1 \input texinfo @c -*- texinfo -*-
3 @settitle ffprobe Documentation
5 @center @titlefont{ffprobe Documentation}
14 ffprobe [@var{options}] [@file{input_file}]
17 @c man begin DESCRIPTION
19 ffprobe gathers information from multimedia streams and prints it in
20 human- and machine-readable fashion.
22 For example it can be used to check the format of the container used
23 by a multimedia stream and the format and type of each media stream
26 If a filename is specified in input, ffprobe will try to open and
27 probe the file content. If the file cannot be opened or recognized as
28 a multimedia file, a positive exit code is returned.
30 ffprobe may be employed both as a standalone application or in
31 combination with a textual filter, which may perform more
32 sophisticated processing, e.g. statistical processing or plotting.
34 Options are used to list some of the formats supported by ffprobe or
35 for specifying which information to display, and for setting how
38 ffprobe output is designed to be easily parsable by a textual filter,
39 and consists of one or more sections of a form defined by the selected
40 writer, which is specified by the @option{print_format} option.
42 Sections may contain other nested sections, and are identified by a
43 name (which may be shared by other sections), and an unique
44 name. See the output of @option{sections}.
46 Metadata tags stored in the container or in the streams are recognized
47 and printed in the corresponding "FORMAT", "STREAM" or "PROGRAM_STREAM"
55 @include fftools-common-opts.texi
65 Show the unit of the displayed values.
68 Use SI prefixes for the displayed values.
69 Unless the "-byte_binary_prefix" option is used all the prefixes
72 @item -byte_binary_prefix
73 Force the use of binary prefixes for byte values.
76 Use sexagesimal format HH:MM:SS.MICROSECONDS for time values.
79 Prettify the format of the displayed values, it corresponds to the
80 options "-unit -prefix -byte_binary_prefix -sexagesimal".
82 @item -of, -print_format @var{writer_name}[=@var{writer_options}]
83 Set the output printing format.
85 @var{writer_name} specifies the name of the writer, and
86 @var{writer_options} specifies the options to be passed to the writer.
88 For example for printing the output in JSON format, specify:
93 For more details on the available output printing formats, see the
94 Writers section below.
97 Print sections structure and section information, and exit. The output
98 is not meant to be parsed by a machine.
100 @item -select_streams @var{stream_specifier}
101 Select only the streams specified by @var{stream_specifier}. This
102 option affects only the options related to streams
103 (e.g. @code{show_streams}, @code{show_packets}, etc.).
105 For example to show only audio streams, you can use the command:
107 ffprobe -show_streams -select_streams a INPUT
110 To show only video packets belonging to the video stream with index 1:
112 ffprobe -show_packets -select_streams v:1 INPUT
116 Show payload data, as a hexadecimal and ASCII dump. Coupled with
117 @option{-show_packets}, it will dump the packets' data. Coupled with
118 @option{-show_streams}, it will dump the codec extradata.
120 The dump is printed as the "data" field. It may contain newlines.
123 Show information about the error found when trying to probe the input.
125 The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".
128 Show information about the container format of the input multimedia
131 All the container format information is printed within a section with
134 @item -show_format_entry @var{name}
135 Like @option{-show_format}, but only prints the specified entry of the
136 container format information, rather than all. This option may be given more
137 than once, then all specified entries will be shown.
139 This option is deprecated, use @code{show_entries} instead.
141 @item -show_entries @var{section_entries}
142 Set list of entries to show.
144 Entries are specified according to the following
145 syntax. @var{section_entries} contains a list of section entries
146 separated by @code{:}. Each section entry is composed by a section
147 name (or unique name), optionally followed by a list of entries local
148 to that section, separated by @code{,}.
