SYNOPSIS

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pipewire/client.conf

/etc/pipewire/client.conf

/usr/share/pipewire/client.conf

/usr/share/pipewire/client.conf.d/

/etc/pipewire/client.conf.d/

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pipewire/client.conf.d/

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pipewire/client-rt.conf

/etc/pipewire/client-rt.conf

/usr/share/pipewire/client-rt.conf

/usr/share/pipewire/client-rt.conf.d/

/etc/pipewire/client-rt.conf.d/

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pipewire/client-rt.conf.d/

DESCRIPTION

Configuration for PipeWire native clients, and for PipeWire's ALSA plugin.

A PipeWire native client program selects the default config to load, and if nothing is specified, it usually loads client.conf.

The ALSA plugin uses the client-rt.conf file, as do some PipeWire native clients such as pw-cat(1).

The configuration file format and lookup logic is the same as for pipewire.conf(5).

Drop-in configuration files client.conf.d/*.conf can be used, and are recommended. See pipewire.conf(5).

CONFIGURATION FILE SECTIONS

stream.properties: Configures options for native client streams.

stream.rules: Configures rules for native client streams.

alsa.properties: ALSA client configuration.

alsa.rules: ALSA client match rules.

In addition, the PipeWire context configuration sections may also be specified, see pipewire.conf(5).

STREAM PROPERTIES

The client configuration files contain a stream.properties section that configures the options for client streams:

# ~/.config/pipewire/client.conf.d/custom.conf
 
stream.properties = {
    #node.latency = 1024/48000
    #node.autoconnect = true
    #resample.disable = false
    #resample.quality = 4
    #monitor.channel-volumes = false
    #channelmix.disable = false
    #channelmix.min-volume = 0.0
    #channelmix.max-volume = 10.0
    #channelmix.normalize = false
    #channelmix.lock-volume = false
    #channelmix.mix-lfe = true
    #channelmix.upmix = true
    #channelmix.upmix-method = psd  # none, simple
    #channelmix.lfe-cutoff = 150.0
    #channelmix.fc-cutoff  = 12000.0
    #channelmix.rear-delay = 12.0
    #channelmix.stereo-widen = 0.0
    #channelmix.hilbert-taps = 0
    #dither.noise = 0
    #dither.method = none # rectangular, triangular, triangular-hf, wannamaker3, shaped5
    #debug.wav-path = ""
}

Some of the properties refer to different aspects of the stream:

General stream properties to identify the stream.
General stream properties to classify the stream.
How it is going to be scheduled by the graph.
How it is going to be linked by the session manager.
How the internal processing will be done.
Properties to configure the media format.

A list of object properties that can be applied to streams can be found in pipewire-props(7) Common Node Properties and pipewire-props(7) Audio Adapter Properties

STREAM RULES

You can add match rules, see pipewire(1) to set properties for certain streams and filters.

stream.rules and filter.rules provides an update-props action that takes an object with properties that are updated on the node object of the stream and filter.

Add a stream.rules or filter.rules section in the config file like this:

# ~/.config/pipewire/client.conf.d/custom.conf
 
stream.rules = [
    {
        matches = [
            {
                # all keys must match the value. ! negates. ~ starts regex.
                application.process.binary = "firefox"
            }
        ]
        actions = {
            update-props = {
                node.name = "My Name"
            }
        }
    }
]

Will set the node.name of Firefox to "My Name".

ALSA CLIENT PROPERTIES

An alsa.properties section can be added to configure client applications that connect via the PipeWire ALSA plugin.

# ~/.config/pipewire/client-rt.conf.d/custom.conf
 
alsa.properties = {
    #alsa.deny = false
    #alsa.format = 0
    #alsa.rate = 0
    #alsa.channels = 0
    #alsa.period-bytes = 0
    #alsa.buffer-bytes = 0
    #alsa.volume-method = cubic         # linear, cubic
}

alsa.deny: Denies ALSA access for the client. Useful in rules or PIPEWIRE_ALSA environment variable.

alsa.format: The ALSA format to use for the client. This is an ALSA format name. default 0, which is to allow all formats.

alsa.rate: The samplerate to use for the client. The default is 0, which is to allow all rates.

alsa.channels: The number of channels for the client. The default is 0, which is to allow any number of channels.

alsa.period-bytes: The number of bytes per period. The default is 0 which is to allow any number of period bytes.

alsa.buffer-bytes: The number of bytes in the alsa buffer. The default is 0, which is to allow any number of bytes.

alsa.volume-method = cubic | linear: This controls the volume curve used on the ALSA mixer. Possible values are cubic and linear. The default is to use cubic.

ALSA CLIENT RULES

It is possible to set ALSA client specific properties by using Match rules, see pipewire(1). You can set any of the above ALSA properties or any of the stream.properties.

Example

# ~/.config/pipewire/client-rt.conf.d/custom.conf
 
alsa.rules = [
    {   matches = [ { application.process.binary = "resolve" } ]
        actions = {
            update-props = {
                alsa.buffer-bytes = 131072
            }
        }
    }
]

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

See pipewire(1) for common environment variables. Many of these also apply to client applications.

The environment variables also influence ALSA applications that are using PipeWire's ALSA plugin.

PIPEWIRE_ALSA

This can be an object with properties from alsa.properties or stream.properties that will be used to construct the client and streams.

For example:

PIPEWIRE_ALSA='{ alsa.buffer-bytes=16384 node.name=foo }' aplay ...

Starts aplay with custom properties.

PIPEWIRE_NODE

Instructs the ALSA client to link to a particular sink or source object.serial or node.name.

For example:

PIPEWIRE_NODE=alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo aplay ...

Makes aplay play on the give audio sink.

AUTHORS

The PipeWire Developers <https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/issues>; PipeWire is available from <https://pipewire.org>

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