bluetoothctl - Man Page
Bluetooth Control Command Line Tool
Examples (TL;DR)
- Enter the
bluetoothctlshell:bluetoothctl - List all known devices:
bluetoothctl devices - Power the Bluetooth controller on or off:
bluetoothctl power on|off - Pair with a device:
bluetoothctl pair mac_address - Remove a device:
bluetoothctl remove mac_address - Connect to a paired device:
bluetoothctl connect mac_address - Disconnect from a paired device:
bluetoothctl disconnect mac_address - Display help:
bluetoothctl help
Synopsis
bluetoothctl [-a capability] [-e] [-m] [-t seconds] [-v] [-h]
Description
bluetoothctl(1) interactive bluetooth control tool. The tool works with Bluetooth Classic (BR/EDR) and Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) controllers.
The tool is menu driven but can be automated from the command line. Examples are given in the automation section.
Options
- -a capability, --agent capability
Register agent handler: <capability>
- -e, --endpoints
Register Media endpoints
- -m, --monitor
Enable monitor output
- -t seconds, --timeout seconds
Timeout in seconds for non-interactive mode
- -v, --version
Display version
- -h, --help
Display help
Commands
list
List available controllers.
- Usage
# list
show
Controller information.
- Usage
# show [ctrl]
select
Select default controller.
- Usage
# select <ctrl>
devices
List available devices, with an optional property as the filter.
- Usage
# devices [Paired/Bonded/Trusted/Connected]
system-alias
Set controller alias.
- Usage
# system-alias <name>
reset-alias
Reset controller alias.
- Usage
# reset-alias
power
Set controller power.
When the controller is powered off, the USB port the controller is attached to is put into a suspend state.
- Usage
# power <on/off>
advertise
Enable/disable advertising with given type.
If you exit the program advertising will be disabled.
When advertising the controller should advertise with random address but may use its public address if it does not support the feature (address of the device).
A device can advertise if it initiated the connection to another advertising device.
- Usage
# advertise <on/off/type>
set-alias
Set device alias.
- Usage
# set-alias <alias>
scan
Scan for devices.
For LE, scanning is an important requirement before connecting or pairing.
The purpose of scanning is to find devices that are advertising with their discoverable flag set (either limited or general). Once you have found the address then you can connect or pair.
Note the following when scanning:
- When scanning the controller will use a random address that is not resolvable so the public address is not leaked. A new random address is created every time scan on is used.
- When turning on scanning the device will start receiving advertising reports of what devices are advertising.
- The filtering of duplicate advertising reports may be enabled depending on the filtering settings.
- Device objects found during a scan session will only be persisted if they are connected/paired otherwise they are removed after some time.
- Usage
# scan <on/off/bredr/le>
pair
Pair with device.
This will pair with a device and then trust and connect to it. If the device is already paired this will first remove the pairing.
The command can either be used while the controller is in the connected or not connected state.
If the controller is already connected then the pair command can be used without an arguments. If the controller is not connected, the pair command can be given the address of a device with an active scan report and it will initiate the connection before pairing.
Before pairing the agent must be selected to choose the authentication mechanism.
- Usage
# pair <dev>
pairable
Set controller pairable mode.
This enables/disables pairing. If pairing is disabled then the controller will not accept any pairing requests.
- Usage
# pairable <on/off>
discoverable
Set discoverable mode.
This enables/disables discoverable mode. If discoverable is disabled then the controller will not respond to any scan requests.
In LE if discoverable if off the controller will just passively scan and not make scan requests to advertising devices. If on it will make the advertising requests.
It will use a random address if supported by the controller. The length of time "discoverable on" is valid is determined by discoverable-timeout command.
- Usage
# discoverable <on/off>
discoverable-timeout
Set discoverable timeout.
The time in seconds that "discoverable on" is valid.
- Usage
# discoverable-timeout [value]
agent
Enable/disable agent with given capability.
This chooses the local authentication mechanism of the controller. It is needed for pairing and allows you to choose the IO capabilities of the controller.
The valid agent capabilities are: DisplayOnly, DisplayYesNo, KeyboardDisplay, KeyboardOnly, NoInputNoOutput.
- Usage
# agent <on/off/capability>
default-agent
Set current agent as the default one.
After selecting the agent this will make it the default agent.
- Usage
# default-agent
trust
Trust device.
- Usage
# trust <dev>
untrust
Untrust device.
- Usage
# untrust <dev>
block
Block device.
- Usage
# block <dev>
unblock
Unblock device
- Usage
# unblock <dev>
remove
Remove device.
- Usage
# remove <dev>
connect
Connect device.
This will initiate a connection to a device.
To connect with an LE device the controller must have an active scan report of the device it wants to connect to.
If no advertising report is received before the timeout a le-connection-abort-by-local error will be issued. In that case either try again to connect assuming the device is advertising.
- Usage
# connect <dev>
disconnect
Disconnect device.
For LE when disconnecting from an active connection the device address is not needed.
- Usage
# disconnect <dev>
info
Device information.
- Usage
# info <dev>
Automation
Two common ways to automate the tool are to use Here Docs or the program expect. Using Here Docs to show information about the Bluetooth controller.
bluetoothctl <<EOF list show EOF
Resources
Reporting Bugs
<linux-bluetooth@vger.kernel.org>
Copyright
Free use of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public Licenses (LGPL).