pms (1)

pms [-?] [-v] [-d] [-h hostname ] [-c configfile ] [-p port ] [-P password ]

Practical Music Search aims to be a highly accessible and configurable client to the Music Player Daemon. It features key mapping, customized colors, a command-line mode, several modes of play, and an easy but powerful interface.

-?

Show command-line options and exit

-v

Print version and exit

-d

Turn on debugging to stderr

-h hostname

Connect to MPD server hostname

-c configfile

Use configfile as an additional configuration file

-p port

Connect to port on MPD server

-P password

Specify password for the MPD server

Configuration is done in three parts: options, key bindings, and colors.

Options, bindings and colors can be set at runtime by entering command mode (default binding :) or can be preset in a configuration file.

Configuration files are loaded in a specific order in line (almost) with the XDG Base Directory Specification (http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-0.6.html). Possible directories are collected from the environment variables XDG_CONFIG_DIRS and XDG_CONFIG_HOME (the former defaults in PMS to /usr/local/etc/xdg:/etc/xdg rather than just /etc/xdg as in the spec, the latter defaults to $HOME/.config as in the spec).

Each path in order from lowest priority (the last entry in XDG_CONFIG_DIRS) to highest (XDG_CONFIG_HOME) is suffixed with /pms/rc and if this file exists it is loaded. Finally, if a configuration file was specified on the commandline this file is loaded.

Setting options

String, integer and enumerated options are set with

set option=value

Boolean options are set with

set option

and reset with

set nooption

They can be toggled with

set option!

or

set invoption

Values can be retrieved with

set option?

se is an alias for set and : can be used in place of =.

Setting bindings

Key bindings are set with

bind key command

and removed with

unbind key

key can be any single character, in addition to these special characters: up, down, left, right, pageup, pagedown, home, end, space, delete, insert, backspace, return, kpenter, tab and F1 through F63. When unbinding, you can specify all as a parameter to remove all bindings.

map is an alias for bind, while unmap and unm are aliases for unbind.

Setting colors

Colors are defined with

color item foreground [background]

colour is an alias for color.

OPTIONS

host=string

The hostname to connect to. Default: localhost

port=integer

The port on the MPD server to connect to. Default: 6600

password=string

The password to give to the MPD server. Default: none

libraryroot=string

Optional path to the library's root. See !string below. If used, it should have a trailing slash. Default: empty string (nothing is prepended)

xtermtitle=string

If set, the XTerm window title will be set to the specified string. Default: PMS: %playstate%%ifcursong% %artist% \[en] %title%%endif%

reconnectdelay=integer

If a connection is lost, this is how many seconds between each connection retry. Default: 30

msg_buffer_size=integer

How many log lines to keep in the console. A value of 0 keeps all lines. Default: 1024

mpd_timeout=integer

Sets MPD connection timeout in seconds. Leave this lower than your MPD setting. Default: 30

debug (boolean)

Turn debugging mode on or off. Default: set

repeat=enum

Choose between single or a boolean value. Default: off

stopdelay=integer

MPD does not support manual progression within the playlist. A hack is necessary to stop when the song is done. If manual song progression is not working correctly, increase this value. Default: 1

nextinterval=integer

This setting controls how many seconds from the current song ends until PMS automatically adds the next song to MPD's playlist. Default: 5

crossfade=integer

Set crossfade time in seconds. 0 turns crossfade off completely. Default: MPD's settings

onplaylistfinish=string

Specify a shell command to run when the playlist finishes and playback stops. Default: none

addtoreturns (boolean)

If set, the add-to command will return focus to the original window. Else, the destination will be focused. Default: unset

followplayback (boolean)

If set, the cursor will go to the currently playing song and playlist when it changes. Default: unset

followwindow (boolean)

If set, playback will continue in the active window. Default: unset

followcursor (boolean)

If set, playback will follow cursor position. Default: unset

nextafteraction (boolean)

Move cursor to next item after the song is selected, unselected or added to a playlist. Default: set

startuplist=enum

The list which is activated and shown at program startup. This can be playlist, library or an arbitrary name of an existing playlist. Default: playlist

regexsearch (boolean)

Use regular expressions for search terms. Default: set

ignorecase (boolean)

Ignore case when sorting and searching. The alias ic can also be used. Default: set

scroll=enum

Set scroll mode

The following modes are available:

normal

The list only scrolls when the cursor is about to go off the top or bottom of the window. See the scrolloff option.

centered

The cursor is always in the middle of the window except when it is near the top or bottom of the list. The spelling centred is also accepted.

relative

The position of the cursor in the confines of the window is proportional to the position of the visible songs relative to the whole song list. Try it out to get a better idea of how it works.

Default: normal

scrolloff=integer

When scroll is set to normal, try to keep this many songs above and below the cursor at all times. The alias so can also be used. Default: 0

playmode=enum

Set song progression mode to manual, linear or random. In manual progression mode playback will stop at the end of each song. Default: linear

resetstatus=integer

Set how many seconds before resetting the statusbar text. Default: 3

sort=field [field [...]]

