pipewire/man/pipewire.conf.5.rst.in

pipewire.conf
#############

--------------------------------------
The PipeWire server configuration file
--------------------------------------

:Manual section: 5
:Manual group: File Formats Manual

.. _synopsis:

SYNOPSIS
========

*$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pipewire/pipewire.conf*

*@PIPEWIRE_CONFIG_DIR@/pipewire.conf*

*@PIPEWIRE_CONFDATADIR@/pipewire.conf*

*@PIPEWIRE_CONFDATADIR@/pipewire.conf.d/*

*@PIPEWIRE_CONFIG_DIR@/pipewire.conf.d/*

*$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/*

DESCRIPTION
===========

PipeWire is a service that facilitates sharing of multimedia content
between devices and applications.

On startup, the daemon reads a main configuration file to configure
itself. It executes a series of commands listed in the config
file.

The config files are loaded in the order listed in the SYNOPSIS_.
The environment variables ``PIPEWIRE_CONFIG_DIR``, ``PIPEWIRE_CONFIG_PREFIX``
and ``PIPEWIRE_CONFIG_NAME`` can be used to specify an alternative config
directory, subdirectory and file respectively.

Next to the configuration file can be a directory with the same name as
the file with a ``.d/`` suffix. All directories in the SYNOPSIS_ directory
search paths are traversed in the listed order and the contents of the
``*.conf`` files inside them are appended to the main configuration file
as overrides. Object sections are merged and array sections are appended.


CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
=========================

The configuration file format is grouped into sections. A section
is either a dictionary, {}, or an array, []. Dictionary and array
entries are separated by whitespace and may be simple value
assignment, an array or a dictionary. For example:

name = value # simple assignment

name = { key1 = value1 key2 = value2 } # a dictionary with two
entries

name = [ value1 value2 ] # an array with two entries

name = [ { k = v1 } { k = v2 } ] # an array of dictionaries


The configuration files can be expressed in full JSON syntax but for ease
of use, a relaxed format may be used where:

 * ``:`` to delimit keys and values can be substuted by ``=`` or a space.
 * ``"`` around keys and string can be omited as long as no special characters are used in the strings.
 * ``,`` to separate objects can be replaced with a whitespace character.
 * ``#`` can be used to start a comment until the line end


CONFIGURATION FILE SECTIONS
===========================

context.properties
  Dictionary. These properties configure the PipeWire instance.

context.spa-libs
  Dictionary. Maps plugin features with globs to a spa library.

context.modules
  Array of dictionaries. Each entry in the array is a dictionary with the *name* of the module to load,
  including optional *args* and *flags*. Most modules support being loaded
  multiple times.

context.objects
  Array of dictionaries. Each entry in the array is a dictionary containing the *factory* to create an
  object from and optional extra arguments specific to that factory.

context.exec
  Array of dictionaries. Each entry in the array is dictionary containing the *path* of a program to
  execute on startup and optional *args*.

  This array used to contain an entry to start the session manager but this mode
  of operation has since been demoted to development aid. Avoid starting a
  session manager in this way in production environment.

AUTHORS
=======

The PipeWire Developers <@PACKAGE_BUGREPORT@>; PipeWire is available from @PACKAGE_URL@

SEE ALSO
========

``pipewire(1)``,
``pw-mon(1)``,