Pavolume is a simple python PulseAudio volume control for the command line. It is designed to be bound to your XF86Audio* keys so you can comfortably control PulseAudio volume.

Usage

pavolume show              # show volume and mute status as notification
pavolume volup             # increase volume
pavolume voldown           # decrease volume
pavolume volset 50%        # set volume to 50%
pavolume volset 200%       # boost volume to 200%
pavolume muteon            # mute audio output
pavolume muteoff           # un-mute audio output
pavolume mutetoggle        # toggle mute

You can use the --quiet switch to not play a blip sound and the --noshow switch to not show notifications. If you want to allow volup to go over 100%, you can use the --nolimit switch:

pavolume volup --nolimit   # turn it to 11!

Pressing the volume up/down keys normally will increase/decrease volume, if you hold shift, you can increase the volume over 100%.

Dependencies

• pacmd
• Python 3 with packages:
  • docopt
  • pygobject

Installation

Clone the git repo somewhere and put pavolume on your $PATH. The pavolume.conf can go in one of these places:

• The same directory as pavolume
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pavolume/pavolume.conf, i.e. $HOME/.config/pavolume/pavolume.conf
• /etc/pavolume/pavolume.conf

Configuration

To see running sinks you can use pactl list short sinks and copy sink from there. Otherwise, pavolume will use the first sink registered in your system.

There is an option to specify minimum and maximum volumes and steps for one command.

You can also point to a valid blip sound file (it uses the Ubuntu message sound by default).

Using pavolume with Awesome and Qtile

• If you are using Awesome, you can use the following key bindings to control pavolume:

awful.key({       }, "XF86AudioRaiseVolume", function() awful.util.spawn("pavolume volup") end),
awful.key({"Shift"}, "XF86AudioRaiseVolume", function() awful.util.spawn("pavolume volup --nolimit") end),
awful.key({       }, "XF86AudioLowerVolume", function() awful.util.spawn("pavolume voldown") end),
awful.key({       }, "XF86AudioMute", function() awful.util.spawn("pavolume mutetoggle") end),

• If you are using Qtile, you can use the following key bindings to control pavolume:

Key([       ], "XF86AudioRaiseVolume", lazy.spawn("pavolume volup")),
Key(["Shift"], "XF86AudioRaiseVolume", lazy.spawn("pavolume volup --nolimit")),
Key([       ], "XF86AudioLowerVolume", lazy.spawn("pavolume voldown")),
Key([       ], "XF86AudioMute", lazy.spawn("pavolume mutetoggle")),

Troubleshooting

If these bindings don't work for some reason, try calling the commands from the command line directly. If this works, then check whether the pavolume script is also visible from awesome's $PATH. If its still not working, you can insert full path to your pavolume folder and pavolume file e.g. /home/user/.config/pavolume/pavolume.

If it always showing 100% despite changing volume, you should change sink.

Questions, Comments, Code

If you have questions or comments, drop me a mail on GitHub! Code contributions are always welcome, too!