Fields by which to sort the library. You can specify multiple fields, separated by whitespace. See FIELDS below. Default: track disc album albumartistsort

columns=column [column [...]]

Columns to show in the list. See FIELDS below. Default: artist track title album length

status_unknown=string

status_play=string

status_pause=string

status_stop=string

Status strings. Defaults: ??, |>, ||, [] or, when Unicode is available, single characters which I can't figure out how to print in this manpage.

mouse (boolean)

If set, the mouse is active. Mouse support is incomplete and the slightly hacky mousewheel support available with standard versions of ncurses is less than ideal, but the actions below have been implemented.

Mouse actions:

topbar

Click to toggle play/pause, doubleclick to stop, mousewheel down to skip to the next track, mousewheel up to skip to the previous track, control-mousewheel to turn volume up or down

header ('Playlist', 'Library' etc)

Click or scroll mousewheel down to switch to the next window, doubleclick or scroll mousewheel up to switch to the previous window

playlist

Click to place the cursor, control-click or click right button to place cursor and toggle selection, doubleclick to place cursor and play, tripleclick to place cursor and add to playlist (if there is a selection, the selection will be added and the song clicked will just be selected), scroll mousewheel to scroll the list up and down

statusbar

Click to enter command mode

Default: unset

topbarspace (boolean)

Whether or not to leave an extra space at the end of fixed-width columns. Default: set

topbarvisible (boolean)

If set, the topbar is visible. Default: set

topbarborders (boolean)

Whether or not to draw borders on the topbar window. Default: unset

columnspace (boolean)

Whether or not to leave a blank row between the topbar and the playlist windows. Default: set

topbarclear (boolean)

Start out with an empty topbar. Default: unset

topbar[1-99].(left|center|right)=string

Modify what is displayed in the topbar. The spelling centre is also accepted. See TOPBAR below for format syntax, available fields and defaults.

TOPBAR

Available variables to put in the topbar:

librarysize, listsize, queuesize, livequeuesize, time_elapsed, time_remaining, progresspercentage, progressbar, playstate, volume, repeat, repeatshort, random, randomshort, mute, muteshort, manual, manualshort, bitrate, samplerate, bits, channels

All FIELDS below can also be used.

Conditionals (if-else) are supported. Currently available conditionals:

ifcursong, ifplaying, ifpaused, ifstopped

See the defaults below for how conditionals are used.

The topbar syntax allows free customization of the top area of the display. The best way to understand the syntax is to take a look at the defaults:

set topbar1.left=%time_elapsed% %playstate% %time%%ifcursong% (%progresspercentage%%%)%endif%

set topbar1.center=%ifcursong%%artist%%endif%

set topbar1.right=Vol: %volume%%% Mode: %muteshort%%repeatshort%%randomshort%%manualshort%

set topbar2.center=%ifcursong%==> %title% <==%else%No current song%endif%

set topbar3.left=%listsize%

set topbar3.center=%ifcursong%%album% (%year%)%endif%

set topbar3.right=Q: %livequeuesize%

FIELDS

Available fields are:

num, file, artist, artistsort, albumartist, albumartistsort, title, album, track, trackshort, time, date, year, name, genre, composer, performer, disc, comment

COLORS

Items available for coloring:

background, foreground, statusbar, error, position, borders, headers, title, current, cursor, selection, lastlist, playinglist, fields.* topbar.foreground, topbar.time_elapsed, topbar.time_remaining, topbar.progresspercentage, topbar.progressbar, topbar.repeat, topbar.random, topbar.mute, topbar.repeatshort, topbar.randomshort, topbar.muteshort, topbar.librarysize, topbar.listsize, topbar.queuesize, topbar.livequeuesize, topbar.playstate, topbar.fields.*

Replace the wildcard * with any of the FIELDS described above.

The following colors can be used only as foreground colors:

gray, brightred, brightgreen, yellow, brightblue, brightmagenta, brightcyan

The following colors can be used either for background or foreground colors:

black, red, green, brown, blue, magenta, cyan, brightgray

The special color trans can only be used as a background color, and provides a transparent background.

The alternative spelling grey can be used in the place of gray, and light can be used in place of bright.

COMMANDS

Playback

play

Play the song under the cursor

add

Add the selected song(s) to the playlist

If a playlist is selected in windowlist mode, that list is appended to the playlist.

add-to

Add the selected song(s) to a chosen playlist

next

Play the next song from the playlist or library based on current play mode

really-next

Play the next song from playlist or library, regardless of play mode

prev

Play previous song

pause

Pause playback or play if playback was paused; do nothing if playback is stopped

stop

Stop playback

playmode

Rotate mode of playback through linear, random from playlist and manual (stop when each track finishes)

toggle-play

Toggle playback

Play from the current song if playback was stopped or paused, otherwise pause.

volume [string]

Set volume

string can be delta (+/-value, for instance +4) or absolute value (0~100). If run without any parameters, return the current volume.

mute

Toggle mute

crossfade [integer]

Set crossfade time in seconds. If no integer is given, or integer is 0, toggle crossfade. If set to a negative value, turn crossfade off.

