PipeWire is a server for handling audio, video streams, and hardware on Linux.[2][3][4] It was created by Wim Taymans at Red Hat.[5][6] It handles multimedia routing and pipeline processing.[7]
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| Original author(s) | Wim Taymans |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 20 June 2017 |
| Stable release | 1.2.6[1]  (23 October 2024)
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| Repository | gitlab |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Linux, FreeBSD |
| License | MIT License |
| Website | pipewire |
History
editIn 2015, Taymans started work on PipeWire. It was based on ideas from several existing projects, including one called PulseVideo by William Manley.[8][9][10][11] 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 due to that effort.[5] A goal of the project was to improve handling of video on Linux in the same way that PulseAudio improved handling of audio.[2]
Although a separate project from PulseAudio, Taymans initially considered using the name "PulseVideo" for the new project.[2] By June 2015, the name "Pinos" was being used, after the city Pinos de Alhaurin in Spain, where Taymans used to live.[5]
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.[8]
In November 2018, PipeWire was re-licensed from the LGPL to the MIT License.[12][13]
In April 2021, Fedora Linux 34 became the first Linux distribution to ship PipeWire for audio by default.[14][15][16] A year later, Pop! OS adopted it as the default audio server in version 22.04.[17] It was made the default audio server in Ubuntu beginning with version 22.10.[18] In 2023, it was adopted as the default audio server for the GNOME desktop environment in Debian 12 Bookworm.[19]
Features
editThe project aims include:
- To work with sandboxed Flatpak applications.[3][12][20]
- To provide secure methods for screenshotting and screencasting on Wayland compositors.[4][20][21]
- To unify handling of cases managed by JACK and PulseAudio.[4][7][21][22]
References
edit- ^ "1.2.6". 23 October 2024. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
- ^ a b c Schaller, Christian (2017-09-19). "Launching Pipewire!". Christian F.K. Schaller. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
- ^ a b Lerch, Ryan (2017-09-20). "Improved multimedia support with Pipewire in Fedora 27". Fedora Magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
- ^ a b c Sneddon, Joey (2017-09-21). "PipeWire aims to do for video what PulseAudio did for sound". OMG! Ubuntu!. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
- ^ a b c Schaller, Christian (2015-06-30). "Fedora Workstation next steps : Introducing Pinos". Christian F.K. Schaller. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
- ^ Waymans, Tim (November 25–27, 2020). "PipeWire: a low-level multimedia subsystem". Proceedings of the 18th Linux Audio Conference (LAC-20). SCRIME, University of Bordeaux.
- ^ a b Raghavan, Arun (2018-10-31). "Update from the PipeWire hackfest". Arun Raghavan. Retrieved 2019-06-30.
- ^ a b "PipeWire: the new audio and video daemon in Fedora Linux 34". Fedora Magazine. 2021-05-14. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
- ^ Manley, William (2021-09-14), PulseVideo, retrieved 2021-10-16
- ^ Schaller, Christian (2015-07-01). "Comment on: How is this project related to PulseVideo?". Christian F.K. Schaller. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
- ^ Willis, Nathan (2015-10-21). "3D video and device mediation with GStreamer". LWN.new. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
- ^ a b Larabel, Michael (2019-02-03). "PipeWire Should Be One Of The Exciting Linux Desktop Technologies For 2019". Phoronix. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
- ^ "Relicense as MIT/X11". PipeWire Git repository in GitHub. 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
- ^ "Releases/34/ChangeSet - Fedora Project Wiki". fedoraproject.org. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
- ^ "What's new in Fedora Workstation 34". Fedora Magazine. 2021-04-27. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
- ^ "What's New in Fedora 34? 8 Reasons to Upgrade or Switch". MUO. 2021-04-04. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
- ^ Nestor, Marius (2022-04-25). "Pop!_OS 22.04 Launches Based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, Powered by Linux 5.16 and PipeWire". 9to5Linux. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
- ^ Sneddon, Joey (2022-05-22). "Ubuntu 22.10 Makes PipeWire Default for Audio". OMG! Ubuntu!. Retrieved 2022-09-23.
- ^ Larabel, Michael (2022-10-01). "Debian 12 Switches To PipeWire & WirePlumber By Default With The GNOME Desktop". Phronix. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
- ^ a b Kaskinen, Tanu (2018-11-12). "PipeWire Hackfest 2018 in Edinburgh". Tanu's Blog. Retrieved 2019-07-05.
- ^ a b Schaller, Christian (2018-01-26). "An update on Pipewire – the multimedia revolution". Christian F.K. Schaller. Retrieved 2019-06-29.
- ^ Larabel, Michael (2018-10-30). "PipeWire Is Still On Track For One Day Being A Drop-In Replacement To PulseAudio". Phoronix. Retrieved 2019-07-05.