pasuspender

Suspend PulseAudio while running jackd

$ pasuspender -- [jackd [[-d|--driver]] alsa [[-d|--device]] hw:0]

pasuspender [options] -- command [arguments]

--help
    Display help text and exit.

--version
    Display version information and exit.

-- application command [arguments]
    Executes command without pulse audio

pasuspender temporarily suspends a PulseAudio server while a specified command is executed. This is useful for applications that have problems with PulseAudio or for situations where you want to bypass PulseAudio's audio processing.

It works by setting the PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH and PULSE_CONFIG environment variables to point to a null configuration file before executing the command, effectively disconnecting the application from PulseAudio. After the command finishes, the original environment is restored, and PulseAudio resumes its normal operation. The command will inherit all the environment of current shell, only PULSE_RUNTIME_PATH and PULSE_CONFIG will be modified.

If the command launched by pasuspender tries to connect to PulseAudio before it's fully suspended, unexpected behavior may occur. Using pasuspender disables the PulseAudio server for the duration of the command, so no audio will be routed through it during that time for all applications. It is important to ensure command uses local audio device during suspend.

To run `mplayer` without PulseAudio:
pasuspender -- mplayer my_audio_file.mp3

pulseaudio(1), pacmd(1)