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JACKD(1) JACKD(1) NAME jackd - JACK Audio Connection Kit sound server SYNOPSIS jackd [options] -d backend [backend-parameters] jackd --help DESCRIPTION jackd is the JACK audio server daemon that allows JACK client programs to process and route audio and MIDI data in a synchronous, sample-accurate and low-latency manner. Originally written for the GNU/Linux operating system, it also runs on various Unix platforms, Mac OS X and MS Windows. JACK can connect a number of different client applications to an audio device and also to each other. Most clients are external, running in their own processes as normal applications. JACK also supports internal clients, which run within the jackd process using a loadable "plugin" interface. JACK differs from other audio servers in being designed from the ground up for professional audio work. It focuses on two key areas: synchronous exe- cution of all clients and low latency operation. The name JACK makes a reference to the classical way of patching audio con- nections with physical audio jack cables. JACK is also a recursive acronym, that is an abbreviation which is part of itself. JACK Audio Con- nection Kit. For the latest JACK information please consult the web site: <http://www.jackaudio.org/>. OPTIONS -d, --driver backend [backend-parameters ] Select the audio interface backend. The current list of supported backends is: alsa, coreaudio, dummy, firewire, oss sun and portau- dio. They are not all available on all platforms. All backend-para- meters are optional. -h, --help Print a brief usage message describing the main jackd options. These do not include backend-parameters, which are listed using the --help option for each specific backend. Examples below show how to list them. -a, --autoconnect modechar Select how to handle self connect requests. They can be ignore or fail, on all port or just external ones. Use the --help option to know your system specific options. The default is to not restrict self connect requests. -m, --no-mlock Do not attempt to lock memory, even if --realtime. -n, --name server-name Name this jackd instance server-name. If unspecified, this name comes from the $JACK_DEFAULT_SERVER environment variable. (default: "default") -p, --port-max n Set the maximum number of ports the JACK server can manage. (de- fault: 256) --replace-registry Remove the shared memory registry used by all JACK server instances before startup. This should rarely be used, and is intended only for occasions when the structure of this registry changes in ways that are incompatible across JACK versions (which is rare). -R, --realtime Use realtime scheduling. This is needed for reliable low-latency performance. On many systems, it requires jackd to run with special scheduler and memory allocation privileges, which may be obtained in several ways. (default: true) -r, --no-realtime Do not use realtime scheduling. -P, --realtime-priority int When running --realtime, set the scheduler priority to int. --silent Silence any output during operation. -T, --temporary Exit once all clients have closed their connections. -t, --timeout int Set client timeout limit in milliseconds. In realtime mode the client timeout must be smaller than the watchdog timeout (5000 msec). (default: 500) -Z, --nozombies Prevent JACK from ever kicking out clients because they were too slow. This cancels the effect any specified timeout value, but JACK and its clients are still subject to the supervision of the watchdog thread or its equivalent. -C, --internal-session-file internal-session-file Load internal clients and connections from internal-session-file. Each line of this configuration file starts with a command. The following commands are available: l(oad) client-name lib-name client-args With this command an internal JACK client will be instantiated. client-name and lib-name cannot contain spaces. The rest of the line will be interpreted as client-args and sent to the client li- brary. c(on) source-port destination-port With this command a source port will be connected to a destination port. source-port and destination-port cannot contain spaces. Comments are allowed, they start with #. An example configuration could look like the following: l inprocess1 inprocess l amp1 jalv http://lv2plug.in/plugins/eg-amp c amp:out system:playback_1 -u, --unlock Unlock libraries