path: root/doc/COMMANDS

                         Music Player Daemon - Commands

                                    WARNING
	This document has not been updated to reflect recent changes in
	the MPD protocol.  It does not contain all supported commands,
	and some commands may now take additional arguments.  However,
	clients conforming to this specification should still be
	compatible with the latest release of MPD.  For more up to date
	documentation, please see the protocol reference on the wiki at
	<http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Protocol_Reference>.

This document is intended for client developers, not end users.

Format:
-------

If arguments contain spaces, they should be surrounded by double quotation 
marks, ".  

command <type arg1> <type arg2> ...
	explanation: w/ arg1 and arg2

All data between the client and server is encoded in UTF-8. (Note,
that in UTF-8 all standard ansi characters, 0-127, are the same as a standard
ansi encoding. Also, no ansi character appears in any multi-byte
characters.  So, you can use standard C functions like strlen, and strcpy
just fine with UTF-8 encoded strings. For example: "OK\n" encoded in UTF-8 is
simply "OK\n".  For more information on UTF=8: 
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html#utf-8 )

Command Completion:
-------------------

A command returns "OK\n" on completion or "ACK some error\n" on failure.
These denote the end of command execution.

NOTE:
-----

For manipulating playlists and playing, there are two sets of commands.  One
set uses the song id of a song in the playlist, while another set uses the
playlist position of the song.  The commands using song id's should be used
instead of the commands that manipulate and control playback based on playlist
position.  Using song id's is a safer method when multiple clients are 
interacting with MPD.

Commands:
---------

add <string path>
	add the file _path_ to the playlist (directories add recursively)
	_path_ can also be a single file
	increments playlist version by for each song added

clear	
	clears the current playlist
	increments playlist version by 1

clearerror	
	clear the current error message in status
	(this is also accomplished by any command that starts playback)

close
	close the connection with the MPD

crossfade <int seconds>
	sets crossfading between songs

currentsong
	displays the song info of current song (same song that is identified
	in status)

delete <int song>
	delete _song_ from playlist
	increments playlist version by 1

deleteid <int songid>
	delete song with _songid_ from playlist
	increments playlist version by 1

find <string type> <string what>
	finds songs in the db that are exactly _what_
	_type_ should be "album", "artist", or "title"
	_what_ is what to find

kill
	kill MPD

list <string type> <string arg1>
	list all tags of _type_ 
	_type_ should be "album" or "artist"
	_arg1_ is an optional parameter when type is album, this specifies
		to list albums by a artist, where artist is specified with
		arg1

listall <string path>
	lists all songs and directories in _path_ (recursively)
	_path_ is optional and maybe a directory or path

listallinfo <string path>
	same as listall command, except it also returns metadata info
	in the same format as lsinfo

load <string name>
	loads the playlist _name_.m3u from the playlist directory
	increments playlist version by the number of songs added

lsinfo <string directory>
	list contents of _directory_, from the db.  _directory_ is optional

move <int from> <int to>
	move song at _from_ to _to_ in the playlist
	increments playlist version by 1

moveid <int songid> <int to>
	move song with _songid_ to  _to_ in the playlist
	increments playlist version by 1

next
	plays next song in playlist

pause	<bool pause>
	toggle pause/resume playing
	_pause_ is required and should be 0 or 1
	NOTE: use of pause command w/o the _pause_ argument is deprecated

password <string password>
	this is used for authentication with the server.
	_password_ is simply the plaintext password

ping
	does nothing but return "OK"

play <int song>
	begin playing playlist at song number _song_, _song_ is optional

playid <int songid>
	begin playing playlist at song with _songid_, _songid_ is optional

playlist
	displays the current playlist
	NOTE: do not use this, instead use 'playlistinfo'

playlistinfo <int song>
	displays list of songs in the playlist
	_song_ is optional and specifies a single song to display info for

playlistid <int songid>
	displays list of songs in the playlist
	_songid_ is optional and specifies a single song to display info for

plchanges <playlist version>
	displays changed songs currently in the playlist since 
	_playlist version_
	NOTE: to detect songs that were deleted at the end of the playlist,
	use playlistlength returned by status command.

plchangesposid <playlist version>
	displays changed songs currently in the playlist since 
	_playlist version_
	This function only returns the position and the id of the changed song, not the complete metadata. This is more bandwidth efficient.
	NOTE: to detect songs that were deleted at the end of the playlist,
	use playlistlength returned by status command.

previous
	plays previous song in playlist

random <int state>
	set random state to _state_, _state_ should be 0 or 1

repeat <int state>
	set repeat state to _state_, _state_ should be 0 or 1

rm <string name>
	removes the playlist <name>.m3u from the playlist directory

save <string name>
	saves the current playlist to _name_.m3u in the playlist directory

search <string type> <string what>
	searches for any song that contain _what_
	_type_ can be "title","artist","album", or "filename"
	search is not case sensitive

seek <int song> <int time>
	seeks to the position _time_ (in seconds) of entry _song_ in the 
	playlist

seekid <int songid> <int time>
	seeks to the position _time_ (in seconds) of song with _songid_

setvol <int vol>
	set volume to _vol_
	_vol_ the range of volume is 0-100

shuffle
	shuffles the current playlist
	increments playlist version by 1

stats
	display stats
	artists: number of artists
	albums: number of albums
	songs: number of songs
	uptime: daemon uptime in seconds
	db_playtime: sum of all song times in db
	db_update: last db update in UNIX time
	playtime: time length of music played

status
	reports current status of player, and volume level.
	volume: (0-100).
	repeat: (0 or 1)
	playlist: (31-bit unsigned integer, the playlist version number)
	playlistlength: (integer, the length of the playlist)
	state: ("play", "stop", or "pause")
	song: (current song stopped on or playing, playlist song number)
	songid: (current song stopped on or playing, playlist songid)
	time: <int elapsed>:<time total> (of current playing/paused song)
	bitrate: <int bitrate> (instantaneous bitrate in kbps)
	xfade: <int seconds> (crossfade in seconds)
	audio: <int sampleRate>:<int bits>:<int channels>
	updatings_db: <int job id>
	error: if there is an error, returns message here

stop
	stop playing

swap <int song1> <int song2>
	swap positions of _song1_ and _song2_
	increments playlist version by 1

swapid <int songid1> <int songid2>
	swap positions of of songs with song id's of _songid1_ and _songid2_
	increments playlist version by 1

update <string path>
	searches mp3 directory for new music and removes old music from the db
	_path_ is an optional argument that maybe a particular directory or 
		song/file to update.
	returned:
		updating_db: <int job id>
	where job id, is the job id requested for your update, and is displayed
	in status, while the requested update is happening
	increments playlist version by 1
	NOTE: To update a number of paths/songs at once, use command_list,
	it will be much more faster/effecient.  Also, if you use a 
	command_list for updating, only one update_db job id will be returned
	per sequence of updates.

volume <int change>
	change volume by amount _change_
	NOTE: volume command is deprecated, use setvol instead

COMMAND LIST
------------

To facilitate faster adding of files, etc, you can pass a list of commands all
at once using a command list.  The command list beings with:

command_list_begin

or:

command_list_ok_begin

And ends with:

command_list_end

It does not execute any commands until the list has ended.  The return
value is whatever the return for a list of commands is.  On success
for all commands, OK is returned.  If a command fails, no more commands
are executed and the appropriate ACK error is returned. If "command_list_ok_begin is used", "list_OK\n" is returned for each successful command executed
in the command list.