Script to Mute an Application

Here's my take on your interesting challenge:

#!/bin/bash

main() {
    local action=mute
    while getopts :hu option; do 
        case "$option" in 
            h) usage 0 ;;
            u) action=unmute ;;
            ?) usage 1 "invalid option: -$OPTARG" ;;
        esac
    done
    shift $((OPTIND - 1))

    if [[ "$1" ]]; then
        $action "$1"
    else
        usage 1 "specify an application name" 
    fi
}

usage() {
    [[ "$2" ]] && echo "error: $2"
    echo "usage: $0 [-h] [-u] appname"
    echo "where: -u = ummute application (default action is to mute)"
    exit $1
}

mute()   { adjust_muteness "$1" 1; }
unmute() { adjust_muteness "$1" 0; }

adjust_muteness() { 
    local index=$(get_index "$1")
    [[ "$index" ]] && pacmd set-sink-input-mute "$index" $2 >/dev/null 
}

get_index() {
    local pid=$(pidof "$1")
    if [[ -z "$pid" ]]; then
        echo "error: no running processes for: $1" >&2
    else
        pacmd list-sink-inputs | 
        awk -v pid=$pid '
            $1 == "index:" {idx = $2} 
            $1 == "application.process.id" && $3 == "\"" pid "\"" {print idx; exit}
        '
    fi
}

main "$@"

thanks for the solution! I managed to use the scripts provided here to fix my problem. Since I had to modify them a bit, here I join the improved version.

The reason the original scripts didn't work for me is because some applications can have several instances, i.e. several PID, but maybe only one of them is producing sound, and is thus actually connected to Pulseaudio. Since the script only used the first PID found, it would typically /not/ mute the desired application.

So here is a version where the argument is the application name as registered in PulseAudio. You can find this name by running the pacmd list-sink-inputs command and look for application.name field.

An alternative solution would be to mute/unmute all PIDs which have the same application name.

#!/bin/bash

# Adapter from glenn jackman on http://askubuntu.com/questions/180612/script-to-mute-an-application
# to depend directly on the name of the PulseAudio client
# rather than the application name (several instances of one application could
# run while only one is connected to PulseAudio)

# Possible further improvement: it could be useful to also mute all clients having
# the specified name. Here, only the first one is muted.

#!/bin/bash

main() {
    local action=mute
    while getopts :hu option; do
        case "$option" in
            h) usage 0 ;;
            u) action=unmute ;;
            ?) usage 1 "invalid option: -$OPTARG" ;;
        esac
    done
    shift $((OPTIND - 1))

    if [[ "$1" ]]; then
        $action "$1"
    else
        usage 1 "specify the name of a PulseAudio client"
    fi
}

usage() {
    [[ "$2" ]] && echo "error: $2"
    echo "usage: $0 [-h] [-u] appname"
    echo "where: -u = ummute application (default action is to mute)"
    exit $1
}

mute()   { adjust_muteness "$1" 1; }
unmute() { adjust_muteness "$1" 0; }

adjust_muteness() {
    local index=$(get_index "$1")
    if [[ -z "$index" ]]; then
        echo "error: no PulseAudio sink named $1 was found" >&2
    else
        [[ "$index" ]] && pacmd set-sink-input-mute "$index" $2 >/dev/null
    fi
}

get_index() {
#    local pid=$(pidof "$1")
#    if [[ -z "$pid" ]]; then
#        echo "error: no running processes for: $1" >&2
#    else
        pacmd list-sink-inputs |
        awk -v name=$1 '
            $1 == "index:" {idx = $2}
            $1 == "application.name" && $3 == "\"" name "\"" {print idx; exit}
        '
#    fi
}

main "$@"

Even though the question is asking for a script, I wanted to leave this here.

I have written a C application that does this on Ubuntu. Even better, it sits on the indicator tray (using libappindicator) and checks what Spotify is playing, on short intervals. If it is playing an ad (checks against a blacklist) it mutes the Spotify. If a new ad is being played, you simply click Mute on the indicator menu and it adds it to the blacklist.

