[MPD](https://www.musicpd.org/) (music player daemon) is an audio player that has a server-client architecture. It plays audio files, organizes playlists and maintains a music database, all while using very few resources. In order to interface with it, a separate client is needed. OP's choice falls on [vimpc](https://github.com/boysetsfrog/vimpc), but you may prefer the more popular [ncmpccp](https://rybczak.net/ncmpcpp/), a graphical client like GMPC or [Cantata](https://github.com/CDrummond/cantata), or a Web frontend like [ympd](https://github.com/notandy/ympd). All those are available on pkgsrc. This tutorial will also show how to bind volume and multimedia keys in CTWM, and how to set up custom desktop notifications for terminal clients, thus to show the currently playing track and the relevant album cover. *Note: This tutorial assumes mpd to be run as a user process (not as a rc service)*. #### Preliminary tasks: 1. install: - *audio/musicpd* - *audio/mpc* (cli-client, required for bindings) - *audio/vimpc* (or other client) 2. place you music inside the desired folder (here we'll use *~/Music*) 3. prepare mpd's directory: [CODE] $ mkdir -p ~/.mpd/playlist $ for f in db log pid state stick; do > touch ~/.mpd/${f} > done [/CODE] 4. Configure MPD. Edit a *~/.mpd/mpd.conf* file as follows. We will use SunAudio (audio(4)) as backend. [CODE] music_directory "~/Music" playlist_directory "~/.mpd/playlist" log_file "~/.mpd/log" pid_file "~/.mpd/pid" state_file "~/.mpd/state" sticker_file "~/.mpd/stick" bind_to_address "127.0.0.1" port "6600" max_connections "5" auto_update "yes" mixer_type "software" filesystem_charset "UTF-8" database { plugin "simple" path "~/.mpd/db" } audio_output { type "solaris" name "sunaudio" device "/dev/audio" } # optional, only needed for visualizers # adjust the fifo path to something user-writable audio_output { type "fifo" name "my_fifo" path "/tmp/run/1000/mpd.fifo" format "44100:16:2" } [/CODE]5. environment [CODE] MPD_HOST="127.0.0.1" MPD_PORT="6600" MPC_FORMAT="%title% \n%artist% - %album%" [/CODE] #### First run [CODE] # first run mpd in foreground to check everything is in place. # mpd shall scan the music directory for songs and add them # to the database $ mpd --no-daemon --verbose --stderr [/CODE] If anything went right you can add `/usr/pkg/bin/mpd &` to your X startup script. #### Testing playback With mpd running in background this time, let's test playback using the `mpc` client. [CODE] $ mpc searchadd title "satellite of love" $ mpc play Satellite of love The Velvet Underground - [playing] #1/1 0:00/3:43 (0%) volume:100% repeat: off random: off single: off consume: off [/CODE] #### Using vimpc Edit a *~/.vimpcrc* file as follows: [CODE] echo Parsing config file "-- colours " hi hi tab default white hi status default white hi current default green hi id default yellow hi pager default magenta hi error default red hi progress default cyan "-- settings " default tab set window playlist " tabs to open upon startup set windows help,library,browse,playlist " stop playing music upon exiting set stoponquit set autoscroll set colour "highlight search result set hlsearch "wrap search results set searchwrap "case insensitive searching set ignorecase set sortignorethe set sortignorecase set mouse set local-music-dir ~/Music set libraryformat %n \| {%t}|{%f}$E$R $H[$H%l$H]$H set songformat {%a - %b - %t}|{%f}$E$R [%l] " set songformat {%a$A33%b$A66%t}|{%f}$E$R [%l] " set songformat {%?