ALSACTL(1)							    ALSACTL(1)

NAME
       alsactl - advanced controls for ALSA soundcard driver

SYNOPSIS
       alsactl [options] [store|restore|init] <card # or id or device>

DESCRIPTION
       alsactl	is  used  to  control advanced settings for the ALSA soundcard
       drivers. It supports multiple soundcards. If  your  card	 has  features
       that  you can't seem to control from a mixer application, you have come
       to the right place.

COMMANDS
       store saves the current driver state for the selected soundcard to  the
       configuration file.

       restore loads driver state for the selected soundcard from the configu‐
       ration file. If restoring fails (eventually partly), the init action is
       called.

       init  tries  to initialize all devices to a default state. If device is
       not known, error code 99 is returned.

       If no soundcards are specified, setup for all cards will	 be  saved  or
       loaded.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
	      Help: show available flags and commands.

       -d, --debug
	      Use debug mode: a bit more verbose.

       -v, --version
	      Print alsactl version number.

       -f, --file
	      Select   the   configuration   file   to	use.  The  default  is
	      /etc/asound.state.

       -F, --force
	      Used with restore command.  Try to restore the matching  control
	      elements	as  much  as  possible.	 This option is set as default
	      now.

       -g, --ignore
	      Used with store and restore commands. Do not show 'No soundcards
	      found' and do not set an error exit code when soundcards are not
	      installed.

       -P, --pedantic
	      Used with restore command.  Don't	 restore  mismatching  control
	      elements.	 This option was the old default behavior.

       -r, --runstate
	      Save  restore and init state to this file. The file will contain
	      only errors.  Errors are appended with the soundcard id  to  the
	      end of file.

       -R, --remove
	      Remove runstate file at first.

       -E, --env #=#
	      Set  environment	variable  (useful  for	init action or you may
	      override ALSA_CONFIG_PATH to read different or optimized config‐
	      uration - may be useful for "boot" scripts).

       -i, --initfile #=#
	      The    configuration   file   for	  init.	  By   default,	  PRE‐
	      FIX/share/alsa/init/00main is used.

FILES
       /etc/asound.state (or whatever file you specify with the	 -f  flag)  is
       used  to	 store	current	 settings  for	your  soundcards. The settings
       include all the usual soundcard mixer settings.	More importantly, als‐
       actl  is capable of controlling other card-specific features that mixer
       apps usually don't know about.

       The configuration file is generated automatically  by  running  alsactl
       store. Editing the configuration file by hand may be necessary for some
       soundcard features (e.g. enabling/disabling automatic mic gain, digital
       output, joystick/game ports, some future MIDI routing options, etc).

SEE ALSO
	amixer(1), alsamixer(1), aplay(1)

BUGS
       None known.

AUTHOR
       alsactl	is  by	Jaroslav  Kysela  <perex@perex.cz>  and Abramo Bagnara
       <abramo@alsa-project.org>.   This   document   is   by	Paul   Winkler
       <zarmzarm@erols.com>.

				  15 May 2001			    ALSACTL(1)

Vote for polarhome