pacat(1) General Commands Manual pacat(1)
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.
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.
-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. Specify one of u8, s16le, s16be, s32le, s32be, float32le, float32be,
ulaw, alaw, s32le, s32be, s24le, s24be, s24-32le, s24-32be. Depending on the endianess of the CPU the formats s16ne, s16re, s32ne,
s32re, float32ne, float32re, s32ne, s32re, s24ne, s24re, s24-32ne, s24-32re (for native, resp. reverse endian) are available as
aliases. 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-cen-
ter, 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 chan-
nel 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 miliseconds. If left out the server will pick the latency, usually rela-
tively 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 miliseconds. 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.
AUTHORS
The PulseAudio Developers <mzchyfrnhqvb (at) 0pointer (dot) net>; PulseAudio is available from http://pulseaudio.org/
SEE ALSO
pulseaudio(1), pactl(1)
Manuals User pacat(1)