pactl

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: User
Page Index

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 ]"'). See https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for possible encodings.
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/