---
name: "darkice"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "darkice"
version: "1.5-1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/darkice"
---

# darkice(1)

an icecast / shoutcast live audio streamer

## NAME

darkice - an icecast / shoutcast live audio streamer

## SYNOPSIS

**darkice** \[options\] -c config.file

## DESCRIPTION

DarkIce as a live audio streamer. It records audio from an audio interface (e.g. sound card), encodes it and sends it to a streaming server.

DarkIce can record from:

    \* OSS audio devices\
     \* ALSA audio devices\
     \* Solaris audio interface\
     \* Jack sources\
     \* PulseAudio sources

DarkIce can encode in the following formats:

    \* mp3 - using the lame library\
     \* mp2 - using the twolame library\
     \* Ogg Vorbis\
     \* Ogg Opus\
     \* Ogg FLAC\
     \* AAC - using the faac library\
     \* AAC HEv2 - using the libaacplus (3GPP reference code)

DarkIce can send the encoded stream to the following streaming servers:

    \* ShoutCast\
     \* IceCast 1.3.x and 2.x\
     \* Darwin Streaming Server

Darkice runs on the following operating systems:

    \* FreeBSD\
     \* Linux on intel and PowerPC\
     \* MacOS X\
     \* NetBSD / OpenBSD\
     \* SUN Solaris

**DarkIce** uses POSIX real-time scheduling to keep up with sound card input. POSIX real-time scheduling is only available if the program is run as root. Therefore it is recommended that **DarkIce** is run as root.

## OPTIONS

- **-c** *config.file*

  Specifies what configuration file to use. If not specified, /etc/darkice.cfg will be used.

- **-v** *n*

  Sets the verbosity level, between 0 and 10. 0 is silent, 10 is loud. Defaults to 1.

- **-h**

  Prints the help page and exits.

## NOTES

When using the FLAC encoder with an icecast streamer, make sure to increase the *\<queue-size\>* setting.

## BUGS

Lots of bugs.

## SEE ALSO

[darkice.cfg(5)](/darkice.cfg/5.md), icecast(1)

## AUTHOR

Akos Maroy *\<darkeye@tyrell.hu\>*

## ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Developed with contributions by

    Jim Crilly, \<JCrilly@MSA.com\>\
     aNa\|0Gue, \<analogue@glop.org\>\
     Robin P. Blanchard, \<Robin\_Blanchard@gactr.uga.edu\>\
     Tom Gray, \<tomg@future-i.com\>\
     Michael Smith, \<msmith@labyrinth.net.au\>\
     Julius O. Smith, \<jos@ccrma.stanford.edu\>\
     the OSALP team, http://osalp.sourceforge.net\
     Kristjan G. Bjarnason \<kgb@gangverk.is\>\
     Nicu Pavel \<npavel@ituner.com\>\
     Kai Krakow \<kai@kaishome.de\>\
     Atsuhiko Yamanaka \<ymnk@jcraft.com\>\
     Ricardo Galli \<gallir@uib.es\>\
     John Hay \<jhay@icomtek.csir.co.za\>\
     Christian Forster \<forster@like.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de\>\
     John Deeny \<taqueso@dilapidated.org\>\
     Robert Lunnon \<bobl@optushome.com.au\>\
     Enrico Ardizzoni \<craken@users.sourceforge.net\>\
     Deti Fliegl \<deti@fliegl.de\>\
     Nicholas J. Humfrey \<njh@ecs.soton.ac.uk\>\
     Joel Ebel \<jbebel@ncsu.edu\>\
     \<jochen2@users.sourceforge.net\>\
     Alexander Vlasov \<zulu@galaradio.com\>\
     Mariusz Mazur \<mmazur@kernel.pl\>\
     dsk \<derrick@csociety.org\>\
     Clyde Stubbs \<clyde@htsoft.com\>\
     Jens Maurer \<Jens.Maurer@gmx.net\>\
     Elod Horvath \<elod@itfais.com\>\
     Pierre Souchay \<pierre@souchay.net\>\
     Daniel Hazelbaker \<daniel@highdesertchurch.com\>\
     Alessandro Beretta \<alessandro.baretta@radiomaria.org\>\
     Roland Hermans \<roland.hermans@omroepvenray.nl\>\
     Rafael Diniz \<rafael@riseup.net\>

## LINKS

Project homepage: *http://www.darkice.org/*

**IceCast** homepage: *http://www.icecast.org/*

**ShoutCast** homepage: *http://www.shoutcast.com/*

**Darwin Streaming Server** homepage: *http://developer.apple.com/darwin/projects/streaming/*

**Lame** homepage: *http://www.mp3dev.org/mp3/*

**TwoLame** homepage: *http://www.twolame.org/*

**Ogg Vorbis** homepage: *http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/*

**Ogg Opus** homepage *http://www.opus-codec.org/*

**faac** homepage: *http://www.audiocoding.com/*

**libaacplus** homepage: *http://tipok.org.ua/node/17*

**DarkSnow** GTK front-end: *http://darksnow.radiolivre.org/index.en.html* written by Rafael Diniz