}|{%f}$E$R $H[$H%l$H]$H " set songformat {{%?}|{%?}}|{%f}$E$R $H[$H%l$H]$H "-- bindings map q ZQ map Q ZQ map gt map gT map gf :browsegg/ map gs :shuffle map ga :addall:shuffle map gl :load map 'a :findartist! map 'g :findgenre! map 'b :findalbum! map f map p "-- autocmds " playlist consume "consume on " update database update "turn on shuffle shuffle "start playing "play 1 echo Config File Complete [/CODE] As you can see, vimpc has a strongly vi-influenced command syntax and lexicon. At this point you can launch the client in a terminal emulator or in wscons and test it. The first panel is a help screen which will allow you to quickly become comfortable with the client. #### Desktop notifications I use the following `mpdnotify` script, to display the currently playing song (requires libnotify, ffmpeg and a running notification daemon). [CODE] #!/bin/sh LIBRARY="${HOME}/Music" ICONPATH="${HOME}/.icons/Sardi-Ghost-Flexible" DEFAULT_IMG="${ICONPATH}/scalable/apps/gnome-music.svg" FFMPEG="/usr/pkg/bin/ffmpeg" if [ -x "$FFMPEG" ]; then \ ffmpeg -y -i "$(mpc --format "$LIBRARY"/%file% \ | head -n 1)" /tmp/mpd_cover.jpg > /dev/null 2>&1 else notify-send -u critical "ffmpeg not found" fi [ -n "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS" ] && \ notify-send -u low -i /tmp/mpd_cover.jpg "Now Playing ♫" \ "$(mpc --format "%title% \n%artist% - %album%" current)" || \ notify-send -u low -i $DEFAULT_IMG "Now Playing ♫" \ "$(mpc --format "%title% \n%artist% - %album%" current)" [/CODE] The following `vol` script displays the current volume level (percentage) as a desktop notification. [CODE] #!/bin/sh VOL=$(mixerctl -n outputs.master | cut -d , -f 1 | \ awk '{print $1/254*100}' | cut -d . -f 1) notify-send "volume: $VOL % [/CODE] #### Volume and multimedia keys bindings in CTWM Inside your *~/.ctwmrc*, you may add: [CODE] # scripts path define(`bindir',`/home/_logname_/.bin') # Now playing "s" = m4 : all : f.exec "bindir/mpdnotify &" # Volume keys "XF86AudioLowerVolume" = : all : f.exec "mixerctl -w outputs.master-=3,3 ; sh bindir/vol" "XF86AudioRaiseVolume" = : all : f.exec "mixerctl -w outputs.master+=3,3 ; sh bindir/vol" "XF86AudioMute" = : all : f.exec "mixerctl -w outputs.master.mute=on ; sh bindir/vol" # Multimedia Keys "XF86AudioPlay" = : all : f.exec "mpc play > /dev/null 2>&1 ; sh bindir/mpdnotify" "XF86AudioStop" = : all : f.exec "mpc pause > /dev/null 2>&1 ; notify-send 'playback stopped'" "XF86AudioPrev" = : all : f.exec "mpc prev > /dev/null 2>&1 ; sh bindir/mpdnotify" "XF86AudioNext" = : all : f.exec "mpc next > /dev/null 2>&1 ; sh bindir/mpdnotify" [/CODE] This: - will bind volume keys to a suitable mixerctl command which lowers or increases volume by 3% and triggers the `vol` script. - will bind multimedia keys to suitable mpc commands and trigger desktop notifications by invoking the `mpdnotify` script. #### Result The result is like follows (forgive my monochrome .Xdefaults and fancy out some colors): ![vimpc with desktop notifications](https://i.postimg.cc/76sJ1m2p/2022-02-17-150647-650x518-scrot.png)

