pactl(1) General Commands Manual pactl(1)
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 con-
necting.
COMMANDS
When supplied as arguments to the commands below, the special names @DE-
FAULT_SINK@, @DEFAULT_SOURCE@ and @DEFAULT_MONITOR@ can be used to spec-
ify 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-han-
dlers. 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 libsnd-
file. The sample in the cache is named after the audio file, un-
less 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 ei-
ther by its symbolic name or numerical index), depending whether
true (suspend) or false (resume) is passed as last argument. Sus-
pending a sink will pause all playback. Depending on the module
implementing the sink this might have the effect that the under-
lying device is closed, making it available for other applica-
tions 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 argu-
ment. 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 numer-
ical 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 nu-
merical index) the default sink. Use the special name @NONE@ to
unset the user defined default sink. This will make pulseaudio
return to the default sink selection based on sink priority.
set-sink-port SINK PORT
Set the specified sink (identified by its symbolic name or numer-
ical 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 nu-
merical index) the default source. Use the special name @NONE@ to
unset the user defined default source. This will make pulseaudio
return to the default source selection based on source priority.
set-source-port SOURCE PORT
Set the specified source (identified by its symbolic name or nu-
merical 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 sym-
bolic 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 percent-
age (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 sym-
bolic name or numerical index). VOLUME can be specified as an in-
teger (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 ad-
justment 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 nu-
merical 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 vol-
ume 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 sym-
bolic name or numerical index).
set-sink-mute SINK 1|0|toggle
Set the mute status of the specified sink (identified by its sym-
bolic 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 speci-
fied 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/Documenta-
tion/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 speci-
fied. A string is returned as a response to the message. For
available messages see https://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseau-
dio/pulseaudio/tree/doc/messaging_api.txt.
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) freedesk-
top (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseaudio.org/
SEE ALSO
pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
Manuals User pactl(1)
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