Copyright (C) 2001 Adam Sampson
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.
GNU xhippo is a generic playlist manager program for a variety of
UNIX sound players. It's been shown to work with mpg123,
madplay, bplay, s3mod, tracker, xmp,
mtvp, splay, ogg123 and timidity, and should
work with more-or-less anything that can take a filename on the command
line. It is capable of automatically deciding which player to use
depending on a file's extension; the defaults are set in a config
file. It uses textual playlist files, which are easily generated with
the find or locate utilities. The interface of
xhippo is very loosely modelled on the shareware `HippoPlayer'
player for the Amiga.
xhippo was developed under GNU/Linux, but it contains nothing
Linux-specific, so it will probably work on any UNIX-like system where
gcc, glib and GTK are available. (Additionally, it supports GNU long
options where `getopt_long' is available.) If you're using NetBSD
or FreeBSD, a port is available--see See section Installation.
xhippo will optionally integrate with the GNOME desktop,
supporting GNOME themes and drag-and-drop.
xhippo comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
You may redistribute copies of GNU xhippo under the terms of the
GNU General Public License. For more information about these matters,
see the file named `COPYING'.
If you've installed a previous version of xhippo, read the
`ChangeLog' for information on what's changed recently.
If you are using fvwm2, you may like to read `README.fvwm2'.
xhippo uses GNU gettext for internationalisation; you can pick
the language you want by setting your `LANG' environment variable.
If your C library's gettext support doesn't work, you can give the
`-with-included-gettext' option to the `configure' script to
make it use the copy of gettext included in the package.
You may wish to read `contrib/README'; it contains information
about the programs submitted by other xhippo users that can be
found in the contrib directory.
If you've downloaded xhippo, please send me some mail to tell me
what you think of it. Suggestions for improvements will be gratefully
received.
Before reading this section, if you're using NetBSD, FreeBSD or OpenBSD,
there's an easier way of doing this, as an xhippo port is
standard. Simply
cd /usr/ports/audio/xhippo make install
and xhippo will automatically be downloaded and built for you.
(However, this may not use the latest version, so you may want to
consider installing it from the source yourself, in which case you
should follow the instructions below.)
xhippo uses GTK+, and requires GTK+ 1.0 or higher;
it needs gtk-config in your path in order to build. It uses GNU
automake and autoconf, so it will automatically detect
some features of your system that can affect xhippo's
performance. If you have libid3 installed (available from
http://id3lib.sourceforge.net/), xhippo will use it to
read ID3 tags (if you don't have it installed, xhippo will use
its own simple implementation which only understands ID3v1).
To compile, change to the source directory and do
./configure make
If you want GNOME support, do `./configure -with-gnome' instead of `./configure'. If you would also like the GNOME menubar, do `./configure -with-gnome -with-gnome-menubar'. If you encounter problems finding GTK while building, do `./configure -help' to find out how to specify where GTK files are stored. If you want to install into a different place, do `./configure -prefix=/usr/local/xhippo' or wherever. Several other options are available; try `./configure -help' for more information.
To install the program, do
make install
The archive includes xhippo.xpm; this is a small transparent xpm image
that's suitable for use as an icon in your window manager. It's taken
from the HippoPlayer NewIcon on the Amiga. I'll try to find a
better xpm; I don't like this one very much. It's not installed
anywhere, so you should probably copy it in to
`/usr/local/share/pixmaps/' or wherever your window manager looks
for icons.
Each user who wants to use xhippo should create a `.xhippo'
directory in their home directory. xhippo will look for the
`config' and `gtkrc' files there, and will save its window
state into the `winstate' file there if configured to. Playlists
should be kept in a `.xhippo/playlists/' directory.
xhippo finds your home directory by looking for the `HOME'
environment variable. If this is not set by default, you should add a
line of the form
export HOME=`pwd`
or your shell's equivalent to your profile script.
To use xhippo, you need to give it at least one playlist. You can
either load a playlist by specifying it on the command line or in the
config file, or you can build a playlist by dropping files from a file
manager into the xhippo window or using the "Add Song" option on the
popup menu.
Playlists are files containing names of files to play, one per line.
