Ubuntu Manpage: pactl - Control a running PulseAudio sound server

Provided by: pulseaudio-utils_16.1+dfsg1-2ubuntu4.1_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.

       -f | --format=FORMAT
              Choose output format, available options are "text" or "json".

       -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, message-handlers. If not specified, all info is listed with the
exception of the message-handlers. 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 symbolic
name or numerical 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
symbolic name or numerical 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).

get-default-sink
Returns the symbolic name of the default sink.

set-default-sink SINK
Make the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) 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).

get-default-source
Returns the symbolic name of the default source.

set-default-source SOURCE
Make the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or numerical index) 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

get-sink-volume SINK
Get the volume of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numerical
index) displayed in the same format as the `info` command.

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.

get-source-volume SOURCE
``` Get the volume of the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or
numerical index) displayed in the same format as the `info` command.

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.

get-sink-mute SINK
Get the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or
numerical index).

set-sink-mute SINK 1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or
numerical index).

get-source-mute SOURCE
Get the mute status of the specified source (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 ]"'). See
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/SupportedAudioFormats/
for possible encodings.

send-message RECIPIENT MESSAGE MESSAGE_PARAMETERS
Send a message to the specified recipient object. If applicable an additional
string containing message parameters can be specified. A string is returned as a
response to the message. For available messages see
https://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/tree/doc/messaging_api.txt.

subscribe
Subscribe to events, pactl does not exit by itself, but keeps waiting for new
events.

AUTHORS