7 This file is part of PulseAudio.
9 Copyright 2004-2006 Lennart Poettering
10 Copyright 2006 Pierre Ossman <ossman@cendio.se> for Cendio AB
12 PulseAudio is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
13 it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published
14 by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License,
15 or (at your option) any later version.
17 PulseAudio is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
18 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
19 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
20 General Public License for more details.
22 You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
23 along with PulseAudio; if not, write to the Free Software
24 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307
28 #include <sys/types.h>
30 #include <pulse/sample.h>
31 #include <pulse/channelmap.h>
32 #include <pulse/volume.h>
33 #include <pulse/def.h>
34 #include <pulse/cdecl.h>
35 #include <pulse/operation.h>
37 /** \page streams Audio Streams
39 * \section overv_sec Overview
41 * Audio streams form the central functionality of the sound server. Data is
42 * routed, converted and mixed from several sources before it is passed along
43 * to a final output. Currently, there are three forms of audio streams:
45 * \li Playback streams - Data flows from the client to the server.
46 * \li Record streams - Data flows from the server to the client.
47 * \li Upload streams - Similar to playback streams, but the data is stored in
48 * the sample cache. See \ref scache for more information
49 * about controlling the sample cache.
51 * \section create_sec Creating
53 * To access a stream, a pa_stream object must be created using
54 * pa_stream_new(). At this point the audio sample format and mapping of
55 * channels must be specified. See \ref sample and \ref channelmap for more
56 * information about those structures.
58 * This first step will only create a client-side object, representing the
59 * stream. To use the stream, a server-side object must be created and
60 * associated with the local object. Depending on which type of stream is
61 * desired, a different function is needed:
63 * \li Playback stream - pa_stream_connect_playback()
64 * \li Record stream - pa_stream_connect_record()
65 * \li Upload stream - pa_stream_connect_upload() (see \ref scache)
67 * Similar to how connections are done in contexts, connecting a stream will
68 * not generate a pa_operation object. Also like contexts, the application
69 * should register a state change callback, using
70 * pa_stream_set_state_callback(), and wait for the stream to enter an active
73 * \subsection bufattr_subsec Buffer Attributes
75 * Playback and record streams always have a server side buffer as
76 * part of the data flow. The size of this buffer strikes a
77 * compromise between low latency and sensitivity for buffer
78 * overflows/underruns.
80 * The buffer metrics may be controlled by the application. They are
81 * described with a pa_buffer_attr structure which contains a number
84 * \li maxlength - The absolute maximum number of bytes that can be stored in
85 * the buffer. If this value is exceeded then data will be
87 * \li tlength - The target length of a playback buffer. The server will only
88 * send requests for more data as long as the buffer has less
89 * than this number of bytes of data.
90 * \li prebuf - Number of bytes that need to be in the buffer before
91 * playback will commence. Start of playback can be forced using
92 * pa_stream_trigger() even though the prebuffer size hasn't been
93 * reached. If a buffer underrun occurs, this prebuffering will be
94 * again enabled. If the playback shall never stop in case of a buffer
95 * underrun, this value should be set to 0. In that case the read
96 * index of the output buffer overtakes the write index, and hence the
97 * fill level of the buffer is negative.
98 * \li minreq - Minimum free number of the bytes in the playback buffer before
99 * the server will request more data.
100 * \li fragsize - Maximum number of bytes that the server will push in one
101 * chunk for record streams.
103 * The server side playback buffers are indexed by a write and a read
104 * index. The application writes to the write index and the sound
105 * device reads from the read index. The read index is increased
106 * monotonically, while the write index may be freely controlled by
107 * the application. Substracting the read index from the write index
108 * will give you the current fill level of the buffer. The read/write
109 * indexes are 64bit values and measured in bytes, they will never
110 * wrap. The current read/write index may be queried using
111 * pa_stream_get_timing_info() (see below for more information). In
112 * case of a buffer underrun the read index is equal or larger than
113 * the write index. Unless the prebuf value is 0, PulseAudio will
114 * temporarily pause playback in such a case, and wait until the
115 * buffer is filled up to prebuf bytes again. If prebuf is 0, the
116 * read index may be larger than the write index, in which case
117 * silence is played. If the application writes data to indexes lower
118 * than the read index, the data is immediately lost.
