Daemon

Command Line Arguments

The PulseAudio daemon accepts several command line arguments:

COMMANDS:
  -h, --help                            Show this help
      --version                         Show version
      --dump-conf                       Dump default configuration
      --dump-modules                    Dump list of available modules
  -k  --kill                            Kill a running daemon
      --check                           Check for a running daemon

OPTIONS:
      --system[=BOOL]                   Run as system-wide instance
  -D, --daemonize[=BOOL]                Daemonize after startup
      --fail[=BOOL]                     Quit when startup fails
      --verbose[=BOOL]                  Be slightly more verbose
      --high-priority[=BOOL]            Try to set high process priority
                                        (only available as root)
      --disallow-module-loading[=BOOL]  Disallow module loading after startup
      --exit-idle-time=SECS             Terminate the daemon when idle and this
                                        time passed
      --module-idle-time=SECS           Unload autoloaded modules when idle and
                                        this time passed
      --scache-idle-time=SECS           Unload autoloaded samples when idle and
                                        this time passed
      --log-level[=LEVEL]               Increase or set verbosity level
  -v                                    Increase the verbosity level
      --log-target={auto,syslog,stderr} Specify the log target
  -p, --dl-search-path=PATH             Set the search path for dynamic shared
                                        objects (plugins)
      --resample-method=[METHOD]        Use the specified resampling method
                                        (one of src-sinc-medium-quality,
                                        src-sinc-best-quality,src-sinc-fastest
                                        src-zero-order-hold,src-linear,trivial)
      --use-pid-file[=BOOL]             Create a PID file

STARTUP SCRIPT:
  -L, --load="MODULE ARGUMENTS"         Load the specified plugin module with
                                        the specified argument
  -F, --file=FILENAME                   Run the specified script
  -C                                    Open a command line on the running TTY
                                        after startup

  -n                                    Don't load default script file

Example

It is a good idea to run the daemon like this:

pulseaudio -D

This will run /etc/pulse/default.pa after startup. This should be a script written in the CLI language.

Signals

The following signals are trapped specially:

SIGINT

The daemon is shut down cleanly.

SIGUSR1

The daemon tries to load the module module-cli, effectively providing a command line interface on the calling TTY.

SIGUSR2

The daemon tries to load the module module-cli-protocol-unix, effectively providing a command line interface on a special UNIX domain socket.

SIGHUP

The daemon logs the current server layout.