NAME

       pulse-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 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.

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 modules it is OK to be
              loaded more than once.

       unload-module index|name
              Unload a module, specified either by its index in the module list or its name.

       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 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-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-volume.

       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.description="My Preferred Name"

       update-sink-input-proplist|update-source-output-proplist index properties
              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 sample 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,  journal,  syslog,  stderr,  file:PATH,
              newfile: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  to the commands described above there are a few meta directives supported by
       the command line interpreter.

       .include filename|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.

       .ifexists filename
              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 existance 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.

AUTHORS

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

SEE ALSO

       default.pa(5), pacmd(1), pulseaudio(1)