120 * \section transfer_sec Transferring Data
122 * Once the stream is up, data can start flowing between the client and the
123 * server. Two different access models can be used to transfer the data:
125 * \li Asynchronous - The application register a callback using
126 * pa_stream_set_write_callback() and
127 * pa_stream_set_read_callback() to receive notifications
128 * that data can either be written or read.
129 * \li Polled - Query the library for available data/space using
130 * pa_stream_writable_size() and pa_stream_readable_size() and
131 * transfer data as needed. The sizes are stored locally, in the
132 * client end, so there is no delay when reading them.
134 * It is also possible to mix the two models freely.
136 * Once there is data/space available, it can be transferred using either
137 * pa_stream_write() for playback, or pa_stream_peek() / pa_stream_drop() for
138 * record. Make sure you do not overflow the playback buffers as data will be
141 * \section bufctl_sec Buffer Control
143 * The transfer buffers can be controlled through a number of operations:
145 * \li pa_stream_cork() - Start or stop the playback or recording.
146 * \li pa_stream_trigger() - Start playback immediatly and do not wait for
147 * the buffer to fill up to the set trigger level.
148 * \li pa_stream_prebuf() - Reenable the playback trigger level.
149 * \li pa_stream_drain() - Wait for the playback buffer to go empty. Will
150 * return a pa_operation object that will indicate when
151 * the buffer is completely drained.
152 * \li pa_stream_flush() - Drop all data from the playback buffer and do not
153 * wait for it to finish playing.
155 * \section seek_modes Seeking in the Playback Buffer
157 * A client application may freely seek in the playback buffer. To
158 * accomplish that the pa_stream_write() function takes a seek mode
159 * and an offset argument. The seek mode is one of:
161 * \li PA_SEEK_RELATIVE - seek relative to the current write index
162 * \li PA_SEEK_ABSOLUTE - seek relative to the beginning of the playback buffer, (i.e. the first that was ever played in the stream)
163 * \li PA_SEEK_RELATIVE_ON_READ - seek relative to the current read index. Use this to write data to the output buffer that should be played as soon as possible
164 * \li PA_SEEK_RELATIVE_END - seek relative to the last byte ever written.
166 * If an application just wants to append some data to the output
167 * buffer, PA_SEEK_RELATIVE and an offset of 0 should be used.
169 * After a call to pa_stream_write() the write index will be left at
170 * the position right after the last byte of the written data.
172 * \section latency_sec Latency
174 * A major problem with networked audio is the increased latency caused by
175 * the network. To remedy this, PulseAudio supports an advanced system of
176 * monitoring the current latency.
178 * To get the raw data needed to calculate latencies, call
179 * pa_stream_get_timing_info(). This will give you a pa_timing_info
180 * structure that contains everything that is known about the server
181 * side buffer transport delays and the backend active in the
182 * server. (Besides other things it contains the write and read index
183 * values mentioned above.)
