JACK-UDP(1)

📦
this version · 5 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💅 JACK-UDP(1) — okay bestie, listen up

so this is the manual for jack-udp, aka the JACK UDP Transport Client. yes it's a real thing. yes it's iconic. let's go 🦋

✨ NAME ✨

jack-udp — the JACK UDP Transport Client, fr fr 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

jack-udp [options] send|recv

that's it. that's the whole vibe. you pick send or recv and you go 💅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -b — sets the ring buffer size in frames. default is 4096. yes, frames. it's giving buffer 💖
  • -c — sets the client name. default is jack-udp-PID. so like, it names itself after its own process id, main character energy honestly 🌟
  • -n — sets the number of channels, which therefore sets the number of JACK ports. default is 2 ✨
  • -p — sets the port number. default is 57160 🍓
  • -r — the remote host name, only relevant in send mode. default is "127.0.0.1" 🫶

🌈 DESCRIPTION 🌈

okay so jack-udp is a UDP audio transport mechanism for JACK. UDP. audio. transport. all three. no cap 😭

here's how the two modes work:

  • in send mode, it reads signals from a set of JACK input ports and fires UDP packets off to the indicated port at the indicated host, and the rate is entirely determined by your local JACK daemon.
  • in recv mode, it reads the incoming packets on the indicated port and writes that incoming data into a set of JACK output ports — and again, that rate is determined by the local JACK daemon. the local one. always the local one 💜
⚠️ real talk: this transport mechanism is unreliable. like, genuinely. both send and recv clients will report buffer overflow and underflow occurrences, and recv clients will additionally report dropped and out-of-order packets, and they will shut down on channel mismatch packets. so. yeah. 🙈

but — and this is the slay part — in practice this mechanism can be made highly reliable over local networks. locally it eats, and it leaves no crumbs 🔥

also, super important, jack-udp implements no connection logic. none. use jack-plumbing(1) instead if you need that. periodt 💅

💖 EXAMPLE 💖

192.0.0.1:~$ jack-udp -r 192.0.0.2 send
192.0.0.2:~$ jack-udp recv

look at that. two machines. one vibe. obsessed 🌸

🧚 AUTHOR 🧚

Rohan Drape — http://rd.slavepianos.org/ 👑

(also credited below as: Rohan Drape <rd@slavepianos.org> — Author. — keeping the receipts, always 🫶)

💀 SEE ALSO 💀

okay that's the whole page bestie, you're so ready for it now 🌟 this was the JACK-UDP(1) manual, sourced and dated 10/04/2025 — go forth, transport some audio over UDP, and remember: local networks only for the reliable era. mwah 💅✨🎀

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