VLC(1)                      General Commands Manual                     VLC(1)



NAME
       vlc, qvlc, svlc, nvlc, rvlc, cvlc - the VLC media player

SYNOPSIS
       vlc [OPTIONS] [ITEMS]...

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page  documents  briefly  the  VLC  multimedia player and
       server.


OPTIONS
       VLC follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with long options start-
       ing  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.


ITEMS
       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).


ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       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 plug-
              in.


       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.


SEE ALSO
       Online documentation: http://www.videolan.org/doc/

AUTHOR
       This manual page was written by  Sam  Hocevar  <sam@zoy.org>,  for  the
       Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).



                                 Feb 14, 2005                           VLC(1)
