pulse-cli-syntax(5)pulse-cli-syntax(5)NAMEpulse-cli-syntax - PulseAudio Command Line Interface Syntax
SYNOPSIS
~/.config/pulse/default.pa
/etc/pulse/default.pa
/etc/pulse/system.pa
DESCRIPTION
PulseAudio provides a simple command line language used by configura‐
tion scripts and 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 sup‐
ported.
Note that any boolean arguments can be given positively as '1', 'on' or
any word starting with the letters 't' or 'y'. Likewise, negative val‐
ues can be given as '0', 'off' or any word starting with the letters
'f' or 'n'. Case is ignored.
GENERAL COMMANDS
help Show a quick help on the commands available.
STATUS_COMMANDS
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).
MODULE MANAGEMENT
load-module name [arguments...]
Load a module specified by its name and arguments. For most mod‐
ules it is OK to be loaded more than once.
unload-module index
Unload a module specified by its index in the module list as
returned by list-modules.
describe-module name
Give information about a module specified by its name.
VOLUME COMMANDS
set-sink-volume|set-source-volume index|name volume
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-mute index|name boolean
Mute or unmute the specified sink (resp. source). You may spec‐
ify 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-volume index volume
Set the volume of a sink input (resp. source output) specified
by its index. The same volume rules apply as with set-sink-vol‐
ume.
set-sink-input-mute|set-source-output-mute index boolean
Mute or unmute a sink input (resp. source output) specified by
its index. The same mute rules apply as with set-sink-mute.
CONFIGURATION COMMANDS
set-default-sink|set-default-source index|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.
Note that defaults may be overridden by various policy modules
or by specific stream configurations.
set-card-profile index|name profile-name
Change the profile of a card.
set-sink-port|set-source-port index|name port-name
Change the profile of a sink (resp. source).
set-port-latency-offset card-index|card-name port-name offset
Change the latency offset of a port belonging to the specified
card
suspend-sink|suspend-source index|name boolean
Suspend (i.e. disconnect from the underlying hardware) a sink
(resp. source).
suspend boolean
Suspend all sinks and sources.
MOVING STREAMS
move-sink-input|move-source-output index sink-index|sink-name
Move sink input (resp. source output) to another sink (resp.
source).
PROPERTY LISTS
update-sink-proplist|update-source-proplist index|name properties
Update the properties of a sink (resp. source) specified by name
or index. The property is specified as e.g. device.descrip‐
tion="My Preferred Name"
update-sink-input-proplist|update-source-output-proplist index proper‐
ties
Update the properties of a sink input (resp. source output)
specified by index. The properties are specified as above.
SAMPLE CACHE
list-samples
Lists the contents of the sample cache.
play-sample name sink-index|sink-name
Play a sample cache entry to a sink.
remove-sample name
Remove an entry from the sample cache.
load-sample name filename
Load an audio file to the sample cache.
load-sample-lazy name filename
Create a new entry in the sample cache, but don't load the sam‐
ple immediately. The sample is loaded only when it is first
used. After a certain idle time it is freed again.
load-sample-dir-lazy path
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.
KILLING CLIENTS/STREAMS
kill-client index
Remove a client forcibly from the server. There is no protection
against the client reconnecting immediately.
kill-sink-input|kill-source-output index
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.
LOG COMMANDS
set-log-level numeric-level
Change the log level.
set-log-meta boolean
Show source code location in log messages.
set-log-target target
Change the log target (null, auto, syslog, stderr, file:PATH).
set-log-time boolean
Show timestamps in log messages.
set-log-backtrace num-frames
Show backtrace in log messages.
MISCELLANEOUS COMMANDS
play-file filename sink-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.
exit Terminate the daemon. If you want to terminate a CLI connection
("log out") you might want to use ctrl+d
META COMMANDS
In addition the the commands described above there a few meta direc‐
tives supported by the command line interpreter.
.include filename|folder
Executes the commands from the specified script file or in all
of the *.pa file within the folder.
.fail and .nofail
Enable (resp. disable) that following failing commands will can‐
cel the execution of the current script file. This is a ignored
when used on the interactive command line.
.verbose and .noverbose
Enable (resp. disable) extra verbosity.
AUTHORS
The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot)
freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseau‐
dio.org/
SEE ALSOdefault.pa(5), pacmd(1), pulseaudio(1)Manuals User pulse-cli-syntax(5)
