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APLAY(1)		    General Commands Manual		      APLAY(1)

NAME
       arecord,	aplay -	command-line sound recorder and	player for ALSA	sound-
       card driver

SYNOPSIS
       arecord [flags] [filename]
       aplay [flags] [filename [filename]] ...

DESCRIPTION
       arecord	is  a  command-line  soundfile recorder	for the	ALSA soundcard
       driver. It supports several file	formats	and multiple  soundcards  with
       multiple	 devices.  If recording	with interleaved mode samples the file
       is automatically	split before the 2GB filesize.

       aplay is	much the same, only it plays instead of	 recording.  For  sup-
       ported  soundfile  formats,  the	sampling rate, bit depth, and so forth
       can be automatically determined from the	soundfile header.

       If filename is not specified, the standard output or input is used. The
       aplay utility accepts multiple filenames.

OPTIONS
       -h, --help
	      Help: show syntax.

       --version
	      Print current version.

       -l, --list-devices
	      List all soundcards and digital audio devices

       -L, --list-pcms
	      List all PCMs defined

       -D, --device=NAME
	      Select PCM by name

       -q --quiet
	      Quiet mode. Suppress messages (not sound :))

       -t, --file-type TYPE
	      File type	(voc, wav, raw or au).	If this	parameter  is  omitted
	      the WAVE format is used.

       -c, --channels=#
	      The number of channels.  The default is one channel.  Valid val-
	      ues are 1	through	32.

       -f --format=FORMAT
	      Sample format
	      Recognized sample	formats	are: S8	U8 S16_LE S16_BE U16_LE	U16_BE
	      S24_LE S24_BE U24_LE U24_BE S32_LE S32_BE	U32_LE U32_BE FLOAT_LE
	      FLOAT_BE	FLOAT64_LE  FLOAT64_BE	IEC958_SUBFRAME_LE IEC958_SUB-
	      FRAME_BE MU_LAW A_LAW IMA_ADPCM MPEG GSM SPECIAL S24_3LE S24_3BE
	      U24_3LE U24_3BE S20_3LE S20_3BE U20_3LE U20_3BE S18_3LE  S18_3BE
	      U18_3LE
	      Some of these may	not be available on selected hardware
	      The available format shortcuts are:
	      -f cd (16	bit little endian, 44100, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r44100]
	      -f cdr (16 bit big endian, 44100,	stereo)	[-f S16_BE -c2 -r44100]
	      -f dat (16 bit little endian, 48000, stereo) [-f S16_LE -c2 -r48000]
	      If no format is given U8 is used.

       -r, --rate=#<Hz>
	      Sampling	rate in	Hertz. The default rate	is 8000	Hertz.	If the
	      value specified is less than 300,	it is taken  as	 the  rate  in
	      kilohertz.  Valid	values are 2000	through	192000 Hertz.

       -d, --duration=#
	      Interrupt	after #	seconds.  A value of zero means	infinity.  The
	      default  is  zero,  so  if  this	option	is  omitted  then  the
	      record/playback process will run until  it  is  killed.	Either
	      '-d' or '-s' option is available exclusively.

       -s, --samples=#
	      Interrupt	 after	transmission of	# PCM frames.  A value of zero
	      means infinity.  The default is zero,  so	 if  this  options  is
	      omitted  then  the  record/playback process will run until it is
	      killed.  Either '-d' or '-s' option is available exclusively.

       -M, --mmap
	      Use memory-mapped	(mmap) I/O mode	for the	audio stream.  If this
	      option is	not set, the read/write	I/O mode will be used.

       -N, --nonblock
	      Open the audio device in non-blocking mode.  If  the  device  is
	      busy  the	 program will exit immediately.	 If this option	is not
	      set the program will block until the audio device	 is  available
	      again.

       -F, --period-time=#
	      Distance	between	 interrupts  is	 # microseconds.  If no	period
	      time and no period size is given then a quarter  of  the	buffer
	      time is set.

       -B, --buffer-time=#
	      Buffer  duration	is  #  microseconds  If	 no buffer time	and no
	      buffer size is given then	the maximal allowed  buffer  time  but
	      not more than 500ms is set.

       --period-size=#
	      Distance between interrupts is # frames If no period size	and no
	      period time is given then	a quarter of the buffer	size is	set.

       --buffer-size=#
	      Buffer duration is # frames If no	buffer time and	no buffer size
	      is  given	then the maximal allowed buffer	time but not more than
	      500ms is set.

       -A, --avail-min=#
	      Min available space for wakeup is	# microseconds

       -R, --start-delay=#
	      Delay for	automatic PCM start is	#  microseconds	 (relative  to
	      buffer size if <=	0)

       -T, --stop-delay=#
	      Delay for	automatic PCM stop is #	microseconds from xrun

       -v, --verbose
	      Show PCM structure and setup.  This option is accumulative.  The
	      VU meter is displayed when this is given twice or	three times.