185 * This structure is updated every time a
186 * pa_stream_update_timing_info() operation is executed. (i.e. before
187 * the first call to this function the timing information structure is
188 * not available!) Since it is a lot of work to keep this structure
189 * up-to-date manually, PulseAudio can do that automatically for you:
190 * if PA_STREAM_AUTO_TIMING_UPDATE is passed when connecting the
191 * stream PulseAudio will automatically update the structure every
192 * 100ms and every time a function is called that might invalidate the
193 * previously known timing data (such as pa_stream_write() or
194 * pa_stream_flush()). Please note however, that there always is a
195 * short time window when the data in the timing information structure
196 * is out-of-date. PulseAudio tries to mark these situations by
197 * setting the write_index_corrupt and read_index_corrupt fields
200 * The raw timing data in the pa_timing_info structure is usually hard
201 * to deal with. Therefore a more simplistic interface is available:
202 * you can call pa_stream_get_time() or pa_stream_get_latency(). The
203 * former will return the current playback time of the hardware since
204 * the stream has been started. The latter returns the time a sample
205 * that you write now takes to be played by the hardware. These two
206 * functions base their calculations on the same data that is returned
207 * by pa_stream_get_timing_info(). Hence the same rules for keeping
208 * the timing data up-to-date apply here. In case the write or read
209 * index is corrupted, these two functions will fail with
212 * Since updating the timing info structure usually requires a full
213 * network round trip and some applications monitor the timing very
214 * often PulseAudio offers a timing interpolation system. If
215 * PA_STREAM_INTERPOLATE_TIMING is passed when connecting the stream,
216 * pa_stream_get_time() and pa_stream_get_latency() will try to
217 * interpolate the current playback time/latency by estimating the
218 * number of samples that have been played back by the hardware since
219 * the last regular timing update. It is espcially useful to combine
220 * this option with PA_STREAM_AUTO_TIMING_UPDATE, which will enable
221 * you to monitor the current playback time/latency very precisely and
222 * very frequently without requiring a network round trip every time.
224 * \section flow_sec Overflow and underflow
226 * Even with the best precautions, buffers will sometime over - or
227 * underflow. To handle this gracefully, the application can be
228 * notified when this happens. Callbacks are registered using
229 * pa_stream_set_overflow_callback() and
230 * pa_stream_set_underflow_callback().
232 * \section sync_streams Sychronizing Multiple Playback Streams
234 * PulseAudio allows applications to fully synchronize multiple
235 * playback streams that are connected to the same output device. That
236 * means the streams will always be played back sample-by-sample
237 * synchronously. If stream operations like pa_stream_cork() are
238 * issued on one of the synchronized streams, they are simultaneously
239 * issued on the others.
241 * To synchronize a stream to another, just pass the "master" stream
242 * as last argument to pa_stream_connect_playack(). To make sure that
243 * the freshly created stream doesn't start playback right-away, make
244 * sure to pass PA_STREAM_START_CORKED and - after all streams have
245 * been created - uncork them all with a single call to
246 * pa_stream_cork() for the master stream.
248 * To make sure that a particular stream doesn't stop to play when a
249 * server side buffer underrun happens on it while the other
250 * synchronized streams continue playing and hence deviate you need to
251 * pass a "prebuf" pa_buffer_attr of 0 when connecting it.
253 * \section disc_sec Disconnecting
255 * When a stream has served is purpose it must be disconnected with
256 * pa_stream_disconnect(). If you only unreference it, then it will live on
257 * and eat resources both locally and on the server until you disconnect the
263 * Audio streams for input, output and sample upload */
267 /** An opaque stream for playback or recording */
268 typedef struct pa_stream pa_stream;
270 /** A generic callback for operation completion */
271 typedef void (*pa_stream_success_cb_t) (pa_stream*s, int success, void *userdata);
273 /** A generic request callback */
274 typedef void (*pa_stream_request_cb_t)(pa_stream *p, size_t bytes, void *userdata);
276 /** A generic notification callback */
277 typedef void (*pa_stream_notify_cb_t)(pa_stream *p, void *userdata);
279 /** Create a new, unconnected stream with the specified name and sample type */
280 pa_stream* pa_stream_new(
281 pa_context *c /**< The context to create this stream in */,
