1 \input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
3 @settitle ffprobe Documentation
5 @center @titlefont{ffprobe Documentation}
14 The generic syntax is:
18 ffprobe [options] [@file{input_file}]
23 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
25 ffprobe gathers information from multimedia streams and prints it in
26 human- and machine-readable fashion.
28 For example it can be used to check the format of the container used
29 by a multimedia stream and the format and type of each media stream
32 If a filename is specified in input, ffprobe will try to open and
33 probe the file content. If the file cannot be opened or recognized as
34 a multimedia file, a positive exit code is returned.
36 ffprobe may be employed both as a standalone application or in
37 combination with a textual filter, which may perform more
38 sophisticated processing, e.g. statistical processing or plotting.
40 Options are used to list some of the formats supported by ffprobe or
41 for specifying which information to display, and for setting how
44 ffprobe output is designed to be easily parsable by a textual filter,
45 and consists of one or more sections of a form defined by the selected
46 writer, which is specified by the @option{print_format} option.
48 Sections may contain other nested sections, and are identified by a
49 name (which may be shared by other sections), and an unique
50 name. See the output of @option{sections}.
52 Metadata tags stored in the container or in the streams are recognized
53 and printed in the corresponding "FORMAT" or "STREAM" section.
60 @include avtools-common-opts.texi
70 Show the unit of the displayed values.
73 Use SI prefixes for the displayed values.
74 Unless the "-byte_binary_prefix" option is used all the prefixes
77 @item -byte_binary_prefix
78 Force the use of binary prefixes for byte values.
81 Use sexagesimal format HH:MM:SS.MICROSECONDS for time values.
84 Prettify the format of the displayed values, it corresponds to the
85 options "-unit -prefix -byte_binary_prefix -sexagesimal".
87 @item -of, -print_format @var{writer_name}[=@var{writer_options}]
88 Set the output printing format.
90 @var{writer_name} specifies the name of the writer, and
91 @var{writer_options} specifies the options to be passed to the writer.
93 For example for printing the output in JSON format, specify:
98 For more details on the available output printing formats, see the
99 Writers section below.
102 Print sections structure and section information, and exit. The output
103 is not meant to be parsed by a machine.
105 @item -select_streams @var{stream_specifier}
106 Select only the streams specified by @var{stream_specifier}. This
107 option affects only the options related to streams
108 (e.g. @code{show_streams}, @code{show_packets}, etc.).
110 For example to show only audio streams, you can use the command:
112 ffprobe -show_streams -select_streams a INPUT
115 To show only video packets belonging to the video stream with index 1:
117 ffprobe -show_packets -select_streams v:1 INPUT
121 Show payload data, as an hexadecimal and ASCII dump. Coupled with
122 @option{-show_packets}, it will dump the packets' data. Coupled with
123 @option{-show_streams}, it will dump the codec extradata.
125 The dump is printed as the "data" field. It may contain newlines.
128 Show information about the error found when trying to probe the input.
130 The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".
133 Show information about the container format of the input multimedia
136 All the container format information is printed within a section with
139 @item -show_format_entry @var{name}
140 Like @option{-show_format}, but only prints the specified entry of the
141 container format information, rather than all. This option may be given more
142 than once, then all specified entries will be shown.
144 This option is deprecated, use @code{show_entries} instead.
146 @item -show_entries @var{section_entries}
147 Set list of entries to show.
149 Entries are specified according to the following
150 syntax. @var{section_entries} contains a list of section entries
151 separated by @code{:}. Each section entry is composed by a section
152 name (or unique name), optionally followed by a list of entries local
153 to that section, separated by @code{,}.
155 If section name is specified but is followed by no @code{=}, all
156 entries are printed to output, together with all the contained
157 sections. Otherwise only the entries specified in the local section
158 entries list are printed. In particular, if @code{=} is specified but
159 the list of local entries is empty, then no entries will be shown for
162 Note that the order of specification of the local section entries is
163 not honored in the output, and the usual display order will be
166 The formal syntax is given by:
168 @var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES} ::= @var{SECTION_ENTRY_NAME}[,@var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES}]
169 @var{SECTION_ENTRY} ::= @var{SECTION_NAME}[=[@var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES}]]
170 @var{SECTION_ENTRIES} ::= @var{SECTION_ENTRY}[:@var{SECTION_ENTRIES}]
173 For example, to show only the index and type of each stream, and the PTS
174 time, duration time, and stream index of the packets, you can specify
177 packet=pts_time,duration_time,stream_index : stream=index,codec_type
180 To show all the entries in the section "format", but only the codec
181 type in the section "stream", specify the argument:
183 format : stream=codec_type
186 To show all the tags in the stream and format sections:
188 format_tags : format_tags
191 To show only the @code{title} tag (if available) in the stream
198 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
201 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
202 section with name "PACKET".
