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 container format of the input multimedia
101 All the container format information is printed within a section with
105 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
108 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
109 section with name "PACKET".
112 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
115 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
118 @item -show_private_data, -private
119 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
120 particular shown element.
121 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
122 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
124 @item -i @var{input_file}
125 Read @var{input_file}.
133 A writer defines the output format adopted by @file{ffprobe}, and will be
134 used for printing all the parts of the output.
136 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to
139 A description of the currently available writers follows.
144 Print each section in the form:
153 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
154 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
159 Each section is printed on a single line.
160 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
162 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
165 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
166 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
169 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
172 The description of the accepted options follows.
177 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
178 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default.
181 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
185 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c".
187 It can assume one of the following values:
190 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n') or
191 carriage return ('\r'), the escaping character ('\') or the item
192 separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
193 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
194 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
195 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
198 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
199 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
200 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
211 This writer is equivalent to
212 @code{compact=item_sep=,:nokey=1:escape=csv}.
217 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
219 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
223 @include decoders.texi
224 @include demuxers.texi
225 @include protocols.texi
231 @settitle ffprobe media prober
234 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
238 The FFmpeg developers