xmcd
NAME
xmcd - CD digital audio player utility for X11/Motif
SYNOPSIS
xmcd [toolkitoption ...] [-dev device] [-debug] [-c device]
[-X] [-o]
DESCRIPTION
Xmcd is a program that allows the use of the CD-ROM drive as
a full-featured stereo compact-disc player for the X window
system. See cda(1) for the command-line CD player. xmcd
and cda uses the same configuration and support files.
Most of the features found on real CD players are available
in xmcd, such as shuffle and repeat, track programming
functions, a numeric keypad and track warp slider for direct
track access. Additional functions include sample play, A
to B segment play, volume control, balance control, etc.
Several automation options are also available on CD load,
eject, play completion and program exit. A Channel Routing
feature allow you to select from several stereo or mono
routing options. The volume control slider taper
characteristics can also be altered.
A CD database feature allows the CD artist/title and track
titles, and other associated general purpose text to be
maintained and loaded as the program is started or when a CD
is inserted. The CD database contents can be on your local
system or queried from a remote CD database server host.
Full feature-specific pop-up help is available for all
controls, indicators, text input fields, and lists.
On systems with more than one CD-ROM drive, multiple
invocations of xmcd can be used to operate each drive
independently.
Xmcd is designed to be easy to use, as the main window is
purposely made to resemble a real CD player front panel.
All other pop-up windows are also designed to be as
intuitive as possible. Moreover, while the use of a mouse
is natural with xmcd, all functionality can also be operated
via the keyboard. This is in conformance to the guidelines
published in the OSF/Motif Style Guide from the Open
Software Foundation.
The internal architecture of xmcd is designed to be easily
portable to many UNIX operating system variants, and
adaptable to the myriad of CD-ROM drives available.
OPTIONS
All standard Xt Intrinsics toolkit options are supported.
In addition, xmcd supports the following options:
-dev device
Specifies the path name to the raw CD-ROM device. If
this option is not used, the default device to be used
is the first drive set up with the xmcd configuration
program (See below).
-debug
Causes verbose debugging diagnostics to be printed on
stderr.
-c device (Solaris 2 only)
Same as the -dev option.
-X (Solaris 2 only)
Causes the exitOnEject parameter to be set to True.
-o (Solaris 2 only)
This option has no effect.
The -c, -X and -o options are provided only on the Solaris 2
platform for compatibility with the action_workman.so auto-
startup program, running under the Solaris 2 Volume Manager.
See the README file in the xmcd distribution about
configuring xmcd for the Solaris 2 Volume Manager.
X RESOURCES
Xmcd has many adjustable X resources to customize its look
and feel, as well as its behavior. Notably, the colors of
virtually every feature on xmcd's windows can be changed, as
well as the text fonts. All text labels can also be changed
(for example, to another language).
There are too many resources to list here, but the resource
names and their defaults (plus descriptive comments) can be
found in the LIBDIR/app-defaults/XMcd file (where LIBDIR is
typically /usr/lib/X11). It is not recommended that you
change values in the LIBDIR/app-defaults/XMcd file, unless
you want the changes to be forced upon all users of xmcd on
the system. Instead, make a copy of this file, change the
copy as you see fit, then place it in your home directory.
Your custom resource settings will then override the
defaults when xmcd is subsequently started. Alternatively,
you may also place specific resources you wish to override
in the .Xdefaults file in your home directory.
DEVICE CONFIGURATION
The X resources described in the previous section affect the
general appearance and behavior of xmcd. There are two
additional configuration files which are used to adapt xmcd
to your site requirements. The first of these contain
common parameters, and the second contain configurable
parameters that must vary on a per-drive basis. For
example, in some cases xmcd must operate the drive
differently depending upon the brand and model of the drive.
Thus, there must be a separate configuration file for these
parameters per-device. The common parameters file is
XMCDLIB/config/common.cfg and the device-specific parameters
file is XMCDLIB/config/DEVICE (where XMCDLIB is typically
/usr/lib/X11/xmcd and DEVICE is the base name of the raw
device special file for the CD-ROM drive ; e.g.,
/usr/lib/X11/xmcd/config/rcd0). A configuration program
XMCDLIB/config/config.sh is provided to make maintaining
these configuration file easy (Note: on SCO systems the
configuration program can also be invoked as "mkdev xmcd").
You should always use the configuration program to set the
configuration parameters when installing xmcd for the first
time, or when the CD-ROM hardware configuration has changed.
