pulse-daemon.conf.5.xml.in

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<manpage name="pulse-daemon.conf" section="5" desc="PulseAudio daemon configuration file">

  <synopsis>
    <p><file>~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf</file></p>
    <p><file>~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf.d/*.conf</file></p>
    <p><file>@PA_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR@/daemon.conf</file></p>
    <p><file>@PA_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR@/daemon.conf.d/*.conf</file></p>
  </synopsis>

  <description>
    <p>The PulseAudio sound server reads configuration directives from
    a configuration file on startup. If the per-user file
    <file>~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf</file> exists, it is used, otherwise the
    system configuration file <file>@PA_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR@/daemon.conf</file>
    is used. In addition to those main files, configuration directives can also
    be put in files under directories
    <file>~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf.d/</file> and
    <file>@PA_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR@/daemon.conf.d/</file>. Those files have to
    have the .conf file name extension, but otherwise the file names can be
    chosen freely. The files under daemon.conf.d are processed in alphabetical
    order. In case the same option is set in multiple files, the last file to
    set an option overrides earlier files. The main daemon.conf file is
    processed first, so options set in files under daemon.conf.d override the
    main file.</p>

    <p>Please note that the server also reads a configuration script on
    startup. See <manref name="default.pa" section="5"/>.</p>

    <p>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.</p>

    <p>For the settings that take a boolean argument the values
    <opt>true</opt>, <opt>yes</opt>, <opt>on</opt> and <opt>1</opt>
    are equivalent, resp. <opt>false</opt>, <opt>no</opt>,
    <opt>off</opt>, <opt>0</opt>.</p>