What it does, is looks for an X window, for which XFetchName returns Spotify - Linux Preview. Then it calls XGetWindowProperty to query the _NET_WM_ICON_NAME property of that window, which returns a string in the "Spotify – <Artist> – <Song>" format. When playing ads, it returns something like this:

"Spotify – Spotify – Premium Free Trial Cancel Any Time"

It maintains a Ternary Search Tree of the list of ads, to efficiently check whether the current title is in the list.

It also uses the PulseAudio Asynchronous API to query the sink-inputs and set-mute:

pa_context_get_sink_input_info_list()
pa_context_set_sink_input_mute()

Since it is just simple C code, it is light-weight. Check out the source code and Ubuntu .deb package at: indicator-muteads. It would probably beat a shell script by 2-3 orders of magnitude.

First of all, the "more correct" way to find an application's PID like spotify, is to use:

pidof spotify

I've built up a script that does the job, I don't know if it is the best way to do it, but it works perfectly:

#!/bin/bash
# Script to mute an application using PulseAudio, depending solely on
# process name, constructed as answer on askubuntu.com: 
# http://askubuntu.com/questions/180612/script-to-mute-an-application

#It works as: mute_application.sh vlc mute OR mute_application.sh vlc unmute

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
   echo "Please provide me with an application name"
   exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$2" ]; then
   echo "Please provide me with an action mute/unmute after the application name"
   exit 1
fi

if ! [[ "$2" == "mute" || "$2" == "unmute" ]]; then
   echo "The 2nd argument must be mute/unmute"
   exit 1
fi

process_id=$(pidof "$1")

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
   echo "There is no such process as "$1""
   exit 1
fi

temp=$(mktemp)

pacmd list-sink-inputs > $temp

inputs_found=0;
current_index=-1;

while read line; do
   if [ $inputs_found -eq 0 ]; then
      inputs=$(echo -ne "$line" | awk '{print $2}')
      if [[ "$inputs" == "to" ]]; then
         continue
      fi
      inputs_found=1
   else
      if [[ "${line:0:6}" == "index:" ]]; then
         current_index="${line:7}"
      elif [[ "${line:0:25}" == "application.process.id = " ]]; then
         if [[ "${line:25}" == "\"$process_id\"" ]]; then
            #index found...
            break;
         fi
      fi
   fi
done < $temp

rm -f $temp

if [ $current_index -eq -1 ]; then
   echo "Could not find "$1" in the processes that output sound."
   exit 1
fi

#muting...
if [[ "$2" == "mute" ]]; then
   pacmd set-sink-input-mute "$current_index" 1 > /dev/null 2>&1
else
   pacmd set-sink-input-mute "$current_index" 0 > /dev/null 2>&1
fi

exit 0

You can work with is as:

./mute_application.sh spotify mute

or

./mute_application.sh spotify unmute

Tested with both Audacious and Vlc running and muting/unmuting only one of them.

I modified Jag's script to do a toggle of muting. I assigned this to a keyboard shortcut to mute/unmute Chromium. pidof doesn't work with Chromium apparently. So this uses Pulseaudio client.

#!/bin/bash

# Adapter from glenn Jag on http://askubuntu.com/questions/180612/script-to-mute-an-application
# Toggles muting of all audio streams of an app

main() {
    if [[ "$1" ]]; then
        prev=""; prev2="";
        while read line; do
            if [[ $line = "end" ]]; then
                adjust_muteness $1 $(echo "$prev2 $prev" | tr -d '\n')
                prev=""; prev2="";
            else
                if [[ $prev2 = "" ]]; then prev2=$line; else prev=$line; fi
            fi
        done < <(get_info "$1")
    else
        usage 1 "specify the name of a PulseAudio client"
    fi
}

usage() {
    [[ "$2" ]] && echo "error: $2"
    echo "usage: $0 [-h] [-u] appname"
    exit $1
}

adjust_muteness() {
    # muted or not
    muted=$2
    # process ID
    index=$3

    # muteness value
    if [[ $muted = "yes" ]]; then
        mute=0 # unmute
    else
        mute=1 # mute
    fi

    echo $muted

    if [[ -z "$index" ]]; then
        echo "error: no PulseAudio sink named $1 was found" >&2
    else
        [[ "$index" ]] && pacmd set-sink-input-mute "$index" $mute >/dev/null
    fi
}

get_info() {
    pacmd list-sink-inputs |
    awk -v name=$1 '
        $1 == "index:" {idx = $2}
        $1 == "muted:" {idm = $2}
        $1 == "application.name" && $3 == "\"" name "\"" {print idm; print idx; print "end";}
    '
}

main "$@"

Usage :

./mute-app.sh Chromium

You can get the name of apps with pacmd list-sink-inputs

I really can't script, but I have modified hakermania's script to create another.

