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" or "STREAM" section.
54 @include avtools-common-opts.texi
64 Show the unit of the displayed values.
67 Use SI prefixes for the displayed values.
68 Unless the "-byte_binary_prefix" option is used all the prefixes
71 @item -byte_binary_prefix
72 Force the use of binary prefixes for byte values.
75 Use sexagesimal format HH:MM:SS.MICROSECONDS for time values.
78 Prettify the format of the displayed values, it corresponds to the
79 options "-unit -prefix -byte_binary_prefix -sexagesimal".
81 @item -of, -print_format @var{writer_name}[=@var{writer_options}]
82 Set the output printing format.
84 @var{writer_name} specifies the name of the writer, and
85 @var{writer_options} specifies the options to be passed to the writer.
87 For example for printing the output in JSON format, specify:
92 For more details on the available output printing formats, see the
93 Writers section below.
96 Print sections structure and section information, and exit. The output
97 is not meant to be parsed by a machine.
99 @item -select_streams @var{stream_specifier}
100 Select only the streams specified by @var{stream_specifier}. This
101 option affects only the options related to streams
102 (e.g. @code{show_streams}, @code{show_packets}, etc.).
104 For example to show only audio streams, you can use the command:
106 ffprobe -show_streams -select_streams a INPUT
109 To show only video packets belonging to the video stream with index 1:
111 ffprobe -show_packets -select_streams v:1 INPUT
115 Show payload data, as an hexadecimal and ASCII dump. Coupled with
116 @option{-show_packets}, it will dump the packets' data. Coupled with
117 @option{-show_streams}, it will dump the codec extradata.
119 The dump is printed as the "data" field. It may contain newlines.
122 Show information about the error found when trying to probe the input.
124 The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".
127 Show information about the container format of the input multimedia
130 All the container format information is printed within a section with
133 @item -show_format_entry @var{name}
134 Like @option{-show_format}, but only prints the specified entry of the
135 container format information, rather than all. This option may be given more
136 than once, then all specified entries will be shown.
138 This option is deprecated, use @code{show_entries} instead.
140 @item -show_entries @var{section_entries}
141 Set list of entries to show.
143 Entries are specified according to the following
144 syntax. @var{section_entries} contains a list of section entries
145 separated by @code{:}. Each section entry is composed by a section
146 name (or unique name), optionally followed by a list of entries local
147 to that section, separated by @code{,}.
149 If section name is specified but is followed by no @code{=}, all
150 entries are printed to output, together with all the contained
151 sections. Otherwise only the entries specified in the local section
152 entries list are printed. In particular, if @code{=} is specified but
153 the list of local entries is empty, then no entries will be shown for
156 Note that the order of specification of the local section entries is
157 not honored in the output, and the usual display order will be
160 The formal syntax is given by:
162 @var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES} ::= @var{SECTION_ENTRY_NAME}[,@var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES}]
163 @var{SECTION_ENTRY} ::= @var{SECTION_NAME}[=[@var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES}]]
164 @var{SECTION_ENTRIES} ::= @var{SECTION_ENTRY}[:@var{SECTION_ENTRIES}]
167 For example, to show only the index and type of each stream, and the PTS
168 time, duration time, and stream index of the packets, you can specify
171 packet=pts_time,duration_time,stream_index : stream=index,codec_type
174 To show all the entries in the section "format", but only the codec
175 type in the section "stream", specify the argument:
177 format : stream=codec_type
180 To show all the tags in the stream and format sections:
182 format_tags : format_tags
185 To show only the @code{title} tag (if available) in the stream
192 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
195 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
196 section with name "PACKET".
199 Show information about each frame contained in the input multimedia
202 The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated
203 section with name "FRAME".
206 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
209 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
213 Show information about chapters stored in the format.
215 Each chapter is printed within a dedicated section with name "CHAPTER".
218 Count the number of frames per stream and report it in the
219 corresponding stream section.
222 Count the number of packets per stream and report it in the
223 corresponding stream section.
225 @item -show_private_data, -private
226 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
227 particular shown element.
228 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
229 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
231 @item -show_program_version
232 Show information related to program version.
234 Version information is printed within a section with name
237 @item -show_library_versions
238 Show information related to library versions.
240 Version information for each library is printed within a section with
241 name "LIBRARY_VERSION".
244 Show information related to program and library versions. This is the
245 equivalent of setting both @option{-show_program_version} and
246 @option{-show_library_versions} options.
