PipeWire's Pulseaudio emulation implements several Pulseaudio modules. It only supports its own built-in modules, and cannot load external modules written for Pulseaudio.
Loading modules
The built-in modules can be loaded using Pulseaudio client programs, for example pactl load-module <module-name> <module-options>
. They can also added to pipewire-pulse.conf
, typically by a drop-in file in ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/
containing the module name and its arguments
pulse.cmd = [
{ cmd = "load-module" args = "module-null-sink sink_name=foo" flags = [ ] }
]
To list all modules currently loaded, with their arguments:
For a short list of loaded modules:
Modules may be unloaded using either the module-name or index number:
pactl load-module <module-name> <parameters>
pactl unload-module <module-name|index#>
Common module options
Most modules that create streams/devices support the following properties:
sink_name, source_name
Name for the sink (resp. source). Allowed characters in the name are a-z, A-Z, numbers, period (.) and underscore (_). The length must be 1-128 characters.
format
The sample format. The supported audio formats are:
PCM
- u8: unsigned 8-bit integer
- aLaw: A-law encoded 8-bit integer
- uLaw: μ-law encoded 8-bit integer
- s16le: signed 16-bit little-endian integer
- s16be: signed 16-bit big-endian integer
- s16, s16ne: native-endian aliases for s16le or s16be
- s16re: reverse-endian alias for s16le or s16be
- float32le: 32-bit little-endian float
- float32be: 32-bit big-endian float
- float32, float32ne: native-endian aliases for float32le or float32be
- float32re: reverse-endian alias for float32le or float32be
- s32le: signed 32-bit little-endian integer
- s32be: signed 32-bit big-endian integer
- s32, s32ne: native-endian aliases for s32le or s32be
- s32re: reverse-endian alias for s32le or s32be
- s24le: signed 24-bit little-endian integer (note: ALSA calls this "S24_3LE")
- s24be: signed 24-bit big-endian integer (note: ALSA calls this "S24_3BE")
- s24, s24ne: native-endian aliases for s24le or s24be
- s24re: reverse-endian alias for s24le or s24be
- s24-32le: signed 24-bit little-endian integer, packed into a 32-bit integer so that the 8 most significant bits are ignored (note: ALSA calls this "S24_LE")
- s24-32be: signed 24-bit big-endian integer, packed into a 32-bit integer so that the 8 most significant bits are ignored (note: ALSA calls this "S24_BE")
- s24-32, s24-32ne: native-endian aliases for s24-32le or s24-32be
- s24-32re: reverse-endian alias for s24-32le or s24-32be
Compressed audio formats
Below is a list of all supported compressed formats. The code at the beginning of each line is used whenever a textual identifier for a format is needed (for example in configuration files or on the command line). The formats whose identifier ends with -iec61937 have to be wrapped in IEC 61937 frames, which makes the compressed audio behave more like normal PCM audio.
- ac3-iec61937: Dolby Digital (DD / AC-3 / A/52)
- eac3-iec61937: Dolby Digital Plus (DD+ / E-AC-3)
- mpeg-iec61937: MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Part 3 (not MPEG-2 AAC)
- dts-iec61937: DTS
- mpeg2-aac-iec61937: MPEG-2 AAC (supported since PulseAudio 4.0)
- truehd-iec61937: Dolby TrueHD (added in PulseAudio 13.0, but doesn't work yet in practice)
- dtshd-iec61937: DTS-HD Master Audio (added in PulseAudio 13.0, but doesn't work yet in practice)
- pcm: PCM (not a compressed format, but listed here, because pcm is one of the recognized encoding identifiers)
- any: (special identifier for indicating that any encoding can be used)
rate
The sample rate.
channels
Number of audio channels.
channel_map
A channel map. A list of comma-separated channel names. The currently defined channel names are: left
, right
, mono
, center
, front-left
, front-right
, front-center
, rear-center
, rear-left
, rear-right
, lfe
, subwoofer
, front-left-of-center
, front-right-of-center
, side-left
, side-right
, aux0
, aux1
to aux15
, top-center
, top-front-left
, top-front-right
, top-front-center
, top-rear-left
, top-rear-right
, top-rear-center
sink_properties, source_properties
Set additional properties of the sink/source. For example, you can set the description directly when the module is loaded by setting this parameter.
load-module module-alsa-sink sink_name=headphones sink_properties=device.description=Headphones
List of built-in modules: