The PulseAudio sound server interprets a configuration script on startup, which is mainly used to define the set of modules to load. When PulseAudio runs in the per-user mode and ~/.config/pulse/default.pa exists, that file is used. When PulseAudio runs in the per-user mode and that file doesn't exist, @PA_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR@/default.pa is used. When PulseAudio runs as a system service, @PA_DEFAULT_CONFIG_DIR@/system.pa is used.

The script should contain directives in the PulseAudio CLI language, as documented in .