Provided by: pulseaudio_11.1-1ubuntu7.11_amd64 bug

NAME

       pulseaudio - The PulseAudio Sound System

SYNOPSIS

       pulseaudio [options]

       pulseaudio --help

       pulseaudio --version

       pulseaudio --dump-conf

       pulseaudio --dump-modules

       pulseaudio --dump-resample-methods

       pulseaudio --cleanup-shm

       pulseaudio --start

       pulseaudio --kill

       pulseaudio --check

DESCRIPTION

       PulseAudio is a networked low-latency sound server for Linux, POSIX and Windows systems.

OPTIONS

       -h | --help
              Show help.

       --version
              Show version information.

       --dump-conf
              Load  the daemon configuration file daemon.conf (see below), parse remaining configuration options
              on the command line and dump the resulting daemon configuration, in a format  that  is  compatible
              with daemon.conf.

       --dump-modules
              List available loadable modules. Combine with -v for a more elaborate listing.

       --dump-resample-methods
              List available audio resamplers.

       --cleanup-shm
              Identify  stale  PulseAudio  POSIX shared memory segments in /dev/shm and remove them if possible.
              This is done implicitly whenever a new daemon starts up or a client tries to connect to a  daemon.
              It  should normally not be necessary to issue this command by hand. Only available on systems with
              POSIX shared memory segments implemented via a virtual  file  system  mounted  to  /dev/shm  (e.g.
              Linux).

       --start
              Start  PulseAudio  if  it  is  not running yet. This is different from starting PulseAudio without
              --start which would fail  if  PA  is  already  running.  PulseAudio  is  guaranteed  to  be  fully
              initialized when this call returns. Implies --daemonize.

       -k | --kill
              Kill an already running PulseAudio daemon of the calling user (Equivalent to sending a SIGTERM).

       --check
              Return  0  as  return  code when the PulseAudio daemon is already running for the calling user, or
              non-zero otherwise. Produces no output on the console except for errors to stderr.

       --system[=BOOL]
              Run as system-wide instance instead of per-user. Please note that this disables  certain  features
              of  PulseAudio  and is generally not recommended unless the system knows no local users (e.g. is a
              thin client). This feature needs special configuration and a dedicated UNIX user  set  up.  It  is
              highly recommended to combine this with --disallow-module-loading (see below).

       -D | --daemonize[=BOOL]
              Daemonize  after  startup,  i.e.  detach  from  the  terminal. Note that when running as a systemd
              service you should use --daemonize=no for systemd notification to work.

       --fail[=BOOL]
              Fail startup when any of the commands specified in  the  startup  script  default.pa  (see  below)
              fails.

       --high-priority[=BOOL]
              Try  to  acquire a high Unix nice level. This will only succeed if the calling user has a non-zero
              RLIMIT_NICE resource limit set (on systems that support this), or  we're  called  SUID  root  (see
              below),  or we are configure to be run as system daemon (see --system above). It is recommended to
              enable this, since it is only a negligible security risk (see below).

       --realtime[=BOOL]
              Try to acquire a real-time scheduling for PulseAudio's I/O threads. This will only succeed if  the
              calling  user  has  a non-zero RLIMIT_RTPRIO resource limit set (on systems that support this), or
              we're called SUID root (see below), or we are configure to be run as system daemon  (see  --system
              above). It is recommended to enable this only for trusted users, since it is a major security risk
              (see below).

       --disallow-module-loading[=BOOL]
              Disallow  module  loading  after startup. This is a security feature since it disallows additional
              module loading during runtime and on user request. It is highly recommended when --system is  used
              (see  above). Note however, that this breaks certain features like automatic module loading on hot
              plug.

       --disallow-exit[=BOOL]
              Disallow user requested exit

       --exit-idle-time=SECS
              Terminate the daemon when idle and the specified number of seconds passed.

       --scache-idle-time=SECS
              Unload autoloaded samples from the cache when they haven't been used for the specified  number  of
              seconds.

       --log-level[=LEVEL]
              If  an  argument  is  passed,  set  the  log  level to the specified value, otherwise increase the
              configured verbosity level by one. The log levels are numerical from  0  to  4,  corresponding  to
              error,  warn,  notice,  info, debug. Default log level is notice, i.e. all log messages with lower
              log levels are printed: error, warn, notice.

       -v | --verbose
              Increase the configured verbosity level by one (see --log-level above). Specify multiple times  to
              increase log level multiple times.