Thanks for sharing this. Until only recently I've just been listening to music from Spotify using `ncspot` which was kindly packaged for NetBSD. I have recently begun cultivating a local music library for which I am looking for new ideas on how to play my files. The simplest method I've found is creating a playlist folder and just syminkinking music files from their respective folders into it and then using `SoX` and `shuffle`. Something like `play $(shuffle *)`. However, this requires manually organising your music library/playlists etc. I'm sure you could use `fzf` in the pipeline also which might make it a little more interactive but it'll always be limited by your ability to keep your folders neat and tidy. I've just come accross a cool `mpd` client called [Davis](https://github.com/SimonPersson/davis) _(on reddit of course)_ which looks kind of cool. With your above tutorial I'll try and get `mpd` up and running and attempt to get somehting like this working. @"pin"#2 this is a rust client..... 😉 Thanks again :)

> @"pfr"#p10422 I've just come accross a cool mpd client called Davis ... @"pin"#2 ... http://mail-index.netbsd.org/pkgsrc-wip-changes/2022/02/18/msg023327.html ``` ===> Overriding tools for davis-0.1.1 ===> Extracting for davis-0.1.1 => Extracting local cargo crates ===> Patching for davis-0.1.1 ===> Creating toolchain wrappers for davis-0.1.1 ===> Configuring for davis-0.1.1 ===> Building for davis-0.1.1 Compiling log v0.4.14 Compiling libc v0.2.97 Compiling bufstream v0.1.4 Compiling cfg-if v1.0.0 Compiling lexopt v0.2.0 Compiling configparser v3.0.0 Compiling mpdrs v0.1.0 Compiling davis v0.1.1 (/usr/pkgsrc/wip/davis/work/davis-f16a22288e6cac4b62ba8cc25cba06c6ae4a89ab) Finished release [optimized] target(s) in 1m 27s ``` Please test and let me know what you need as external dependencies, if any. Currently I have no use for this.

@"pin"#p10428 Oh damn, that was quick!! 🤯 Rather than hijack this entire thread I'll message you directly about it 👍️

> @"JuvenalUrbino"#p10405 We will use SunAudio (audio(4)) as backend. I'm curious, what are the alternatives? I use PortAudio fot my spotify client. Can I use that here too?

Music Player Daemon (MPD) on NetBSD

JuvenalUrbino

pfr I don't see portaudio being mentioned among mpd output plugins. On NetBSD 6 to 7, I was using OSS (as I had been for years, on FreeBSD ), but moved to SunAudio after the audio API rework. The output device has always been /dev/audio for me, so I don't know if this makes any practical difference, given NetBSD provides OSS emulation. Naturally, MPD can now coexists with other sound playbacks and won't lock /dev/audio, as opposed to what would have happened in the past.
I think the alternatives on NetBSD would be OpenAL, libao, PulseAudio and Jack, but I don't know which of those is enabled by default or either available as a build option.

JuvenalUrbino I think the alternatives on NetBSD would be OpenAL, libao, PulseAudio and Jack, but I don't know which of those is enabled by default or either available as a build option.

Check http://cvsweb.netbsd.org/bsdweb.cgi/pkgsrc/audio/musicpd/options.mk?rev=1.39&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup

PKG_SUPPORTED_OPTIONS+= jack openal libao pulseaudio

and

PKG_SUGGESTED_OPTIONS= curl faad ffmpeg libao musepack samplerate shout vorbis

JuvenalUrbino

pin good; @pfr will probably know this at this point, but if options.mk is available for a given package, one can also display options-related info by running make show-options within the package dir, under the pkgsrc prefix.

JuvenalUrbino

@pfr to add something to my reply, I don't know if using an audio library on top of the native sound stack brings any significant difference quality-wise. So, if that's your concern, I'd rather seek out CDs and vinyls rips in lossless format (e.g. wavpack), use a good pair of speakers or headphones or even get a dedicated PCI sound card on a desktop PC. I don't know much on the topic, however; possibly @nia could provide a better advise.

JuvenalUrbino seek out CDs and vinyls rips in lossless format (e.g. wavpack)

It's enabled by default,
PKG_SUGGESTED_OPTIONS+= wavpack

As for the rest, it's outside my comfort zone.

@pfr ncspot also has build options,

PKG_OPTIONS_GROUP.backend= alsa portaudio pulseaudio rodio

Unfortunately, if your concern is having two different backends and you would like to have only one of them, pulseaudio is the only common one between the two packages.

That said librespot which ncspot uses under the hood supports more options, so maybe upstream ncspot could enable those.

Currently, librespot supports the following

PKG_SUPPORTED_OPTIONS= alsa gstreamer jack portaudio pulseaudio rodio sdl

pfr

pin if your concern is having two different backends and you would like to have only one of them, pulseaudio is the only common one between the two packages.

This was the only concern. I dont want to install pulseaudio though so I'll just use SunAudio. Not worth the hassle.

Cheers

JuvenalUrbino

pfr This was the only concern

Well, using the Solaris output plugin allows MPD to speak directly to the kernel's sound stack, so it's arguably the simplest and most lightweight solution and doesn't introduce any new dependency. The plugin was adapted to work with NetBSD's API by Nia herself a couple of years ago.
Portaudio is not a sound server per se (unlike pulseaudio, jack, esound, sndio), but a audio I/O library which manages sound stream by using a callback function to read from / write to, a ring buffer. By implementing portaudio on NetBSD, you're still using audioio.h and speaking directly to /dev/audio, a.k.a. SunAudio.
The work as you can see, was again committed by Nia and avoids having to rely on OSS emulation (which happens at the kernel level anyway).

nia

JuvenalUrbino Actually OSS emulation is via a userspace library on NetBSD - see https://man.netbsd.org/ossaudio.3

pfr

JuvenalUrbino If anything went right you can add /usr/pkg/bin/mpd & to your X startup script.