150 If section name is specified but is followed by no @code{=}, all
151 entries are printed to output, together with all the contained
152 sections. Otherwise only the entries specified in the local section
153 entries list are printed. In particular, if @code{=} is specified but
154 the list of local entries is empty, then no entries will be shown for
157 Note that the order of specification of the local section entries is
158 not honored in the output, and the usual display order will be
161 The formal syntax is given by:
163 @var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES} ::= @var{SECTION_ENTRY_NAME}[,@var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES}]
164 @var{SECTION_ENTRY} ::= @var{SECTION_NAME}[=[@var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES}]]
165 @var{SECTION_ENTRIES} ::= @var{SECTION_ENTRY}[:@var{SECTION_ENTRIES}]
168 For example, to show only the index and type of each stream, and the PTS
169 time, duration time, and stream index of the packets, you can specify
172 packet=pts_time,duration_time,stream_index : stream=index,codec_type
175 To show all the entries in the section "format", but only the codec
176 type in the section "stream", specify the argument:
178 format : stream=codec_type
181 To show all the tags in the stream and format sections:
183 format_tags : format_tags
186 To show only the @code{title} tag (if available) in the stream
193 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
196 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
197 section with name "PACKET".
200 Show information about each frame contained in the input multimedia
203 The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated
204 section with name "FRAME".
207 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
210 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
214 Show information about programs and their streams contained in the input
217 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
218 with name "PROGRAM_STREAM".
221 Show information about chapters stored in the format.
223 Each chapter is printed within a dedicated section with name "CHAPTER".
226 Count the number of frames per stream and report it in the
227 corresponding stream section.
230 Count the number of packets per stream and report it in the
231 corresponding stream section.
233 @item -read_intervals @var{read_intervals}
235 Read only the specified intervals. @var{read_intervals} must be a
236 sequence of interval specifications separated by ",".
237 @command{ffprobe} will seek to the interval starting point, and will
238 continue reading from that.
240 Each interval is specified by two optional parts, separated by "%".
242 The first part specifies the interval start position. It is
243 interpreted as an abolute position, or as a relative offset from the
244 current position if it is preceded by the "+" character. If this first
245 part is not specified, no seeking will be performed when reading this
248 The second part specifies the interval end position. It is interpreted
249 as an absolute position, or as a relative offset from the current
250 position if it is preceded by the "+" character. If the offset
251 specification starts with "#", it is interpreted as the number of
252 packets to read (not including the flushing packets) from the interval
253 start. If no second part is specified, the program will read until the
256 Note that seeking is not accurate, thus the actual interval start
257 point may be different from the specified position. Also, when an
258 interval duration is specified, the absolute end time will be computed
259 by adding the duration to the interval start point found by seeking
260 the file, rather than to the specified start value.
262 The formal syntax is given by:
264 @var{INTERVAL} ::= [@var{START}|+@var{START_OFFSET}][%[@var{END}|+@var{END_OFFSET}]]
265 @var{INTERVALS} ::= @var{INTERVAL}[,@var{INTERVALS}]
268 A few examples follow.
271 Seek to time 10, read packets until 20 seconds after the found seek
272 point, then seek to position @code{01:30} (1 minute and thirty
273 seconds) and read packets until position @code{01:45}.
279 Read only 42 packets after seeking to position @code{01:23}:
285 Read only the first 20 seconds from the start:
291 Read from the start until position @code{02:30}:
297 @item -show_private_data, -private
298 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
299 particular shown element.
300 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
301 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
303 @item -show_program_version
304 Show information related to program version.
306 Version information is printed within a section with name
309 @item -show_library_versions
310 Show information related to library versions.
312 Version information for each library is printed within a section with
313 name "LIBRARY_VERSION".
316 Show information related to program and library versions. This is the
317 equivalent of setting both @option{-show_program_version} and
318 @option{-show_library_versions} options.
321 Force bitexact output, useful to produce output which is not dependent
322 on the specific build.
324 @item -i @var{input_file}
325 Read @var{input_file}.
333 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
334 used for printing all the parts of the output.
336 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options
337 to adopt. The options are specified as a list of @var{key}=@var{value}
338 pairs, separated by ":".
