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 media stream contained in the input
120 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
123 @item -show_private_data, -private
124 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
125 particular shown element.
126 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
127 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
129 @item -i @var{input_file}
130 Read @var{input_file}.
138 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
139 used for printing all the parts of the output.
141 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to
144 A description of the currently available writers follows.
149 Print each section in the form:
158 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
159 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
164 Each section is printed on a single line.
165 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
167 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
170 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
171 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
174 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
177 The description of the accepted options follows.
182 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
183 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default.
186 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
190 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c".
192 It can assume one of the following values:
195 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n') or
196 carriage return ('\r'), the escaping character ('\') or the item
197 separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
198 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
199 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
200 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
203 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
204 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
205 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
216 This writer is equivalent to
217 @code{compact=item_sep=,:nokey=1:escape=csv}.
222 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
224 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
229 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
230 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
232 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
233 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
234 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
235 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
237 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
240 The description of the accepted options follows.
244 @item fully_qualified, q
245 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
247 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
250 @item xsd_compliant, x
251 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
252 compliant. Default value is 0.
253 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
256 For more information about the XML format, see
257 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
261 @include decoders.texi
262 @include demuxers.texi
263 @include protocols.texi
269 @settitle ffprobe media prober
272 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
276 The FFmpeg developers