This is compatible with X11Amp/XMMS's playlist format, so if you have an
X11Amp playlist called `Nice', you could do `xhippo
$HOME/.x11amp/Nice' to use it. (GQmpeg can also import xhippo
playlists.) Alternately, you can generate them with the find
command; for instance, if you keep your .mp3 files in your
`$HOME/sound' directory, you could do
find $HOME/sound -name *.mp3 | sort >$HOME/.xhippo/playlists/mp3 xhippo $HOME/.xhippo/playlists/mp3
to make a playlist and play it. (With a little trickery, xhippo can
be persuaded to automatically build playlists from a directory on
startup; see the example config file for more information.)
Playlists can also include other playlists by name; to do this, put a line of the form
!foo
in the playlist. xhippo will then try to load the file
`foo' as a playlist, inserting its entries into the list at that
point. If the `-i' command-line option or `readid3'
config-file option are enabled, xhippo will try to find ID3 tags
in the listed files and will put them in the list rather than the
filenames if found.
To start playing automatically once a playlist is loaded, use the `-a' option anywhere on the command line (or the `autostart' command in the config file).
You can specify multiple playlists on the command line. Alternatively,
you can specify the `-f' option to make xhippo treat
command-line arguments as files to be added to the playlist rather than
playlists to load (for instance, `xhippo -f *.ogg'), or `-D'
to make xhippo treat command-line arguments as directories to be
searched for playable files.
`xhippo -h' or `xhippo -help' will give you some simple help instructions.
(If you built with GNOME, you will see a menu bar at the top of the window; this replicates the buttons described below.)
The status line shows a little information about the player; it shows the number of playlist entries upon startup, and what player is being used to play the current song (and the PID of the player process, if you use `-p' or `showpid:1' in the config file). To start a song, click on it in the list, or click "Next" to pick either a random song (see the `mustplayall' config file option below to find out how to control this), or the next song in the playlist, depending on the setting of the "Random" checkbox. Clicking on "Prev" will play the previous song (if the "Random" checkbox is enabled, the last random song picked). To restart the current song from the beginning, click "Restart". To stop, click "Stop".
xhippo supports a number of keyboard accelerators: r for
Restart, s or keypad / for Stop, p or keypad +
for Pause, n, keypad * or keypad - for Next, b
for Prev, ` for Mini, h for Random, a for Add File,
d for Add Directory, l for Load Playlist, v for Save
Playlist, o for Sort By Name, w for Sort By Swapped Name,
t for Sort By Mtime, c for Clear Playlist, 0 to
9 for user-defined menu entries and q for quit.
When the end of a song is reached, xhippo will pick either a
random one or the next one from the list depending on whether the
"Random" checkbox is set or not. Optionally, xhippo can scroll
the list so that the randomly-picked song is at the top of the visible
section; to enable this, use the `-s' command-line option, or the
`scroll:1' config-file option below. To quit, use your window
manager's close button, pick Quit from the popup menu or send
xhippo a `SIGINT' Ctrl-C.
If you check the "Mini" checkbox, the list of files will disappear,
making the window smaller; unchecking it will make it reappear. You can
make xhippo start up in this "minified" state by using the `-t'
switch or the `startmini:1' option in your config file.
You can drop `file:' URLs (such as files from gmc or
xftree) onto the xhippo window to add songs to the
playlist (if you drop a directory, it will search the directory for
files to add). Other URLs (such as `http:') are not supported, as
there's no simple mechanism that all players understand to stream a file
from a network connection.
Right-clicking on the playlist or the status bar will bring up a popup menu, which allows you to bring up an information window for a song showing the song's size, location and the date it was last modified, move songs up and down within the playlist, remove songs from the playlist, add songs or directories to the playlist, sort the playlist by song name, swapped song name (the part after the first `-' in the name) or song mtime, or load and save playlists. The default directory for loading and saving playlists is `$HOME/.xhippo/playlists'. Left-clicking on the status bar will bring up the information window for the song that is currently playing.
If you use the `-w' switch or the `savewinstate' config file
option, xhippo will save its window position and size to your
`$HOME/.xhippo/winstate' file when you close the window, and will
reload it on startup.
xhippo searches for its config file as
`/usr/local/etc/xhippo.config' (or wherever you specified with the
`-prefix' option to configure), `$HOME/.xhippo/config'
and `xhippo.config' (in the current directory); all that are
present will be read.