  </description>

  <section name="General Directives">

    <option>
      <p><opt>daemonize=</opt> Daemonize after startup. Takes a
      boolean value, defaults to <opt>no</opt>. The <opt>--daemonize</opt>
      command line option takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>fail=</opt> Fail to start up if any of the directives
      in the configuration script <file>default.pa</file>
      fail. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to <opt>yes</opt>. The <opt>--fail</opt> command line
      option takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>allow-module-loading=</opt> Allow/disallow module
      loading after startup. This is a security feature that if
      disabled makes sure that no further modules may be loaded into
      the PulseAudio server after startup completed. It is recommended
      to disable this when <opt>system-instance</opt> 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 <opt>yes</opt>. The
      <opt>--disallow-module-loading</opt> command line option takes
      precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>allow-exit=</opt> Allow/disallow exit on user
      request. Defaults to <opt>yes</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>resample-method=</opt> The resampling algorithm to
      use. Use one of <opt>src-sinc-best-quality</opt>,
      <opt>src-sinc-medium-quality</opt>, <opt>src-sinc-fastest</opt>,
      <opt>src-zero-order-hold</opt>, <opt>src-linear</opt>,
      <opt>trivial</opt>, <opt>speex-float-N</opt>,
      <opt>speex-fixed-N</opt>, <opt>ffmpeg</opt>, <opt>soxr-mq</opt>,
      <opt>soxr-hq</opt>, <opt>soxr-vhq</opt>. See the
      documentation of libsamplerate and speex for explanations of the
      different src- and speex- methods, respectively. The method
      <opt>trivial</opt> 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..10 (bad...good). They
      exist in two flavours: <opt>fixed</opt> and <opt>float</opt>. The former uses fixed point
      numbers, the latter relies on floating point numbers. On most
      desktop CPUs the float point resampler is a lot faster, and it
      also offers slightly better quality. The soxr-family methods
      are based on libsoxr, a resampler library from the SoX sound processing utility.
      The mq variant has the best performance of the three. The hq is more expensive
      and, according to SoX developers, is considered the best choice for audio of up to 16 bits per sample.
      The vhq variant has more precision than hq and is more suitable for larger samples. The Soxr resamplers
      generally offer better quality at less CPU compared to other resamplers, such as speex.
      The downside is that they can add a significant delay to the output
      (usually up to around 20 ms, in rare cases more).
      See the output of <opt>dump-resample-methods</opt> for a complete list of all
      available resamplers. Defaults to <opt>speex-float-1</opt>. The
      <opt>--resample-method</opt> command line option takes precedence.
      Note that some modules overwrite or allow overwriting of the
      resampler to use.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>avoid-resampling=</opt> If set, try to configure the
      device to avoid resampling. This only works on devices which
      support reconfiguring their rate, and when no other streams are
      already playing or capturing audio. The device will also not be
      configured to a rate less than the default and alternate sample
      rates.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>enable-remixing=</opt> If disabled never upmix or
      downmix channels to different channel maps. Instead, do a simple
      name-based matching only. Defaults to <opt>yes</opt>.
      There is no known valid use case for setting this option to
      <opt>no</opt>, therefore, this option is deprecated and may be
      removed in a future version of PulseAudio.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>remixing-use-all-sink-channels=</opt> If enabled, use
      all sink channels when remixing. Otherwise, remix to the minimal
      set of sink channels needed to reproduce all of the source
      channels. (This has no effect on LFE remixing.) Defaults to
      <opt>yes</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>enable-lfe-remixing=</opt> This is a way to set
      <opt>remixing-produce-lfe</opt> and <opt>remixing-consume-lfe</opt>
      to the same value at once. This option only exists for backward
      compatibility and may be removed in a future version of PulseAudio.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>remixing-produce-lfe=</opt> If enabled, and the sink input
      does not have the LFE channel, synthesize the output LFE channel
      as a (lowpass-filtered, if <opt>lfe-crossover-freq</opt> is not 0)
      average of all input channels. Also, when <opt>lfe-crossover-freq</opt>
      is not 0, filter out low frequencies from other channels while
      producing a synthetic LFE output. If disabled, the output LFE channel
      will only get a signal when an input LFE channel is available as well.
      Defaults to <opt>no</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>remixing-consume-lfe=</opt> If enabled, and the sink does not
      have an LFE channel, redirect the input LFE channel (if any) to other
      channels. If disabled, the input LFE channel will remain unused unless
      the sink has the LFE channel as well. Defaults to <opt>no</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>lfe-crossover-freq=</opt> The crossover frequency (in Hz) for the
      LFE filter. Set it to 0 to disable the LFE filter. Defaults to 0.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>use-pid-file=</opt> Create a PID file in the runtime directory
      (<file>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/pulse/pid</file>). If this is enabled you may
      use commands like <opt>--kill</opt> or <opt>--check</opt>. If
      you are planning 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 <opt>yes</opt>. The <opt>--use-pid-file</opt> command line
      option takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>cpu-limit=</opt> If disabled do not install the CPU load
      limiter, even on platforms where it is supported. This option is
      useful when debugging/profiling PulseAudio to disable disturbing
      SIGXCPU signals. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to
      <opt>no</opt>. The <opt>--no-cpu-limit</opt> command line
      argument takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>system-instance=</opt> Run the daemon as system-wide
      instance, requires root privileges. Takes a boolean argument,
      defaults to <opt>no</opt>. The <opt>--system</opt> command line
      argument takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>local-server-type=</opt> Please don't use this option if
      you don't have to! This option is currently only useful when you
      want D-Bus clients to use a remote server. This option may be
      removed in future versions. If you only want to run PulseAudio
      in the system mode, use the <opt>system-instance</opt> option.
      This option takes one of <opt>user</opt>, <opt>system</opt> or
      <opt>none</opt> as the argument. This is essentially a duplicate
      for the <opt>system-instance</opt> option. The difference is the
      <opt>none</opt> option, which is useful when you want to use a
      remote server with D-Bus clients. If both this and
      <opt>system-instance</opt> are defined, this option takes
      precedence. Defaults to whatever the <opt>system-instance</opt>
      is set.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>enable-shm=</opt> Enable data transfer via POSIX
      or memfd shared memory. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to
      <opt>yes</opt>. The <opt>--disable-shm</opt> command line
      argument takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>enable-memfd=</opt>. Enable memfd shared memory. Takes
      a boolean argument, defaults to <opt>yes</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>shm-size-bytes=</opt> Sets the shared memory segment
      size for the daemon, in bytes. If left unspecified or is set to 0
      it will default to some system-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.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>lock-memory=</opt> 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 <opt>no</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>flat-volumes=</opt> 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 <opt>no</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>rescue-streams=</opt> Enable rescuing of streams if the
      used sink or source becomes unavailable. Takes a boolean argument.
      If set to <opt>yes</opt>, pulseaudio will try to move the streams
      from a sink or source that becomes unavailable to the default sink
      or source. If set to <opt>no</opt>, streams will be killed if the
      corresponding sink or source disappears. Defaults to <opt>yes</opt>.</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Scheduling">

