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. 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.

--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. Specify one of u8, s16le, s16be, s32le, s32be, float32le, float32be, ulaw, alaw, s32le, s32be, s24le, s24be, s24-32le, s24-32be. Depending on the endianness 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-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 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.

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)