This one will increase or decrease the specific application's volume at increments of 5%:

edit: actually, it's working in always changing last opened app. Ideas?

#!/bin/bash
# Script to increase or decrease an individual application's volume using PulseAudio, depending solely on
# process name, based on another script by hakermania, constructed as answer on askubuntu.com: 
# http://askubuntu.com/questions/180612/script-to-mute-an-application

# It works as: change_app_volume.sh vlc increase OR change_app_volume.sh vlc decrease
# Set desired increments in lines #66 and #68

if [ -z "$1" ]; then
   echo "Please provide me with an application name"
   exit 1
fi

if [ -z "$2" ]; then
   echo "Please provide me with an action increase/decrease after the application name"
   exit 1
fi

if ! [[ "$2" == "increase" || "$2" == "decrease" ]]; then
   echo "The 2nd argument must be increase/decrease"
   exit 1
fi

process_id=$(pidof "$1")

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
   echo "There is no such process as "$1""
   exit 1
fi

temp=$(mktemp)

pacmd list-sink-inputs > $temp

inputs_found=0;
current_index=-1;

while read line; do
   if [ $inputs_found -eq 0 ]; then
      inputs=$(echo -ne "$line" | awk '{print $2}')
      if [[ "$inputs" == "to" ]]; then
         continue
      fi
      inputs_found=1
   else
      if [[ "${line:0:6}" == "index:" ]]; then
         current_index="${line:7}"
      elif [[ "${line:0:25}" == "application.process.id = " ]]; then
         if [[ "${line:25}" == "\"$process_id\"" ]]; then
            #index found...
            break;
         fi
      fi
   fi
done < $temp

rm -f $temp

if [ $current_index -eq -1 ]; then
   echo "Could not find "$1" in the processes that output sound."
   exit 1
fi

#increase/decrease...
if [[ "$2" == "increase" ]]; then
   pactl set-sink-input-volume "$current_index" +5% > /dev/null 2>&1
else
   pactl set-sink-input-volume "$current_index" -5% > /dev/null 2>&1
fi

exit 0

Edited script to mute all the inputs of an app (multiple processes) and defaults to toggle:

#!/bin/bash

main() {
    local action=toggle
    while getopts :hum option; do
        case "$option" in
            h) usage 0 ;;
            m) action=mute ;;
            u) action=unmute ;;
            ?) usage 1 "invalid option: -$OPTARG" ;;
        esac
    done
    shift $((OPTIND - 1))

    if [[ "$1" ]]; then
        $action "$1"
    else
        usage 1 "specify an application name"
    fi
}

usage() {
    [[ "$2" ]] && echo "error: $2"
    echo "usage: $0 [-h] [-u | -m] appname"
    echo "where: -u = ummute , -m = mute (default action is to toggle)"
    echo "Usage examples:"
    echo "  toggle mute: $0 appname"
    echo "  to mute an app: $0 -m appname"
    echo "  to unmute an app: $0 -u appname"
    exit $1
}

mute()   { adjust_muteness "$1" 1; }
unmute() { adjust_muteness "$1" 0; }
toggle() { adjust_muteness "$1" toggle; }

adjust_muteness() {
    clients=$(pactl list clients short | awk '/[0-9]+.*'$1'.*/{print $1}')
    inputs=$(pactl list sink-inputs short)
    for c in $clients; do
        for i in $(printf '%s' "$inputs" | awk '/[0-9]+\s[0-9]+\s'$c'/{print $1}'); do
            pactl set-sink-input-mute $i $2 &
        done
    done
}

main "$@"