ESPEAKUP(8)

📦
version 0.90 · 7 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 espeakup, bestie 💖

okay so this is ESPEAKUP(8) — straight out of the System Manager's Manual, section 8, admin-girlie territory. It's the lil connector that hooks Speakup up to the espeak-ng TTS engine. Let's get into it 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

espeakup — connect Speakup to the espeak-ng TTS engine 💅

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

espeakup [--pid-path=path] [--alsa-volume] [--default-voice=[voicename]]
[--debug] [--help] [--version]

that's it, that's the whole vibe check 🦋

🌈 OPTIONS 🌈

  • -P path, --pid-path=path — sets the full path for the pid file that espeakup uses when it's in daemon mode. like where it drops its little "I'm here!" note 📝
  • --alsa-volume — drives the ALSA volume. lowkey a lifesaver for live environments where volume adjustments might be, uh, impossible 🙈 (their words, and honestly relatable)
  • -V voicename, --default-voice=voicename — picks which espeak-ng voice gets used by default. choose your fighter 👑
  • -d, --debug — runs in the foreground instead of becoming a daemon process. perfect when you wanna see what's happening instead of it ghosting you in the background 👀
  • -h, --help — prints a brief help message and dips. polite fr fr
  • -v, --version — outputs version info and exits. iconic behavior ⭐

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

espeakup is literally a bridge, and the way that it bridges two tools — the Speakup screen review system and the espeak-ng text-to-speech engine — is so satisfying because each one does one (1) well-defined task. no crossover episodes, no drama, just teamwork 🫶

Speakup is a kernel-based screen reader for the Linux console. It extracts and processes the text displayed on the foreground virtual console. It supports several hardware based speech synthesizers directly. BUT — and this is the plot twist — since Speakup lives in kernel space, it cannot support a software speech synthesizer directly, because those live in user space. different worlds, bestie 😭

espeak-ng is a popular software speech synthesizer. It is small, light weight, very responsive, and supports multiple languages. slay on every axis ✨

So espeakup is the connector 💫 — it reads text sent to it by speakup and forwards it straight to espeak-ng. Which means Speakup gets to use espeak-ng as its speech synthesizer. matchmaker of the century, no cap.

espeakup is a daemon. Typically it's started at boot time, and it terminates when the system is halted or rebooted. It should be started by the system's init scripts. This process varies among Linux distributions, but the details are usually managed by the person who packaged espeakup for your distribution. From the perspective of an average user, espeakup's operation is invisible — main character energy that doesn't even need the spotlight 💅

😭 BUGS 😭

If you find a bug, please create a github issue:

https://github.com/linux-speakup/espeakup/issues

You might also consider mentioning it on the mailing list for the Speakup screenreader. Visit the list page:

https://linux-speakup.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/speakup

to learn more about the mailing list. we love a good bug report, it's giving community 🧚

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

👑 AUTHOR 👑

William Hubbs w.d.hubbs@gmail.com is the author of espeakup. 🫶

This manual page was written by Chris Brannon chris@the-brannons.com. ✍️

current authors and maintainers can be found at github:

https://github.com/linux-speakup/espeakup/graphs/contributors

okay that's the whole page, bestie, you ate it 💖 this ESPEAKUP(8) drop is dated December 2025 — go forth and let your console speak, periodt. 🎀🌸💅

📦 where this page comes from