pw-cat

Play and record audio through PipeWire

TLDR

Play a WAV file

$ pw-cat -p [path/to/file.wav]

Play with specific resampler quality

$ pw-cat -q [8] -p [path/to/file.wav]

Record to file with volume adjustment

$ pw-cat -r --volume [1.25] [path/to/file.wav]

Record with custom sample rate

$ pw-cat -r --rate [48000] [path/to/file.wav]

Display help

$ pw-cat -h

SYNOPSIS

pw-cat [-p|-r] [-q quality] [--volume vol] [--rate rate] file

pw-cat plays and records audio files through PipeWire. It provides a simple command-line interface for audio playback and recording similar to pacat for PulseAudio.
The tool supports various audio formats and can connect to specific PipeWire nodes. It's useful for testing audio setup and simple recording tasks.

PARAMETERS

-p, --playback

Play audio file

-r, --record

Record to audio file

-q, --quality _level_

Resampler quality (0-15, default 4)

--volume _level_

Volume level (1.0 = 100%)

--rate _hz_

Sample rate in Hz

--channels _num_

Number of channels

--target _target_

Target node to connect to

CAVEATS

Requires running PipeWire instance. Limited format support compared to full audio players. Use pw-play and pw-record as simpler aliases.

HISTORY

pw-cat is part of the PipeWire multimedia framework. It provides similar functionality to PulseAudio's pacat tool for the PipeWire ecosystem.