seek integer

Seek integer seconds (can be negative) in the playing song.

repeat

Rotate repeat mode through none, repeat one and repeat list

Adding and playing

play-album

Play all songs from the album of the song under the cursor

play-artist

Play all songs from the selected artist

play-random [n]

Play one or n random songs from the library or visible list.

add-album

Add all songs from the selected album to playlist

add-all

Add all songs from the currently visible list to playlist

If part of the album already is at the bottom of the playlist the remainder is added.

add-artist

Add all songs from the selected artist to the playlist

add-random [n]

Add one or n random songs from the visible list to the playlist.

remove

Remove selected song from playlist

Playlist management

create string

Create a new empty playlist with given name

save string

Saves the current list view into a new playlist file with given filename

delete-list [string]

Permanently delete the named playlist if given or else the current playlist

activate-list

Activate currently viewed list for playback

crop

Crop the current playlist to the currently playing song

cropsel

Crop the current playlist to the selected songs, or song under cursor

clear

Clear the playlist

shuffle

Shuffle the playlist

move integer

Move the selected songs by the given offset

A positive offset moves songs down; a negative offset moves songs up.

update [string]

Ask MPD to update the music library. string can be a file in the music library, or one of this, thisdir, current or currentdir.

select [string]

unselect [string]

toggle-select [string]

Select, unselect or toggle selection of songs matching a search term

If no parameter is given, the song under the cursor is affected.

clear-selection

Unselect all songs in the playlist

Application

info

Show info in the status bar about the current song

help

Show current key bindings

command-mode

Enter command mode, where you can enter configuration options or perform other commands (including those which are not mapped to any key)

change-window enum

Change the active window to playlist, library or windowlist

next-window

Move to the next window

prev-window

Move to the previous window

last-window

Switch to the previously viewed window

redraw

Force screen redraw

rehash

Reload the configuration file

version

Show version information

clear-topbar [integer]

Clear out all contents of the topbar or, if a parameter is given, only that line

!string

Run a shell command

Some vim-like placeholders are available:

%

The current song's file path, not escaped in any way

#

The currently highlighted song's file path, not escaped in any way

##

The file path of each of the songs in the current selection or, if there is no selection, each song in the currently visible list. Each path is enclosed in double quotes.

Examples:

!echo % | xclip

Copy the current song's file path to the X clipboard

!rox-filer $(dirname # )

Browse the directory containing the currently highlighted song with Rox-filer

!transcribe ##

Open the selected songs (or, with no selection, all songs on the playlist) in Transcribe

!cp ## /media/removabledrive

Copy the selected songs (or, with no selection, all songs on the playlist) to a USB stick or portable media player

All paths are prefixed with the string in the config variable libraryroot.

quit, q

Exit PMS

Movement and search

move-up

Move the cursor up

In command or quick-find mode move to the previous item in command or search history.

move-down

Move the cursor down.

In command or quick-find mode move to the next item in command or search history.

move-halfpgup

Move the cursor one half screen up

move-halfpgdn

Move the cursor one half screen down

move-pgup

Move the cursor one screen up

move-pgdn

Move the cursor one screen down

move-home

Move the cursor to the start of the list

move-end

Move the cursor to the end of the list

scroll-up

Scroll the list up one line (only acts differently from move-up if scroll is set to normal)

scroll-down

Scroll the list down one line (only acts differently from move-up if scroll is set to normal)

center-cursor

Scroll the list such that the cursor is centered (only has an effect when scroll is set to normal)

filter

Enter filter mode: type to filter the current view for songs. Songs that don't match are removed from the view. Use the clear-filters command to return to the original view.

clear-filters

Clear all filters from the current playlist.

quick-find

Enter quick-find mode: type to jump to next matched song

next-result

Find the next search result from the last quick-find

prev-result

Find the previous search result from the last quick-find

next-of string

Parameter should be a field name (see FIELDS above) \[en] jump to the next track in the list for which the field differs

prev-of string

Parameter should be a field name (see FIELDS above) \[en] jump up the list to the first (topmost) of a set of tracks which have in common the next differing value of the given field

To put that another way, the cursor moves up until the given field changes, then keeps going until just before it would change again.

goto-current

Jumps to the current playing song, if any

goto-random

Jump to a random song in the playlist

/etc/xdg/pms/rc, /usr/local/xdg/pms/rc, ~/.config/pms/rc

Default paths to configuration files, loaded in this order (see the configuration section above)

HOME

Used to generate the default path to the configuration file if XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set or empty

XDG_CONFIG_HOME

The prefix for the user-specific configuration file

XDG_CONFIG_DIRS

Prefixes for system-wide configuration files

MPD_HOST

Specifies the host which MPD runs on

MPD_PORT

Specifies the port on which MPD listens

MPD_PASSWORD

Specifies a password to send to MPD on connection

Written by Kim Tore Jensen <[email protected]> with help from Bart Nagel <[email protected]>.

The newest version can be obtained at <http://pms.sourceforge.net>.

mpd(1)