Most config-file options have a command-line equivalent; these support
both traditional (`-x') and GNU-style long (`--extended')
options. The long options have the same name as the config-file
options; `-option' is equivalent to `option:1' in the config
file (i.e. it forces the option on). The command-line options override
the config file. Invoke xhippo as `xhippo -help' for more
information.
A config file line starting with a `#' will be ignored.
Lines have the format `command:arg1:arg2...'. Arguments can be of several types: booleans, integers, strings and sort types. Booleans represent on/off conditions; `yes', `on', `true' or any non-zero integer will enable the attribute, and any other value will disable it. For sort types, `none' (or any other unrecognised value) means don't sort, `name' (or, for backwards compatibility, any non-zero numeric value) means sort by name, `swapped' means sort by swapped name, `mtime' means sort by mtime.
The following configuration commands are accepted:
type:extension:command[:options]
xhippo encounters a file whose name ends in
.extension, it will use `command file' to play it. The
extension is case-insensitive. `options' is optional and controls
how the player will be started by xhippo; if it contains `g'
then the player will be started in its own process group (necessary to
properly kill some multithreaded players); if it contains `i' then
the player will be started with stdin connected to
/dev/null. Examples: `type:mp3:mpg123 -b 1024',
`type:ogg:ogg123:i'
autostart:boolean
xhippo will play a random song on startup. This is
equivalent to `-a' on the command line.
scroll:boolean
xhippo will scroll the list when a random item is
selected so that the selected song is visible. This is equivalent to
`-s' on the command line.
mustplayall:boolean
xhippo will always pick an item that it hasn't played
before from the playlist when asked to pick a random entry. This
continues until it has played all the entries, at which point it will
just pick a random one as before. This is equivalent to `-m' on the
command line.
readid3:boolean
xhippo will try to read ID3 tags from the files
listed in the playlists and will use them as the playlist entries if
found. This slows down xhippo startup considerably, so it's
disabled by default. This is equivalent to `-i' on the command
line.
exec:command
load:playlist
savewinstate:boolean
xhippo will save its window position, size and state
(whether it is minified or not) between sessions in the
`$HOME/.xhippo/winstate' file. If it is zero, xhippo will
allow your window manager to place it, will start with a "standard"
(small) size, and won't start minified (unless the next option is
specified). This is equivalent to `-w' on the command line.
startmini:boolean
xhippo will start up in the "minified" state, as if
you'd clicked the "Mini" button (even if the winstate file says that the
window wasn't tinified). This is equivalent to `-t' (for "tiny") on
the command line.
showpid:boolean
xhippo will show the PID of its player process in the
status line when not in mini mode. This is equivalent to `-p' on
the command line.
ordered:boolean
xhippo will start with the "Random" checkbox turned
off. This is equivalent to `-o' on the command line.
stripextension:boolean
xhippo will strip the extensions from the filenames
displayed in the playlist. This is equivalent to `-S' on the
command line.
leftscroll:boolean
xhippo will place the vertical scrollbar on the left
side of the playlist. This looks better with NeXTStep-like themes. This
is equivalent to `-l' on the command line.
hideplayeroutput:boolean
xhippo will redirect the output (stdout and stderr)
of child player processes to `/dev/null'. This is equivalent to
`-q' on the command line.
sortonload:sorttype
xhippo should sort playlists when
they are loaded. `-O' on the command line is equivalent to
`sortonload:name'.
playlistdir:dir
demanglenames:boolean
xhippo will replace `_' (underscores) and
`%20's in song names with spaces on the display. This is equivalent
to `-d' on the command line.
onetime:boolean
xhippo will stop when all the items in the playlist have been
played. This is equivalent to `-1' on the command line.
playlisttitle:boolean
xhippo will set the window title to include the
name of the current playlist. This is equivalent to `-T' on the
command line.
titlebasename:boolean
xhippo will use the basename of the playlist
name when setting the window title if `playlisttitle' is set. This
is equivalent to `-b' on the command line.
