Synopsis
********

The generic syntax is:

     ffprobe [options] [input_file]

Description
***********

ffprobe gathers information from multimedia streams and prints it in human- and machine-readable fashion.

For example it can be used to check the format of the container used by a multimedia stream and the format and type of each media stream contained in it.

If a filename is specified in input, ffprobe will try to open and probe the file content. If the file cannot be opened or recognized as a multimedia file, a positive exit code is returned.

ffprobe may be employed both as a standalone application or in combination with a textual filter, which may perform more sophisticated processing, e.g. statistical processing or plotting.

Options are used to list some of the formats supported by ffprobe or for specifying which information to display, and for setting how ffprobe will show it.

ffprobe output is designed to be easily parsable by a textual filter, and consists of one or more sections of a form defined by the selected writer, which is specified by the print_format option.

Metadata tags stored in the container or in the streams are recognized and printed in the corresponding "FORMAT" or "STREAM" section.

Options
*******

     [file avtools-common-opts.texi not included]

Main options
============

-f FORMAT
     Force format to use.

-unit
     Show the unit of the displayed values.

-prefix
     Use SI prefixes for the displayed values. Unless the "-byte_binary_prefix" option is used all the prefixes are decimal.

-byte_binary_prefix
     Force the use of binary prefixes for byte values.

-sexagesimal
     Use sexagesimal format HH:MM:SS.MICROSECONDS for time values.

-pretty
     Prettify the format of the displayed values, it corresponds to the options "-unit -prefix -byte_binary_prefix -sexagesimal".

-print_format WRITER_NAME[=WRITER_OPTIONS]
     Set the output printing format.

     WRITER_NAME specifies the name of the writer, and WRITER_OPTIONS specifies the options to be passed to the writer.

     For example for printing the output in JSON format, specify:

          -print_format json

     For more details on the available output printing formats, see the Writers section below.

-show_error
     Show information about the error found when trying to probe the input.

     The error information is printed within a section with name "ERROR".

-show_format
     Show information about the container format of the input multimedia stream.

     All the container format information is printed within a section with name "FORMAT".

-show_packets
     Show information about each packet contained in the input multimedia stream.

     The information for each single packet is printed within a dedicated section with name "PACKET".

-show_frames
     Show information about each frame contained in the input multimedia stream.

     The information for each single frame is printed within a dedicated section with name "FRAME".

-show_streams
     Show information about each media stream contained in the input multimedia stream.

     Each media stream information is printed within a dedicated section with name "STREAM".

-show_private_data, -private
     Show private data, that is data depending on the format of the particular shown element. This option is enabled by default, but you may need to disable it for specific uses, for example when creating XSD-compliant XML output.

-show_program_version
     Show information related to program version.

     Version information is printed within a section with name "PROGRAM_VERSION".

-show_library_versions
     Show information related to library versions.

     Version information for each library is printed within a section with name "LIBRARY_VERSION".

-show_versions
     Show information related to program and library versions. This is the equivalent of setting both -show_program_version and -show_library_versions options.

-i INPUT_FILE
     Read INPUT_FILE.

Writers
*******

A writer defines the output format adopted by ffprobe, and will be used for printing all the parts of the output.

A writer may accept one or more arguments, which specify the options to adopt.

A description of the currently available writers follows.

default
=======

Default format.

Print each section in the form:

     [SECTION]
     key1=val1
     ...
     keyN=valN
     [/SECTION]

Metadata tags are printed as a line in the corresponding FORMAT or STREAM section, and are prefixed by the string "TAG:".

compact
=======

Compact format.

Each section is printed on a single line. If no option is specifid, the output has the form:

     section|key1=val1| ... |keyN=valN

Metadata tags are printed in the corresponding "format" or "stream" section. A metadata tag key, if printed, is prefixed by the string "tag:".

This writer accepts options as a list of KEY=VALUE pairs, separated by ":".

The description of the accepted options follows.

item_sep, s
     Specify the character to use for separating fields in the output line. It must be a single printable character, it is "|" by default.

nokey, nk
     If set to 1 specify not to print the key of each field. Its default value is 0.

escape, e
     Set the escape mode to use, default to "c".

     It can assume one of the following values:

     c
          Perform C-like escaping. Strings containing a newline ('\n') or carriage return ('\r'), the escaping character ('\') or the item separator character SEP are escaped using C-like fashioned escaping, so that a newline is converted to the sequence "\n", a carriage return to "\r", '\' to "\\" and the separator SEP is converted to "\SEP".

     csv
          Perform CSV-like escaping, as described in RFC4180.  Strings containing a newline ('\n'), a carriage return ('\r'), a double quote ('"'), or SEP are enclosed in double-quotes.

     none
          Perform no escaping.

csv
===

CSV format.

This writer is equivalent to compact=item_sep=,:nokey=1:escape=csv.

json
====

JSON based format.

Each section is printed using JSON notation.

This writer accepts options as a list of KEY=VALUE pairs, separated by ":".

The description of the accepted options follows.

compact, c
     If set to 1 enable compact output, that is each section will be printed on a single line. Default value is 0.

For more information about JSON, see http://www.json.org/.

xml
===

XML based format.

The XML output is described in the XML schema description file ffprobe.xsd installed in the FFmpeg datadir.

Note that the output issued will be compliant to the ffprobe.xsd schema only when no special global output options (unit, prefix, byte_binary_prefix, sexagesimal etc.) are specified.

This writer accepts options as a list of KEY=VALUE pairs, separated by ":".

The description of the accepted options follows.

fully_qualified, q
     If set to 1 specify if the output should be fully qualified. Default value is 0. This is required for generating an XML file which can be validated through an XSD file.

xsd_compliant, x
     If set to 1 perform more checks for ensuring that the output is XSD compliant. Default value is 0. This option automatically sets fully_qualified to 1.

For more information about the XML format, see http://www.w3.org/XML/.

     [file decoders.texi not included]
     [file demuxers.texi not included]
     [file protocols.texi not included]
     [file indevs.texi not included]