Provided by: pulseaudio_17.0+dfsg1-2ubuntu1_amd64 
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. Use the special name @NONE@ to unset the user defined
default sink or source. In this case, pulseaudio will return to the default sink or source
selection based on priority.
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 name|index true|false
Suspend or resume the specified sink or 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 sink will pause all playback and suspending a source will pause all capturing. Depending on the
module implementing the sink or 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.
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.
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.
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 existence 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)
Manuals User pulse-cli-syntax(5)