nocheckfiles:boolean
xhippo will check to see
whether all the listed files exist and discard them if they don't. If
enabled, then xhippo won't bother checking, which will make
startup significantly faster on large playlists. This is equivalent to
`-c' on the command line. Note that xhippo will read the
information if it's needed at a later time, so if you sort the playlist
by mtime then it'll need to scan all the files to get the mtimes.
writeplaying:boolean
xhippo will write the name of the song that is
currently playing to `$HOME/.xhippo/current_song'. (If the file
cannot be written, xhippo will silently ignore it.) This is
equivalent to `-W' on the command line.
skippath:integer
xhippo will
use the basename of the file (i.e. it will strip off the path to the
file). If integer is set to something other than zero,
xhippo will only strip the first integer elements of the
path; this could be useful if you sort your music collection into albums
and want to display the album names in the playlist. This is equivalent
to `-k integer' on the command line.
usercommand:description:command
commandlinesongs:boolean
xhippo will treat command-line arguments as songs to
add to the playlist rather than playlists to load. This is equivalent to
`-f' on the command line; you can therefore do something like
`xhippo -f *.mp3' to start xhippo listing all the `.mp3'
files in the current directory.
commandlinedirs:boolean
xhippo will treat command-line arguments as
directories to search for songs to add to the playlist. This is
equivalent to `-D' on the command line.
deletewhenplayed:boolean
xhippo will remove songs from the playlist once they
have been played. This is equivalent to `-x' on the command line.
persistplaylist:boolean
xhippo will attempt to load a playlist from
`$HOME/.xhippo/saved_playlist' on startup (if no other files are
given on the command line), and will save the current playlist to that
file on exit. This is equivalent to `-P' on the command line.
commandlineguess:boolean
xhippo will attempt to guess what the command-line
arguments are. If they have a known extension (one specified with
`type' above) then they are assumed to be songs; if they are
directories they are assumed to be directories; otherwise they are
assumed to be playlists. You probably want this turned on unless you're
in the habit of calling your playlist `playlist.ogg'. This is
equivalent to `-g' on the command line.
persistfrequently:boolean
xhippo
will save the current playlist whenever a new song is started. You may
want this if you're in the habit of killing xhippo randomly.
To allow for customised GTK appearances, xhippo reads a standard
gtkrc file in `$HOME/.xhippo/gtkrc'. An example gtkrc is included
as `xhippo.gtkrc'. For more information about gtkrc files, consult
the GTK documentation. If you're using GNOME, you can leave this file
empty, because xhippo will inherit the GNOME themes like any
other GNOME application.
If you want an archive to give to somebody else, invoke `make
dist' in the xhippo source directory. This will produce the same
`xhippo-VERSION.tar.gz' file that I distribute. If you wish to mail
me a modified version, do exactly the same (after removing the
`doc' directory); I can then diff it against my last release
to see what you've changed.
xhippo is far from perfect. Please contact
bug-xhippo@gnu.org if you discover any bugs, or have any
suggestions.
xhippo was written by me, Adam Sampson, azz@gnu.org. My
other software can always be found at
http://zenchaos.netpedia.net; xhippo is now a GNU
(http://www.gnu.org) application and is distributed from
ftp.gnu.org or from mirror sites.
The original German translation was done by Volker Assmann, volka@bigfoot.de, who was also responsible for betatesting.
Hubert Feyrer first alerted me to the problems with GTK+-1.0 and 1.1 compatibility, and also maintains the NetBSD package at
ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/packages/pkgsrc/audio/xhippo/README.html
(or `/usr/ports/audio/xhippo' on your NetBSD system).
Rod Taylor maintains the FreeBSD port (in `/usr/ports/audio/xhippo' on FreeBSD 3.2 and up).
Kevin Lo maintains the OpenBSD port at
http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/audio/xhippo/
Craig Knudsen provided a routine to read ID3 tags.
Joseph Turian suggested the idea of file inclusion in playlists.
Jeff Covey supplied a Perl script which provided the functionality of the current "Load" button, which encouraged me build the feature in.
Kevin Everets implemented the Pause button, the leftscroll option, translated the documentation to texinfo and provided patches for or suggested various other features.
Several other people who contributed are credited in the `ChangeLog' file and the `contrib/README' file.
This document was generated on 23 July 2001 using texi2html 1.56k.