pactl - Control a running PulseAudio sound server

Authors

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

Commands

When supplied as arguments to the commands below, the special names @DEFAULT_SINK@, @DEFAULT_SOURCE@ and
@DEFAULT_MONITOR@ can be used to specify the default sink, source and monitor respectively.

stat Dump a few statistics about the memory usage of the PulseAudio daemon.

info Dump some info about the PulseAudio daemon.

list [short] [TYPE]
Dump all currently loaded modules, available sinks, sources, streams, etc. TYPE must be one of:
modules, sinks, sources, sink-inputs, source-outputs, clients, samples, cards, message-handlers.
If not specified, all info is listed with the exception of the message-handlers. If short is
given, output is in a tabular format, for easy parsing by scripts.

exit Asks the PulseAudio server to terminate.

upload-sampleFILENAME [NAME]
Upload a sound from the specified audio file into the sample cache. The file types supported are
those understood by libsndfile. The sample in the cache is named after the audio file, unless the
name is explicitly specified.

play-sampleNAME [SINK]
Play the specified sample from the sample cache. It is played on the default sink, unless the
symbolic name or the numerical index of the sink to play it on is specified.

remove-sampleNAME
Remove the specified sample from the sample cache.

load-moduleNAME [ARGUMENTS...]
Load the specified module with the specified arguments into the running sound server. Prints the
numeric index of the module just loaded to STDOUT. You can use it to unload the module later.

unload-moduleID|NAME
Unload the module instance identified by the specified numeric index or unload all modules by the
specified name.

move-sink-inputIDSINK
Move the specified playback stream (identified by its numerical index) to the specified sink
(identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).

move-source-outputIDSOURCE
Move the specified recording stream (identified by its numerical index) to the specified source
(identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).

suspend-sinkSINKtrue|false
Suspend or resume the specified sink (which may be specified either by its symbolic name or
numerical index), depending whether true (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argument.
Suspending a sink will pause all playback. Depending on the module implementing the sink 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.

suspend-sourceSOURCEtrue|false
Suspend or resume the specified source (which may be specified either by its symbolic name or
numerical index), depending whether true (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argument.
Suspending a source will pause all capturing. Depending on the module implementing the 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.

set-card-profileCARDPROFILE
Set the specified card (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) to the specified
profile (identified by its symbolic name).

get-default-sink
Returns the symbolic name of the default sink.

set-default-sinkSINK
Make the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) the default sink. Use
the special name @NONE@ to unset the user defined default sink. This will make pulseaudio return
to the default sink selection based on sink priority.

set-sink-portSINKPORT
Set the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) to the specified port
(identified by its symbolic name).

get-default-source
Returns the symbolic name of the default source.

set-default-sourceSOURCE
Make the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) the default source.
Use the special name @NONE@ to unset the user defined default source. This will make pulseaudio
return to the default source selection based on source priority.

set-source-portSOURCEPORT
Set the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) to the specified
port (identified by its symbolic name).

set-port-latency-offsetCARDPORTOFFSET
Set a latency offset to a specified port (identified by its symbolic name) that belongs to a card
(identified by its symbolic name or numerical index). OFFSET is a number which represents the
latency offset in microseconds

get-sink-volumeSINK
Get the volume of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index)
displayed in the same format as the `info` command.

set-sink-volumeSINKVOLUME[VOLUME...]
Set the volume of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index). VOLUME
can be specified as an integer (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage
(e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the volume specification start with a +
or - the volume adjustment will be relative to the current sink volume. A single volume value
affects all channels; if multiple volume values are given their number has to match the sink's
number of channels.

get-source-volumeSOURCE
``` Get the volume of the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index)
displayed in the same format as the `info` command.

set-source-volumeSOURCEVOLUME[VOLUME...]
Set the volume of the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).
VOLUME can be specified as an integer (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a
percentage (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the volume specification start
with a + or - the volume adjustment will be relative to the current source volume. A single volume
value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are given their number has to match the
source's number of channels.

set-sink-input-volumeINPUTVOLUME[VOLUME...]
Set the volume of the specified sink input (identified by its numerical index). VOLUME can be
specified as an integer (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage (e.g.
10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the volume specification start with a + or -
the volume adjustment will be relative to the current sink input volume. A single volume value
affects all channels; if multiple volume values are given their number has to match the sink
input's number of channels.

set-source-output-volumeOUTPUTVOLUME[VOLUME...]
Set the volume of the specified source output (identified by its numerical index). VOLUME can be
specified as an integer (e.g. 2000, 16384), a linear factor (e.g. 0.4, 1.100), a percentage (e.g.
10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If the volume specification start with a + or -
the volume adjustment will be relative to the current source output volume. A single volume value
affects all channels; if multiple volume values are given their number has to match the source
output's number of channels.

get-sink-muteSINK
Get the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).

set-sink-muteSINK1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).

get-source-muteSOURCE
Get the mute status of the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).

set-source-muteSOURCE1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).

set-sink-input-muteINPUT1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified sink input (identified by its numerical index).

set-source-output-muteOUTPUT1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified source output (identified by its numerical index).

set-sink-formatsSINKFORMATS
Set the supported formats of the specified sink (identified by its numerical index) if supported
by the sink. FORMATS is specified as a semi-colon (;) separated list of formats in the form
'encoding[, key1=value1, key2=value2, ...]' (for example, AC3 at 32000, 44100 and 48000 Hz would
be specified as 'ac3-iec61937, format.rate = "[ 32000, 44100, 48000 ]"'). See
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for
possible encodings.

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.

subscribe
Subscribe to events, pactl does not exit by itself, but keeps waiting for new events.

Description

pactl can be used to issue control commands to the PulseAudio sound server.

       pactl only exposes a subset of the available operations. For the full set use the pacmd(1).

Name

       pactl - Control a running PulseAudio sound server

Options

-h|--help
              Show help.

       --version
              Show version information.

       -s|--server=SERVER
              Choose the server to connect to.

       -f|--format=FORMAT
              Choose output format, available options are "text" or "json".

       -n|--client-name=NAME
              Specify the client name pactl shall pass to the server when connecting.

Synopsis

pactl[options]COMMAND[ARGS...]pactl--helppactl--version