pulse-daemon.conf(5)pulse-daemon.conf(5)NAMEpulse-daemon.conf - PulseAudio daemon configuration file
SYNOPSIS
~/.pulse/daemon.conf
/etc/pulse/daemon.conf
DESCRIPTION
The PulseAudio sound server reads configuration directives from a file
~/.pulse/daemon.conf on startup and when that file doesn't exist from
/etc/pulse/daemon.conf. Please note that the server also reads a con‐
figuration script on startup default.pa which also contains runtime
configuration directives.
The configuration file is a simple collection of variable declarations.
If the configuration file parser encounters either ; or # it ignores
the rest of the line until its end.
For the settings that take a boolean argument the values true, yes, on
and 1 are equivalent, resp. false, no, off, 0.
GENERAL DIRECTIVES
daemonize= Daemonize after startup. Takes a boolean value, defaults to
"no". The --daemonize command line option takes precedence.
fail= Fail to start up if any of the directives in the configuration
script default.pa fail. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to "yes".
The --fail command line option takes precedence.
allow-module-loading= Allow/disallow module loading after startup. This
is a security feature that if dsabled makes sure that no further mod‐
ules may be loaded into the PulseAudio server after startup completed.
It is recommended to disable this when system-instance is enabled.
Please note that certain features like automatic hot-plug support will
not work if this option is enabled. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
to yes. The --disallow-module-loading command line option takes prece‐
dence.
allow-exit= Allow/disallow exit on user request. Defaults to yes.
resample-method= The resampling algorithm to use. Use one of src-sinc-
best-quality, src-sinc-medium-quality, src-sinc-fastest, src-zero-
order-hold, src-linear, trivial, speex-float-N, speex-fixed-N, ffmpeg.
See the documentation of libsamplerate for an explanation for the dif‐
ferent src- methods. The method trivial is the most basic algorithm
implemented. If you're tight on CPU consider using this. On the other
hand it has the worst quality of them all. The Speex resamplers take an
integer quality setting in the range 0..9 (bad...good). They exist in
two flavours: fixed and float. The former uses fixed point numbers, the
latter relies on floating point numbers. On most desktop CPUs the float
point resmampler is a lot faster, and it also offers slightly better
quality. See the output of dump-resample-methods for a complete list of
all available resamplers. Defaults to speex-float-3. The --resample-
method command line option takes precedence. Note that some modules
overwrite or allow overwriting of the resampler to use.
enable-remixing= If disabled never upmix or downmix channels to differ‐
ent channel maps. Instead, do a simple name-based matching only.
Defaults to yes.
enable-lfe-remixing= if disabeld when upmixing or downmixing ignore LFE
channels. When this option is dsabled the output LFE channel will only
get a signal when an input LFE channel is available as well. If no
input LFE channel is available the output LFE channel will always be 0.
If no output LFE channel is available the signal on the input LFE chan‐
nel will be ignored. Defaults to no.
use-pid-file= Create a PID file in /tmp/pulse-$USER/pid. Of this is
enabled you may use commands like --kill or --check. If you are plan‐
ning to start more than one PulseAudio process per user, you better
disable this option since it effectively disables multiple instances.
Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. The --no-cpu-limit command
line option takes precedence.
cpu-limit= If disabled do not install the CPU load limiter, even on
platforms where it is supported. This option is useful when debug‐
ging/profiling PulseAudio to disable disturbing SIGXCPU signals. Takes
a boolean argument, defaults to no. The --no-cpu-limit command line
argument takes precedence.
system-instance= Run the daemon as system-wide instance, requires root
priviliges. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to no. The --system com‐
mand line argument takes precedence.
enable-shm= Enable data transfer via POSIX shared memory. Takes a bool‐
ean argument, defaults to yes. The --disable-shm command line argument
takes precedence.
shm-size-bytes= Sets the shared memory segment size for the daemon, in
bytes. If left unspecified or is set to 0 it will default to some sys‐
tem-specific default, usually 64 MiB. Please note that usually there is
no need to change this value, unless you are running an OS kernel that
does not do memory overcommit.
lock-memory= Locks the entire PulseAudio process into memory. While
this might increase drop-out safety when used in conjunction with real-
time scheduling this takes away a lot of memory from other processes
and might hence considerably slow down your system. Defaults to no.
flat-volumes= Enable 'flat' volumes, i.e. where possible let the sink
volume equal the maximum of the volumes of the inputs connected to it.
Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes.
SCHEDULING
high-priority= Renice the daemon after startup to become a high-prior‐
ity process. This a good idea if you experience drop-outs during play‐
back. However, this is a certain security issue, since it works when
called SUID root only, or RLIMIT_NICE is used. root is dropped immedi‐
ately after gaining the nice level on startup, thus it is presumably
safe. See pulseaudio(1) for more information. Takes a boolean argument,
defaults to "yes". The --high-priority command line option takes prece‐
dence.
realtime-scheduling= Try to acquire SCHED_FIFO scheduling for the IO
threads. The same security concerns as mentioned above apply. However,
if PA enters an endless loop, realtime scheduling causes a system
lockup. Thus, realtime scheduling should only be enabled on trusted
machines for now. Please not that only the IO threads of PulseAudio are
made real-time. The controlling thread is left a normally scheduled
thread. Thus enabling the high-priority option is orthogonal. See
pulseaudio(1) for more information. Takes a boolean argument, defaults
to "yes". The --realtime command line option takes precedence.
realtime-priority= The realtime priority to acquire, if realtime-sched‐
uling is enabled. Note: JACK uses 10 by default, 9 for clients. Thus it
is recommended to choose the PulseAudio real-time priorities lower.