    <option>
      <p><opt>high-priority=</opt> Renice the daemon after startup to
      become a high-priority process. This a good idea if you
      experience drop-outs during playback. However, this is a certain
      security issue, since it works when called SUID root only, or
      RLIMIT_NICE is used. root is dropped immediately after gaining
      the nice level on startup, thus it is presumably safe. See
      <manref section="1" name="pulseaudio"/> for more
      information. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to <opt>yes</opt>. The <opt>--high-priority</opt>
      command line option takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>realtime-scheduling=</opt> 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 note 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 <manref section="1" name="pulseaudio"/> for more
      information. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to <opt>yes</opt>. The
      <opt>--realtime</opt> command line option takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>realtime-priority=</opt> The realtime priority to
      acquire, if <opt>realtime-scheduling</opt> 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 <opt>5</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>nice-level=</opt> The nice level to acquire for the
      daemon, if <opt>high-priority</opt> is enabled. Note: on some
      distributions X11 uses -10 by default. Defaults to -11.</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Idle Times">

    <option>
      <p><opt>exit-idle-time=</opt> Terminate the daemon after the
      last client quit and this time in seconds passed. Use a negative value to
      disable this feature. Defaults to 20. The <opt>--exit-idle-time</opt>
      command line option takes precedence.</p>

      <p>When PulseAudio runs in the per-user mode and detects a login
      session, then any positive value will be reset to 0 so that PulseAudio
      will terminate immediately on logout. A positive value therefore has
      effect only in environments where there's no support for login session
      tracking (or if the user is logged in without a session spawned, a.k.a.
      lingering). A negative value can still be used to disable any automatic
      exit.</p>

      <p>When PulseAudio runs in the system mode, automatic exit is always
      disabled, so this option does nothing.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>scache-idle-time=</opt> Unload autoloaded sample cache
      entries after being idle for this time in seconds. Defaults to
      20. The <opt>--scache-idle-time</opt> command line option takes
      precedence.</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Paths">

    <option>
      <p><opt>dl-search-path=</opt> The path where to look for dynamic
      shared objects (DSOs/plugins). You may specify more than one
      path separated by colons. The default path depends on compile
      time settings. The <opt>--dl-search-path</opt> command line
      option takes precedence. </p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>default-script-file=</opt> The default configuration
      script file to load. Specify an empty string for not loading a
      default script file. The default behaviour is to load
      <file>~/.config/pulse/default.pa</file>, and if that file does not
      exist fall back to the system wide installed version
      <file>@PA_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR@/default.pa</file>. If run in system-wide
      mode the file <file>@PA_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR@/system.pa</file> is used
      instead. If <opt>-n</opt> is passed on the command line
      or <opt>default-script-file=</opt> is disabled the default
      configuration script is ignored.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>load-default-script-file=</opt> Load the default
      configuration script file as specified
      in <opt>default-script-file=</opt>. Defaults to <opt>yes</opt>.</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Logging">

    <option>
      <p><opt>log-target=</opt> The default log target. Use either
      <opt>stderr</opt>, <opt>syslog</opt>, <opt>journal</opt> (optional),
      <opt>auto</opt>, <opt>file:PATH</opt> or <opt>newfile:PATH</opt>. On traditional
      systems <opt>auto</opt> is equivalent to <opt>syslog</opt>. On systemd-enabled
      systems, auto is equivalent to <opt>journal</opt>, in case <opt>daemonize</opt>
      is enabled, and to <opt>stderr</opt> otherwise. If set to <opt>file:PATH</opt>,
      logging is directed to the file indicated by PATH. <opt>newfile:PATH</opt> is
      otherwise the same as <opt>file:PATH</opt>, but existing files are never
      overwritten. If the specified file already exists, a suffix is added to
      the file name to avoid overwriting. Defaults to <opt>auto</opt>. The
      <opt>--log-target</opt> command line option takes precedence.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>log-level=</opt> Log level, one of <opt>debug</opt>,
      <opt>info</opt>, <opt>notice</opt>, <opt>warning</opt>,
      <opt>error</opt>. Log messages with a lower log level than
      specified here are not logged. Defaults to
      <opt>notice</opt>. The <opt>--log-level</opt> command line
      option takes precedence. The <opt>-v</opt> command line option
      might alter this setting.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>log-meta=</opt> With each logged message log the code
      location the message was generated from. Defaults to
      <opt>no</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>log-time=</opt> With each logged message log the
      relative time since startup. Defaults to <opt>no</opt>.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>log-backtrace=</opt> When greater than 0, with each
      logged message log a code stack trace up the specified
      number of stack frames. Defaults to <opt>0</opt>.</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Resource Limits">

