Ubuntu Manpage: pulseaudio - The PulseAudio Sound System

Provided by: pulseaudio_4.0-0ubuntu11.1_amd64

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 --daemon.

-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.

--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.

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

--log-target={auto,syslog,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
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 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).

-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.

       $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/