I added this line to my .xinitrc yet mpd does not get initialised using this method. Why?

oui

pfr Works for me. Does mpd print out any errors if you run mpd --no-daemon --verbose --stderr in X? If not, double check your spelling and if mpd is located in /usr/pkg/bin/.

pfr

oui Thanks, it looks like mpd cant create the /tmp/run/1000/mpd.fifo set in ~/.mpd/mpd.conf copied from the example in step 4 from the OP.

~ $ mpd --no-daemon --verbose --stderr
config_file: loading file /home/dave/.mpd/mpd.conf
path: SetFSCharset: fs charset is
libsamplerate: libsamplerate converter 'Fastest Sinc Interpolator'
vorbis: Xiph.Org libVorbis 1.3.7
opus: libopus 1.3.1
sndfile: libsndfile-1.0.31
hybrid_dsd: The Hybrid DSD decoder is disabled because it was not explicitly enabled
simple_db: reading DB
exception: Failed to configure output in line 26; Couldn't create FIFO "/tmp/run/1000/mpd.fifo": No such file or directory

Does it need to be run as root?
It works if I manually create this file.

JuvenalUrbino

pfr you really don't need a fifo unless you use a visualizer (and, for the record, the built-in visualizer for audio/ncmpcpp is even disabled by default on pkgsrc).

I use /tmp/run/${id -u}/ as personal user-owned XDG_RUNTIME_DIR and TMPDIR. Should have clarified that beforehand. This directory doesn't normally exists under /tmp –which is commonly mounted with a tmpfs– and is created at each login by my ~/.profile script. mpd will naturally fail to create the file if the parent directory tree is nonexistent.

pfr

JuvenalUrbino you really don't need a fifo unless you use a visualizer

I dont plan on using a vizualizer at all, so can I just comment out this line in mpd.conf ?

@pfr, just adding to what @JuvenalUrbino already said, I use a few Qt-based applications and these are very capricious when it comes to XDG_RUNTIME_DIR.

I have the following in my .xinitrc to keep them happy,

mkdir /tmp/${USER}-runtime && chmod -R 0700 /tmp/${USER}-runtime
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/${USER}-runtime

Just create the directory it needs as @JuvenalUrbino sugested.

JuvenalUrbino

pin I have the following in my .xinitrc to keep them happy,

This is what I was using up until recently, but then I realized that I may have needed a TMPDIR even outside of a X session. This is particularly true for programs like vi/ex, mutt, slrn, etc.. which will attempt to write the buffer on a temporary file within such dir, if told to do so, and complain if they find none. So, I decided to rather add the following section in my ~/.profile (which by default is only read on a login shell):

        UID=$(id -u)                            

        DIR=/tmp/run/${UID}                     

        if [ ! -d "$DIR" ]; then                

          mkdir -p $DIR                         

          chown ${LOGNAME}:users $DIR           

          chmod -R 0700 $DIR                    

        fi                                      

        XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=${DIR}                  

        TMPDIR=${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}

JuvenalUrbino

pfr just ignore the whole section

pfr

Cool, thanks.

Weird behavior going on now though... basically I just moved/renamed some folders within my ~/Music dir yet mpd doesn't seem to recognise these new dir names but still accepts the previous dir names when attempting to add music to the queue. Of course when trying to play it complains with No such file or directory etc..

I've tried restarting mpd several times but it still looks for the old directories. Is there a cache file that need to be cleared or something?

JuvenalUrbino

pfr run mpc update to update the file database; see the relevant man

pfr

JuvenalUrbino omg thank you. It was late last night when I was looking over the man page trying to figure this out and I must have overlooked this.

pfr

So I know I said I wouldn't have any use for a visualizer... but now I'm curious and cava one of the more popular visualizers doesn't appear to be packaged for NetBSD.

I've just discovered fmui which is exactly what I was looking for! Going to test a visualizer with it.