249 Force bitexact output, useful to produce output which is not dependent
250 on the specific build.
252 @item -i @var{input_file}
253 Read @var{input_file}.
261 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
262 used for printing all the parts of the output.
264 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options
265 to adopt. The options are specified as a list of @var{key}=@var{value}
266 pairs, separated by ":".
268 A description of the currently available writers follows.
273 Print each section in the form:
282 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
283 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
285 A description of the accepted options follows.
290 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value
293 @item noprint_wrappers, nw
294 If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer.
298 @section compact, csv
299 Compact and CSV format.
301 The @code{csv} writer is equivalent to @code{compact}, but supports
304 Each section is printed on a single line.
305 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
307 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
310 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
311 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
314 The description of the accepted options follows.
319 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
320 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default ("," for
321 the @code{csv} writer).
324 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
325 value is 0 (1 for the @code{csv} writer).
328 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c" ("csv" for the @code{csv}
331 It can assume one of the following values:
334 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n'), carriage
335 return ('\r'), a tab ('\t'), a form feed ('\f'), the escaping
336 character ('\') or the item separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
337 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
338 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
339 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
342 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
343 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
344 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
350 @item print_section, p
351 Print the section name at the begin of each line if the value is
352 @code{1}, disable it with value set to @code{0}. Default value is
360 A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
361 "streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be
362 directly embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an
363 alphanumeric character or an underscore (see @var{sep_char} option).
365 The description of the accepted options follows.
369 Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and
370 potential tags in the printed field key.
372 Default value is '.'.
374 @item hierarchical, h
375 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
376 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
377 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
378 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
386 Print output in an INI based format.
388 The following conventions are adopted:
392 all key and values are UTF-8
394 '.' is the subgroup separator
396 newline, '\t', '\f', '\b' and the following characters are escaped
398 '\' is the escape character
400 '#' is the comment indicator
402 '=' is the key/value separator
404 ':' is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
407 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
410 The description of the accepted options follows.
413 @item hierarchical, h
414 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
415 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
416 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
417 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
425 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
427 The description of the accepted options follows.
432 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
433 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
436 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
441 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
442 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
444 An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
445 @url{http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd}, which redirects to the
446 latest schema committed into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
448 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
449 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
450 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
451 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
453 The description of the accepted options follows.
457 @item fully_qualified, q
458 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
460 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
463 @item xsd_compliant, x
464 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
465 compliant. Default value is 0.
466 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
469 For more information about the XML format, see
470 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
474 @c man begin TIMECODE
476 @command{ffprobe} supports Timecode extraction:
481 MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video
482 stream details (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{timecode}).
485 MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd
486 stream metadata (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
489 DV, GXF and AVI timecodes are available in format metadata
490 (@option{-show_format}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
500 @ifset config-avcodec
502 @include bitstream_filters.texi
504 @ifset config-avformat
505 @include formats.texi
506 @include protocols.texi
508 @ifset config-avdevice
509 @include devices.texi
511 @ifset config-swresample
512 @include resampler.texi
514 @ifset config-swscale
517 @ifset config-avfilter
518 @include filters.texi
526 @url{ffprobe.html,ffprobe},
528 @ifset config-not-all
529 @url{ffprobe-all.html,ffprobe-all},
531 @url{ffmpeg.html,ffmpeg}, @url{ffplay.html,ffplay}, @url{ffserver.html,ffserver},
532 @url{ffmpeg-utils.html,ffmpeg-utils},
533 @url{ffmpeg-scaler.html,ffmpeg-scaler},
534 @url{ffmpeg-resampler.html,ffmpeg-resampler},
535 @url{ffmpeg-codecs.html,ffmpeg-codecs},
536 @url{ffmpeg-bitstream-filters.html,ffmpeg-bitstream-filters},
537 @url{ffmpeg-formats.html,ffmpeg-formats},
538 @url{ffmpeg-devices.html,ffmpeg-devices},
539 @url{ffmpeg-protocols.html,ffmpeg-protocols},
540 @url{ffmpeg-filters.html,ffmpeg-filters}
547 @ifset config-not-all
550 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1),
551 ffmpeg-utils(1), ffmpeg-scaler(1), ffmpeg-resampler(1),
552 ffmpeg-codecs(1), ffmpeg-bitstream-filters(1), ffmpeg-formats(1),
553 ffmpeg-devices(1), ffmpeg-protocols(1), ffmpeg-filters(1)
556 @include authors.texi
561 @settitle ffprobe media prober