Some PulseAudio threads might choose a priority a little lower or
higher than the specified value. Defaults to "5".
nice-level= The nice level to acquire for the daemon, if high-priority
is enabled. Note: on some distributions X11 uses -10 by default.
Defaults to -11.
IDLE TIMES
exit-idle-time= Terminate the daemon after the last client quit and
this time in seconds passed. Use a negative value to disable this fea‐
ture. Defaults to 20. The --exit-idle-time command line option takes
precedence.
scache-idle-time= Unload autoloaded sample cache entries after being
idle for this time in seconds. Defaults to 20. The --scache-idle-time
command line option takes precedence.
PATHS
dl-search-path= The path were to look for dynamic shared objects
(DSOs/plugins). You may specify more than one path seperated by colons.
The default path depends on compile time settings. The --dl-search-path
command line option takes precedence.
default-script-file= The default configuration script file to load.
Specify an empty string for not loading a default script file. The
default behaviour is to load ~/.pulse/default.pa, and if that file does
not exist fall back to the system wide installed version
/etc/pulse/default.pa. If run in system-wide mode the file
/etc/pulse/system.pa is used instead. If -n is passed on the command
line or default-script-file= is disabled the default configuration
script is ignored.
load-default-script-file= Load the default configuration script file as
specified in default-script-file=. Defaults to yes.
LOGGING
log-target= The default log target. Use either stderr, syslog or auto.
The latter is equivalent to sylog in case daemonize is enabled, other‐
wise to stderr. Defaults to auto. The --log-target command line option
takes precedence.
log-level= Log level, one of debug, info, notice, warning, error. Log
messages with a lower log level than specified here are not logged.
Defaults to notice. The --log-level command line option takes prece‐
dence. The -v command line option might alter this setting.
log-meta= With each logged message log the code location the message
was generated from. Defaults to no.
log-time= With each logged messages log the relative time since
startup. Defaults to no.
log-backtrace= When greater than 0, with each logged message log a code
stack trace up the the specified number of stack frames. Defaults to 0.
RESOURCE LIMITS
See getrlimit(2) for more information. Set to -1 if PulseAudio shall
not touch the resource limit. Not all resource limits are available on
all operating systems.
rlimit-as Defaults to -1.
rlimit-rss Defaults to -1.
rlimit-core Defaults to -1.
rlimit-data Defaults to -1.
rlimit-fsize Defaults to -1.
rlimit-nofile Defaults to 256.
rlimit-stack Defaults to -1.
rlimit-nproc Defaults to -1.
rlimit-locks Defaults to -1.
rlimit-sigpending Defaults to -1.
rlimit-msgqueue Defaults to -1.
rlimit-memlock Defaults to 16 KiB. Please note that the JACK client
libraries may require more locked memory.
rlimit-nice Defaults to 31. Please make sure that the default nice
level as configured with nice-level fits in this resource limit, if
high-priority is enabled.
rlimit-rtprio Defaults to 9. Please make sure that the default real-
time priority level as configured with realtime-priority= fits in this
resource limit, if realtime-scheduling is enabled. The JACK client
libraries require a real-time prority of 9 by default.
rlimit-rttime Defaults to 1000000.
DEFAULT DEVICE SETTINGS
Most drivers try to open the audio device with these settings and then
fall back to lower settings. The default settings are CD quality: 16bit
native endian, 2 channels, 44100 Hz sampling.
default-sample-format= The default sampling format. Specify one of u8,
s16le, s16be, s24le, s24be, s24-32le, s24-32be, s32le, s32be float32le,
float32be, ulaw, alaw. Depending on the endianess of the CPU the for‐
mats s16ne, s16re, s24ne, s24re, s24-32ne, s24-32re, s32ne, s32re,
float32ne, float32re (for native, resp. reverse endian) are available
as aliases.
default-sample-rate= The default sample frequency.
default-sample-channels The default number of channels.
default-channel-map The default channel map.
DEFAULT FRAGMENT SETTINGS
Some hardware drivers require the hardware playback buffer to be subdi‐
vided into several fragments. It is possible to change these buffer
metrics for machines with high scheduling latencies. Not all possible
values that may be configured here are available in all hardware. The
driver will to find the nearest setting supported. Modern drivers that
support timer-based scheduling ignore these options.
default-fragments= The default number of fragments. Defaults to 4.
default-fragment-size-msec=The duration of a single fragment. Defaults
to 25ms (i.e. the total buffer is thus 100ms long).
AUTHORS
The PulseAudio Developers <mzchyfrnhqvb (at) 0pointer (dot) net>;
PulseAudio is available from http://pulseaudio.org/
SEE ALSOpulse-client.conf(5), default.pa(5), pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)Manuals User pulse-daemon.conf(5)