GTK+, QT, FLTK, Wine. -v, --verbose Give verbose output. -c, --clocksource ( h(pet) | s(ystem) ) Select a specific wall clock (HPET timer, System timer). -V, --version Print the current JACK version number and exit. ALSA BACKEND OPTIONS -C, --capture [ name ] Provide only capture ports, unless combined with -D or -P. Option- ally set capture device name. -d, --device name The ALSA pcm device name to use. If none is specified, JACK will use "hw:0", the first hardware card defined in /etc/modules.conf. -z, --dither [rectangular,triangular,shaped,none] Set dithering mode. If none or unspecified, dithering is off. Only the first letter of the mode name is required. -D, --duplex Provide both capture and playback ports. Defaults to on unless only one of -P or -C is specified. (default: true) -h, --help Print a brief usage message describing only the alsa backend parameters. -M, --hwmeter Enable hardware metering for devices that support it. Otherwise, use software metering. -H, --hwmon Enable hardware monitoring of capture ports. This is a method for obtaining "zero latency" monitoring of audio input. It requires sup- port in hardware and from the underlying ALSA device driver. When enabled, requests to monitor capture ports will be satisfied by creating a direct signal path between audio interface input and out- put connectors, with no processing by the host computer at all. This offers the lowest possible latency for the monitored signal. Presently (March 2003), only the RME Hammerfall series and cards based on the ICE1712 chipset (M-Audio Delta series, Terratec, and others) support --hwmon. In the future, some consumer cards may also be supported by modifying their mixer settings. Without --hwmon, port monitoring requires JACK to read audio into system memory, then copy it back out to the hardware again, imposing the basic JACK system latency determined by the --period and --npe- riods parameters. -i, --inchannels int Number of capture channels. (default: maximum supported by hard- ware) -I, --input-latency Extra input latency (frames). (default: 0) -n, --nperiods int Number of periods of playback latency. In seconds, this corresponds to --nperiods times --period divided by --rate. The default is 2, the minimum allowed. For most devices, there is no need for any other value with the --realtime option. Without realtime privileges or with boards providing unreliable interrupts (like ymfpci), a larger value may yield fewer xruns. This can also help if the system is not tuned for reliable realtime scheduling. For most ALSA devices, the hardware buffer has exactly --period times --nperiods frames. Some devices demand a larger buffer. If so, JACK will use the smallest possible buffer containing at least --nperiods, but the playback latency does not increase. For USB audio devices it is recommended to use -n 3. Firewire de- vices supported by FFADO (formerly FreeBoB) are configured with -n 3 by default. -o, --outchannels int Number of playback channels. (default: maximum supported by hard- ware) -O, --output-latency Extra output latency (frames). (default: 0) -P, --playback [ name ] Provide only playback ports, unless combined with -D or -C. Option- ally set playback device name. -p, --period int Number of frames between JACK process() calls. This value must be a power of 2. If you need low latency, set -p as low as you can go without seeing xruns. A larger period size yields higher latency, but makes xruns less likely. The JACK capture latency in seconds is --period divided by --rate. (default: 1024) -r, --rate int Sample rate. (default: 48000) -S, --shorts Try to configure card for 16-bit samples first, only trying 32-bits if unsuccessful. (default: 32-bit samples) -s, --softmode Ignore xruns reported by the ALSA driver. This makes JACK less likely to disconnect unresponsive ports when running without --real- time. -X, --midi [seq|raw] Which ALSA MIDI system to provide access to. Using raw will provide a set of JACK MIDI ports that correspond to each raw ALSA device on the machine. Using seq will provide a set of JACK MIDI ports that correspond to each ALSA "sequencer" client (which includes each hardware MIDI port on the machine). raw provides slightly better performance but does not permit JACK MIDI communication with soft- ware written to use the ALSA "sequencer" API. COREAUDIO BACKEND PARAMETERS -c, --channels Maximum number of channels. (default: 