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.
98 Show payload data, as an hexadecimal and ASCII dump. Coupled with
99 @option{-show_packets}, it will dump the packets' data. Coupled with
100 @option{-show_streams}, it will dump the codec extradata.
102 The dump is printed as the "data" field. It may contain newlines.
105 Show information about the error found when trying to probe the input.
107 The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".
110 Show information about the container format of the input multimedia
113 All the container format information is printed within a section with
116 @item -show_format_entry @var{name}
117 Like @option{-show_format}, but only prints the specified entry of the
118 container format information, rather than all. This option may be given more
119 than once, then all specified entries will be shown.
122 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
125 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
126 section with name "PACKET".
129 Show information about each frame contained in the input multimedia
132 The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated
133 section with name "FRAME".
136 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
139 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
143 Count the number of frames per stream and report it in the
144 corresponding stream section.
147 Count the number of packets per stream and report it in the
148 corresponding stream section.
150 @item -show_private_data, -private
151 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
152 particular shown element.
153 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
154 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
156 @item -show_program_version
157 Show information related to program version.
159 Version information is printed within a section with name
162 @item -show_library_versions
163 Show information related to library versions.
165 Version information for each library is printed within a section with
166 name "LIBRARY_VERSION".
169 Show information related to program and library versions. This is the
170 equivalent of setting both @option{-show_program_version} and
171 @option{-show_library_versions} options.
173 @item -i @var{input_file}
174 Read @var{input_file}.
182 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
183 used for printing all the parts of the output.
185 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to
188 A description of the currently available writers follows.
193 Print each section in the form:
202 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
203 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
205 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
208 A description of the accepted options follows.
213 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value
216 @item noprint_wrappers, nw
217 If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer.
224 Each section is printed on a single line.
225 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
227 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
230 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
231 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
234 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
237 The description of the accepted options follows.
242 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
243 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default.
246 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
250 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c".
252 It can assume one of the following values:
255 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n'), carriage
256 return ('\r'), a tab ('\t'), a form feed ('\f'), the escaping
257 character ('\') or the item separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
258 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
259 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
260 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
263 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
264 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
265 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
276 This writer is equivalent to
277 @code{compact=item_sep=,:nokey=1:escape=csv}.
282 A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
283 "streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be
284 directly embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an
285 alphanumeric character or an underscore (see @var{sep_char} option).
287 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
290 The description of the accepted options follows.
294 Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and
295 potential tags in the printed field key.
297 Default value is '.'.
299 @item hierarchical, h
300 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
301 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
302 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
303 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
311 Print output in an INI based format.
313 The following conventions are adopted:
317 all key and values are UTF-8
319 '.' is the subgroup separator
321 newline, '\t', '\f', '\b' and the following characters are escaped
323 '\' is the escape character
325 '#' is the comment indicator
327 '=' is the key/value separator
329 ':' is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
332 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
335 The description of the accepted options follows.
338 @item hierarchical, h
339 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
340 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
341 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
342 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
350 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
352 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
355 The description of the accepted options follows.
360 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
361 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
364 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
369 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
370 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
372 An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
373 @url{http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd}, which redirects to the
374 latest schema committed into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
376 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
377 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
378 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
379 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
381 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
384 The description of the accepted options follows.
388 @item fully_qualified, q
389 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
391 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
394 @item xsd_compliant, x
395 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
396 compliant. Default value is 0.
397 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
400 For more information about the XML format, see
401 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
405 @c man begin TIMECODE
407 @command{ffprobe} supports Timecode extraction:
412 MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video
413 stream details (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{timecode}).
416 MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd
417 stream metadata (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
420 DV, GXF and AVI timecodes are available in format metadata
421 (@option{-show_format}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
427 @include decoders.texi
428 @include demuxers.texi
429 @include protocols.texi
435 @settitle ffprobe media prober
438 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
442 The FFmpeg developers