205 Show information about each frame contained in the input multimedia
208 The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated
209 section with name "FRAME".
212 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
215 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
219 Count the number of frames per stream and report it in the
220 corresponding stream section.
223 Count the number of packets per stream and report it in the
224 corresponding stream section.
226 @item -show_private_data, -private
227 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
228 particular shown element.
229 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
230 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
232 @item -show_program_version
233 Show information related to program version.
235 Version information is printed within a section with name
238 @item -show_library_versions
239 Show information related to library versions.
241 Version information for each library is printed within a section with
242 name "LIBRARY_VERSION".
245 Show information related to program and library versions. This is the
246 equivalent of setting both @option{-show_program_version} and
247 @option{-show_library_versions} options.
250 Force bitexact output, useful to produce output which is not dependent
251 on the specific build.
253 @item -i @var{input_file}
254 Read @var{input_file}.
262 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
263 used for printing all the parts of the output.
265 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options
266 to adopt. The options are specified as a list of @var{key}=@var{value}
267 pairs, separated by ":".
269 A description of the currently available writers follows.
274 Print each section in the form:
283 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
284 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
286 A description of the accepted options follows.
291 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value
294 @item noprint_wrappers, nw
295 If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer.
299 @section compact, csv
300 Compact and CSV format.
302 The @code{csv} writer is equivalent to @code{compact}, but supports
305 Each section is printed on a single line.
306 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
308 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
311 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
312 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
315 The description of the accepted options follows.
320 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
321 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default ("," for
322 the @code{csv} writer).
325 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
326 value is 0 (1 for the @code{csv} writer).
329 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c" ("csv" for the @code{csv}
332 It can assume one of the following values:
335 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n'), carriage
336 return ('\r'), a tab ('\t'), a form feed ('\f'), the escaping
337 character ('\') or the item separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
338 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
339 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
340 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
343 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
344 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
345 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
351 @item print_section, p
352 Print the section name at the begin of each line if the value is
353 @code{1}, disable it with value set to @code{0}. Default value is
361 A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
362 "streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be
363 directly embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an
364 alphanumeric character or an underscore (see @var{sep_char} option).
366 The description of the accepted options follows.
370 Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and
371 potential tags in the printed field key.
373 Default value is '.'.
375 @item hierarchical, h
376 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
377 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
378 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
379 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
387 Print output in an INI based format.
389 The following conventions are adopted:
393 all key and values are UTF-8
395 '.' is the subgroup separator
397 newline, '\t', '\f', '\b' and the following characters are escaped
399 '\' is the escape character
401 '#' is the comment indicator
403 '=' is the key/value separator
405 ':' is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
408 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
411 The description of the accepted options follows.
414 @item hierarchical, h
415 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
416 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
417 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
418 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
426 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
428 The description of the accepted options follows.
433 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
434 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
437 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
442 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
443 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
445 An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
446 @url{http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd}, which redirects to the
447 latest schema committed into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
449 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
450 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
451 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
452 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
454 The description of the accepted options follows.
458 @item fully_qualified, q
459 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
461 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
464 @item xsd_compliant, x
465 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
466 compliant. Default value is 0.
467 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
470 For more information about the XML format, see
471 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
475 @c man begin TIMECODE
477 @command{ffprobe} supports Timecode extraction:
482 MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video
483 stream details (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{timecode}).
486 MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd
487 stream metadata (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
490 DV, GXF and AVI timecodes are available in format metadata
491 (@option{-show_format}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
497 @include decoders.texi
498 @include demuxers.texi
499 @include protocols.texi
505 @settitle ffprobe media prober
508 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
512 The FFmpeg developers