       --log-target={auto,syslog,journal,stderr,file:PATH,newfile:PATH}
              Specify  the log target. If set to auto (which is the default), then logging is directed to syslog
              when --daemonize is passed, otherwise to STDERR. If set to journal  logging  is  directed  to  the
              systemd  journal.  If  set  to  file:PATH,  logging  is  directed  to  the file indicated by PATH.
              newfile:PATH is otherwise the same as file:PATH, but existing files are never overwritten. If  the
              specified file already exists, a suffix is added to the file name to avoid overwriting.

       --log-meta[=BOOL]
              Show source code location in log messages.

       --log-time[=BOOL]
              Show timestamps in log messages.

       --log-backtrace=FRAMES
              When  FRAMES  is  greater than 0, log for each message a stack trace up to the number of specified
              stack frames.

       -p | --dl-search-path=PATH
              Set the search path for dynamic shared objects (plugins).

       --resample-method=METHOD
              Use the specified resampler by default (See --dump-resample-methods above for possible values).

       --use-pid-file[=BOOL]
              Create a PID file. If this options is disabled it is possible to run multiple  sound  servers  per
              user.

       --no-cpu-limit[=BOOL]
              Do  not  install  CPU  load  limiter  on  platforms  that  support it. By default, PulseAudio will
              terminate itself when it notices that it takes  up  too  much  CPU  time.  This  is  useful  as  a
              protection  against  system  lockups when real-time scheduling is used (see below). Disabling this
              mechanism is useful when  debugging  PulseAudio  with  tools  like  valgrind(1)  which  slow  down
              execution.

       --disable-shm[=BOOL]
              PulseAudio  clients  and  the  server  can  exchange  audio  data via POSIX or memfd shared memory
              segments (on systems that support this). If disabled PulseAudio will communicate exclusively  over
              sockets.  Please  note  that  data  transfer  via  shared  memory segments is always disabled when
              PulseAudio is running with --system enabled (see above).

       --enable-memfd[=BOOL]
              PulseAudio clients and the server can exchange audio data via memfds - the anonymous Linux  Kernel
              shared  memory  mechanism  (on kernels that support this). If disabled PulseAudio will communicate
              via POSIX shared memory.

       -L | --load="MODULE ARGUMENTS"
              Load the specified plugin module with the specified arguments.

       -F | --file=FILENAME
              Run the specified script on startup. May be specified multiple times to specify  multiple  scripts
              to  be  run  in  order.  Combine  with -n to disable loading of the default script default.pa (see
              below).

       -C     Open a command interpreter on STDIN/STDOUT after startup. This may be used to configure PulseAudio
              dynamically during runtime. Equivalent to --load=module-cli.

       -n     Don't load default script file default.pa (see below) on startup. Useful in conjunction with -C or
              --file.

FILES

       ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf, /etc/pulse/daemon.conf: configuration settings for the PulseAudio daemon. If
       the version in the user's home directory does not exist the global  configuration  file  is  loaded.  See
       pulse-daemon.conf(5) for more information.

       ~/.config/pulse/default.pa,  /etc/pulse/default.pa:  the default configuration script to execute when the
       PulseAudio daemon is started. If the version in the user's home  directory  does  not  exist  the  global
       configuration script is loaded. See default.pa(5) for more information.

       ~/.config/pulse/client.conf,   /etc/pulse/client.conf:   configuration  settings  for  PulseAudio  client
       applications. If the version in the user's home directory does not exist the global configuration file is
       loaded. See pulse-client.conf(5) for more information.

SIGNALS

       SIGINT, SIGTERM: the PulseAudio daemon will shut down (Same as --kill).

       SIGHUP: dump a long status report to STDOUT or syslog, depending on the configuration.

       SIGUSR1: load module-cli, allowing runtime reconfiguration via STDIN/STDOUT.

       SIGUSR2: load module-cli-protocol-unix, allowing  runtime  reconfiguration  via  a  AF_UNIX  socket.  See
       pacmd(1) for more information.

UNIX GROUPS AND USERS

       Group pulse-rt: if the PulseAudio binary is marked SUID root, then membership of the calling user in this
       group  decides  whether  real-time  and/or high-priority scheduling is enabled. Please note that enabling
       real-time scheduling is a security risk (see below).

       Group pulse-access: if PulseAudio is running as a system daemon (see --system above) access is granted to
       members of this group when they connect via AF_UNIX sockets. If PulseAudio is running as  a  user  daemon
       this group has no meaning.

