The PulseAudio sound server reads configuration directives from
a file ~/.pulse/daemon.conf on startup, and when that
file doesn't exist from
@pulseconfdir@/daemon.conf . Please note that the
server also reads a configuration 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 # for 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 .
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.
disallow-module-loading= Disallow module loading
after startup. This is a security feature that makes sure that
no further modules may be loaded into the PulseAudio server
after startup completed. It is recommended to enable 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
no . The --disallow-module-loading command line
option takes precedence.
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
different 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.
disable-remixing= Never upmix or downmix channels
to different channel maps. Instead, do a simple name-based
matching only.
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 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 yes . The --no-cpu-limit command line
option takes precedence.
no-cpu-limit= 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 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 command line
argument takes precedence.
disable-shm= Disable data transfer via POSIX
shared memory. Takes a boolean argument, defaults to
no . The --disable-shm command line
argument takes precedence.
high-priority= 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
--high-priority
command line option takes precedence.
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 --realtime command line option takes precedence.
realtime-priority= The realtime priority to
acquire, if realtime-scheduling 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.
See
rlimit-as 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-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.
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 , float32le , float32be ,
ulaw , alaw . Depending on the endianess of
the CPU the formats s16ne , s16re ,
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.