Ncmpcpp

Template:Article summary start Template:Article summary text Template:Article summary heading Template:Article summary wiki - Music Player Daemon Template:Article summary end

Introduction

Ncmpcpp or ncmpc++ is an mpd client with a UI very similar to ncmpc, but it provides new useful features such as support for regular expressions in search engine, extended song format, items filtering, last.fm support, ability to sort playlist, local filesystem browser and other minor functions. To use it, a functional mpd must be present on the system since ncmpcpp/mpd work together in a client/server relationship.

The shell "GUI" for ncmpcpp is highly customizable. Edit ~/.ncmpcpp/config to your liking. For inspiration, see the following resources:

• Show your .ncmpcpp/config with Screenshot forum thread
• Project screenshots page

Installation

The official package resides in [community]

# pacman -S ncmpcpp

(Very) Basic configuration

After installation a sample configuration file can be found in /usr/share/doc/ncmpcpp/config

If, after installation, ~/.ncmpcpp/config has not been created, you could copy the sample config, change owner and edit at the very least the following three configuration options:

• mpd_host (should point to the host on which mpd resides, can be "localhost" or "127.0.0.1" if on the same machine)
• mpd_port (unless you've changed the defaults of mpd, this should be "6600")
• mpd_music_dir (the same directory value as specified in "music_directory" in mpd.conf)

Enabling visualization

For visualization, one needs the ncmpcpp-git^AUR package from the AUR. Once built, add a few lines to /etc/mpd.conf to enable the generation of the fast Fourier transform data for the visualization:

audio_output {
    type                    "fifo"
    name                    "my_fifo"
    path                    "/tmp/mpd.fifo"
}

Additional lines need to be added to ~/.ncmpcpp/config

visualizer_fifo_path = "/tmp/mpd.fifo"
visualizer_output_name = "my_fifo"
visualizer_sync_interval = "1"
#visualizer_type = "wave" (spectrum/wave)
visualizer_type = "spectrum" (spectrum/wave)

Users can choose between either a spectrum analyzer or wave form.

Basic Usage

Loading ncmpc++

Load ncmpc++ in a shell

$ ncmpcpp

Remapping keys

A listing of keys and their respective functions is available from within npmpcpp itself via hitting Template:Keypress. Users may remap any of the default keys simply by copying /usr/share/doc/ncmpcpp/keys to ~/.ncmpcpp/ and editing it. Ncmpcpp-git users have to copy /usr/share/doc/ncmpcpp/bindings instead.

Different views

Partial list of views within ncmpc++

• Template:Keypress - Clock
• Template:Keypress - Help
• Template:Keypress - Current playlist
• Template:Keypress - Filesystem browser
• Template:Keypress - DB search
• Template:Keypress - Library
• Template:Keypress - Playlist editor
• Template:Keypress - Tag editor (very powerful!)
• Template:Keypress - Music visualizer

Other UI keys

• Template:Keypress - Switch between classic and alternative views
• Template:Keypress - Display bitrate of file
• Template:Keypress - Show song info
• Template:Keypress - Show artist info (saved in ~/.ncmpcpp/artists/ARTIST.txt)
• Template:Keypress - Shuffle between available lyric databases
• Template:Keypress - Retrieve song lyrics for current song Show/hide lyrics

Note: As mentioned above, the visualizer is not enabled in the ncmpcpp package in the repo. Users will need to build the git version from the AUR.

Playback modes

Noticed the control panel in the upper right; shown in alternative mode:

1:40/4:16 1082 kbps                            ──┤ Criminal ├──                                       Vol: 98%
[playing]                             Disturbed - Indestructible (2008)                               [-z-c--]

And again in classic mode:

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────[zc]─

This corresponds to the playback modes; ordered from left to right, they are:

• Template:Keypress - repeat mode [r-----]
• Template:Keypress - random mode [-z----]
• Template:Keypress - single mode [--s---]
• Template:Keypress - consume mode [---c--]
• Template:Keypress - crossfade mode [----x-]

The final "-" is only active when the user forces an update to the datebase via Template:Keypress.