alsaplayer.1.in

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.TH ALSAPLAYER 1 "29 March 2008"
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.SH NAME
alsaplayer \- plays various sound files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B alsaplayer
.RI [ options ] " " [ " filename ..." ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the
.B alsaplayer
command.
This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution
because the original program does not have a manual page.
.PP
.\" TeX users may be more comfortable with the \fB<whatever>\fP and
.\" \fI<whatever>\fP escape sequences to invoke bold face and italics, 
.\" respectively.
\fBalsaplayer\fP is a generic music player that can play back a large
amount of file formats.
.PP
If files are specified on the command line, these files are played.  Otherwise
alsaplayer plays its playlist from its last run, if any.
.SH FILENAME
Play the specified file(s). Can be a file or an URL.
.TP
.B CD.cdda
Special filename. Play a CD. /dev/cdrom will be used by default. Otherwise,
AlsaPlayer will use the device specified in your config file (usually ~/.alsaplayer/config).
.SH OPTIONS
These programs follow the usual GNU command line syntax, with long
options starting with two dashes (`-').
A summary of options is included below.
.TP
.B \-c, \-\-config <file>
Use the given config file for this session.
.TP
.B \-h, \-\-help
Print this help message.
.TP
.B \-i, \-\-interface <interface>
Use the specified interface instead of the default one.
.TP
.B \-I, \-\-script <file>
Specify the script to pass to the interface plugin.
.TP
.B \-l, \-\-startvolume <vol>
Start with this volume [default=1.0].
.TP
.B \-p, \-\-path <path>
Set the path alsaplayer looks for add-ons.
.TP
.B \-q, \-\-quiet
Quiet operation, no output.
.TP
.B \-s, \-\-session-name name
Name this session "name"
.TP
.B \-v, \-\-version
Print version of this program.
.TP
.B \-\-verbose
Be verbose about the output.
.TP
.B \-\-nosave
Do not save playlist content at exit.
.SS Player control:
.TP
.B \-n, \-\-session #
Select session # [default=0]
.TP
.B \-e, \-\-enqueue file(s)
Enqueue file(s) in a running alsaplayer.
.TP
.B \-E, \-\-replace file(s)
Clears and queues file(s) in a running alsaplayer.
.TP
.B \-\-status
Get some information about the session.
.TP
.B \-\-volume #
Set software volume [0.0-1.0].
.TP
.B \-\-start
Start playing.
.TP
.B \-\-stop
Stop playing.
.TP
.B \-\-pause
Pause/unpause playing.
.TP
.B \-\-prev
Jump to the previous track.
.TP
.B \-\-next
Jump to the next track.
.TP
.B \-\-seek <second>
Jump to the specified second in the current track.
.TP
.B \-\-relative <second>
Jump <second> seconds from current position.
.TP
.B \-\-speed <value>
Set the playback speed with -10 <= <value> <= 10.
1.0 = normal speed, -1.0 = normal speed backwards.
Be aware that alsaplayer respect your LOCALE. That implies that the decimal point
will vary accordingly. I.e., with french LOCALE, a valid speed value is 1,5 and not 1.5. 
.TP
.B \-\-jump #
Jump to the specified playlist track.
.TP
.B \-\-loopsong <on|off>
Switch file looping on or off [default off].
.TP
.B \-\-looplist <on|off>
Switch playlist looping on or off [default off].
.TP
.B \-S, \-\-shuffle
Shuffle the playlist
.TP
.B \-\-clear
Clear the whole playlist
.TP
.B \-\-quit
Quit the session.
.SS Sound driver options:
.TP
.B \-d, \-\-device string
Select the specific device for the output plugin.  For the ALSA plugin, the
default is "default".  For the JACK plugin, the default is
"alsa_pcm:playback_1,alsa_pcm:playback_2".
.TP
.B \-f, \-\-fragsize #
Set fragment size in bytes [default=4096].
.TP
.B \-F, \-\-frequency #
Set the output frequency [default=44100].
.TP
.B \-g, \-\-fragcount #
Fragment count [default=8].
.TP
.B \-r, \-\-realtime
Enable realtime scheduling.  To use this as a normal user, alsaplayer
must be SUID root.
.TP
.B \-o, \-\-output [alsa|esound|jack|nas|null|oss|sgi|sparc]
Use the specified output driver.
.SS Experimental options:
.TP
.B \-x,\-\-crossfade
Crossfade playlist entries.
.SH JACK OUTPUT PLUGIN
For use with JACK, -F <sample_rate> is mandatory for best results. The value of sample rate must be the same as the one used by jackd.
.TP
If you forget the -F parameter, the sound can be very bad. The only remedy at that time is to restart both jackd and AlsaPlayer.
.SH DAEMON INTERFACE
With the daemon interface, it is mandatory to add the -s option.
You must process in two steps to get sound with it. First launch the daemon:
.TP
.B alsaplayer -i daemon -s <name>
.TP
and then add some song:
.TP
.B alsaplayer -e <some.song>
.SH GTK+ INTERFACE
The gtk+ interface provide some basic keyboard controls:
.TP
.B v
Stop
.TP
.B x
Play
.TP
.B c
Pause
.TP
.B b
Next Song
.TP
.B z
Previous Song
.TP
.B g
Seek Forward
.TP
.B a
Seek Backward
.TP
.B f
Forward Play
.TP
.B s
Reverse Play
.TP
.B t
Speed Up one musical semitone. (handy for changing the key the song is played back in)
.TP
.B q
Speed Down one musical semitone.
