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ALSACTL(1)		    General Commands Manual		    ALSACTL(1)

NAME
       alsactl - advanced controls for ALSA soundcard driver

SYNOPSIS
       alsactl [options] [store|restore|init] <card # or id or device>

       alsactl monitor <card # or id>

       alsactl info <card # or id>

       alsactl [clean] <card # or id or	device>	[[control identifiers]]

DESCRIPTION
       alsactl	is  used  to  control advanced settings	for the	ALSA soundcard
       drivers.	It supports multiple soundcards. If  your  card	 has  features
       that  you can't seem to control from a mixer application, you have come
       to the right place.

COMMANDS
   Introduction
       The <card> argument is optional.	If no soundcards are specified,	 setup
       for all cards will be saved, loaded or monitored.

   store <card>
       This  command saves the current driver state for	the selected soundcard
       to the configuration file.

   restore <card>
       This command loads driver state for the	selected  soundcard  from  the
       configuration  file.  If	 restoring fails (eventually partly), the init
       action is called.

   nrestore <card>
       This command is like restore, but it notifies also the daemon to	do new
       rescan for available soundcards.

   init	<card>
       This command tries to initialize	all devices to a default state.	If de-
       vice is not known, error	code 99	is returned.

   daemon
       This command manages to save periodically the sound state.

   rdaemon
       This command is like daemon but restore the sound state at first.

   kill	<cmd>
       This command notifies the daemon	to do the specified  operation	(quit,
       rescan, save_and_quit).

   monitor <card>
       This  command is	for monitoring the events received from	the given con-
       trol device.

   info	<card>
       This command shows the general information in the YAML format collected
       from the	given control device (sound card).

   clean <card>	[filter]
       This command cleans the controls	created	by applications.

       The optional element identifiers	are accepted as	a  filter.  One	 extra
       argument	is parsed as an	element	identifiers.

       Example:	alsactl	clean 0	"name='PCM'" "name='Mic	Phantom'"

   dump-state
       This command dumps the current state (all cards)	to stdout.

   dump-cfg
       This  command  dumps  the  current configuration	(all cards) to stdout.
       Note that the configuration hooks are evaluated.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
	      Help: show available flags and commands.

       -d, --debug
	      Use debug	mode: a	bit more verbose.

       -v, --version
	      Print alsactl version number.

       -f, --file
	      Select  the  configuration  file	to   use.   The	  default   is
	      /var/lib/alsa/asound.state.

       -a, --config-dir
	      Select  the  boot	/ hotplug ALSA configuration directory to use.
	      The default is /var/lib/alsa.

       -l, --lock
	      Use the file locking to serialize	the concurrent access  to  the
	      state file (this option is default for the global	state file).

       -L, --no-lock
	      Do  not  use the file locking to serialize the concurrent	access
	      to the state file	(including the global state file).

       -O, --lock-state-file
	      Select the state lock file path.

       -F, --force
	      Used with	restore	command.  Try to restore the matching  control
	      elements	as  much  as  possible.	 This option is	set as default
	      now.

       -g, --ignore
	      Used with	store, restore and init	 commands.  Do	not  show  'No
	      soundcards  found' and do	not set	an error exit code when	sound-
	      cards are	not installed.

       -P, --pedantic
	      Used with	restore	command.  Don't	 restore  mismatching  control
	      elements.	 This option was the old default behavior.

       -I, --no-init-fallback
	      Don't  initialize	cards if restore fails.	 Since version 1.0.18,
	      alsactl tries to initialize the card with	the restore  operation
	      as  default.   But this can cause	incompatibility	with the older
	      version.	The caller may expect that the state won't be  touched
	      if no state file exists.	This option takes the restore behavior
	      back to the older	version	by suppressing the initialization.

       -r, --runstate
	      Save  restore and	init state to this file. The file will contain
	      only errors.  Errors are appended	with the soundcard id  to  the
	      end of file.

       -R, --remove
	      Remove runstate file at first.

       -E, --env #=#
	      Set  environment	variable  (useful  for	init action or you may
	      override ALSA_CONFIG_PATH	to read	different or optimized config-
	      uration -	may be useful for "boot" scripts).

       -i, --initfile
	      The   configuration   file   for	 init.	 By   default,	  PRE-
	      FIX/share/alsa/init/00main is used.

       -p, --period
	      The store	period in seconds for the daemon command.

       -e, --pid-file
	      The pathname to store the	process-id file	in the HDB UUCP	format
	      (ASCII).

       -b, --background
	      Run the task in background.

       -s, --syslog
	      Use syslog for messages.

       -n, --nice
	      Set the process priority (see 'man nice')

       -c, --sched-idle
	      Set the process scheduling policy	to idle	(SCHED_IDLE).

       -D, --ucm-defaults
	      Execute  also the	'defaults' section from	the UCM	configuration.
	      The standard behaviour is	to execute only	'once' section.

       -U, --no-ucm
	      Skip the UCM init	even if	available. It may be  useful  for  the
	      test the legacy init configuration.

FILES
       /var/lib/alsa/asound.state  (or	whatever  file you specify with	the -f
       flag) is	used to	store current settings for your	soundcards.  The  set-
       tings  include  all  the	 usual	soundcard mixer	settings.  More	impor-
       tantly, alsactl is capable of controlling other card-specific  features
       that mixer apps usually don't know about.

       The  configuration  file	 is generated automatically by running alsactl
       store. Editing the configuration	file by	hand may be necessary for some
       soundcard features (e.g.	enabling/disabling automatic mic gain, digital
       output, joystick/game ports, some future	MIDI routing options, etc).

SEE ALSO
	amixer(1), alsamixer(1), aplay(1), alsactl_init(7)

BUGS
       None known.

AUTHOR
       alsactl is by  Jaroslav	Kysela	<perex@perex.cz>  and  Abramo  Bagnara
       <abramo@alsa-project.org>.   This   document   is   by	Paul   Winkler
       <zarmzarm@erols.com>.

				  07 May 2014			    ALSACTL(1)

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