APLAY(1)						      General Commands Manual							  APLAY(1)

NAME

       arecord, aplay - command-line sound recorder and player for ALSA soundcard driver

SYNOPSIS

       arecord [flags] [filename]
       aplay [flags] [filename [filename]] ...

DESCRIPTION

       arecord	is  a command-line soundfile recorder for the ALSA soundcard driver. It supports several file formats and multiple soundcards with
       multiple devices. If recording with interleaved mode samples the file is automatically split before the 2GB filesize.

       aplay is much the same, only it plays instead of recording. For supported soundfile formats, the sampling rate, bit depth, and so forth can
       be automatically determined from the soundfile header.

       If filename is not specified, the standard output or input is used. The aplay utility accepts multiple filenames.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
	      Help: show syntax.

       --version
	      Print current version.

       -l, --list-devices
	      List all soundcards and digital audio devices

       -L, --list-pcms
	      List all PCMs defined

       -D, --device=NAME
	      Select PCM by name

       -q --quiet
	      Quiet mode. Suppress messages (not sound :))

       -t, --file-type TYPE
	      File type (voc, wav, raw or au).	If this parameter is omitted the WAVE format is used.

       -c, --channels=#
	      The number of channels.  The default is one channel.  Valid values are 1 through 32.

       -f --format=FORMAT
	      Sample format
	      Recognized  sample  formats  are: S8 U8 S16_LE S16_BE U16_LE U16_BE S24_LE S24_BE U24_LE U24_BE S32_LE S32_BE U32_LE U32_BE FLOAT_LE
	      FLOAT_BE FLOAT64_LE FLOAT64_BE IEC958_SUBFRAME_LE IEC958_SUBFRAME_BE MU_LAW A_LAW IMA_ADPCM MPEG GSM SPECIAL S24_3LE S24_3BE U24_3LE
	      U24_3BE S20_3LE S20_3BE U20_3LE U20_3BE S18_3LE S18_3BE U18_3LE
	      Some of these may not be available on selected hardware
	      The available format shortcuts are:
	      -f cd (16 bit little endian, 44100, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r44100]
	      -f cdr (16 bit big endian, 44100, stereo) [-f S16_BE -c2 -f44100]
	      -f dat (16 bit little endian, 48000, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r48000]
	      If no format is given U8 is used.

       -r, --rate=#<Hz>
	      Sampling	rate  in Hertz. The default rate is 8000 Hertz.  If the value specified is less than 300, it is taken as the rate in kilo-
	      hertz.  Valid values are 2000 through 192000 Hertz.

       -d, --duration=#
	      Interrupt after # seconds.  A value of zero means infinity.  The default is zero, so if this option  is  omitted	then  the  arecord
	      process will run until it is killed.

       -s, --sleep-min=#
	      Min ticks to sleep. The default is not to sleep.

       -M, --mmap
	      Use memory-mapped (mmap) I/O mode for the audio stream.  If this option is not set, the read/write I/O mode will be used.

       -N, --nonblock
	      Open  the audio device in non-blocking mode. If the device is busy the program will exit immediately.  If this option is not set the
	      program will block until the audio device is available again.

       -F, --period-time=#
	      Distance between interrupts is # microseconds.  If no period time and no period size is given then a quarter of the buffer  time	is
	      set.

       -B, --buffer-time=#
	      Buffer  duration	is  # microseconds If no buffer time and no buffer size is given then the maximal allowed buffer time but not more
	      than 500ms is set.

       --period-size=#
	      Distance between interrupts is # frames If no period size and no period time is given then a quarter of the buffer size is set.

       --buffer-size=#
	      Buffer duration is # frames If no buffer time and no buffer size is given then the maximal allowed buffer time  but  not	more  than
	      500ms is set.

       -A, --avail-min=#
	      Min available space for wakeup is # microseconds

       -R, --start-delay=#
	      Delay for automatic PCM start is # microseconds (relative to buffer size if <= 0)

       -T, --stop-delay=#
	      Delay for automatic PCM stop is # microseconds from xrun

       -v, --verbose
	      Show PCM structure and setup.  This option is accumulative.  The VU meter is displayed when this is given twice or three times.

       -V, --vumeter=TYPE
	      Specifies  the VU-meter type, either stereo or mono.  The stereo VU-meter is available only for 2-channel stereo samples with inter-
	      leaved format.

