Manual: alsaucm

alsaucm(1)					   General Commands Manual					  alsaucm(1)

Name
       alsaucm - ALSA Use Case Manager

SYNOPSIS
       alsaucm  [command]

DESCRIPTION
       alsaucm	(ALSA  Use  Case  Manager)  is	a  program  to use the ALSA Use Case Interface  from the command line.

       On complex sound cards, setting up audio routes is not trivial and mixer settings can conflict one another preventing
       the audio card to work at all.

       The ALSA Use Case Manager is a mechanism for controlling complex audio hardware establishing a  relationship  between
       hardware configurations and meaningful use cases that the end-user can relate with.

       The use case manager can also be used to switch between use cases when necessary, in a consistent way.

       At a lower level, the use case manager works by configuring the sound card ALSA kcontrols to change the hardware dig‐
       ital and analog audio routing to match the requested device use case.

       The  use	 case  manager kcontrol configurations are stored in easy to modify text files. An audio use case can be de‐
       fined by a verb and device parameter.

       The verb describes the use case action i.e. a phone call, listening to music, recording a conversation etc.  The	 de‐
       vice  describes	the  physical audio capture and playback hardware i.e. headphones, phone handset, bluetooth headset,
       etc.

OPTIONS
       Available options:

	  -h, --help
		 this help

	  -c, --card NAME
		 open card NAME

	  -i, --interactive
		 interactive mode

	  -b, --batch FILE
		 batch mode (use '-' for the stdin input)

	  -n, --no-open
		 do not open first card found

       Available commands:

	  open NAME
		 open card NAME.

		 valid names are sound card names as listed in /usr/share/alsa/ucm.

	  reset	 reset sound card to default state.

	  reload reload configuration.

	  listcards
		 list available cards.

	  list IDENTIFIER
		 list command, for items returning two entries (value+comment).

		 the value of the IDENTIFIER argument can be:

		 • _verbs - get verb list (in pair verb+comment)

		 • _devices[/{verb}] - get list of supported devices (in pair device+comment)

		 • _modifiers[/{verb}] - get list of supported modifiers (in pair modifier+comment)

		 The forms without the trailing /{verb} are valid only after a specific verb has been set.

	  list1 IDENTIFIER
		 list command, for lists returning one item per entry.

		 the value of the IDENTIFIER argument can vary depending on the context, it can be:

		 • TQ[/{verb}] - get list of Tone Quality identifiers

		 • _enadevs - get list of enabled devices

		 • _enamods - get list of enabled modifiers

		 • _supporteddevs/{modifier}|{device}[/{verb}] - list of supported devices

		 • _conflictingdevs/{modifier}|{device}[/{verb}] - list of conflicting devices

	  get IDENTIFIER
		 get string value.

		 the value of the IDENTIFIER argument can be:

		 • _verb - return current verb

		 • [=]{NAME}[/[{modifier}|{/device}][/{verb}]] (For valid NAMEs look at the ALSA Use Case Interface )

	  geti IDENTIFIER
		 get integer value.

		 the value of the IDENTIFIER argument can be:

		 • _devstatus/{device}

		 • _modstatus/{device}

	  set IDENTIFIER VALUE
		 set string value

		 The value of the IDENTIFIER argument can be:

		 • _verb - set the verb to VALUE

		 • _enadev - enable the device specified by VALUE

		 • _disdev - disable the device specified by VALUE

		 • _swdev/{old_device} - switche device:

		   • disable old_device and then enable the device specified by VALUE

		   • if no device was enabled just return

		 • _enamod - enable the modifier specified by VALUE

		 • _dismod - disable the modifier specified by VALUE

		 • _swmod/{old_modifier} - switch modifier:

		   • disable old_modifier and then enable the modifier specified by VALUE

		   • if no modifier was enabled just return

		 Note that the identifiers referring to devices and modifiers are valid only after setting a verb.

	  h, help
		 help

	  q, quit
		 quit

FILES
       The master use case files for each supported sound card are in /usr/share/alsa/ucm.

       For example, the master use case file for the Pandaboard card is	 in  /usr/share/alsa/ucm/PandaBoard/PandaBoard.conf,
       this file lists all the supported use cases, e.g.

	  SectionUseCase."HiFi" {
			  File "hifi"
			  Comment "Play HiFi quality Music."
	  }
	  ...

       Each use case defines a _verb, which is described in the file specified in the File directive, like above.

       The HiFi verb above is described in /usr/share/alsa/ucm/PandaBoard/hifi.

       For  more  details on the syntax of UCM files, see the alsa-lib source code: 

EXAMPLES OF USE
       Some commands, like for instance list _devices, can only work after setting a _verb in the same	execution,  for	 in‐
       stance this sequence doesn't work:

	  # alsaucm -c bytcr-rt5640 set _verb HiFi
	  # alsaucm -c bytcr-rt5640 list _devices

       However this command does:

	  # alsaucm -n -b - <

BUGS
       None known.

Author
       Antonio Ospite 

Copyright
       GPLv2+

							 2016-09-22						  alsaucm(1)