OS Manuals

/usr/bin/flite

Small, fast run-time text-to-speech (speech synthesis) engine

From flite 2.2-r1 (enterprise-packages), captured 2026-11-08 by running flite --help (exit 0). permalink

flite: a small simple speech synthesizer
  Carnegie Mellon University, Copyright (c) 1999-2016, all rights reserved
  version: flite-2.2-current Sep 2018 (http://cmuflite.org)
usage: flite TEXT/FILE [WAVEFILE]
  Converts text in TEXTFILE to a waveform in WAVEFILE
  If text contains a space the it is treated as a literal
  textstring and spoken, and not as a file name
  if WAVEFILE is unspecified or "play" the result is
  played on the current systems audio device.  If WAVEFILE
  is "none" the waveform is discarded (good for benchmarking)
  Other options must appear before these options
  --version   Output flite version number
  --help      Output usage string
  -o WAVEFILE Explicitly set output filename
  -f TEXTFILE Explicitly set input filename
  -t TEXT     Explicitly set input textstring
  -p PHONES   Explicitly set input textstring and synthesize as phones
  --set F=V   Set feature (guesses type)
  -s F=V      Set feature (guesses type)
  --seti F=V  Set int feature
  --setf F=V  Set float feature
  --sets F=V  Set string feature
  -ssml       Read input text/file in ssml mode
  -b          Benchmark mode
  -l          Loop endlessly
  -voice NAME Use voice NAME (NAME can be pathname/url to flitevox file)
  -voicedir NAME Directory containing (clunit) voice data
  -lv         List voices available
  -add_lex FILENAME add lex addenda from FILENAME
  -pw         Print words
  -ps         Print segments
  -psdur      Print segments and their durations (end-time)
  -pr RelName Print relation RelName
  -voicedump FILENAME Dump selected (cg) voice to FILENAME
  -v          Verbose mode
Options (17)
OptionDescriptionSource
--versionOutput flite version numberhelp
--helpOutput usage stringhelp
-t TEXTExplicitly set input textstringhelp
-p PHONESExplicitly set input textstring and synthesize as phoneshelp
--set F=VSet feature (guesses type)help
-s F=VSet feature (guesses type)help
--seti F=VSet int featurehelp
--setf F=VSet float featurehelp
--sets F=VSet string featurehelp
-ssmlRead input text/file in ssml modehelp
-bBenchmark modehelp
-lLoop endlesslyhelp
-lvList voices availablehelp
-pwPrint wordshelp
-psPrint segmentshelp
-psdurPrint segments and their durations (end-time)help
-vVerbose modehelp

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.