vlc1

Usage

Overview

This manual page documents briefly the VLC multimedia player and server.

Options

VLC follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options starting with two dashes (`-'). For a precise description of options, please use "vlc --help".

The complete list of VLC options depends on what plugins are installed because they automatically add their own options. Please use "vlc --longhelp --advanced" for a complete list of available options.

Items

VLC recognizes several URL-style items:

*.mpg, *.vob, *.avi, *.mp3, *.ogg, *.opus

Various multimedia file formats

dvd://[<device>][@<raw device>][#[<title>][:[<chapter>][:<angle>]]]

DVD device (for instance dvd:///dev/dvd). The raw device is optional and must have been prepared beforehand.

vcd://[<device>][@{E|P|E|T|S}[<number>]]

VCD device (for instance vcd:///dev/cdrom).

udp://[@[<multicast address>][:<local port>]]

UDP stream, such as one sent by VLS or another VLC. Usually "udp://" is enough.

http://<server address>[:<server port>]/[<file>]

HTTP stream

rtsp://<server address>[:<server port>]/<stream name>

RTSP Video On Demand stream

vlc://<command>

Execute a playlist command. Commands are: pause (pause execution of other items), and quit (close VLC).

Environment

The following environment variables may affect VLC:

DISPLAY

The X11 display server address.

http_proxy

The HTTP proxy server URL.

OSSAUDIO_DEV

The default audio output device, used by the OSSv4 output plugin.

VLC_DATA_PATH

The directory containing VLC run-time data files (e.g. /usr/share/vlc).

VLC_PLUGIN_PATH

An extra directory to load VLC plugins from.

VLC_VERBOSE

The level of verbosity for log messages (0: silent, 1: error/info, 2: warning, 3: debug).

XDG_CACHE_DIR XDG_CONFIG_DIR XDG_DATA_DIR

The directories to store user cached data, user configuration files and user data files respectively.

XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR XDG_MUSIC_DIR XDG_PICTURES_DIR XDG_VIDEO_DIR

The directories to fetch or store user text files, downloads, music, pictures (i.e. snapshots), and video respectively.

XDG_SESSION_COOKIE

The unique identifier of the desktop session, used by the PulseAudio output plugin.