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I created a bash script for Audacious that pauses playback in X minutes (and that gradually reduces volume over the last 10 minutes). This script met my needs well while using Audacious. However, now I am switching to DeaDBeeF.

I have two options: modify my existing script to work with DeaDBeeF, or create a generic approach that will work with almost any Linux or KDE audio player. I am seeking help with either approach.

However, I have not been able to locate documentation for DeaDBeeF that allows me to proceed in the way I was able to with Audacious. If I could find the documentation (and if DeaDBeeF offers equivalent commands) I could easily modify my existing script. Alternatively, and possibly with more help, I could implement a generic script.

I am not a developer, so my preferred implementation is a simple bash script (although I am open to other equally simple implementation options).

As mentioned, I am seeking help to modify my bash script to either work with DeaDBeeF or to work in a generic manner. Here's my script:

#!/bin/bash

function_pid=0

function musicsleep(){
    countdown=$(($1*60-1))
    datestop=$((`date +%s` + $countdown));
    echo "pausing music in $1 minutes..."

    #begin reducing sound volume 10 minutes (600 sec) from end
    voldown=$(($datestop - 600))

    while [ "$datestop" -ge `date +%s` ]; do
        datestr=$(printf "%s" $(date -u --date @$(($datestop + 1 - `date +%s`)) +%H:%M:%S))
        echo -ne "$datestr\r";
        kdialog --passivepopup "music will pause in: $datestr" 14
        if [ `date +%s` -ge "$voldown" ]; then
            currvol=$(audtool get-volume)
            #reduce volume in 40 steps of 2 = 80% reduction (starting at 100) over 10 min
            newvol=$(($currvol - 2))
            audtool set-volume $newvol
            echo -ne "\t\tvolume = $newvol\r"
            kdialog --passivepopup "volume = $newvol" 14
        fi
        sleep 15
    done
    audtool playback-pause
    echo "music paused at $(date)"
    audtool set-volume 100
}

while true; do

    choice=$(kdialog --combobox "Music Sleep Time:" "cancel" "stop" "5" "10" "15" "20" "25" "30" "35" "45" "45" "50" "60" "90" "120" "180" "360" "480" --default "25");
    retval="$?"
    if [ "$retval" -eq 0 ]; then
            if [ $function_pid -ne 0 ]; then
                kill $function_pid
                function_pid=0
                echo "countdown process terminated..."
            fi

            if [ "$choice" == cancel ]; then
                echo "countdown canceled by user at $(date)"
                kdialog --passivepopup "countdown canceled" 10
            elif [ "$choice" == stop ]; then
                audtool playback-stop
                echo "music playback stopped at $(date)"
                kdialog --passivepopup "music playback stopped" 10
            else
                echo "countdown (re)set by user at $(date)"
                kdialog --passivepopup "countdown started" 5
                audresult=$(audtool playlist-shuffle-status)
                if [ "$audresult" == "on" ]; then audtool playlist-shuffle-toggle; fi
                audtool playback-playing
                isplaying=$?
                audtool playback-paused
                ispaused=$?
                audtool playback-stopped
                isstopped=$?
                echo "isplaying=$isplaying, ispaused=$ispaused, isstopped=$isstopped"
                if [[ "$isstopped" -eq 0 || "$ispaused" -eq 0 ]]; then audtool playback-play; echo "playback started"; fi
                musicsleep "$choice" &
                function_pid=$!
                echo "function_pid=$function_pid"
            fi
            audtool set-volume 100

    elif [ "$retval" -eq 1 ]; then
            echo "exiting musicsleep"
            #audtool set-volume 100
            break
    else
            kdialog --error "ERROR";
    fi;

done

The essential features implemented in this script are:

  • Pick a sleep countdown timer value from a GUI
  • Disable random (shuffle) playback when countdown timer starts
  • Pause audio playback in X minutes
  • Show time remaining in GUI (or via desktop notifications)
  • Show current volume level in GUI
  • Gradually reduce volume over the last 10 minutes
  • After playback is paused, reset volume level to the initial value
  • Allow countdown timer to be reset to a new value without disrupting playback
  • Allow countdown timer to be canceled without disrupting playback
  • Stop playback manually from the countdown timer GUI

Some questions are:

Does DeaDBeeF have equivalent commands?

If yes, where is the documentation for the equivalent DeaDBeeF commands?

For anyone who is already familiar with DeaDBeeF, can I expect to simply substitute the DeaDBeeF commands for my existing Audacious commands in my script? Or are the differences great enough to require a complete rewrite of the script?

If a generic countdown timer with the above functionality will be relatively simply to implement, does anyone want to guide me? I think the volume part will be easy to implement with:

pactl set-sink-volume "$MY_SINK" "$VOLUME_CHANGE"

source

When it comes tso pausing playback, as far as I can tell, the following commands are not a good match for the requirements of my script:

pactl suspend-sink "$MY_SINK"
pactl suspend-sink "$MY_SINK" FALSE

The above approach doesn't just pause the playing audio, it disables all sound from all apps and it seems to have other potential side effects.

From what I have seen here, controlling playback and pause generically (across any audio player) with pactl looks difficult. Surely there must be a simpler way. I'm OK if it is KDE specific.

MountainX
  • 17,948
  • I'd assume audio players to be sufficiently different that I don't think there's a generic way to send all of them a "pause" signal. You may have to do this on a case-by-case basis. I'm not familiar with deadbeef, so I can't give advice regarding that audio player. Suspending audio sinks may or may not work with audioplayers; in general, I'd expect funny things to happen (like an audio player not able to resume, etc.) – dirkt Apr 22 '18 at 13:11

2 Answers2

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If you look at the deadbeef source for main.c the help() function lists the options that should be enough for you:

--pause              Pause playback
--nowplaying FMT     Print formatted track name to stdout
--nowplaying-tf FMT  Print formatted track name to stdout
--volume [NUM]       Print or set deadbeef volume level
meuh
  • 51,383
0

Here is the script I ended up using. Because the --volume option is not yet available in the stable version, I used pactl commands instead.