282 const char *name /**< A name for this stream */,
283 const pa_sample_spec *ss /**< The desired sample format */,
284 const pa_channel_map *map /**< The desired channel map, or NULL for default */);
286 /** Decrease the reference counter by one */
287 void pa_stream_unref(pa_stream *s);
289 /** Increase the reference counter by one */
290 pa_stream *pa_stream_ref(pa_stream *s);
292 /** Return the current state of the stream */
293 pa_stream_state_t pa_stream_get_state(pa_stream *p);
295 /** Return the context this stream is attached to */
296 pa_context* pa_stream_get_context(pa_stream *p);
298 /** Return the device (sink input or source output) index this stream is connected to */
299 uint32_t pa_stream_get_index(pa_stream *s);
301 /** Connect the stream to a sink */
302 int pa_stream_connect_playback(
303 pa_stream *s /**< The stream to connect to a sink */,
304 const char *dev /**< Name of the sink to connect to, or NULL for default */ ,
305 const pa_buffer_attr *attr /**< Buffering attributes, or NULL for default */,
306 pa_stream_flags_t flags /**< Additional flags, or 0 for default */,
307 pa_cvolume *volume /**< Initial volume, or NULL for default */,
308 pa_stream *sync_stream /**< Synchronize this stream with the specified one, or NULL for a standalone stream*/);
310 /** Connect the stream to a source */
311 int pa_stream_connect_record(
312 pa_stream *s /**< The stream to connect to a source */ ,
313 const char *dev /**< Name of the source to connect to, or NULL for default */,
314 const pa_buffer_attr *attr /**< Buffer attributes, or NULL for default */,
315 pa_stream_flags_t flags /**< Additional flags, or 0 for default */);
317 /** Disconnect a stream from a source/sink */
318 int pa_stream_disconnect(pa_stream *s);
320 /** Write some data to the server (for playback sinks), if free_cb is
321 * non-NULL this routine is called when all data has been written out
322 * and an internal reference to the specified data is kept, the data
323 * is not copied. If NULL, the data is copied into an internal
324 * buffer. The client my freely seek around in the output buffer. For
325 * most applications passing 0 and PA_SEEK_RELATIVE as arguments for
326 * offset and seek should be useful.*/
328 pa_stream *p /**< The stream to use */,
329 const void *data /**< The data to write */,
330 size_t bytes /**< The length of the data to write in bytes*/,
331 pa_free_cb_t free_cb /**< A cleanup routine for the data or NULL to request an internal copy */,
332 int64_t offset, /**< Offset for seeking, must be 0 for upload streams */
333 pa_seek_mode_t seek /**< Seek mode, must be PA_SEEK_RELATIVE for upload streams */);
335 /** Read the next fragment from the buffer (for recording).
336 * data will point to the actual data and length will contain the size
337 * of the data in bytes (which can be less than a complete framgnet).
338 * Use pa_stream_drop() to actually remove the data from the
339 * buffer. If no data is available will return a NULL pointer \since 0.8 */
341 pa_stream *p /**< The stream to use */,
342 const void **data /**< Pointer to pointer that will point to data */,
343 size_t *bytes /**< The length of the data read in bytes */);
345 /** Remove the current fragment on record streams. It is invalid to do this without first
346 * calling pa_stream_peek(). \since 0.8 */
347 int pa_stream_drop(pa_stream *p);
349 /** Return the nember of bytes that may be written using pa_stream_write(), in bytes */
350 size_t pa_stream_writable_size(pa_stream *p);
352 /** Return the number of bytes that may be read using pa_stream_read(), in bytes \since 0.8 */
353 size_t pa_stream_readable_size(pa_stream *p);
355 /** Drain a playback stream. Use this for notification when the buffer is empty */
356 pa_operation* pa_stream_drain(pa_stream *s, pa_stream_success_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
358 /** Request a timing info structure update for a stream. Use
359 * pa_stream_get_timing_info() to get access to the raw timing data,
360 * or pa_stream_get_time() or pa_stream_get_latency() to get cleaned
362 pa_operation* pa_stream_update_timing_info(pa_stream *p, pa_stream_success_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
364 /** Set the callback function that is called whenever the state of the stream changes */
365 void pa_stream_set_state_callback(pa_stream *s, pa_stream_notify_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
367 /** Set the callback function that is called when new data may be
368 * written to the stream. */
369 void pa_stream_set_write_callback(pa_stream *p, pa_stream_request_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
371 /** Set the callback function that is called when new data is available from the stream.
