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 Metadata tags stored in the container or in the streams are recognized
49 and printed in the corresponding "FORMAT" or "STREAM" section.
56 @include avtools-common-opts.texi
66 Show the unit of the displayed values.
69 Use SI prefixes for the displayed values.
70 Unless the "-byte_binary_prefix" option is used all the prefixes
73 @item -byte_binary_prefix
74 Force the use of binary prefixes for byte values.
77 Use sexagesimal format HH:MM:SS.MICROSECONDS for time values.
80 Prettify the format of the displayed values, it corresponds to the
81 options "-unit -prefix -byte_binary_prefix -sexagesimal".
83 @item -of, -print_format @var{writer_name}[=@var{writer_options}]
84 Set the output printing format.
86 @var{writer_name} specifies the name of the writer, and
87 @var{writer_options} specifies the options to be passed to the writer.
89 For example for printing the output in JSON format, specify:
94 For more details on the available output printing formats, see the
95 Writers section below.
97 @item -select_streams @var{stream_specifier}
98 Select only the streams specified by @var{stream_specifier}. This
99 option affects only the options related to streams
100 (e.g. @code{show_streams}, @code{show_packets}, etc.).
102 For example to show only audio streams, you can use the command:
104 ffprobe -show_streams -select_streams a INPUT
107 To show only video packets belonging to the video stream with index 1:
109 ffprobe -show_packets -select_streams v:1 INPUT
113 Show payload data, as an hexadecimal and ASCII dump. Coupled with
114 @option{-show_packets}, it will dump the packets' data. Coupled with
115 @option{-show_streams}, it will dump the codec extradata.
117 The dump is printed as the "data" field. It may contain newlines.
120 Show information about the error found when trying to probe the input.
122 The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".
125 Show information about the container format of the input multimedia
128 All the container format information is printed within a section with
131 @item -show_format_entry @var{name}
132 Like @option{-show_format}, but only prints the specified entry of the
133 container format information, rather than all. This option may be given more
134 than once, then all specified entries will be shown.
137 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
140 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
141 section with name "PACKET".
144 Show information about each frame contained in the input multimedia
147 The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated
148 section with name "FRAME".
151 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
154 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
158 Count the number of frames per stream and report it in the
159 corresponding stream section.
162 Count the number of packets per stream and report it in the
163 corresponding stream section.
165 @item -show_private_data, -private
166 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
167 particular shown element.
168 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
169 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
171 @item -show_program_version
172 Show information related to program version.
174 Version information is printed within a section with name
177 @item -show_library_versions
178 Show information related to library versions.
180 Version information for each library is printed within a section with
181 name "LIBRARY_VERSION".
184 Show information related to program and library versions. This is the
185 equivalent of setting both @option{-show_program_version} and
186 @option{-show_library_versions} options.
189 Force bitexact output, useful to produce output which is not dependent
190 on the specific build.
192 @item -i @var{input_file}
193 Read @var{input_file}.
201 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
202 used for printing all the parts of the output.
204 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to
207 A description of the currently available writers follows.
212 Print each section in the form:
221 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
222 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
224 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
227 A description of the accepted options follows.
232 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value
235 @item noprint_wrappers, nw
236 If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer.
240 @section compact, csv
241 Compact and CSV format.
243 The @code{csv} writer is equivalent to @code{compact}, but supports
246 Each section is printed on a single line.
247 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
249 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
252 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
253 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
256 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
259 The description of the accepted options follows.
264 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
265 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default ("," for
266 the @code{csv} writer).
269 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
270 value is 0 (1 for the @code{csv} writer).
273 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c" ("csv" for the @code{csv}
276 It can assume one of the following values:
279 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n'), carriage
280 return ('\r'), a tab ('\t'), a form feed ('\f'), the escaping
281 character ('\') or the item separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
282 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
283 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
284 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
287 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
288 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
289 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
295 @item print_section, p
296 Print the section name at the begin of each line if the value is
297 @code{1}, disable it with value set to @code{0}. Default value is
305 A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
306 "streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be
307 directly embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an
308 alphanumeric character or an underscore (see @var{sep_char} option).
310 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
313 The description of the accepted options follows.
317 Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and
318 potential tags in the printed field key.
320 Default value is '.'.
322 @item hierarchical, h
323 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
324 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
325 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
326 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
334 Print output in an INI based format.
336 The following conventions are adopted:
340 all key and values are UTF-8
342 '.' is the subgroup separator
344 newline, '\t', '\f', '\b' and the following characters are escaped
346 '\' is the escape character
348 '#' is the comment indicator
350 '=' is the key/value separator
352 ':' is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
355 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
358 The description of the accepted options follows.
361 @item hierarchical, h
362 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
363 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
364 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
365 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
373 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
375 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
378 The description of the accepted options follows.
383 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
384 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
387 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
392 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
393 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
395 An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
396 @url{http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd}, which redirects to the
397 latest schema committed into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
399 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
400 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
401 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
402 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
404 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
407 The description of the accepted options follows.
411 @item fully_qualified, q
412 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
414 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
417 @item xsd_compliant, x
418 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
419 compliant. Default value is 0.
420 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
423 For more information about the XML format, see
424 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
428 @c man begin TIMECODE
430 @command{ffprobe} supports Timecode extraction:
435 MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video
436 stream details (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{timecode}).
439 MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd
440 stream metadata (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
443 DV, GXF and AVI timecodes are available in format metadata
444 (@option{-show_format}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
450 @include decoders.texi
451 @include demuxers.texi
452 @include protocols.texi
458 @settitle ffprobe media prober
461 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
465 The FFmpeg developers