shell-fm - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

Shell.FM - Lightweight, console-based player for Last.FM radio streams.

SYNOPSIS

shell-fm [-d] [-i address] [-p port] [-b] [-D device] [-y proxy] [-h] lastfm://...

DESCRIPTION

Shell.FM is a lightweight, console-based player for radio streams provided by Last.FM.

OPTIONS

-d Fork to background (requires a socket interface to be set up so it can still be
controlled somehow).

-i <address>
Enable the socket interface and bind it to the given host address (should be the
host name or IP address of the host shell-fm is running on).

-p <port>
Make the socket interface listen for incoming connections on the given port.
Default is 54311.

-b Enable batch mode (some freaky mode that makes shell-fm easier to handle from
inside emacs). This was not my idea.

-D <device>
Use the given device file as audio device. This is only used if libao support is
disabled. Default is /dev/audio.

-y <proxy>
Make shell-fm use the given host as proxy server for HTTP requests.

-h Print help text and exit.

lastfm://...
URI of a Last.FM radio stream to play after startup. For example: `shell-fm -d
lastfm://artist/The%20Beatles/similarartists'

USAGE

On startup, shell-fm will ask you for your Last.FM login and password (if not provided in
your ~/.shell-fm/shell-fm.rc). If you've given a stream URI on the command line or there
is a default radio defined in the configuration file, shell-fm will now try to play it.
When the startup is done, there are lots of keys to control shell-fm. Here is a
alphabetically sorted list.

a Add the currently played track to your Last.FM playlist.

A Ban the artist of the currently played track. Whenever a track of that artist is
played from now on, it is automatically banned.

B Ban the currently played track.

d Enabled/disable discovery mode. I'm not sure if this has any effect, and it looks
like even the Last.FM guys don't really know what it does, but I think it is meant
to ensure that you get only tracks that you don't know yet.

f Jump to the fan radio station of the artist of the currently played track.

h List bookmarks.

H Bookmark the currently played radio station. You'll be asked to hit a digit key.
Whenever you hit that key again from now on, shell-fm will jump to that radio
station.

i Print some more information about the currently played track.

l Love the currently played track.

n Skip the currently played track.

p Pause. If you pause too long, the stream will break, which has the same effect as
stopping the stream (see below).

P Enable/disable reporting played tracks to your Last.FM profile. Enabled by default.

Q Quit.

r Change radio station. This will prompt you for an Last.FM radio station URI. The
tabulator key helps if you don't know what to type. Arrow-Up and Arrow-Down allow
you to browse your radio history. Enter these without the "lastfm://" prefix.

For example: `radio url> globaltags/world'

R Recommend the currently played track/artist/album to another Last.FM user.

S Stop playing.

s Jump to the similar artists radio stream of the currently played tracks artist.

T Tag the currently played track/artist/album. Tabulator key completes known tags.

U Unlove the currently played track.

u Print upcoming tracks in playlist.

+ Increase volume.

- Decrease volume.

SETUP

Before you start, you should have created the directories ~/.shell-fm and ~/.shell-
fm/cache or you will get a lot of warnings, the tab-completion will be extremely slow and
you can't make use of some features (auto-ban, history, bookmarks). You might also want
to place a configuration file in ~/.shell-fm for a faster startup.

CONFIGURATION

This section describes the syntax and options for the shell-fm configuration file. The
file should be placed in ~/.shell-fm/shell-fm.rc and should consist of simple key = value
assignments. See (far) below for a sample configuration. These are the available options.

username = your-login
This is your login on Last.FM. If this is provided, shell-fm won't ask you for it
on startup anymore.

password = your-password
This is your (clear text) Last.FM password. If this and your login is provided in
the configuration, shell-fm won't ask you on startup.

default-radio = lastfm://...
If this is provided (and valid), shell-fm will play this station by default after
startup. If there's another station URI given on the command line, it will override
this setting.

np-file = path-to-file
If this is defined, shell-fm will print information about the currently played
track into the given file, whenever a new track is played.

np-file-format = format-string
This defines how the information written to your now-playing file will look like.
There are several format flags available. Have a look at the

preview-format = format-string
Format of the track information in the playlist preview (key 'u'). FORMAT FLAGS
section for the details.

np-cmd = shell command
If this is defined, the given command will be execute whenever a new track starts.
The value may contain format flags.

pp-cmd = shell command
If this is defined, the given command will be execute whenever a downloading track
ends. The value will have the path to the file appended.

?-color = color
This allows you to color format elements. The ? may be the letter of any format
flag (without percent). The color is just a normal shell color code matching
"[01];3[0-7]". Whenever the format element is printed to the console, it will have
the given color. Have a look at the

daemon = something
If this is set to something, shell-fm will start in daemon mode by default.
Starting with -d as command line option will disable daemon mode.