340 A description of the currently available writers follows.
345 Print each section in the form:
354 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT, STREAM or
355 PROGRAM_STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
357 A description of the accepted options follows.
362 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value
365 @item noprint_wrappers, nw
366 If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer.
370 @section compact, csv
371 Compact and CSV format.
373 The @code{csv} writer is equivalent to @code{compact}, but supports
376 Each section is printed on a single line.
377 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
379 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
382 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
383 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
386 The description of the accepted options follows.
391 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
392 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default ("," for
393 the @code{csv} writer).
396 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
397 value is 0 (1 for the @code{csv} writer).
400 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c" ("csv" for the @code{csv}
403 It can assume one of the following values:
406 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n'), carriage
407 return ('\r'), a tab ('\t'), a form feed ('\f'), the escaping
408 character ('\') or the item separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
409 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
410 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
411 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
414 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
415 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
416 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
422 @item print_section, p
423 Print the section name at the begin of each line if the value is
424 @code{1}, disable it with value set to @code{0}. Default value is
432 A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
433 "streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be
434 directly embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an
435 alphanumeric character or an underscore (see @var{sep_char} option).
437 The description of the accepted options follows.
441 Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and
442 potential tags in the printed field key.
444 Default value is '.'.
446 @item hierarchical, h
447 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
448 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
449 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
450 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
458 Print output in an INI based format.
460 The following conventions are adopted:
464 all key and values are UTF-8
466 '.' is the subgroup separator
468 newline, '\t', '\f', '\b' and the following characters are escaped
470 '\' is the escape character
472 '#' is the comment indicator
474 '=' is the key/value separator
476 ':' is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
479 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
482 The description of the accepted options follows.
485 @item hierarchical, h
486 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
487 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
488 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
489 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
497 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
499 The description of the accepted options follows.
504 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
505 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
508 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
513 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
514 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
516 An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
517 @url{http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd}, which redirects to the
518 latest schema committed into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
520 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
521 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
522 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
523 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
525 The description of the accepted options follows.
529 @item fully_qualified, q
530 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
532 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
535 @item xsd_compliant, x
536 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
537 compliant. Default value is 0.
538 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
541 For more information about the XML format, see
542 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
546 @c man begin TIMECODE
548 @command{ffprobe} supports Timecode extraction:
553 MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video
554 stream details (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{timecode}).
557 MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd
558 stream metadata (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
561 DV, GXF and AVI timecodes are available in format metadata
562 (@option{-show_format}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
572 @ifset config-avcodec
574 @include bitstream_filters.texi
576 @ifset config-avformat
577 @include formats.texi
578 @include protocols.texi
580 @ifset config-avdevice
581 @include devices.texi
583 @ifset config-swresample
584 @include resampler.texi
586 @ifset config-swscale
589 @ifset config-avfilter
590 @include filters.texi
598 @url{ffprobe.html,ffprobe},
600 @ifset config-not-all
601 @url{ffprobe-all.html,ffprobe-all},
603 @url{ffmpeg.html,ffmpeg}, @url{ffplay.html,ffplay}, @url{ffserver.html,ffserver},
604 @url{ffmpeg-utils.html,ffmpeg-utils},
605 @url{ffmpeg-scaler.html,ffmpeg-scaler},
606 @url{ffmpeg-resampler.html,ffmpeg-resampler},
607 @url{ffmpeg-codecs.html,ffmpeg-codecs},
608 @url{ffmpeg-bitstream-filters.html,ffmpeg-bitstream-filters},
609 @url{ffmpeg-formats.html,ffmpeg-formats},
610 @url{ffmpeg-devices.html,ffmpeg-devices},
611 @url{ffmpeg-protocols.html,ffmpeg-protocols},
612 @url{ffmpeg-filters.html,ffmpeg-filters}
619 @ifset config-not-all
622 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1),
623 ffmpeg-utils(1), ffmpeg-scaler(1), ffmpeg-resampler(1),
624 ffmpeg-codecs(1), ffmpeg-bitstream-filters(1), ffmpeg-formats(1),
625 ffmpeg-devices(1), ffmpeg-protocols(1), ffmpeg-filters(1)
628 @include authors.texi
633 @settitle ffprobe media prober