source).

pulse-cli-syntax - PulseAudio Command Line Interface Syntax

update-sink-proplist|update-source-proplistindex|nameproperties Update the properties of a sink (resp. source) specified by name or index. The property is specified as e.g. device.description="My Preferred Name" update-sink-input-proplist|update-source-output-proplistindexproperties Update the properties of a sink input (resp. source output) specified by index. The properties are specified as above.

list-samples Lists the contents of the sample cache. play-samplenamesink-index|sink-name Play a sample cache entry to a sink. remove-samplename Remove an entry from the sample cache. load-samplenamefilename Load an audio file to the sample cache. load-sample-lazynamefilename Create a new entry in the sample cache, but don't load the sample immediately. The sample is loaded only when it is first used. After a certain idle time it is freed again. load-sample-dir-lazypath Load all entries in the specified directory into the sample cache as lazy entries. A shell globbing expression (e.g. *.wav) may be appended to the path of the directory to add.

default.pa(5), pacmd(1), pulseaudio(1) Manuals User pulse-cli-syntax(5)

list-modules Show all currently loaded modules with their arguments. list-cards Show all currently registered cards list-sinks or list-sources Show all currently registered sinks (resp. sources). list-clients Show all currently active clients. list-sink-inputs or list-source-outputs Show all currently active inputs to sinks a.k.a. playback streams (resp. outputs of sources a.k.a. recording streams). stat Show some simple statistics about the allocated memory blocks and the space used by them. info or ls or list A combination of all status commands described above (all three commands are synonyms).

set-sink-volume|set-source-volumeindex|namevolume Set the volume of the specified sink (resp. source). You may specify the sink (resp. source) either by its index in the sink/source list or by its name. The volume should be an integer value greater or equal than 0 (muted). Volume 65536 (0x10000) is 'normal' volume a.k.a. 100%. Values greater than this amplify the audio signal (with clipping). set-sink-mute|set-source-muteindex|nameboolean Mute or unmute the specified sink (resp. source). You may specify the sink (resp. source) either by its index or by its name. The mute value is either 0 (not muted) or 1 (muted). set-sink-input-volume|set-source-output-volumeindexvolume Set the volume of a sink input (resp. source output) specified by its index. The same volume rules apply as with set-sink-volume. set-sink-input-mute|set-source-output-muteindexboolean Mute or unmute a sink input (resp. source output) specified by its index. The same mute rules apply as with set-sink-mute.