If this is not done then xmcd will probably not operate
correctly with your CD-ROM drive.
WARNING: If xmcd is not correctly configured, you may cause
xmcd to deliver commands that are not supported by your CD-
ROM drive. Under some environments this may lead to system
hang or crash.
You can override some of the device-specific configuration
parameters by adding your own configuration files. Xmcd
will also look in the HOME/.xmcdcfg/common.cfg and
HOME/.xmcdcfg/DEVICE files for common and device-specific
parameters (where HOME is your home directory and DEVICE is
as specified above). Parameters found in this file will
override the system defaults (except those parameters that
cannot be overridden; see the comments in the
XMCDLIB/config/device.cfg for details).
USING XMCD
The basic functions of xmcd are designed to operate the same
way as on a real stereo CD player. The pictorial symbols
used on the main window buttons are intended to illustrate
the function in a non-language-specific manner. You can
also change all main window buttons to display a text label
instead of the pictorial symbols, by clicking the display
check-box button (the "A" symbol enclosed in a box) located
at the upper left hand corner of the main window.
The CD database and track programming functions are operated
via the CD Database/Track Program Editor pop-up subwindow.
You activate the subwindow by pressing the cddb/prog button
below).
There will not be a per-item description of all the
features, because full on-line help is available (See
"ONLINE HELP" below).
ONLINE HELP
For general information about xmcd, click the help (question
mark symbol) button on the xmcd main window. You can also
get specific help information about each button, control,
indicator, text entry area, selection list by positioning
the mouse cursor over the desired item, then clicking the
third mouse button. A pop-up window will appear, containing
the relevant help text.
TRACK PROGRAMMING
You can program xmcd to play only certain tracks, in a
custom sequence. To do so, invoke the CD Database window
(by pressing the cddb/prog button on the main window).
Select the desired track by clicking on the entry in the
Track list, and click the Add button to add to the play
sequence. Notice that the track number appears in the Play
sequence text field. You can also type the track numbers,
separated with commas, directly in the Play sequence field.
Repeat until all desired tracks have been entered, then
press the Play/Pause button (on the main window) to start
the program play.
When a program sequence is defined, the prog indicator in
the main window display area "illuminates". To erase the
program sequence, press the Clear button on the CD
Database/Program Editor window.
The CD Database feature of xmcd allows you to enter the CD
artist/title, track titles, other free-form text (such as
band information, lyrics, etc.) associated with the disc and
tracks, and a track play program. After this information is
typed in and saved to a database file, it will automatically
appear on the xmcd CD Database window when the same CD is
inserted again.
You must perform a "save" operation (press the Save button)
after typing in the database information before ejecting the
CD or exiting, or the information will be lost. If this is
the first time this CD database entry is being stored, you
will be asked to select a category (rock, classical, jazz,
etc.) under which to classify the CD. The category is used
by xmcd to determine the actual directory in the filesystem
to write the database file.
You must type the CD information into the database because
the CD's table of contents (TOC) contains only the number of
tracks and the starting address of each track, but not the
actual disc and track titles.
The CD database window should prove to be intuitive to use.
You may use the on-line help system to obtain specific help
information about the various buttons and items.
The CD database information is stored in text files, one per
CD, in a designated directory (category). The path of this
directory is XMCDLIB/cddb/CATEGORY, where XMCDLIB is the
directory specified by the XMcd.libdir resource, and
CATEGORY is the category name selected when Save is
performed. See the description of XMCD_CDDBPATH in the
ENVIRONMENT section below.
You may view the list of directories that xmcd will search
for CD database files by pressing the About... button and
viewing the pop-up information window.
The file name of each CD database entry is a hexadecimal
representation of a special "magic" number computed by xmcd
based on the number of tracks, track timings, and other
available information about this CD. This method is used
because there is no reliable unique CD identifier to be
found on the CD itself (the CD standard allows for a
readable IPC/barcode but very few CDs actually contain such
information).
Since different pressings of the same CD may sometimes
contain slightly different track timings, the resultant
magic number computed by xmcd on these CDs will be
different. Thus, if you load a CD that is not the same one
that a CD database entry was created with (but is actually
the same CD title), xmcd may not recognize it and display
the database information automatically when you insert the
CD. In this event, you can search the CD database and find
the appropriate entry, and establish a "link" to it. To do
so, press the Link button, and select the appropriate
category on the popup window. Xmcd will then present
another pop-up window containing a list of all CD database
entries in the specified category (that has the same number
of tracks as the currently inserted disc). Select the
appropriate entry and a link will be made in the CD
database.
