The native protocol module implements the PipeWire communication between a client and a server using unix local sockets.

Normally this module is loaded in both client and server config files so that they cam communicate.

Module Name

libpipewire-module-protocol-native

Module Options

The module supports the following arguments:

sockets: [ { name = "socket-name", owner = "owner", group = "group", mode = "mode", selinux.context = "context" }, props = { ... }, ... ]

Array of Unix socket names and (optionally) owner/permissions to serve, if the context is a server. If not absolute paths, the sockets are created in the default runtime directory.

The props are copied directly to any client that connects through this server socket and can be used to configure special permissions.

Has the default value [ { name = "CORENAME" }, { name = "CORENAME-manager" } ], where CORENAME is the name of the PipeWire core, usually pipewire-0.

The permissions have no effect for sockets from Systemd socket activation. Those should be configured via the systemd.socket(5) mechanism.

General Options

The name of the core is obtained as:

PIPEWIRE_CORE : the environment variable with the name of the core
PW_KEY_CORE_NAME : in the context properties
a name based on the process id

The context will also become a server if:

PIPEWIRE_DAEMON : the environment is true
PW_KEY_CORE_DAEMON : in the context properties is true

The socket will be located in the directory obtained by looking at the following environment variables:

PIPEWIRE_RUNTIME_DIR
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
USERPROFILE

The socket address will be written into the notification file descriptor if the following environment variable is set:

PIPEWIRE_NOTIFICATION_FD

When a client connect, the connection will be made to:

PIPEWIRE_REMOTE : the environment with the remote name
PW_KEY_REMOTE_NAME : the property in the context.
The default remote named "pipewire-0"

A Special remote named "internal" can be used to make a connection to the local context. This can be done even when the server is not a daemon. It can be used to treat a local context as if it was a server.

Example configuration

context.modules = [
{ name = libpipewire-module-protocol-native }
]

context.modules = [
 { name = libpipewire-module-protocol-native,
   args = {
       sockets = [
           { name = "pipewire-0" }
           { name = "pipewire-0-manager" }
           { name = "pipewire-1"
             props = { my.connection = "the other one" }
           }
       ]
   }
 }
]