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 -of, -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
109 @item -show_format_entry @var{name}
110 Like @option{-show_format}, but only prints the specified entry of the
111 container format information, rather than all. This option may be given more
112 than once, then all specified entries will be shown.
115 Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia
118 The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated
119 section with name "PACKET".
122 Show information about each frame contained in the input multimedia
125 The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated
126 section with name "FRAME".
129 Show information about each media stream contained in the input
132 Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section
136 Count the number of frames per stream and report it in the
137 corresponding stream section.
140 Count the number of packets per stream and report it in the
141 corresponding stream section.
143 @item -show_private_data, -private
144 Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the
145 particular shown element.
146 This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it
147 for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.
149 @item -show_program_version
150 Show information related to program version.
152 Version information is printed within a section with name
155 @item -show_library_versions
156 Show information related to library versions.
158 Version information for each library is printed within a section with
159 name "LIBRARY_VERSION".
162 Show information related to program and library versions. This is the
163 equivalent of setting both @option{-show_program_version} and
164 @option{-show_library_versions} options.
166 @item -i @var{input_file}
167 Read @var{input_file}.
175 A writer defines the output format adopted by @command{ffprobe}, and will be
176 used for printing all the parts of the output.
178 A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to
181 A description of the currently available writers follows.
186 Print each section in the form:
195 Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or
196 STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".
198 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
201 A description of the accepted options follows.
206 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Default value
209 @item noprint_wrappers, nw
210 If set to 1 specify not to print the section header and footer.
217 Each section is printed on a single line.
218 If no option is specifid, the output has the form:
220 section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN
223 Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream"
224 section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string
227 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
230 The description of the accepted options follows.
235 Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line.
236 It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default.
239 If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default
243 Set the escape mode to use, default to "c".
245 It can assume one of the following values:
248 Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n'), carriage
249 return ('\r'), a tab ('\t'), a form feed ('\f'), the escaping
250 character ('\') or the item separator character @var{SEP} are escaped using C-like fashioned
251 escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a
252 carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator @var{SEP} is
253 converted to "\@var{SEP}".
256 Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180. Strings
257 containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote
258 ('"'), or @var{SEP} are enclosed in double-quotes.
269 This writer is equivalent to
270 @code{compact=item_sep=,:nokey=1:escape=csv}.
275 A free-form output where each line contains an explicit key=value, such as
276 "streams.stream.3.tags.foo=bar". The output is shell escaped, so it can be
277 directly embedded in sh scripts as long as the separator character is an
278 alphanumeric character or an underscore (see @var{sep_char} option).
280 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
283 The description of the accepted options follows.
287 Separator character used to separate the chapter, the section name, IDs and
288 potential tags in the printed field key.
290 Default value is '.'.
292 @item hierarchical, h
293 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
294 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
295 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
296 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
304 Print output in an INI based format.
306 The following conventions are adopted:
310 all key and values are UTF-8
312 '.' is the subgroup separator
314 newline, '\t', '\f', '\b' and the following characters are escaped
316 '\' is the escape character
318 '#' is the comment indicator
320 '=' is the key/value separator
322 ':' is not used but usually parsed as key/value separator
325 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
328 The description of the accepted options follows.
331 @item hierarchical, h
332 Specify if the section name specification should be hierarchical. If
333 set to 1, and if there is more than one section in the current
334 chapter, the section name will be prefixed by the name of the
335 chapter. A value of 0 will disable this behavior.
343 Each section is printed using JSON notation.
345 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
348 The description of the accepted options follows.
353 If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be
354 printed on a single line. Default value is 0.
357 For more information about JSON, see @url{http://www.json.org/}.
362 The XML output is described in the XML schema description file
363 @file{ffprobe.xsd} installed in the FFmpeg datadir.
365 An updated version of the schema can be retrieved at the url
366 @url{http://www.ffmpeg.org/schema/ffprobe.xsd}, which redirects to the
367 latest schema committed into the FFmpeg development source code tree.
369 Note that the output issued will be compliant to the
370 @file{ffprobe.xsd} schema only when no special global output options
371 (@option{unit}, @option{prefix}, @option{byte_binary_prefix},
372 @option{sexagesimal} etc.) are specified.
374 This writer accepts options as a list of @var{key}=@var{value} pairs,
377 The description of the accepted options follows.
381 @item fully_qualified, q
382 If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default
384 This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated
387 @item xsd_compliant, x
388 If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD
389 compliant. Default value is 0.
390 This option automatically sets @option{fully_qualified} to 1.
393 For more information about the XML format, see
394 @url{http://www.w3.org/XML/}.
398 @c man begin TIMECODE
400 @command{ffprobe} supports Timecode extraction:
405 MPEG1/2 timecode is extracted from the GOP, and is available in the video
406 stream details (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{timecode}).
409 MOV timecode is extracted from tmcd track, so is available in the tmcd
410 stream metadata (@option{-show_streams}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
413 DV and GXF timecodes are available in format metadata
414 (@option{-show_format}, see @var{TAG:timecode}).
420 @include decoders.texi
421 @include demuxers.texi
422 @include protocols.texi
428 @settitle ffprobe media prober
431 ffmpeg(1), ffplay(1), ffserver(1) and the FFmpeg HTML documentation
435 The FFmpeg developers