NAME¶

pacat - Play back or record raw or encoded audio streams on a PulseAudio sound server

SYNOPSIS¶

paplay [options] [FILE]

parecord [options] [FILE]

pacat [options] [FILE]

parec [options] [FILE]

pamon [options] [FILE]

pacat --help

pacat --version

DESCRIPTION¶

pacat is a simple tool for playing back or capturing raw or encoded audio files on a PulseAudio sound server. It understands all audio file formats supported by libsndfile.

OPTIONS¶

-h | --help

Show help.

--version

Show version information.

-r | --record

Capture audio data and write it to the specified file or to STDOUT if none is specified. If the tool is called under the name parec this is the default.

-p | --playback

Read audio data from the specified file or STDIN if none is specified, and play it back. If the tool is called under the name pacat this is the default.

-v | --verbose

Enable verbose operation. Dumps the current playback time to STDERR during playback/capturing.

-s | --server=SERVER

Choose the server to connect to.

-d | --device=SINKORSOURCE

Specify the symbolic name of the sink/source to play/record this stream on/from. The special names , and can be used to specify the default sink, source and monitor respectively.

--monitor-stream=INDEX

Record from the sink input with index INDEX.

-n | --client-name=NAME

Specify the client name paplay shall pass to the server when connecting.

--stream-name=NAME

Specify the stream name paplay shall pass to the server when creating the stream.

--volume=VOLUME

Specify the initial playback volume to use. Choose a value between 0 (silent) and 65536 (100% volume).

--rate=SAMPLERATE

Capture or play back audio with the specified sample rate. Defaults to 44100 Hz.

--format=FORMAT

Capture or play back audio with the specified sample format. See https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/SupportedAudioFormats/ for supported values. Defaults to s16ne.

--channels=CHANNELS

Capture or play back audio with the specified number of channels. If more than two channels are used it is recommended to use the --channel-map option below. Defaults to 2.

--channel-map=CHANNELMAP

Explicitly choose a channel map when playing back this stream. The argument should be a comma separated list of channel names: front-left, front-right, mono, front-center, rear-left, rear-right, rear-center, lfe, front-left-of-center, front-right-of-center, side-left, side-right, top-center, top-front-center, top-front-left, top-front-right, top-rear-left, top-rear-right, top-rear-center, or any of the 32 auxiliary channel names aux0 to aux31.

--fix-format

If passed, the sample format of the stream is changed to the native format of the sink the stream is connected to.

--fix-rate

If passed, the sampling rate of the stream is changed to the native rate of the sink the stream is connected to.

--fix-channels

If passed, the number of channels and the channel map of the stream is changed to the native number of channels and the native channel map of the sink the stream is connected to.

--no-remix

Never upmix or downmix channels.

--no-remap

Never remap channels. Instead of mapping channels by their name this will match them solely by their index/order.

--latency=BYTES

Explicitly configure the latency, with a time specified in bytes in the selected sample format. If left out the server will pick the latency, usually relatively high for power saving reasons. Use either this option or --latency-msec, but not both.

--latency-msec=MSEC

Explicitly configure the latency, with a time specified in milliseconds. If left out the server will pick the latency, usually relatively high for power saving reasons. Use either this option or --latency, but not both.

--process-time=BYTES

Explicitly configure the process time, with a time specified in bytes in the selected sample format. If left out the server will pick the process time. Use either this option or --process-time-msec, but not both.

--process-time-msec=MSEC

Explicitly configure the process time, with a time specified in milliseconds. If left out the server will pick the process time. Use either this option or --process-time, but not both.

--property=PROPERTY=VALUE

Attach a property to the client and stream. May be used multiple times

--raw

Play/record raw audio data. This is the default if this program is invoked as pacat, parec or pamon.

--file-format[=FFORMAT]

Play/record encoded audio data in the file format specified. This is the default if this program is invoked as paplay and parecord.

--list-file-formats

List supported file formats.

LIMITATIONS¶

Due to a limitation in libsndfile paplay currently does not always set the correct channel mapping for playback of multichannel (i.e. surround) audio files, even if the channel mapping information is available in the audio file.

AUTHORS¶

The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot) freedesktop (dot) org>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseaudio.org/

SEE ALSO¶

pulseaudio(1), pactl(1)