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 -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 information about the error found when trying to probe the input.
100 The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".
103 Show information about the container format of the input multimedia
106 All the container format information is printed within a section with
110 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
113 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
114 section with name "PACKET".
117 Show information about each frame contained in the input multimedia
120 The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated
121 section with name "FRAME".
124 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
127 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
130 @item -show_private_data, -private
131 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
132 particular shown element.
133 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
134 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
136 @item -show_program_version
137 Show information related to program version.
139 Version information is printed within a section with name
142 @item -show_library_versions
143 Show information related to library versions.
145 Version information for each library is printed within a section with
146 name "LIBRARY_VERSION".
149 Show information related to program and library versions. This is the
150 equivalent of setting both @option{-show_program_version} and
151 @option{-show_library_versions} options.
153 @item -i @var{input_file}
154 Read @var{input_file}.
162 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
163 used for printing all the parts of the output.
165 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to
168 A description of the currently available writers follows.
173 Print each section in the form:
182 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
183 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
188 Each section is printed on a single line.
189 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
191 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
194 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
195 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
198 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
201 The description of the accepted options follows.
206 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
207 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default.
210 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
214 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c".
216 It can assume one of the following values:
219 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n') or
220 carriage return ('\r'), the escaping character ('\') or the item
221 separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
222 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
223 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
224 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
227 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
228 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
229 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
240 This writer is equivalent to
241 @code{compact=item_sep=,:nokey=1:escape=csv}.
246 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
248 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
251 The description of the accepted options follows.
256 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
257 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
260 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
265 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
266 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
268 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
269 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
270 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
271 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
273 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
276 The description of the accepted options follows.
280 @item fully_qualified, q
281 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
283 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
286 @item xsd_compliant, x
287 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
288 compliant. Default value is 0.
289 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
292 For more information about the XML format, see
293 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
297 @include decoders.texi
298 @include demuxers.texi
299 @include protocols.texi
305 @settitle ffprobe media prober
308 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
312 The FFmpeg developers