2) -i, --inchannels Maximum number of input channels. (default: 2) -o, --outchannels Maximum number of output channels. (default: 2) -C, --capture Whether or not to capture. (default: true) -P, --playback Whether or not to playback. (default: true) -D, --monitor Provide monitor ports for the output. (default: false) -D, --duplex Capture and playback. (default: true) -r, --rate Sample rate. (default: 44100) -p, --period Frames per period, must be a power of 2. (default: 128) -d, --device CoreAudio device name. (default: none) -I, --input-latency Extra input latency (frames). (default: 0) -O, --output-latency Extra output latency (frames). (default: 0) -l, --list-devices Display available CoreAudio devices. (default: false) -H, --hog Take exclusive access of the audio device. (default: false) -L, --async-latency Extra output latency in asynchronous mode (percent). (default: 100) -G, --grain Computation grain in RT thread (percent). (default: 100) -s, --clock-drift Whether or not to compensate clock drift in dynamically created ag- gregate device. (default: false) DUMMY BACKEND PARAMETERS -C, --capture int Number of capture ports. (default: 2) -P, --playback int Number of playback ports. (default: 2) -r, --rate int Sample rate. (default: 48000) -p, --period int Number of frames between JACK process() calls. This value must be a power of 2. If you need low latency, set -p as low as you can go without seeing xruns. A larger period size yields higher latency, but makes xruns less likely. The JACK capture latency in seconds is --period divided by --rate. (default: 1024) -w, --wait int Number of usecs to wait between engine processes. (default: 21333) NETONE BACKEND PARAMETERS -i, --audio-ins int Number of capture channels. (default: 2) -o, --audio-outs int Number of playback channels. (default: 2) -I, --midi-ins int Number of midi capture channels. (default: 1) -O, --midi-outs int Number of midi playback channels. (default: 1) -r, --rate int Sample rate. (default: 48000) -p, --period int Frames per period. (default: 1024) -n, --num-periods int Network latency setting in no. of periods. (default: 5) -l, --listen-port int The socket port we are listening on for sync packets. (default: 3000) -f, --factor int Factor for sample rate reduction. (default: 1) -u, --upstream-factor int Factor for sample rate reduction on the upstream. (default: 0) -c, --celt int Sets celt encoding and number of kbits per channel. (default: 0) -b, --bit-depth int Sample bit-depth (0 for float, 8 for 8bit and 16 for 16bit). (de- fault: 0) -t, --transport-sync int Whether or not to slave the transport to the master transport. (de- fault: true) -a, --autoconf int Whether or not to use Autoconfig, or just start. (default: true) -R, --redundancy int Send packets N times. (default: 1) -e, --native-endian int Don't convert samples to network byte order. (default: false) -J, --jitterval int Attempted jitterbuffer microseconds on master. (default: 0) -D, --always-deadline int Always use deadline. (default: false) OSS BACKEND PARAMETERS -r, --rate int Sample rate. (default: 48000) -p, --period int Number of frames between JACK process() calls. This value must be a power of 2. If you need low latency, set -p as low as you can go without seeing xruns. A larger period size yields higher latency, but makes xruns less likely. The JACK capture latency in seconds is --period divided by --rate. (default: 1024) -n, --nperiods int Number of periods in the hardware buffer. The period size (-p) times --nperiods times four is the JACK buffer size in bytes. The JACK output latency in seconds is --nperiods times --period divided by --rate. (default: 2) -w, --wordlength int Sample size in bits. (default: 16) -i, --inchannels int Number of capture channels. (default: 2) -o, --outchannels int Number of playback channels. (default: 2) -C, --capture device_file Input device for capture. (default: /dev/dsp) -P, --playback device_file Output device for playback. (default: /dev/dsp) -b, --ignorehwbuf boolean Whether or not to ignore hardware period size. (default: false) -e, --excl boolean Request exclusive and direct access to the sound device. This avoids mixing and automatic audio conversion in the OSS driver, and the extra latency that comes with that. (default: false) -I, --input-latency Extra input latency (frames). (default: 0) -O, --output-latency Extra output latency (frames). (default: 