COLORS section for a list.

key0x?? = shell command
This allows you to bind shell commands to free keys (keys that are not used by
shell-fm, check the USAGE section above for a list). ?? should be the hex code of
the ASCII code of the key. The command you assign will be evaluated (check the
FORMAT FLAGS section) and executed then. This "feature" allows you to implement own
features, like fetching and printing the lyrics of the currently played track, etc.
If you have a cool idea or even a working script, I'd be happy if you let me know.

bind = host
This specifies the network interface you want shell-fm to bind to. host should be
the host name or an IP address of host shell-fm is running on. shell-fm will open
a port (see the port option below) on the specified interface which you can connect
to to control shell-fm remotely (or from local scripts, see key0x?? above). Check
the NETWORK INTERFACE COMMANDS section below for a list of known commands. NOTE:
The network interface has no user authentication, so anyone with access to your
network/host can control shell-fm. Use it only if you really need to control shell-
fm over a network. Otherwise use the UNIX socket interface (see below).

unix = path
If this is set to a proper path, on that path a UNIX socket will be created for
local "remote" control. This socket interface takes the same commands as the TCP
socket interface (see above).

port = port-number
With this option you can change the port shell-fm will listen on (if bind is
specified). Default is 54311.

extern = shell command
This allows you to specify an external program or script as player for the streams.
If given, shell-fm will run the command and pipe the MP3 stream into it, instead of
playing the stream itself. For example, extern = madplay -Q - works very fine. This
option is meant as a work-around for architectures that shell-fm doesn't work
completly profectly on.

proxy = proxy server
This allows you to specify a proxy server for the HTTP requests.

expiry = some-number
This defines the number of seconds until a cached page expires. The default is
86400 seconds (24 hours). You shouldn't set a very low value here, since the
Last.FM server often are very slow. This mostly affects the prompts (radio prompt,
tag prompt, ...), since shell-fm fetches some feeds to get values for the tab-
completion.

device = path
Path to the audio device to use (see -D command line option).

title-format = format-string
This is the format of the track string that is printed to the console for every
track played. Default is 'Now playing "%t" by %a.'.

minimum = percentage
With this option you can change the minimum duration a track must have been played
to be scrobbled (in percent, but without the % sign). For example, if this option
is set to 75, the track will not be scrobbled if it has not been played for at
least 75% of its total duration. If you skip or stop the track before it has been
played for 75%, it will not be scrobbled. Default is 50%, as specified in the
scrobbling protocol version 1.2.

delay-change = something
If this is set to anything, and you change the station with 'r', 's' or 'f', the
station-change will be delayed until the currently played track finishes or is
skipped. Also they key 'q' will initialize a delayed quit, so after the currently
played track shell-fm will exit. 'Q' (uppercase) still quits immediately.

screen-format = format-string
If this is set, shell-fm will check if the terminal it's running in is a screen
session ($TERM is "screen") and set the screen windows title to the formatted
string to be seen on $ESCAPE+w or $ESCAPE+".

term-format = format-string
Works like screen-format, but sets the x-terminals window title.

download = format-string
If this is set to a valid path (may contain format flags), and the played track is
free, it is saved at the given place.

gap = seconds
If this is set to a number, shell-fm will wait that amount of seconds between
tracks.

discovery = something
Enable discovery mode by default.

stream-timeout = seconds
Users reported that in some regions in the world, Last.FM servers sometimes pretend
to stream a track but then don't send anything, which makes shell-fm hang forever
waiting for the track data. If you have that problem, use this option to define a
stream timeout. When shell-fm is waiting for stream data, it will wait that many
seconds and then skip to the next track.

no-rtp = something
Start with RTP disabled.

FORMAT FLAGS

There are several format flags allowed for some options. Here is the list.

%a Artist name.

%t Track title.

%l Album name.

%d Track duration in seconds.

%s Station name.

%S Station URL.

%A URL of the artists page on Last.FM.

%L URL of the albums page on Last.FM.

%T URL of the tracks page on Last.FM.

%R Remaining seconds of the played track.

%% A %.

COLORS

0;30 Black (not very useful).

1;30 Dark gray.

0;31 Red.

1;31 Light red.

0;32 Green.

1;32 Light green.

0;33 Dark yellow/brown.

1;33 Yellow.

0;34 Blue.

1;34 Light blue.

0;35 Violet.

1;35 Pink.

0;36 Turquoise.

1;36 Cyan.

0;37 Gray.

1;37 White.

NETWORK INTERFACE COMMANDS

This section describes the commands shell-fm's network interface knows. To use the
interface, you must provide a valid value to the bind option in your configuration or use
the -i option on the command line. Then you can connect the specified port (54311 by
default) and send one command at a time. You also have to hurry, since there is a very
short timeout. Best thing would be if you used a script for accessing this interface. (See
shell-fm-*/scripts/ for examples) This is a list of the known commands.

play lastfm://...
Play the given stream.

love Love the currently played track.

ban Ban the currently played track.

skip Skip the currently played track.

quit Quit.

info some-format-string
Evaluate the given format string (check the FORMAT FLAGS section) and return the
formatted information.

pause Pause.

discovery
Toggle discovery mode on/off.

tag-artist some-comma-separated-tags
Tag the artist of the currently played track.

tag-album some-comma-separated-tags
Tag the album of the currently played track.

tag-track some-comma-separated-tags
Tag the currently played track.

artist-tags
Returns the tags of the currently played tracks artist.

album-tags
Returns the tags of the currently played tracks album.

track-tags
Returns the tags of the currently played track.

stop Stop stream.

Use shell-fm online using onworks.net services