VLC(1)

💖 VLC(1) — the manual page bestie 💖

okay so you opened the manual for VLC — and honestly? iconic behavior. This page lives in the General Commands Manual section, and it's your little map to the multimedia player + server that runs basically the whole world. Let's get into it, no cap. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

vlc, qvlc, svlc, nvlc, rvlc, cvlc — the VLC media player. yes, she has SIX names and answers to all of them like a true main character. 👑

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

vlc [OPTIONS] [ITEMS]...

that's it. that's the whole shape of it. options first, items after, go wild. 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

This manual page documents briefly the VLC multimedia player and server. briefly!! like it's giving "here's the vibe, the full lore is elsewhere." 🙈

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

VLC follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (-). For a precise description of options, please use "vlc --help". fr fr, just ask her directly.

The complete list of VLC options depends on what plugins are installed, because they automatically add their own options. Please use "vlc --longhelp --advanced" for a complete list of available options.

lowkey important: the option list is not fixed!! plugins install their own options, so your --help may look different from your bestie's --help. that's not a bug, that's just the ecosystem doing its thing. 🌈

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🍓 ITEMS 🍓

VLC recognizes several URL-style items. here's the roster, bestie:

• *.mpg, *.vob, *.avi, *.mp3, *.ogg, *.opus — various multimedia file formats. the classics. the staples. the girls.
• dvd://[<device>][@<raw device>][#[<title>][:[<chapter>][:<angle>]]] — DVD device (for instance dvd:///dev/dvd). The raw device is optional and must have been prepared beforehand. you can't just yolo the raw device, it has to be prepped first!!
• vcd://[<device>][@{E|P|E|T|S}[<number>]] — VCD device (for instance vcd:///dev/cdrom).
• udp://[@[<multicast address>][:<local port>]] — UDP stream, such as one sent by VLS or another VLC. Usually "udp://" is enough. she's low maintenance like that.
• http://<server address>[:<server port>]/[<file>] — HTTP stream
• rtsp://<server address>[:<server port>]/<stream name> — RTSP Video On Demand stream
• vlc://<command> — Execute a playlist command. Commands are: pause (pause execution of other items), and quit (close VLC). yes you can tell VLC to quit from inside a playlist. she listens. periodt.

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES 🌈

The following environment variables may affect VLC:

• DISPLAY — The X11 display server address.
• http_proxy — The HTTP proxy server URL.
• OSSAUDIO_DEV — The default audio output device, used by the OSSv4 output plugin.
• VLC_DATA_PATH — The directory containing VLC run-time data files (e.g. /usr/share/vlc).
• VLC_PLUGIN_PATH — An extra directory to load VLC plugins from. extra!! like a secret stash of plugins.
• VLC_VERBOSE — The level of verbosity for log messages (0: silent, 1: error/info, 2: warning, 3: debug).
• XDG_CACHE_DIR XDG_CONFIG_DIR XDG_DATA_DIR — The directories to store user cached data, user configuration files and user data files respectively.
• XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR XDG_MUSIC_DIR XDG_PICTURES_DIR XDG_VIDEO_DIR — The directories to fetch or store user text files, downloads, music, pictures (i.e. snapshots), and video respectively.
• XDG_SESSION_COOKIE — The unique identifier of the desktop session, used by the PulseAudio output plugin.

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Online documentation: http://www.videolan.org/doc/

go read it, bestie, it's right there. 🫶

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

This manual page was written by Sam Hocevar <sam@zoy.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). shoutout Sam, absolute legend behavior. 🎀

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and that's the whole page!! this version is from Feb 14, 2005 — yes, Valentine's Day, because VLC is and always has been your real valentine — and it belongs to the VLC(1) manual. mwah. 💖✨