.TP
.B h
Speed Up one comma. (handy to tune the song instead of the guitar when playing at the same time as listening)
.TP
.B i
Speed Down one comma.
.TP
.B r
Volume Up
.TP
.B w
Volume Down
.TP
.B l
Loop
.SH PREFERENCES
AlsaPlayer have a preferences file located in ~/.alsaplayer/config. To modify the preferences setting by hand,
you must exit from the running program and edit this file. The default value is put in the description below when appropriate:
.SS General settings
.TP
.B main.default_interface=gtk2
Specify the default interface.
.TP
.B main.default_output=alsa
Specify the default sound server.
.TP
.B main.multiopen=true
Specify if it is possible to run multiple AlsaPlayer instances.
.TP
.B main.period_count=8
Number of periods in the sound buffer
.TP
.B main.period_size=4096
Frames per period in the sound buffer
.TP
.B main.play_on_start=false
Start playing at launch time
.SS Output settings
.TP
.B jack.output1=alsa_pcm:playback_1
Output device 1 when using JACK sound server
.TP
.B jack.output2=alsa_pcm:playback_2
Output device 2 when using JACK sound server
.SS Input settings
.TP
.B cdda.cddb_servername=freedb.freedb.org
Server used by the cdda input module to retrieve the cddb information.
.TP
.B cdda.cddb_serverport=80
Port used by the cdda input module to retrieve the cddb information.
.TP
.B cdda.device=/dev/cdrom
Device used by the cdda input module to retrieve the CD.
.TP
.B cdda.do_cddb_lookup=true
Must AlsaPlayer retrieve or not the cddb information.
.TP
.B http.buffer_size=1048576
Size of the input buffer when <filename> is an URL.
.TP
.B mad.parse_id3=true
Parse or not the Id3 tags.
.SS GTK+ interface settings
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.background_colour=#000000
Default background color of the interface. The playlist windows will use the background color from your gtk+ theme.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.default_play_path=~/
Default path used by the Add file function
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.default_playlist_add_path=/
Default path used by the Add file function in the Playlist window
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.default_playlist_load_path=/
Default path used by the Load playlist function
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.default_playlist_save_path=/
Default path used by the Save playlist function
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.font_colour=#ffffff
Default font color of the interface. The playlist windows will use the font color from your gtk+ theme.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface_font=
Default font of the interface. The playlist windows will use the font from your gtk+ theme. The main window will also use that font if none is specified.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.height=118
Default height of the interface.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.loop=0
Start in loop mode.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.play_on_add=false
Jump playing to a new song when added.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.play_on_title=false
Show song title in title bar.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.playlist_active=false
Launch or not the playlist window at start up.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.playlist_height=0
Default height of the playlist window. This value combined with the defaukt value of gtk2_interface.height correspond to no visible playlist.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.sopeswindow_active=false
Launch or not the scopes selector window at start up.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.smooth_transition=false
Will functions such as pause use a smooth speed transition.
.TP
.B gtk2_interface.width=529
Width of the interface.
.SS XOSD interface settings
.TP
.B xosd_interface.color=#55ff55
Colour used by the XOSD interface.
.TP
.B xosd_interface.outline_color=black
Colour used by the XOSD interface outline. Colors can be specified using hexadecimal notation prefixed by #, or by their name as in the file rgb.txt from your X11 distribution.
.TP
.B xosd_interface.font=-adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-24-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
.TP
.B xosd_interface.shadow=1
Shadow offset
.TP
.B xosd_interface.outline_offset=1
Wide of the outline
.TP
.B xosd_interface.h_offset=20
Display horizontal offset from the left of the screen
.TP
.B xosd_interface.timeout=5
Set the display time.
.TP
.B xosd_interface.v_offset=20
Display vertical offset from the top of the screen
.SS Scopes settings
.TP
.B blurscope.active=false
Launch or not the blurscope plugin at start up.
.TP
.B fftscope.active=false
Launch or not the fftscope plugin at start up.
.TP
.B levelmeter.active=false
Launch or not the levelmeter scope plugin at start up.
.TP
.B logbarfft.active=false
Launch or not the logbar scope plugin at start up.
.TP
.B monoscope.active=false
Launch or not the monoscope scope plugin at start up.
.TP
.B opengl_spectrum.active=false
Launch or not the spectrumgl scope plugin at start up.
.TP
.B opengl_spectrum.height=480
Height of the spectrumgl scope plugin
.TP
.B opengl_spectrum.width=640
Width of the spectrumgl scope plugin
.TP
.B spacescope.active=false
Launch or not the spacescope plugin at start up.
.TP
.B synaescope.active=false
Launch or not the synaescope plugin at start up.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR mikmod (1),
.BR mpg123 (1).
.SH AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Ivo Timmermans <ivo@debian.org>,
for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).
FILENAME, GTK, DAEMON INTERFACE and PREFERENCES sections added by Dominique Michel 
<dominique_libre@sourceforge.net> from the Alsaplayer team.