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ossrecord(1) User Commands ossrecord(1) NAME ossrecord - Open Sound System recording program. SYNOPSIS ossrecord [-ORhlv] [-F cntname | ? ] [ -c channels ] [ -d devname ] [ -f fmtname | ? ] [ -g gain ] [ -i recsource | ? ] [ -m nfiles ] [ -r command ] [ -s rate ] [ -t maxsecs ] filename | - ... DESCRIPTION The ossrecord program records audio in Microsoft RIFF (wav) format. It will record from any input that's currently set as the recording source by the ossxmix/ossmix mixer programs. With the -l option, you also get a level meter that will display VU levels in a character mode. The filename parameter is name of the (.wav) file to be produced. Out- put can be sent to stdout by giving - as the file name. OPTIONS -s<rate> Select the recording rate for raw PCM audio (eg -s48000). -c<channels> Select the number of channels 1=mono 2=stereo, 4, 6, 8, etc. -d<devname> Select <devname> as the device (eg -d/dev/dsp2). -f<fmt> Select the input sample format (eg -fS32_LE or -fMU_LAW) -f? Prints the list of supported format names. -F<cnt> Select the container format (eg WAV or AU). Default is WAV. -F? Prints the list of supported container formats. -R Open audio device in raw mode to disable virtual mixing and sam- ple rate/format conversions. Can be used when recording from a digital source (S/PDIF input). -v Verbose output. -l Display level meters (character based). -i<recsrc|?> Select the recording source or display available recording sources if '?' is supplied. e.g. ossrecord -i? may display: vol line (currently selected) mic cd aux1 phone mono video -m<nfiles> Repeat the recording operation <nfiles> times. The filename ar- gument must have %d (or %02d) somewhere in the file to guarantee unique filenames. If no %d is given then subsequent recordings will overwrite the previous one(s). This option is useful only with loopback audio devices or if the -t option is used. -r<command> This option launches the <command> in background after recording the file has completed. The name of the recorded file will be given as the (only) command line argument. When the -m option is used the script will run in parallel while recording the next file. See the COMMAND SCRIPT section (below) for more info. -g<gain> Amplify recorded samples by percentage given as argument. 100 (default) means normal signal level, 200 means double level. Only supported in 16 and 32 bit modes. -t<maxsecs> Do not record more than <maxsecs> seconds in a single recording operation. -L<level> Set the recording level to <level>. -O Do not allow ossrecord to overwrite the output file. -h Display usage instructions. COMMAND SCRIPT The -r command line argument makes it possible to execute a script or program after recording of the wave file is finished. Below is a sim- ple scell script that does MP3 encoding using lame. #!/bin/sh WAVENAME=$1 MP3NAME=$1.mp3 lame -m s -h --preset studio $WAVENAME $MP3NAME exit 0 Another example script for ossrecord is a simple CGI script for live MP3 streaming (from /dev/dsp). #!/bin/sh echo Content-Type: audio/mp3 echo ossrecord -S -b16 -s48 - | lame -m j - - exit 0 NOTES The ossrecord executable is the same as the ossplay executable. Behav- iour is decided by the name used to invoke the program. Some file formats allocate only 32 bits to record the file length, which may prevent some programs from reading a too large file properly. If a recording may pass the 4GB limit (a bit more then 6 hours and 10 minutes of sound assuming [48Khz/16bit/stereo] quality), it's best to have ossrecord use the AU or RAW containers (via -F switch) which do not have this restriction. SEE ALSO ossplay(1), ossmix(1), ossxmix(1) FILES /usr/local/bin/ossrecord AUTHOR 4Front Technologies 12 April 2025 ossrecord(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | COMMAND SCRIPT | NOTES | SEE ALSO | FILES | AUTHOR
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