pms(1) General Commands Manual pms(1)
NAME
pms - Practical Music Search, an ncurses-based MPD client
SYNOPSIS
pms [-?] [-v] [-d] [-h hostname ] [-c configfile ] [-p port ] [-P password ]
DESCRIPTION
Practical Music Search aims to be a highly accessible and configurable client to the Music Player Daemon. It features key mapping, custom-
ized colors, a command-line mode, several modes of play, and an easy but powerful interface.
OPTIONS
-? 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 configuration file instead of default
-p port
Connect to port on MPD server
-P password
Specify password for the MPD server
CONFIGURATION
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 the configuration file
(~/.pms/rc).
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)
reconnectdelay=integer
If a connection is lost, this is how many seconds between each connection retry. Default: 30
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
repeatonedelay=integer
MPD does not support the '1-repeat' mode, and a hack is neccessary. If repeat-1 is not working for you, increase this value.
Default: 1
stopdelay=integer
MPD does not support manual progression within the playlist. A hack is neccessary to stop when the song is done. If manual
song progression is not working correctly, increase this value. Default: 1
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
follow (boolean)
Set both followwindow and followcursor to selected value.
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
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. 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: ??, |>, ||, []
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 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
topbarvisible (boolean)
If set, the topbar is visible. Default: set
topbarborders (boolean)
Whether or not to draw borders on the topbar window. Default: unset
topbarspace (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
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, 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, play-
inglist, fields.* topbar.foreground, topbar.time_elapsed, topbar.time_remaining, topbar.progresspercentage, topbar.progress-
bar, 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).
mute Toggle mute
crossfade [integer]
Set crossfade time in seconds or turn crossfade on and 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
Play a random song from the library
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
Add a random song from the library to playlist
remove Remove selected song from playlist
Playlist management
create string
Create a new empty playlist with given name
save string
Saves the playlist 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 Ask MPD to update the music library
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)
quick-find
Enter quick-find mode: type to search for songs
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) -- 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) -- 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
FILES
~/.pms/rc
Configuration file
ENVIRONMENT
HOME The configuration file is read from $HOME/.pms/rc
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
These environment variables are overridden by command-line switches and the config file.
AUTHOR
Written by Kim Tore Jensen <kimtjen@gmail.com> with help from Bart Nagel <bart@tremby.net>.
The newest version can be obtained at <http://pms.sourceforge.net>.
SEE ALSO
mpd(1)
pms(1)