The vlc media player
vlc [OPTIONS] [ITEMS]...
This manual page documents briefly the VLC multimedia player and server.
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.
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).
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.
Online documentation: http://www.videolan.org/doc/
This manual page was written by Sam Hocevar <[email protected]>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).