Man1 - vlc.1

vlc, qvlc, svlc, nvlc, rvlc, cvlc - 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

(no term)

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.

(no term)

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 <sam@zoy.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).