Command line per-application volume (maybe amixer or pactl?)

Question

I can change the master volume with these commands (from the command line), and it affects all applications, but how do I change the volume for just one application (XMMS for example)?

amixer -q  set Master     toggle  # or pactl set-sink-mute   0 toggle
amixer -q sset Master 5%+ unmute  # or pactl set-sink-volume 0 -- -5%
amixer -q sset Master 5%- unmute  # or pactl set-sink-volume 0 -- +5%

pacmd dump # is interesting, and there are GUI applications that can do this: gnome-control-center sound, pavucontrol

Solution 1

You can get the number of sink Input with pactl command.

$ pactl list sink-inputs
...
Sink Input #7119
    Driver: protocol-native.c
    Owner Module: 12
    Client: 6298
    Sink: 0
...
Properties:
    application.icon_name = "google-chrome"
    media.name = "Playback"
    application.name = "Chromium"
...

Using this number(#7119), you specify the sink Input.

$ pactl set-sink-input-mute 7119 toggle

It will identify the application with application.icon_name property. The following is a case to specify the Chromium.

#!/bin/sh
LANGUAGE="en_US"

app_name="Chromium"

current_sink_num=''
sink_num_check=''
app_name_check=''

pactl list sink-inputs |while read line; do \
    sink_num_check=$(echo "$line" |sed -rn 's/^Sink Input #(.*)/\1/p')
    if [ "$sink_num_check" != "" ]; then
        current_sink_num="$sink_num_check"
    else
        app_name_check=$(echo "$line" \
            |sed -rn 's/application.name = "([^"]*)"/\1/p')
        if [ "$app_name_check" = "$app_name" ]; then
            echo "$current_sink_num" "$app_name_check"

            pactl set-sink-input-mute "$current_sink_num" toggle
        fi
    fi
done

Solution 2

For PulseAudio Roland Haas has written a tool:
https://github.com/rhaas80/pa_volume

I had to install libpulse-dev linux-libc-dev libc6-dev zlib1g-dev libpcre3-dev libglib2.0-0 libglib2.0-dev.
You might also need a compiler (gcc) to make.

Source: https://askubuntu.com/a/968540/382812 "How to change volume of pulseaudio playback-apps / -streams that aren't currently in use?"

Solution 3

If you're looking for a TUI that does what pavucontrol does check out pulsemixer.

It does just that,

You can see the Playback below, that shows all things playing to that sink (the sink-inputs).

Solution 4

My snippet for playback volume control to change volume by 5% and toggle mute.

#!/bin/bash

inc() {
  playback_input=$(pactl list sink-inputs short | awk '{print $1}' | head -1)
  pactl set-sink-input-volume "$playback_input" +5%
}

dec() {
  playback_input=$(pactl list sink-inputs short | awk '{print $1}' | head -1)
  pactl set-sink-input-volume "$playback_input" -5%
}

mute() {
  playback_input=$(pactl list sink-inputs short | awk '{print $1}' | head -1)
  pactl set-sink-input-mute "$playback_input" toggle
}

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Comments

[Jeff Schaller]

This is possibly useful technical information that does not address the question at all.

[äxl]

Why not? The question only says "maybe amixer or pactl".

[Jeff Schaller]

It seems to me that this answer points to a link which points to a link to a tool that may answer the question. Perhaps you could make it more obvious to casual readers of this site what you're suggesting by incorporating the AU answer here (with a link back to AU). Otherwise, this answer currently looks like an attempt to solve a make/compilation error. Thank you!

[mivk]

@JeffSchaller : I feel that it not only exactly addresses the problem, but also that the pa_volume utility it links to is indeed by far the best solution to this problem. And I have searched a long time...

[Jeff Schaller]

My point is that this question asks "how do I change the volume for just one application", and I don't see any steps in this Answer yet that demonstrate how to do that.