Switch audio output devices on Linux

README.md

Audio Output Switcher

This script will cycle to the next available audio output device. It can be tied to a hotkey to easily be triggered. This is handy, for example, for swapping between speakers and headphones.

This script will work on systems running PulseAudio or Pipewire services.

Install

1. Download the audio-device-switch.sh script and place it in /usr/local/bin.
2. Make the script executable: sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/audio-device-switch.sh.
3. Open the Keyboard Shortcuts settings page, add a new shortcut, tell it to execute audio-device-switch.sh, and set up your shortcut!
4. Install the notify-send library if you want to see a popup notification when the audio device switches: sudo apt install libnotify-bin.

Customizations

Feel free to modify this script and make it your own. Some ideas for customization:

Different icon in the notification

Line 83 of the script calls notify-send with the -i flag which defines which icon is displayed. Stock icons are found in:

• /usr/share/icons/gnome/32x32
• /usr/share/notify-osd/icons/

Acknowledgements

This is a more modern, robust rewrite of tsvetan's solution on the Ubuntu forums.

audio-device-switch.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Check which sound server is running
if pgrep pulseaudio >/dev/null; then
  sound_server="pulseaudio"
elif pgrep pipewire >/dev/null; then
  sound_server="pipewire"
else
  echo "Neither PulseAudio nor PipeWire is running."
  exit 1
fi

# Grab a count of how many audio sinks we have
if [[ "$sound_server" == "pulseaudio" ]]; then
  sink_count=$(pacmd list-sinks | grep -c "index:[[:space:]][[:digit:]]")
  # Create an array of the actual sink IDs
  sinks=()
  mapfile -t sinks < <(pacmd list-sinks | grep 'index:[[:space:]][[:digit:]]' | sed -n -e 's/.*index:[[:space:]]\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p')
  # Get the ID of the active sink
  active_sink=$(pacmd list-sinks | sed -n -e 's/[[:space:]]*\*[[:space:]]index:[[:space:]]\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p')

elif [[ "$sound_server" == "pipewire" ]]; then
  sink_count=$(pactl list sinks | grep -c "Sink #[[:digit:]]")
  # Create an array of the actual sink IDs
  sinks=()
  mapfile -t sinks < <(pactl list sinks | grep 'Sink #[[:digit:]]' | sed -n -e 's/.*Sink #\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p')
  # Get the ID of the active sink
  active_sink_name=$(pactl info | grep 'Default Sink:' | sed -n -e 's/.*Default Sink:[[:space:]]\+\(.*\)/\1/p')
  active_sink=$(pactl list sinks | grep -B 2 "$active_sink_name" | sed -n -e 's/Sink #\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p' | head -n 1)
fi

# Get the ID of the last sink in the array
final_sink=${sinks[$((sink_count - 1))]}

# Find the index of the active sink
for index in "${!sinks[@]}"; do
  if [[ "${sinks[$index]}" == "$active_sink" ]]; then
    active_sink_index=$index
  fi
done

# Default to the first sink in the list
next_sink=${sinks[0]}
next_sink_index=0

# If we're not at the end of the list, move up the list
if [[ $active_sink -ne $final_sink ]]; then
  next_sink_index=$((active_sink_index + 1))
  next_sink=${sinks[$next_sink_index]}
fi

#change the default sink
if [[ "$sound_server" == "pulseaudio" ]]; then
  pacmd "set-default-sink ${next_sink}"
elif [[ "$sound_server" == "pipewire" ]]; then
  # Get the name of the next sink
  next_sink_name=$(pactl list sinks | grep -C 2 "Sink #$next_sink" | sed -n -e 's/.*Name:[[:space:]]\+\(.*\)/\1/p' | head -n 1)
  pactl set-default-sink "$next_sink_name"
fi

#move all inputs to the new sink
if [[ "$sound_server" == "pulseaudio" ]]; then
  for app in $(pacmd list-sink-inputs | sed -n -e 's/index:[[:space:]]\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p'); do
    pacmd "move-sink-input $app $next_sink"
  done
elif [[ "$sound_server" == "pipewire" ]]; then
  for app in $(pactl list sink-inputs | sed -n -e 's/.*Sink Input #\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p'); do
    pactl "move-sink-input $app $next_sink"
  done
fi

# Create a list of the sink descriptions
sink_descriptions=()
if [[ "$sound_server" == "pulseaudio" ]]; then
  mapfile -t sink_descriptions < <(pacmd list-sinks | sed -n -e 's/.*alsa.name[[:space:]]=[[:space:]]"\(.*\)"/\1/p')
elif [[ "$sound_server" == "pipewire" ]]; then
  mapfile -t sink_descriptions < <(pactl list sinks | sed -n -e 's/.*Description:[[:space:]]\+\(.*\)/\1/p')
fi

# Find the index that matches our new active sink
for sink_index in "${!sink_descriptions[@]}"; do
  if [[ "$sink_index" == "$next_sink_index" ]]; then
    notify-send -i audio-volume-high "Sound output switched to ${sink_descriptions[$sink_index]}"
    exit
  fi
done

That's great, but I had to invert line 26 with line 27 to make it work for me: you must increment next_sink_index before accessing the next-sink element in the sinks array, right!?

Also I had leading whitespaces in the string returned for active_sink variable (line 9), so I had to change it with:
active_sink=$(pacmd list-sinks | sed -n -e 's/[[:space:]]*\*[[:space:]]index:[[:space:]]\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p')

See https://gist.github.com/pgillet/534041a0f2ae1ae94aff2e74bf6096f1

Thank you. With your corrections, it works great. It's a shame that the author didn't fix it.

Give me a ⭐ then 😜

@pgillet Thanks for your corrections! I've updated the above script (and given you a star 😉). I've also added support for PipeWire instead of just PulseAudio.

Give me a star then stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye

Déjà fait sur ton fork ^^

For those using PulseAudio and looking to exclude a particular sink from their output, incorporating an awk filter into your command line can be very effective.

For instance, if you wish to omit sink index 5 from your results, your awk filter might look like this:

filter='
  /index: [0-9]+/ {
    if ($2 == "5") in_block = 1; else in_block = 0; print_index = ($2 != "5")
  }
  !in_block && print_index
  '
  
  sink_count=$(pacmd list-sinks | awk "$filter" | grep -c "index:[[:space:]][[:digit:]]")
  
  mapfile -t sinks < <(pacmd list-sinks | awk "$filter" | grep 'index:[[:space:]][[:digit:]]' | sed -n -e 's/.*index:[[:space:]]\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p')

I would be great, someone update or generate new script to switch between the audio input (microphones).

Thanks in advance

And for those who want to skip a sink name (since my indexes change every boot), below is my hacky workaround to avoid using the microphone as output. Add this at the very bottom:

if [[ ${sink_descriptions[$sink_index]} =~ "USB Audio" ]]; then 
  exec "/usr/local/bin/audio-device-switch.sh"      # run again 
fi 
exit 

And change the exit at the bottom of the original code to break (inside the for loop & if).

really helpful, I have been using this for a while now. There is something similar to change the input (microphone)?

AFAIK, PipeWire and/or PulseAudio can list all audio input and output devices...
See also the comment from @kbravh ^^: https://gist.github.com/kbravh/1117a974f89cc53664e55823a55ac320?permalink_comment_id=4478290#gistcomment-4478290