       -V, --vumeter=TYPE
	      Specifies	 the VU-meter type, either stereo or mono.  The	stereo
	      VU-meter is available only for 2-channel stereo samples with in-
	      terleaved	format.

       -I, --separate-channels
	      One file for each	channel.  This option  disables	 max-file-time
	      and  use-strftime,  and ignores SIGUSR1.	The stereo VU meter is
	      not available with separate channels.

       -P     Playback.	 This is the default if	the program is invoked by typ-
	      ing aplay.

       -C     Record.  This is the default if the program is invoked by	typing
	      arecord.

       -i, --interactive
	      Allow interactive	operation via stdin.  Currently	only pause/re-
	      sume via space or	enter key is implemented.

       -m, --chmap=ch1,ch2,...
	      Give the channel map to override or follow.  Pass	channel	 posi-
	      tion strings like	FL, FR,	etc.

	      If  a  device  supports  the  override of	the channel map, aplay
	      tries to pass the	given channel map.  If it doesn't support  the
	      channel  map  override but still it provides the channel map in-
	      formation, aplay tries to	rearrange the  channel	order  in  the
	      buffer to	match with the returned	channel	map from the device.

       --disable-resample
	      Disable automatic	rate resample.

       --disable-channels
	      Disable automatic	channel	conversions.

       --disable-format
	      Disable automatic	format conversions.

       --disable-softvol
	      Disable software volume control (softvol).

       --test-position
	      Test ring	buffer position.

       --test-coef=<coef>
	      Test  coefficient	 for  ring buffer position; default is 8.  Ex-
	      pression for validation is: coef * (buffer_size /	 2).   Minimum
	      value is 1.

       --test-nowait
	      Do not wait for the ring buffer -	eats the whole CPU.

       --max-file-time
	      While  recording,	 when  the  output  file has been accumulating
	      sound for	this long, close it and	open a new output  file.   De-
	      fault  is	 the  maximum size supported by	the file format: 2 GiB
	      for WAV files.  This option has no effect	 if   --separate-chan-
	      nels is specified.

       --process-id-file <file name>
	      aplay  writes  its  process  ID here, so other programs can send
	      signals to it.

       --use-strftime
	      When recording, interpret	%-codes	in the file name parameter us-
	      ing the strftime facility	whenever the output  file  is  opened.
	      The  important  strftime codes are: %Y is	the year, %m month, %d
	      day of the month,	%H hour, %M minute and %S  second.   In	 addi-
	      tion, %v is the file number, starting at 1.  When	this option is
	      specified, intermediate directories for the output file are cre-
	      ated  automatically.   This  option  has	no  effect  if --sepa-
	      rate-channels is specified.

       --dump-hw-params
	      Dump hw_params of	the device preconfigured status	to stderr. The
	      dump lists capabilities of the selected device such as supported
	      formats, sampling	rates, numbers of channels, period and	buffer
	      bytes/sizes/times.   For	raw  device hw:X this option basically
	      lists hardware capabilities of the soundcard.

       --fatal-errors
	      Disables recovery	attempts when errors (e.g. xrun)  are  encoun-
	      tered; the aplay process instead aborts immediately.

SIGNALS
       When  recording,	SIGINT,	SIGTERM	and SIGABRT will close the output file
       and exit.  SIGUSR1 will close the output	file, open a new one, and con-
       tinue recording.	 However, SIGUSR1 does not work	with  --separate-chan-
       nels.

EXAMPLES
       aplay -c	1 -t raw -r 22050 -f mu_law foobar
	      will  play  the  raw  file  "foobar" as a	22050-Hz, mono,	8-bit,
	      Mu-Law .au file.

       arecord -d 10 -f	cd -t wav -D copy foobar.wav
	      will record foobar.wav as	a 10-second, CD-quality	wave file, us-
	      ing the PCM  "copy"  (which  might  be  defined  in  the	user's
	      .asoundrc	file as:
	      pcm.copy {
		type plug
		slave {
		  pcm hw
		}
		route_policy copy
	      }

       arecord -t wav --max-file-time 30 mon.wav
	      Record  from the default audio source in monaural, 8,000 samples
	      per second, 8 bits per sample.  Start a new file every  30  sec-
	      onds.   File  names  are mon-nn.wav, where nn increases from 01.
	      The file after mon-99.wav	is mon-100.wav.

       arecord -f cd -t	wav --max-file-time 3600 --use-strftime	%Y/%m/%d/lis-
       ten-%H-%M-%v.wav
	      Record in	stereo from the	default	audio source.	Create	a  new
	      file  every  hour.  The files are	placed in directories based on
	      their start dates	and have names which include their start times
	      and file numbers.

SEE ALSO
	alsamixer(1), amixer(1)

BUGS
       Note that .aiff files are not currently supported.

AUTHOR
       arecord and aplay are by	Jaroslav Kysela	<perex@perex.cz> This document
       is by Paul Winkler <zarmzarm@erols.com>.	 Updated for Alsa 0.9 by James
       Tappin <james@xena.uklinux.net>

				1 January 2010			      APLAY(1)

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