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.
122 @item -show_data_hash @var{algorithm}
123 Show a hash of payload data, for packets with @option{-show_packets} and for
124 codec extradata with @option{-show_streams}.
127 Show information about the error found when trying to probe the input.
129 The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".
132 Show information about the container format of the input multimedia
135 All the container format information is printed within a section with
138 @item -show_format_entry @var{name}
139 Like @option{-show_format}, but only prints the specified entry of the
140 container format information, rather than all. This option may be given more
141 than once, then all specified entries will be shown.
143 This option is deprecated, use @code{show_entries} instead.
145 @item -show_entries @var{section_entries}
146 Set list of entries to show.
148 Entries are specified according to the following
149 syntax. @var{section_entries} contains a list of section entries
150 separated by @code{:}. Each section entry is composed by a section
151 name (or unique name), optionally followed by a list of entries local
152 to that section, separated by @code{,}.
154 If section name is specified but is followed by no @code{=}, all
155 entries are printed to output, together with all the contained
156 sections. Otherwise only the entries specified in the local section
157 entries list are printed. In particular, if @code{=} is specified but
158 the list of local entries is empty, then no entries will be shown for
161 Note that the order of specification of the local section entries is
162 not honored in the output, and the usual display order will be
165 The formal syntax is given by:
167 @var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES} ::= @var{SECTION_ENTRY_NAME}[,@var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES}]
168 @var{SECTION_ENTRY} ::= @var{SECTION_NAME}[=[@var{LOCAL_SECTION_ENTRIES}]]
169 @var{SECTION_ENTRIES} ::= @var{SECTION_ENTRY}[:@var{SECTION_ENTRIES}]
172 For example, to show only the index and type of each stream, and the PTS
173 time, duration time, and stream index of the packets, you can specify
176 packet=pts_time,duration_time,stream_index : stream=index,codec_type
179 To show all the entries in the section "format", but only the codec
180 type in the section "stream", specify the argument:
182 format : stream=codec_type
185 To show all the tags in the stream and format sections:
187 stream_tags : format_tags
190 To show only the @code{title} tag (if available) in the stream
197 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
200 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
201 section with name "PACKET".
204 Show information about each frame and subtitle contained in the input
207 The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated
208 section with name "FRAME" or "SUBTITLE".
211 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
214 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
218 Show information about programs and their streams contained in the input
221 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
222 with name "PROGRAM_STREAM".
225 Show information about chapters stored in the format.
227 Each chapter is printed within a dedicated section with name "CHAPTER".
230 Count the number of frames per stream and report it in the
231 corresponding stream section.
234 Count the number of packets per stream and report it in the
235 corresponding stream section.
237 @item -read_intervals @var{read_intervals}
239 Read only the specified intervals. @var{read_intervals} must be a
240 sequence of interval specifications separated by ",".
241 @command{ffprobe} will seek to the interval starting point, and will
242 continue reading from that.
244 Each interval is specified by two optional parts, separated by "%".
246 The first part specifies the interval start position. It is
247 interpreted as an abolute position, or as a relative offset from the
248 current position if it is preceded by the "+" character. If this first
249 part is not specified, no seeking will be performed when reading this
252 The second part specifies the interval end position. It is interpreted
253 as an absolute position, or as a relative offset from the current
254 position if it is preceded by the "+" character. If the offset
255 specification starts with "#", it is interpreted as the number of
256 packets to read (not including the flushing packets) from the interval
257 start. If no second part is specified, the program will read until the
260 Note that seeking is not accurate, thus the actual interval start
261 point may be different from the specified position. Also, when an
262 interval duration is specified, the absolute end time will be computed
263 by adding the duration to the interval start point found by seeking
264 the file, rather than to the specified start value.
266 The formal syntax is given by:
268 @var{INTERVAL} ::= [@var{START}|+@var{START_OFFSET}][%[@var{END}|+@var{END_OFFSET}]]
269 @var{INTERVALS} ::= @var{INTERVAL}[,@var{INTERVALS}]
272 A few examples follow.
275 Seek to time 10, read packets until 20 seconds after the found seek
276 point, then seek to position @code{01:30} (1 minute and thirty
277 seconds) and read packets until position @code{01:45}.
283 Read only 42 packets after seeking to position @code{01:23}:
289 Read only the first 20 seconds from the start:
295 Read from the start until position @code{02:30}:
301 @item -show_private_data, -private
302 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
303 particular shown element.
304 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
305 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
307 @item -show_program_version
308 Show information related to program version.
310 Version information is printed within a section with name
313 @item -show_library_versions
314 Show information related to library versions.
316 Version information for each library is printed within a section with
317 name "LIBRARY_VERSION".
320 Show information related to program and library versions. This is the
321 equivalent of setting both @option{-show_program_version} and
322 @option{-show_library_versions} options.
325 Force bitexact output, useful to produce output which is not dependent
326 on the specific build.
328 @item -i @var{input_file}
329 Read @var{input_file}.
337 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
338 used for printing all the parts of the output.