The Link feature alleviates the need to type in CD database
information again and avoids duplicate CD database entries.
In very rare occasions it is possible that the magic number
of a CD conflicts with that of another. This is a problem
that will be addressed in a future release of xmcd.
A master xmcd CD database of thousands of CD titles is
available for Internet anonymous FTP. See the README file
of your current xmcd distribution for details. You are
encouraged to contribute to this database by sending CD
database entries (that you typed in) to the archive. The
master CD database is updated periodically with new user-
contributed entries. This version of xmcd makes CD database
contribution easier with the Send button on the CD
database/Track Program Editor pop-up subwindow. Pressing
this button causes the CD database entry (associated with
the currently loaded CD) to be mailed to the xmcd CD
database archive maintainer. You should use this feature
only if your computer is configured to send Internet
electronic mail.
Xmcd now also has the ability to query a remote CD database
server host for CD database information. Thus, it is no
longer necessary to keep a full copy of the CD database
locally. If your system is connected to a TCP/IP network
(such as the Internet) and has access to a server system
running the CD database server program, you can configure
your xmcd client to query the server. The cddbPath
parameter or the XMCD_CDDBPATH environment variable is used
to configure the use of a remote server. See the
ENVIRONMENT section below for details.
While xmcd is running, the file /tmp/.cdaudio/curr.nnnn
(where nnnn is the hexadecimal representation of the CD-
ROM's device number) contains the device node path, CD
database category and disc identifier information pertaining
to the currently loaded CD. Other applications may read
this file to identify the currently loaded disc.
ENVIRONMENT
Several environment variables are currently recognized by
xmcd, and are described as follows:
XMCD_LIBDIR
This is used to override the XMcd.libdir resource.
This parameter is the directory path under which xmcd's
configuration files, help files, and CD database files
are located. The default value of XMCD_LIBDIR on most
systems is /usr/lib/X11/xmcd.
XMCD_CDDBPATH
This is used to override the cddbPath common
configuration parameter, which is a list of CD database
category directories to be used under XMCDLIB/cddb
(where XMCDLIB is the directory root specified by the
XMcd.libdir resource or the XMCD_LIBDIR environment
variable). Also, remote CD database hosts can be
specified.
rock;classical;jazz;newage;soundtrack;misc
This string will cause xmcd to search the following
directories for CD database files:
XMCDLIB/cddb/rock
XMCDLIB/cddb/classical
XMCDLIB/cddb/jazz
etc.
You may also specify absolute path names in the
XMCD_CDDBPATH entries. Example:
rock;classical;/home/john/industrial;~john/punk;~/cddb/jazz
Finally, you may also specify a remote CD database
server hosts which xmcd can use to query CD database
information. The syntax is @hostname[:port]. The
hostname can be a fully qualified host name or an IP
number. Example:
country;folk;@abc.fubar.com;@xyz.snafu.com
HOME This is used to determine your home directory. If HOME
is not defined, then xmcd tries to obtain it from the
/etc/passwd file. The home directory path is used by
xmcd to locate the .xmcdcfg directory.
NOTES
Not all CD-ROM drives support all features that appear on
xmcd. For example, most SCSI-1 drives do not support a
software-driven volume control. On these drives the xmcd
volume control slider may have no effect, or in some cases
it is made to function as a mute control (i.e., it will snap
to the full-off or full-on positions only). Similarly, the
caddy lock, eject and index search buttons found on xmcd may
not have any effect on drives that do not support the
appropriate functionality.
FILES
$HOME/.xmcdcfg/*
XMCDLIB/cddb/*
XMCDLIB/config/config.sh
XMCDLIB/config/common.cfg
XMCDLIB/config/device.cfg
XMCDLIB/config/.tbl/*
XMCDLIB/config/*
XMCDLIB/help/*
LIBDIR/app-defaults/XMcd
BINDIR/xmcd
MANDIR/xmcd.1
/tmp/.cdaudio/*
SEE ALSO
cda(1), wm2xmcd(1), X(1).
AUTHOR
Ti Kan (ti@amb.org)
AMB Research Laboratories, Sunnyvale, CA, U.S.A.
Xmcd also contains code contributed by several dedicated
individuals. See the README file in the xmcd distribution
for information.
Comments, suggestions, and bug reports are always welcome.