LV2_PATH
Search path for LV2 bundles, in PATH format.
jalv1
Run an lv2 plugin with a command-line interface
Usage
jalv [-dhipstx]
[-b
size]
[-c
symbol=value]
[-U
ui_uri]
[-l
dir]
[-n
name]
plugin_state
Overview
jalv is a simple LV2 host that runs one plugin. It has several versions, this one has an interactive command-line interface.
jalv has one positional argument, which can be a plugin URI, preset URI, or the path to a bundle or data file that describes one.
The options are as follows:
-
-b bytes -
Buffer size for communication between plugin and UI. The default value should be enough, but if there are overflows, this option can be used to allocate more space.
-
-c symbol=value -
Set control value, for example,
-cvol=1.4 where “vol” is the symbol of a control port on the plugin. -
-d -
Dump communication between plugin and UI to stdout. Note that this may print an extreme amount of text, piping the output to a pager or file is recommended.
-
-h -
Print the command line options and exit.
-
-i -
Ignore input on stdin and run non-interactively.
-
-l frames -
Length of an audio block.
-
-n name -
Use the given JACK client name. Note that JACK may adjust the name if necessary unless
-xis also given. -
-p -
Print control output changes to stdout.
-
-s -
Show plugin UI if possible. This option only works when plugins provide a UI that uses the non-embeddable showHide interface. For embeddable UIs, use jalv.gtk3(1) instead.
-
-t -
Print debug trace messages. This enables the “trace” LV2 log, which is used by some plugins to print debugging output. Some extra internal error messages are also enabled. Note that this may print in the audio thread, which can cause dropouts.
-
-U uri -
Load the UI with the given URI. Usually only one suitable UI is available on a given platform, which is used by default. If there are several, this option can be used to select which is loaded.
-
-V -
Print version information and exit.
-
-x -
Use only the exact JACK client name given by
-nor exit if it's unavailable.
Commands
The Jalv prompt supports several commands for interactive control:
help-
Display help message.
controls-
Print settable control values.
monitors-
Print output control values.
presets-
Print available presets.
preseturi-
Ic preset Ar path Load and apply preset.
quit-
Quit program.
setindex value-
Set control value by port index (a non-negative integer).
setsymbol value-
Set control value by symbol (a simple string identifier).
Environment
Releases
8 releases since Debian 7 (Wheezy); the text changed 5 times.
-U since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-V since Arch Linux 2026-11-01;
-b since Debian 8 (Jessie);
-c since Debian 8 (Jessie);
-i since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-n since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-p since Debian 11 (Bullseye);
-s since Debian 9 (Stretch);
-t since Debian 9 (Stretch);
-x since Debian 11 (Bullseye).
--dump until Debian 8 (Jessie);
--help until Debian 8 (Jessie);
--load until Debian 8 (Jessie);
--uuid until Debian 8 (Jessie);
-u until Debian 10 (Buster).