372 * Return the number of bytes read. \since 0.8 */
373 void pa_stream_set_read_callback(pa_stream *p, pa_stream_request_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
375 /** Set the callback function that is called when a buffer overflow happens. (Only for playback streams) \since 0.8 */
376 void pa_stream_set_overflow_callback(pa_stream *p, pa_stream_notify_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
378 /** Set the callback function that is called when a buffer underflow happens. (Only for playback streams) \since 0.8 */
379 void pa_stream_set_underflow_callback(pa_stream *p, pa_stream_notify_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
381 /** Set the callback function that is called whenever a latency information update happens. Useful on PA_STREAM_AUTO_TIMING_UPDATE streams only. (Only for playback streams) \since 0.8.2 */
382 void pa_stream_set_latency_update_callback(pa_stream *p, pa_stream_notify_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
384 /** Pause (or resume) playback of this stream temporarily. Available on both playback and recording streams. \since 0.3 */
385 pa_operation* pa_stream_cork(pa_stream *s, int b, pa_stream_success_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
387 /** Flush the playback buffer of this stream. Most of the time you're
388 * better off using the parameter delta of pa_stream_write() instead of this
389 * function. Available on both playback and recording streams. \since 0.3 */
390 pa_operation* pa_stream_flush(pa_stream *s, pa_stream_success_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
392 /** Reenable prebuffering as specified in the pa_buffer_attr
393 * structure. Available for playback streams only. \since 0.6 */
394 pa_operation* pa_stream_prebuf(pa_stream *s, pa_stream_success_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
396 /** Request immediate start of playback on this stream. This disables
397 * prebuffering as specified in the pa_buffer_attr
398 * structure, temporarily. Available for playback streams only. \since 0.3 */
399 pa_operation* pa_stream_trigger(pa_stream *s, pa_stream_success_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
401 /** Rename the stream. \since 0.5 */
402 pa_operation* pa_stream_set_name(pa_stream *s, const char *name, pa_stream_success_cb_t cb, void *userdata);
404 /** Return the current playback/recording time. This is based on the
405 * data in the timing info structure returned by
406 * pa_stream_get_timing_info(). This function will usually only return
407 * new data if a timing info update has been recieved. Only if timing
408 * interpolation has been requested (PA_STREAM_INTERPOLATE_TIMING)
409 * the data from the last timing update is used for an estimation of
410 * the current playback/recording time based on the local time that
411 * passed since the timing info structure has been acquired. The time
412 * value returned by this function is guaranteed to increase
413 * monotonically. (that means: the returned value is always greater or
414 * equal to the value returned on the last call) This behaviour can
415 * be disabled by using PA_STREAM_NOT_MONOTONOUS. This may be
416 * desirable to deal better with bad estimations of transport
417 * latencies, but may have strange effects if the application is not
418 * able to deal with time going 'backwards'. \since 0.6 */
419 int pa_stream_get_time(pa_stream *s, pa_usec_t *r_usec);
421 /** Return the total stream latency. This function is based on
422 * pa_stream_get_time(). In case the stream is a monitoring stream the
423 * result can be negative, i.e. the captured samples are not yet
424 * played. In this case *negative is set to 1. \since 0.6 */
425 int pa_stream_get_latency(pa_stream *s, pa_usec_t *r_usec, int *negative);
427 /** Return the latest raw timing data structure. The returned pointer
428 * points to an internal read-only instance of the timing
429 * structure. The user should make a copy of this structure if he
430 * wants to modify it. An in-place update to this data structure may
431 * be requested using pa_stream_update_timing_info(). If no
432 * pa_stream_update_timing_info() call was issued before, this
433 * function will fail with PA_ERR_NODATA. Please note that the
434 * write_index member field (and only this field) is updated on each
435 * pa_stream_write() call, not just when a timing update has been
436 * recieved. \since 0.8 */
437 const pa_timing_info* pa_stream_get_timing_info(pa_stream *s);
439 /** Return a pointer to the stream's sample specification. \since 0.6 */
440 const pa_sample_spec* pa_stream_get_sample_spec(pa_stream *s);
442 /** Return a pointer to the stream's channel map. \since 0.8 */
443 const pa_channel_map* pa_stream_get_channel_map(pa_stream *s);
445 /** Return the buffer metrics of the stream. Only valid after the
446 * stream has been connected successfuly and if the server is at least
447 * PulseAudio 0.9. \since 0.9.0 */
448 const pa_buffer_attr* pa_stream_get_buffer_attr(pa_stream *s);