Provided by: pulseaudio-utils_13.99.1-1ubuntu3.13_amd64 
NAME
pactl - Control a running PulseAudio sound server
SYNOPSIS
pactl [options] COMMAND [ARGS ...]
pactl --help
pactl --version
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).
OPTIONS
-h | --help
Show help.
--version
Show version information.
-s | --server=SERVER
Choose the server to connect to.
-n | --client-name=NAME
Specify the client name pactl shall pass to the server when connecting.
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. If not specified,
all info is listed. If short is given, output is in a tabular format, for easy parsing by scripts.
exit Asks the PulseAudio server to terminate.
upload-sample FILENAME [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-sample NAME [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-sample NAME
Remove the specified sample from the sample cache.
load-module NAME [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-module ID|NAME
Unload the module instance identified by the specified numeric index or unload all modules by the
specified name.
move-sink-input ID SINK
Move the specified playback stream (identified by its numerical index) to the specified sink
(identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).
move-source-output ID SOURCE
Move the specified recording stream (identified by its numerical index) to the specified source
(identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).
suspend-sink SINK true|false
Suspend or resume the specified sink (which may be specified either by its name or 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-source SOURCE true|false
Suspend or resume the specified source (which may be specified either by its name or 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-profile CARD PROFILE
Set the specified card (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) to the specified
profile (identified by its symbolic name).
set-default-sink SINK
Make the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name) the default sink.
set-sink-port SINK PORT
Set the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) to the specified port
(identified by its symbolic name).
set-default-source SOURCE
Make the specified source (identified by its symbolic name) the default source.
set-source-port SOURCE PORT
Set the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) to the specified
port (identified by its symbolic name).
set-port-latency-offset CARD PORT OFFSET
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
set-sink-volume SINK VOLUME [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.
set-source-volume SOURCE VOLUME [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-volume INPUT VOLUME [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-volume OUTPUT VOLUME [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.
set-sink-mute SINK 1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).
set-source-mute SOURCE 1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index).
set-sink-input-mute INPUT 1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified sink input (identified by its numerical index).
set-source-output-mute OUTPUT 1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified source output (identified by its numerical index).
set-sink-formats SINK FORMATS
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 ]"').
subscribe
Subscribe to events, pactl does not exit by itself, but keeps waiting for new events.
AUTHORS
The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot) freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is
available from http://pulseaudio.org/
SEE ALSO
pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)