irmp3-ncurses

Description

irmp3-ncurses provides an interface to irmp3d(8) using the mod_netctl interface. Its capabilities are similar to irmp3(1), but provides a curses(3x) GUI for character terminals. Mouse support is also available with ncurses(3x) for terminals that support it, such as xterm and compatible. irmp3-ncurses also has support for the browser and playlist modules of irmp3.

Options

Long options are only available on systems supporting getopt_long(3).

--help, -h: Displays short usage message and exits
--loglevel, -l: Set the log level. For details on logging see the section Debug Window and Logging. If loglevel is omitted the log level is set to 1
--hide-playlist, -P: Hide the playlist
--show-playlist, -p: Show or hide playlist. -p or -p1 shows the playlist, -p0 hides it. The playlist is shown by default
-4, -6: Choose IP protocol to use. -4 tries IPv4 only and -6 tries IPv6 only. The default is to try both
host: Host to connect to. If omitted, the compiled-in default is used (usually 127.0.0.1)
port: Port to connect to. If omitted, the compiled-in default is used (usually 9232)

The default host:port can be checked using the -h option.

Usage

Keyboard controls

The basic play commands are acessed through the numpad. Turning numlock on is recommended. Default keybindings are as follows:

Play commands

0 (or Ins): play (if currently playing/paused, restarts the track)
. (or Del): stop
5: pause
4 (or <-): rewind
6 (or ->): fast forward

Basic playlist commands

These keys do not require playlist support in irmp3-ncurses

1 (or End): skip back
3: skip next
7 (or Home): shuffle (toggle)
9: repeat (cycle)
t: sort the playlist
c: clear playlist (doesn't stop playback)

Mixer commands

+ (or =), -: volume +/-
m: mute (toggle)
\ or <, / or >: balance 2% left/right
[, ]: bass +/-
', #: treble +/-

Advanced playlist commands

These keys require playlist support

p: show/hide playlist
Up arrow, Down arrow, Page Up, Page Down: move playlist cursor
Enter: jump to selected song
r: refreshes the playlist. This should happen automatically so you shouldn't ever need to do this.
s: save current playlist. The saved playlist is as irmp3-ncurses currently sees it so it may be wise to refresh the playlist first. To load the saved playlist, put it somewhere that irmp3 can find it and load it using the browser.

CD-ROM commands

d: load CD-ROM disc
e, j: Eject. Note that e uses the eject command and j uses the eject2 command (see irmp3d(7)). I've no idea what the difference is, but if ever one doesn't work, try the other.

Miscellaneous commands

?: Shows summary keystroke help.
a: Dumps some 'about' info to the debug pane (see below) i.e. version numbers etc.
b: enters browser mode (see below)
q: quit
l or :: enter a command directly to irmp3. See irmp3d(7) or the COMMANDS file from irmp3-0.4.4

Browser Mode

Pressing b enters browser mode, which allows you to add tracks to the playlist. See the irmp3d documentation for more details on the browser. The keys for browser are as follows:

?: Shows summary keystroke help for the browser.
Up arrow, Down arrow, Page Up, Page Down: changes the selection
<-: changes to parent directory
->: enters the selected directory
Enter: adds the selection to the playlist
q or b: quits the browser
c: clears playlist and stops

Any keys not mentioned here work as above, including the number keys. Thus, with numlock on, the numpad will do the 'normal' thing (i.e. as described in play and playlist commands above). With numlock off, some of the keys (see above) are 'stolen' by the browser. Numlock on is recommended anyway since it's more reliable.

Mouse

If mouse support is enabled, you will see something similar to this near the top-left of the terminal:

|<  <<  |>  ||  ##  >>  >|

The meaning of the buttons is as follows:

|<: skip back
<<: rewind
|>: play
||: pause
##: stop
>>: fast-forward
>|: skip next

When using the mouse with the sliders/scrollbars, the end arrows will move the slider towards that end (as you would expect) and clicking on the bar jumps to that point on the bar. You cannot currently drag the sliders, in fact dragging currently hangs the program (you can unhang it just by clicking somewhere or pressing a key).

Tracks can be selected from the playlist using the mouse. Single click highlights, double click plays.

Debug Window and Logging

The bottom few lines of the screen are given over to a 'debug window'. This isn't really for debugging any more; 'status window' would be a more appropriate term these days. However, it does still have some debugging uses; any unhandled messages from irmp3d will appear here, prefixed with a numerical code. These should be reported, preferably with a log file.

When logging is enabled, all information printed to the debug window will be logged in the file irmp3-ncurses.log in the current directory. Setting the loglevel higher than 1 will increase the amount of information dumped to the debug window, and thus to the logfile as well. Loglevel 2 details the entire conversation with the daemon and loglevel 3 dumps some internal irmp3-ncurses debugging data as well.

The debug window is also used for entering direct commands at the : prompt via the : or l keystrokes as described above.

Files

irmp3-ncurses.log: Optional logfile generated by irmp3-ncurses

Author

Ross Kendall Axe <ross.axe@blueyonder.co.uk>