       User  pulse, group pulse: if PulseAudio is running as a system daemon (see --system above) and is started
       as root the daemon will drop privileges and become a normal user process using this user  and  group.  If
       PulseAudio is running as a user daemon this user and group has no meaning.

REAL-TIME AND HIGH-PRIORITY SCHEDULING

       To  minimize  the  risk  of  drop-outs during playback it is recommended to run PulseAudio with real-time
       scheduling if the underlying  platform  supports  it.  This  decouples  the  scheduling  latency  of  the
       PulseAudio  daemon from the system load and is thus the best way to make sure that PulseAudio always gets
       CPU time when it needs it to refill the hardware playback buffers. Unfortunately this is a security  risk
       on  most  systems,  since PulseAudio runs as user process, and giving realtime scheduling privileges to a
       user process always comes with the risk that the user misuses it to  lock  up  the  system  --  which  is
       possible since making a process real-time effectively disables preemption.

       To  minimize  the  risk  PulseAudio  by  default  does  not  enable  real-time  scheduling. It is however
       recommended to enable it on trusted systems. To do that start PulseAudio with --realtime (see  above)  or
       enabled  the  appropriate  option  in  daemon.conf.  Since  acquiring realtime scheduling is a privileged
       operation on most systems, some special changes to the system configuration need to be made to allow them
       to the calling user. Two options are available:

       On newer Linux systems the system resource limit RLIMIT_RTPRIO (see setrlimit(2)  for  more  information)
       can  be  used  to  allow  specific  users  to  acquire  real-time  scheduling.  This can be configured in
       /etc/security/limits.conf, a resource limit of 9 is recommended.

       Alternatively, the SUID root bit can be set for the PulseAudio binary. Then, the daemon  will  drop  root
       privileges  immediately  on startup, however retain the CAP_NICE capability (on systems that support it),
       but only if the calling user is a member of the pulse-rt group (see  above).  For  all  other  users  all
       capabilities are dropped immediately. The advantage of this solution is that the real-time privileges are
       only granted to the PulseAudio daemon -- not to all the user's processes.

       Alternatively,  if  the  risk  of  locking  up  the  machine  is  considered  too big to enable real-time
       scheduling, high-priority scheduling can be enabled instead (i.e.  negative  nice  level).  This  can  be
       enabled  by passing --high-priority (see above) when starting PulseAudio and may also be enabled with the
       appropriate option in daemon.conf. Negative nice levels can only be enabled when the appropriate resource
       limit  RLIMIT_NICE  is  set  (see  setrlimit(2)   for   more   information),   possibly   configured   in
       /etc/security/limits.conf. A resource limit of 31 (corresponding with nice level -11) is recommended.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       The PulseAudio client libraries check for the existence of the following environment variables and change
       their local configuration accordingly:

       $PULSE_SERVER:  the  server  string  specifying  the  server to connect to when a client asks for a sound
       server connection and doesn't explicitly ask for a specific server. The server string is a list of server
       addresses separated by whitespace which are tried in turn. A  server  address  consists  of  an  optional
       address  type  specifier  (unix:, tcp:, tcp4:, tcp6:), followed by a path or host address. A host address
       may include an optional port number. A server address may be prefixed by a string enclosed in {}. In this
       case the following server address is ignored unless the prefix string equals the local  hostname  or  the
       machine id (/etc/machine-id).

       $PULSE_SINK:  the  symbolic  name  of  the sink to connect to when a client creates a playback stream and
       doesn't explicitly ask for a specific sink.

       $PULSE_SOURCE: the symbolic name of the source to connect to when a client creates a  record  stream  and
       doesn't explicitly ask for a specific source.

       $PULSE_BINARY: path of PulseAudio executable to run when server auto-spawning is used.

       $PULSE_CLIENTCONFIG:  path  of  file  that  shall  be  read instead of client.conf (see above) for client
       configuration.

       $PULSE_COOKIE:  path  of  file  that  contains  the  PulseAudio  authentication   cookie.   Defaults   to
       ~/.config/pulse/cookie.

       These  environment settings take precedence -- if set -- over the configuration settings from client.conf
       (see above).

AUTHORS

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

SEE ALSO

       pulse-daemon.conf(5), default.pa(5), pulse-client.conf(5), pacmd(1)

Manuals                                               User                                         pulseaudio(1)