       -I, --separate-channels
	      One file for each channel.  This option disables max-file-time and use-strftime, and ignores SIGUSR1.  The stereo VU  meter  is  not
	      available with separate channels.

       -P     Playback.  This is the default if the program is invoked by typing aplay.

       -C     Record.  This is the default if the program is invoked by typing arecord.

       -i, --interactive
	      Allow interactive operation via stdin.  Currently only pause/resume via space or enter key is implemented.

       -m, --chmap=ch1,ch2,...
	      Give the channel map to override or follow.  Pass channel position strings like FL, FR, etc.

	      If  a device supports the override of the channel map, aplay tries to pass the given channel map.  If it doesn't support the channel
	      map override but still it provides the channel map information, aplay tries to rearrange the channel order in the  buffer  to  match
	      with the returned channel map from the device.

       --disable-resample
	      Disable automatic rate resample.

       --disable-channels
	      Disable automatic channel conversions.

       --disable-format
	      Disable automatic format conversions.

       --disable-softvol
	      Disable software volume control (softvol).

       --test-position
	      Test ring buffer position.

       --test-coef=<coef>
	      Test  coefficient for ring buffer position; default is 8.  Expression for validation is: coef * (buffer_size / 2).  Minimum value is
	      1.

       --test-nowait
	      Do not wait for the ring buffer - eats the whole CPU.

       --max-file-time
	      While recording, when the output file has been accumulating sound for this long, close it and open a new output  file.   Default	is
	      the maximum size supported by the file format: 2 GiB for WAV files.  This option has no effect if  --separate-channels is specified.

       --process-id-file <file name>
	      aplay writes its process ID here, so other programs can send signals to it.

       --use-strftime
	      When  recording,	interpret  %-codes in the file name parameter using the strftime facility whenever the output file is opened.  The
	      important strftime codes are: %Y is the year, %m month, %d day of the month, %H hour, %M minute and %S second.  In addition,  %v	is
	      the  file  number, starting at 1.  When this option is specified, intermediate directories for the output file are created automati-
	      cally.  This option has no effect if --separate-channels is specified.

       --dump-hw-params
	      Dump hw_params of the device preconfigured status to stderr. The dump lists capabilities of the selected device  such  as  supported
	      formats,	sampling rates, numbers of channels, period and buffer bytes/sizes/times.  For raw device hw:X this option basically lists
	      hardware capabilities of the soundcard.

       --fatal-errors
	      Disables recovery attempts when errors (e.g. xrun) are encountered; the aplay process instead aborts immediately.

SIGNALS

       When recording, SIGINT, SIGTERM and SIGABRT will close the output file and exit.  SIGUSR1 will close the output file, open a new  one,  and
       continue recording.  However, SIGUSR1 does not work with --separate-channels.

EXAMPLES

       aplay -c 1 -t raw -r 22050 -f mu_law foobar
	      will play the raw file "foobar" as a 22050-Hz, mono, 8-bit, Mu-Law .au file.

       arecord -d 10 -f cd -t wav -D copy foobar.wav
	      will  record  foobar.wav	as a 10-second, CD-quality wave file, using the PCM "copy" (which might be defined in the user's .asoundrc
	      file as:
	      pcm.copy {
		type plug
		slave {
		  pcm hw
		}
		route_policy copy
	      }

       arecord -t wav --max-file-time 30 mon.wav
	      Record from the default audio source in monaural, 8,000 samples per second, 8 bits per sample.  Start a new file every  30  seconds.
	      File names are mon-nn.wav, where nn increases from 01.  The file after mon-99.wav is mon-100.wav.

       arecord -f cd -t wav --max-file-time 3600 --use-strftime %Y/%m/%d/listen-%H-%M-%v.wav
	      Record  in  stereo from the default audio source.  Create a new file every hour.	The files are placed in directories based on their
	      start dates and have names which include their start times and file numbers.

SEE ALSO

	alsamixer(1), amixer(1)

BUGS

       Note that .aiff files are not currently supported.

AUTHOR

       arecord and aplay are by Jaroslav Kysela <perex@perex.cz> This document is by Paul Winkler <zarmzarm@erols.com>.  Updated for Alsa  0.9	by
       James Tappin <james@xena.uklinux.net>

								  1 January 2010							  APLAY(1)