---
name: "pw-reserve"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "pipewire"
version: "1:1.6.10-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/pw-reserve"
---

# pw-reserve(1)

The PipeWire device reservation utility

## NAME

pw-reserve - The PipeWire device reservation utility

## SYNOPSIS

**pw-reserve** \[*options*\]

## DESCRIPTION

Reserves a device using the DBus org.freedesktop.ReserveDevice1 device reservation scheme \[1\], waiting until terminated by SIGINT or another signal.

It can also request other applications to release a device. This can be used to make audio servers such as PipeWire, Pulseaudio, JACK, or other applications that respect the device reservation protocol, to ignore a device, or to release a sound device they are already using so that it can be used by other applications.

## OPTIONS

- **-r \| --release**

  Request any client currently holding the device to release it, and try to reserve it after that. If this option is not given and the device is already in use, **pw-reserve** will exit with error status.

**-n NAME \| --name=NAME**

Name of the device to reserve. By convention, this is

- •

  Audio*N*: for ALSA card number *N*

**pw-reserve** can reserve any device name, however PipeWire does not currently support other values than listed above.

**-a NAME \| --appname=NAME**

Application name to use when reserving the device.

**-p PRIO \| --priority=PRIO**

Priority to use when reserving the device.

- **-m \| --monitor**

  Monitor reservations of a given device, instead of reserving it.

- **-h \| --help**

  Show help.

- **--version**

  Show version information.

## EXIT STATUS

If the device reservation succeeds, **pw-reserve** does not exit until terminated with a signal. It exits with status 0 if terminated by SIGINT or SIGTERM in this case.

Otherwise, it exits with nonzero exit status.

## EXAMPLES

**pw-reserve** -n Audio0

Reserve ALSA card 0, and exit with error if it is already reserved.

**pw-reserve** -n Audio0 -r

Reserve ALSA card 0, requesting any applications that have reserved the device to release it for us.

## AUTHORS

The PipeWire Developers \<https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pipewire/pipewire/issues\>; PipeWire is available from \<https://pipewire.org\>

## SEE ALSO

\[1\] https://git.0pointer.net/reserve.git/tree/reserve.txt - A simple device reservation scheme with DBus