default.pa(5)

🎀 default.pa(5) — the PulseAudio glow-up script bestie 💖

okay so real quick, before anything: this whole page lives in the File Formats Manual section, and it's literally just called default.pa. That's the name. That's the assignment. We move. ✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

~/.config/pulse/default.pa

/etc/pulse/default.pa

/etc/pulse/system.pa

three paths, three vibes, one of them is gonna be the one. 🦋

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

So here's the tea. The PulseAudio sound server, when it starts up, reads a configuration script — and that script is mostly there to say which modules to load. That's its whole job. Iconic, honestly. 👑

Which script does it pick? Depends, bestie, and it's very much a vibe check situation:

• When PulseAudio is running in the per-user mode and ~/.config/pulse/default.pa exists — that file wins. Yours. Your personal script. Main character energy. 💖
• When PulseAudio is running in the per-user mode and that file doesn't exist — it falls back to /etc/pulse/default.pa. The group-chat default. 🫶
• When PulseAudio is running as a system service — it uses /etc/pulse/system.pa. Whole different lane. 🏛️

And ngl, the script itself? It's supposed to contain directives in the PulseAudio CLI language. Not vibes, not freestyle — actual CLI language, and it's documented over in pulse-cli-syntax(5). Go read that one, iykyk. 📖✨

👑 AUTHORS 👑

The PulseAudio Developers <pulseaudio-discuss (at) lists (dot) freedesktop (dot) org> 💌

and PulseAudio is available from http://pulseaudio.org/ — yes, fr fr, that's the spot. 🌈

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• pulse-cli-syntax(5) — the language your script is written in, the grammar girlies 🧚
• pulse-daemon.conf(5) — daemon config, its sister 🍓
• pulseaudio(1) — the server itself, the icon 💜
• pacmd(1) — the CLI bestie you poke it with 💅

lowkey a warning but also just facts: if you drop a ~/.config/pulse/default.pa in there, it will override /etc/pulse/default.pa for your user. No takesies backsies. That's just how it works. 😭

and that's the whole page, bestie!! filed under Manuals → User, for default.pa(5) — go forth and slay your modules. periodt. 💖✨🎀🦋