0) SUN BACKEND PARAMETERS -r, --rate int Sample rate. (default: 48000) -p, --period int Number of frames between JACK process() calls. This value must be a power of 2. If you need low latency, set -p as low as you can go without seeing xruns. A larger period size yields higher latency, but makes xruns less likely. The JACK capture latency in seconds is --period divided by --rate. (default: 1024) -n, --nperiods int Number of periods in the hardware buffer. The period size (-p) times --nperiods times four (assuming 2 channels 16-bit samples) is the JACK buffer size in bytes. The JACK output latency in seconds is --nperiods times --period divided by --rate. (default: 2) -w, --wordlength int Sample size in bits. (default: 16) -i, --inchannels int Number of capture channels. (default: 2) -o, --outchannels int Number of playback channels. (default: 2) -C, --capture device_file Input device for capture. (default: /dev/audio) -P, --playback device_file Output device for playback. (default: /dev/audio) -b, --ignorehwbuf boolean Whether or not to ignore hardware period size. (default: false) PORTAUDIO BACKEND PARAMETERS -c, --channel Maximum number of channels. (default: all available hardware chan- nels) -i, --channelin Maximum number of input channels. (default: all available hardware channels) -I, --input-latency Extra input latency (frames). (default: 0) -o, --channelout Maximum number of output channels. (default: all available hardware channels) -O, --output-latency Extra output latency (frames). (default: 0) -C, --capture Whether or not to capture. (default: true) -P, --playback Whether or not to playback. (default: true) -D, --duplex Capture and playback. (default: true) -r, --rate Sample rate. (default: 48000) -p, --period Frames per period, must be a power of 2. (default: 1024) -n, --name Driver name. (default: none) -z, --dither Dithering mode. (default: none) FIREWIRE BACKEND PARAMETERS -d, --device name The Firewire device name to use. If none is specified, JACK will try to use "hw:0". To get a list of available Firewire devices, see ffado-test. It's recommended to use the GUID of a Firewire device to rule out any ambiguities. Once the GUID of the device is known ("ffado-test ListDevices"), it can be used like -dguid:0xff2584e39b078a2e to tell JACK which interface to use. Sometimes resetting the Firewire bus can help ("ffado-test BusRe- set") if there is any problem. (default: hw:0) -p, --period int Number of frames between JACK process() calls. This value must be a power of 2. If you need low latency, set -p as low as you can go without seeing xruns. A larger period size yields higher latency, but makes xruns less likely. The JACK capture latency in seconds is --period divided by --rate. (default: 1024) -n, --nperiods int Number of periods of playback latency. Value must be greater or equal 2. In seconds, this corresponds to --nperiods times --period divided by --rate. (default: 3) -r, --rate int Sample rate. (default: 48000) -C, --capture [ name ] Provide only capture ports, unless combined with -D or -P. Option- ally set capture device name. -P, --playback [ name ] Provide only playback ports, unless combined with -D or -C. Option- ally set playback device name. -D, --duplex Provide both capture and playback ports. This option is the default behaviour and can normally be omitted. -D can not be combined with -P or -C. -I, --input-latency Extra input latency (frames). (default: 0) -O, --output-latency Extra output latency (frames). (default: 0) -v, --verbose libffado verbose level. (default: 3) -X, --snoop Snoop Firewire traffic. (default: false) -h, --help Print a brief usage message describing only the firewire backend parameters. EXAMPLES Print usage message for the parameters specific to each backend. jackd -d alsa --help jackd -d coreaudio --help jackd -d net --help jackd -d dummy --help jackd -d firewire --help jackd -d oss --help jackd -d sun --help jackd -d portaudio --help Run the JACK daemon with realtime priority using the first ALSA hardware card defined in /etc/modules.conf. jackstart --realtime --driver=alsa Run the JACK daemon with low latency giving verbose output, which can be helpful for trouble-shooting system latency problems. A reasonably well-tuned system with a good sound card and a low-latency kernel can han- dle these values reliably. Some can do better. If you get xrun messages, try a larger