This is a countdown sleep timer for DeaDBeeF. It supports all except one of the features from my Audacious script. They are:

  • Pick a sleep countdown timer value from a GUI (kdialog)
  • Pause audio playback in X minutes
  • Show time remaining in GUI (or via desktop notifications)
  • Show current volume level in GUI
  • Gradually reduce volume over the last 10 minutes
  • After playback is paused, reset volume level to the initial value
  • Allow countdown timer to be reset to a new value without disrupting playback
  • Allow countdown timer to be canceled without disrupting playback
  • Stop playback manually from the countdown timer GUI
  • If stopped, start playback again from the countdown timer GUI

Code:

#!/bin/bash

echo "DeaDBeeF control version 0.9"
function_pid=0

echo "true" > /dev/shm/allow_resetting_pactl_volume

function get_default_sink_name() {
    pacmd stat | awk -F": " '/^Default sink name: /{print $2}'
}

function get_default_sink_volume() {
    pacmd list-sinks | awk '/^\s+name: /{indefault = $2 == "<'$(get_default_sink_name)'>"} /^\s+volume: / && indefault {print $5; exit}'
}

function set_default_sink_volume() {
    pactl set-sink-volume $(get_default_sink_name) "$1"
}
#source: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/251920/15010

function music_sleep(){
    countdown=$(($1*60-1))
    datestop=$((`date +%s` + $countdown));
    echo "pausing DeaDBeeF in $1 minutes..."

    #begin reducing sound volume 10 minutes (600 sec) from end
    voldown=$(($datestop - 600))

    while [ "$datestop" -ge `date +%s` ]; do
        datestr=$(printf "%s" $(date -u --date @$(($datestop + 1 - `date +%s`)) +%H:%M:%S))
        echo -ne "$datestr\r";
        #echo "$datestr";
        kdialog --passivepopup "DeaDBeeF will pause in: $datestr" 3
        if [ $(</dev/shm/allow_resetting_pactl_volume) == "true" ]; then
            countdown_saved_pactl_volume=$(get_default_sink_volume)
            echo $countdown_saved_pactl_volume > /dev/shm/countdown_saved_pactl_volume
        fi
        if [ `date +%s` -ge "$voldown" ]; then
            echo "false" > /dev/shm/allow_resetting_pactl_volume
            #reduce volume in 40 steps of 2 = 80% reduction (starting at 100) over 10 min
            set_default_sink_volume "-2%"
            currvol=$(get_default_sink_volume)
            echo -ne "\t\tvolume = $currvol\r"
            #echo "volume = $currvol"
            kdialog --passivepopup "volume = $currvol" 3
        fi
        sleep 15
    done

    deadbeef --pause
    echo "DeaDBeeF paused at $(date)"

    countdown_saved_pactl_volume=$(</dev/shm/countdown_saved_pactl_volume)
    set_default_sink_volume "$countdown_saved_pactl_volume"
    echo "true" > /dev/shm/allow_resetting_pactl_volume
}

countdown_saved_pactl_volume=$(get_default_sink_volume)
echo $countdown_saved_pactl_volume > /dev/shm/countdown_saved_pactl_volume
echo "initial volume is: $countdown_saved_pactl_volume"

while true; do

    choice=$(kdialog --combobox "          DeaDBeeF Sleep Timer:          " "cancel" "stop" "5" "10" "15" "20" "25" "30" "35" "45" "45" "50" "60" "90" "120" "180" "360" "480" --default "30");
    retval="$?"

    if [ "$retval" -eq 0 ]; then
            if [ $function_pid -ne 0 ]; then
                    kill $function_pid
                    function_pid=0
                    echo "countdown process terminated..."
            fi

            if [ "$choice" == cancel ]; then
                    echo "countdown canceled by user at $(date)"
                    kdialog --passivepopup "countdown canceled" 5
            elif [ "$choice" == stop ]; then
                    deadbeef --stop
                    echo "DeaDBeeF playback stopped at $(date)"
                    kdialog --passivepopup "DeaDBeeF playback stopped" 5
            else
                    echo "countdown (re)set by user at $(date)"
                    kdialog --passivepopup "countdown started" 5
                    #audresult=$(audtool playlist-shuffle-status)
                    #if [ "$audresult" == "on" ]; then audtool playlist-shuffle-toggle; fi
                    isplaying=$(deadbeef --nowplaying-tf "%isplaying%")
                    ispaused=$(deadbeef --nowplaying-tf "%ispaused%")
                    echo "isplaying=$isplaying, ispaused=$ispaused"
                    if [[ "$isplaying" -ne 1 || "$ispaused" -eq 1 ]]; then deadbeef --play-pause; echo "playback started"; fi
                    music_sleep "$choice" &
                    function_pid=$!
                    echo "function_pid=$function_pid"
            fi
            countdown_saved_pactl_volume=$(</dev/shm/countdown_saved_pactl_volume)
            set_default_sink_volume "$countdown_saved_pactl_volume"
            echo "reset volume to: $countdown_saved_pactl_volume"
            allow_reset_saved_volume="true"
            echo "true" > /dev/shm/allow_resetting_pactl_volume

    elif [ "$retval" -eq 1 ]; then
            echo "exiting DeaDBeeFctl"
            break
    else
            kdialog --error "ERROR";
    fi;

done

rm /dev/shm/allow_resetting_pactl_volume
rm /dev/shm/countdown_saved_pactl_volume
MountainX
  • 17,948