pactl - Control a running PulseAudio sound server
pactl [options] COMMAND [ARGS ...] pactl --help pactl --version
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.
-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
@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 libsnd-
file. 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 imple-
menting the source this might have the effect that the underly-
ing 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 sym-
bolic 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 sym-
bolic 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
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 per-
centage (e.g. 10%, 100%) or a decibel value (e.g. 0dB, 20dB). If
the volume specification start with a + or - the volume adjust-
ment will be relative to the current sink volume. A single vol-
ume 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 sym-
bolic 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 sin-
gle volume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values
are given their number has to match the source's number of chan-
nels.
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 vol-
ume value affects all channels; if multiple volume values are
given their number has to match the sink input's number of chan-
nels.
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 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.
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://pulseau-
dio.org/
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+---------------+--------------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Availability | library/audio/pulseaudio |
+---------------+--------------------------+
|Stability | Pass-through volatile |
+---------------+--------------------------+
SEE ALSO
pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)
NOTES
Source code for open source software components in Oracle Solaris can
be found at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/opensource/solaris-source-
code-downloads.html.
This software was built from source available at
https://github.com/oracle/solaris-userland. The original community
source was downloaded from http://freedesktop.org/software/pulseau-
dio/releases/pulseaudio-14.2.tar.xz.
Further information about this software can be found on the open source
community website at http://freedesktop.org/software/pulseaudio.
Manuals User pactl(1)