buffer. Tuning a system for low latency can be challenging. Please consult the JACK FAQ for more suggestions. jackstart -Rv -d alsa -p 128 -n 2 -r 44100 Run jackd with realtime priority using the "sblive" ALSA device defined in ~/.asoundrc. Apply shaped dithering to playback audio. jackd -R -d alsa -d sblive --dither=shaped Run jackd with no special privileges using the second ALSA hardware card defined in /etc/modules.conf. Any xruns reported by the ALSA backend will be ignored. The larger buffer helps reduce data loss. Rectangular dithering will be used for playback. jackd -d alsa -d hw:1 -p2048 -n3 --softmode -zr Run jackd in full-duplex mode using the ALSA hw:0,0 device for playback and the hw:0,2 device for capture. jackd -d alsa -P hw:0,0 -C hw:0,2 Run jackd in playback-only mode using the ALSA hw:0,0 device. jackd -d alsa -P hw:0,0 ENVIRONMENT JACK is evolving a mechanism for automatically starting the server when needed. Any client started without a running JACK server will attempt to start one itself using the command line found in the first line of $HOME/.jackdrc if it exists, or /etc/jackdrc if it does not. If neither file exists, a built-in default command will be used, including the -T flag, which causes the server to shut down when all clients have exited. As a transition, this only happens when $JACK_START_SERVER is defined in the environment of the calling process. In the future this will become nor- mal behavior. In either case, defining $JACK_NO_START_SERVER disables this feature. To change where JACK looks for the backend drivers, set $JACK_DRIVER_DIR. $JACK_DEFAULT_SERVER specifies the default server name. If not defined, the string "default" is used. If set in their respective environments, this af- fects jackd unless its --name parameter is set, and all JACK clients unless they pass an explicit name to jack_client_open(). Defining $JACK_NO_AUDIO_RESERVATION will bypass audio device reservation via session bus (DBus). This can be useful if JACK was compiled with DBus support but should run on a headless system. $JACK_PROMISCUOUS_SERVER enables an alternate way of handling the various shared resources (Unix sockets, semaphores, ...). In this mode, the gener- ated names will not contain the user id anymore, and the permissions of those resources will be relaxed, allowing clients from different users to talk with the same server. Moreover, on platforms that support it (all POSIX variants), if set to a valid Unix group name or id, the permissions will be restricted to that group, so only members of that group will be able to launch clients that talk to this server. Important note: it must be set with the same value for both server and clients to work as expected. SEE ALSO: <http://www.jackaudio.org/> The official JACK website with news, docs and a list of JACK clients. <http://www.github.com/jackaudio/> The official JACK github code repository. Pull requests are welcome. <http://lists.jackaudio.org/listinfo.cgi/jack-devel-jackaudio.org> The JACK developers' mailing list. Subscribe to take part in development of JACK or JACK clients. User questions are also welcome, there is no user- specific mailing list. <http://www.jackosx.com/> Tools specific to the Mac OS X version of JACK. <http://www.alsa-project.org/> The Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. <http://www.ffado.org/> The Free Firewire Audio Drivers (FFADO) Site. <irc.freenode.net#jack> Join the JACK community with your favourite IRC client. BUGS Please report bugs as issues to the corresponding repository: <http://www.github.com/jackaudio/> AUTHORS Architect and original implementer: Paul Davis Original design group: Paul Davis, David Olofson, Kai Vehmanen, Benno Sen- noner, Richard Guenther and other members of the Linux Audio Developers group. Programming: Paul Davis, Jack O'Quin, Taybin Rutkin, StA(C)phane Letz, Fer- nando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano, Steve Harris, Jeremy Hall, Andy Wingo, Kai Vehmanen, Melanie Thielker, Jussi Laako, Tilman Linneweh, Johnny Petran- toni, Torben Hohn. Manpage written by Stefan Schwandter, Jack O'Quin, Alexandre Prokoudine and Thomas Brand. Create a PDF file from this manpage: man -t jackd | ps2pdf - > jackd.pdf 1.9.22 July 2026 JACKD(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | ENVIRONMENT | SEE ALSO: | BUGS | AUTHORS
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