    <p>See <manref name="getrlimit" section="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.</p>

    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-as</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-rss</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-core</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-data</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-fsize</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-nofile</opt> Defaults to 256.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-stack</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-nproc</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-locks</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-sigpending</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-msgqueue</opt> Defaults to -1.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-memlock</opt> Defaults to 16 KiB. Please note
      that the JACK client libraries may require more locked
      memory.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-nice</opt> Defaults to 31. Please make sure that
      the default nice level as configured with <opt>nice-level</opt>
      fits in this resource limit, if <opt>high-priority</opt> is
      enabled.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-rtprio</opt> Defaults to 9. Please make sure that
      the default real-time priority level as configured with
      <opt>realtime-priority=</opt> fits in this resource limit, if
      <opt>realtime-scheduling</opt> is enabled. The JACK client
      libraries require a real-time priority of 9 by default.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>rlimit-rttime</opt> Defaults to 1000000.</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Default Device Settings">

    <p>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.</p>

    <option>
      <p><opt>default-sample-format=</opt> The default sampling
      format. See
      https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/PulseAudio/Documentation/User/SupportedAudioFormats/
      for possible values.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>default-sample-rate=</opt> The default sample frequency.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>default-sample-channels</opt> The default number of channels.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>default-channel-map</opt> The default channel map.</p>
    </option>

    <option>
      <p><opt>alternate-sample-rate</opt> The alternate sample
      frequency. Sinks and sources will use either the
      default-sample-rate value or this alternate value, typically 44.1
      or 48kHz. Switching between default and alternate values is
      enabled only when the sinks/sources are suspended. This option
      is ignored in passthrough mode where the stream rate will be used.
      If set to the same value as the default sample rate, this feature is
      disabled.</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Default Fragment Settings">

    <p>Some hardware drivers require the hardware playback buffer to
    be subdivided 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 find the nearest
    setting supported. Modern drivers that support timer-based
    scheduling ignore these options.</p>

    <option>
      <p><opt>default-fragments=</opt> The default number of
      fragments. Defaults to 4.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>default-fragment-size-msec=</opt>The duration of a
      single fragment. Defaults to 25ms (i.e. the total buffer is thus
      100ms long).</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Default Deferred Volume Settings">

    <p>With the flat volume feature enabled, the sink HW volume is set
    to the same level as the highest volume input stream. Any other streams
    (with lower volumes) have the appropriate adjustment applied in SW to
    bring them to the correct overall level. Sadly hardware mixer changes
    cannot be timed accurately and thus this change of volumes can sometimes
    cause the resulting output sound to be momentarily too loud or too soft.
    So to ensure SW and HW volumes are applied concurrently without any
    glitches, their application needs to be synchronized. The sink
    implementation needs to support deferred volumes. The following
    parameters can be used to refine the process.</p>

    <option>
      <p><opt>enable-deferred-volume=</opt> Enable deferred volume for the sinks that
      support it. This feature is enabled by default.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>deferred-volume-safety-margin-usec=</opt> The amount of time (in
      usec) by which the HW volume increases are delayed and HW volume
      decreases are advanced. Defaults to 8000 usec.</p>
    </option>
    <option>
      <p><opt>deferred-volume-extra-delay-usec=</opt> The amount of time (in usec)
      by which HW volume changes are delayed. Negative values are also allowed.
      Defaults to 0.</p>
    </option>

  </section>

  <section name="Authors">
    <p>The PulseAudio Developers &lt;@PACKAGE_BUGREPORT@&gt;; PulseAudio is available from <url href="@PACKAGE_URL@"/></p>
  </section>

  <section name="See also">
    <p>
      <manref name="pulse-client.conf" section="5"/>, <manref name="default.pa" section="5"/>, <manref name="pulseaudio" section="1"/>, <manref name="pacmd" section="1"/>
    </p>
  </section>

</manpage>