340 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options
341 to adopt. The options are specified as a list of @var{key}=@var{value}
342 pairs, separated by ":".
344 All writers support the following options:
347 @item string_validation, sv
348 Set string validation mode.
350 The following values are accepted.
353 The writer will fail immediately in case an invalid string (UTF-8)
354 sequence or code point is found in the input. This is especially
355 useful to validate input metadata.
358 Any validation error will be ignored. This will result in possibly
359 broken output, especially with the json or xml writer.
362 The writer will substitute invalid UTF-8 sequences or code points with
363 the string specified with the @option{string_validation_replacement}.
366 Default value is @samp{replace}.
368 @item string_validation_replacement, svr
369 Set replacement string to use in case @option{string_validation} is
370 set to @samp{replace}.
372 In case the option is not specified, the writer will assume the empty
373 string, that is it will remove the invalid sequences from the input
377 A description of the currently available writers follows.
382 Print each section in the form:
391 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT, STREAM or
392 PROGRAM_STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
394 A description of the accepted options follows.
399 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value
402 @item noprint_wrappers, nw
403 If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer.
407 @section compact, csv
408 Compact and CSV format.
410 The @code{csv} writer is equivalent to @code{compact}, but supports
413 Each section is printed on a single line.
414 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
416 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
419 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
420 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
423 The description of the accepted options follows.
428 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
429 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default ("," for
430 the @code{csv} writer).
433 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
434 value is 0 (1 for the @code{csv} writer).
437 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c" ("csv" for the @code{csv}
440 It can assume one of the following values:
443 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n'), carriage
444 return ('\r'), a tab ('\t'), a form feed ('\f'), the escaping
445 character ('\') or the item separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
446 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
447 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
448 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
451 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
452 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
453 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
459 @item print_section, p
460 Print the section name at the begin of each line if the value is
461 @code{1}, disable it with value set to @code{0}. Default value is
469 A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
470 "streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be
471 directly embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an
472 alphanumeric character or an underscore (see @var{sep_char} option).
474 The description of the accepted options follows.
478 Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and
479 potential tags in the printed field key.
481 Default value is '.'.
483 @item hierarchical, h
484 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
485 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
486 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
487 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
495 Print output in an INI based format.
497 The following conventions are adopted:
501 all key and values are UTF-8
503 '.' is the subgroup separator
505 newline, '\t', '\f', '\b' and the following characters are escaped
507 '\' is the escape character
509 '#' is the comment indicator
511 '=' is the key/value separator
513 ':' is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
516 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
519 The description of the accepted options follows.
522 @item hierarchical, h
523 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
524 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
525 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
526 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
534 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
536 The description of the accepted options follows.
541 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
542 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
545 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
550 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
551 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
553 An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
554 @url{http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd}, which redirects to the
555 latest schema committed into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
557 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
558 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
559 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
560 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
562 The description of the accepted options follows.
566 @item fully_qualified, q
567 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
569 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
572 @item xsd_compliant, x
573 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
574 compliant. Default value is 0.
575 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
578 For more information about the XML format, see
579 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
583 @c man begin TIMECODE
585 @command{ffprobe} supports Timecode extraction:
590 MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video
591 stream details (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{timecode}).
594 MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd
595 stream metadata (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
598 DV, GXF and AVI timecodes are available in format metadata
599 (@option{-show_format}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
610 @ifset config-avcodec
612 @include bitstream_filters.texi
614 @ifset config-avformat
615 @include formats.texi
616 @include protocols.texi
618 @ifset config-avdevice
619 @include devices.texi
621 @ifset config-swresample
622 @include resampler.texi
624 @ifset config-swscale
627 @ifset config-avfilter
628 @include filters.texi
636 @url{ffprobe.html,ffprobe},
638 @ifset config-not-all
639 @url{ffprobe-all.html,ffprobe-all},
641 @url{ffmpeg.html,ffmpeg}, @url{ffplay.html,ffplay}, @url{ffserver.html,ffserver},
642 @url{ffmpeg-utils.html,ffmpeg-utils},
643 @url{ffmpeg-scaler.html,ffmpeg-scaler},
644 @url{ffmpeg-resampler.html,ffmpeg-resampler},
645 @url{ffmpeg-codecs.html,ffmpeg-codecs},
646 @url{ffmpeg-bitstream-filters.html,ffmpeg-bitstream-filters},
647 @url{ffmpeg-formats.html,ffmpeg-formats},
648 @url{ffmpeg-devices.html,ffmpeg-devices},
649 @url{ffmpeg-protocols.html,ffmpeg-protocols},
650 @url{ffmpeg-filters.html,ffmpeg-filters}
657 @ifset config-not-all
660 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1),
661 ffmpeg-utils(1), ffmpeg-scaler(1), ffmpeg-resampler(1),
662 ffmpeg-codecs(1), ffmpeg-bitstream-filters(1), ffmpeg-formats(1),
663 ffmpeg-devices(1), ffmpeg-protocols(1), ffmpeg-filters(1)
666 @include authors.texi
671 @settitle ffprobe media prober