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.
174 Force bitexact output, useful to produce output which is not dependent
175 on the specific build.
177 @item -i @var{input_file}
178 Read @var{input_file}.
186 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
187 used for printing all the parts of the output.
189 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to
192 A description of the currently available writers follows.
197 Print each section in the form:
206 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
207 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
209 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
212 A description of the accepted options follows.
217 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value
220 @item noprint_wrappers, nw
221 If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer.
225 @section compact, csv
226 Compact and CSV format.
228 The @code{csv} writer is equivalent to @code{compact}, but supports
231 Each section is printed on a single line.
232 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
234 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
237 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
238 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
241 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
244 The description of the accepted options follows.
249 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
250 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default ("," for
251 the @code{csv} writer).
254 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
255 value is 0 (1 for the @code{csv} writer).
258 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c" ("csv" for the @code{csv}
261 It can assume one of the following values:
264 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n'), carriage
265 return ('\r'), a tab ('\t'), a form feed ('\f'), the escaping
266 character ('\') or the item separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
267 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
268 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
269 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
272 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
273 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
274 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
280 @item print_section, p
281 Print the section name at the begin of each line if the value is
282 @code{1}, disable it with value set to @code{0}. Default value is
290 A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
291 "streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be
292 directly embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an
293 alphanumeric character or an underscore (see @var{sep_char} option).
295 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
298 The description of the accepted options follows.
302 Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and
303 potential tags in the printed field key.
305 Default value is '.'.
307 @item hierarchical, h
308 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
309 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
310 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
311 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
319 Print output in an INI based format.
321 The following conventions are adopted:
325 all key and values are UTF-8
327 '.' is the subgroup separator
329 newline, '\t', '\f', '\b' and the following characters are escaped
331 '\' is the escape character
333 '#' is the comment indicator
335 '=' is the key/value separator
337 ':' is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
340 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
343 The description of the accepted options follows.
346 @item hierarchical, h
347 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
348 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
349 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
350 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
358 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
360 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
363 The description of the accepted options follows.
368 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
369 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
372 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
377 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
378 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
380 An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
381 @url{http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd}, which redirects to the
382 latest schema committed into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
384 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
385 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
386 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
387 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
389 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
392 The description of the accepted options follows.
396 @item fully_qualified, q
397 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
399 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
402 @item xsd_compliant, x
403 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
404 compliant. Default value is 0.
405 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
408 For more information about the XML format, see
409 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
413 @c man begin TIMECODE
415 @command{ffprobe} supports Timecode extraction:
420 MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video
421 stream details (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{timecode}).
424 MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd
425 stream metadata (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
428 DV, GXF and AVI timecodes are available in format metadata
429 (@option{-show_format}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
435 @include decoders.texi
436 @include demuxers.texi
437 @include protocols.texi
443 @settitle ffprobe media prober
446 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
450 The FFmpeg developers