PipeWire is a low-level server and multimedia framework for handling audio and video

streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. Created by Wim Taymans at

Red Hat Red Hat, Inc. (formerly Red Hat Software, Inc.) is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises and is a subsidiary of IBM. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North ...

, it aims to unify audio and video processing by providing low-latency capture and playback functionality. Pipewire facilitates advanced

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

routing and

pipeline A pipeline is a system of Pipe (fluid conveyance), pipes for long-distance transportation of a liquid or gas, typically to a market area for consumption. The latest data from 2014 gives a total of slightly less than of pipeline in 120 countries ...

processing, and is designed to replace and be compatible with existing sound systems.

History

In 2015, Taymans started work on PipeWire. It was based on ideas from several existing projects, including one called PulseVideo by William Manley. According to Red Hat's Christian Schaller, it drew many of its ideas from an early PulseVideo prototype by Manley and builds upon some of the code that was merged into

GStreamer GStreamer is a Pipeline (computing), pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows. For instance, GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one f ...

due to that effort. A goal of the project was to improve handling of video on Linux in the same way that PulseAudio improved handling of audio. Although a separate project from PulseAudio, Taymans initially considered using the name "PulseVideo" for the new project. By June 2015, the name "Pinos" was being used, after the city Pinos de Alhaurin in Spain, where Taymans used to live. Initially, Pinos only handled video streams. By early 2017, Taymans had started working on integrating audio streams. Taymans wanted to support both consumer and professional audio use cases, and consulted Paul Davis ( JACK developer) and Robin Gareus ( Ardour developer) for advice on implementation for professional audio. At this time, the name "PipeWire" was adopted for the project. In November 2018, PipeWire was re-licensed from the

LGPL The GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) is a free-software license published by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The license allows developers and companies to use and integrate a software component released under the LGPL into their own ...

to the

MIT License The MIT License is a permissive software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts very few restrictions on reuse and therefore has high license compatibility. Unl ...

. In April 2021,

Fedora Linux Fedora Linux is a Linux distribution developed by the Fedora Project. It was originally developed in 2003 as a continuation of the Red Hat Linux project. It contains software distributed under various free and open-source licenses and aims to b ...

34 became the first

distribution to ship PipeWire for audio by default. A year later,

Pop! OS Pop OS (stylized as Pop!_OS) is a free and open-source Linux distribution, based on Ubuntu, and featuring a customized GNOME desktop environment known as COSMIC. The distribution is developed by American Linux computer manufacturer System76. ...

adopted it as the default audio server in version 22.04. It was made the default audio server in

Ubuntu Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical (company), Canonical and a community of contributors under a Meritocracy, meritocratic gover ...

beginning with version 22.10. In 2023, it was adopted as the default audio server for the

GNOME A gnome () is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depict ...

desktop environment in

Debian Debian () is a free and open-source software, free and open source Linux distribution, developed by the Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock in August 1993. Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kerne ...

12 Bookworm.

Features

The project aims include: * To work well in sandboxed environments for secure multimedia handling. * To provide secure methods for screenshotting and

screencasting A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture or a screen recording, often containing audio narration. The term ''screencast'' compares with the related term ''screenshot''; whereas screenshot ...

Wayland compositors Wayland may refer to: Computers * Wayland (protocol), a graphical display system for Unix-like computers Fiction * Jace Wayland, a character in the ''Mortal Instruments'' book series * Wayland (''Star Wars''), a planet in the ''Star Wars'' fic ...

. * To unify audio and video processing, supporting applications based on PulseAudio, JACK, ALSA and

. * To provide real time multimedia processing. * To offer minimal latency for both audio and video capture and playback. * To offer multi-process architecture allowing multimedia content sharing between applications.

References

External links

* {{Freedesktop.org Audio software for Linux Video software for Linux