Buzztrax

quick info

Please turn you browser to http://www.buzztrax.org to learn what this project is about. Buzztrax is free software and distributed under the LGPL.

build status

We are running continuous integration on github actions, get coverage from codecov and have the codebase checked by coverity:

intro

Buzztrax is a music composer similar to tracker applications. It is roughly modelled after the windows only, closed source application called Buzz.

requirements

gstreamer >= 1.2 and its plugins (gstreamer, gst-plugins-base and gst-plugins-good).
glib, gsf and libxml2 for the core libraries.
clutter-gtk and gtk+ for the UI

optional packages

gst-plugins-ugly: for the use of mp3 recording
gst-plugins-bad: extra audio effects
gudev and libasound: for interaction controller support
orc: for plugin acceleration
fluidsynth: to build a relates gstreamer wrapper
check: for unit tests

building from git

To build use autogen.sh instead of configure. This accept the same options like configure. Later one can use autoregen.sh to rerun the bootstrapping. To build from git one needs to have gtk-doc, yelp-tools and cvs (for autopoint from gettext) installed.

directories

docs : design ideas and API reference
po : gettext i18n catalogs
src : the project sources
- ui
- cmd : buzztrax tool for the command line
- edit : buzztrax editor (gtk based ui)
- lib
- core : logic, e.g. connections framework, file i/o, ...
- ic : interaction controller
tests : unit tests (same directory structure as src)

installing locally

Use following options for ./autogen.sh or ./configure

--prefix=$HOME/buzztrax
--with-gconf-source=xml::/home/ensonic/.gconf/
--with-desktop-dir=/home/ensonic/.gnome2/vfolders/

when installing the package to e.g. $HOME/buzztrax you ned to set a few environment variables. To use the apps these variables are enough:

# libraries:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$HOME/buzztrax/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
# gstreamer
export GST_PLUGIN_PATH="$HOME/buzztrax/lib/gstreamer-1.0"
# mime-database & icon-themes:
export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$XDG_DATA_DIRS:$HOME/buzztrax/share"
update-mime-database $HOME/buzztrax/share/mime/

Likewise for the man-pages to be found:

export MANPATH=\$MANPATH:$prefix/share/man

For developers:

# see buzztrax help files in devhelp:
export DEVHELP_SEARCH_PATH="$DEVHELP_SEARCH_PATH:$HOME/buzztrax/share/gtk-doc/html"
# compile against buzztrax libs using pkg-config:
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:$HOME/buzztrax/lib/pkgconfig"
#
export GI_TYPELIB_PATH="\$GI_TYPELIB_PATH:$prefix/lib/girepository"

installing in /usr/local

The default value for the --prefix configure option is /usr/local. Also in that case the variables mentioned in the last example need to be exported.

running the apps

cd $HOME/buzztrax/bin
./buzztrax-cmd --command=info --input-file=../share/buzztrax/songs/melo1.xml
./buzztrax-cmd --command=play --input-file=../share/buzztrax/songs/melo1.xml
./buzztrax-cmd --command=encode --input-file=../share/buzztrax/songs/melo1.xml --output-file=./melo1.ogg
./buzztrax-edit --command=load --input-file=../share/buzztrax/songs/melo1.xml

running unit tests

run all the tests:

make check

run all the tests in one suite:

make bt_cmd.check
make bt_core.check
make bt_edit.check
make bt_gst.check
make bt_ic.check

select tests to run:

BT_CHECKS="test_bt_edit_app*" make check
BT_CHECKS="test_bt_edit_app*" make bt_edit.check

activate some logging info that can help while testing:

BT_TEST_DEBUG=1 make check

The tests make use of Xvfb (X Virtual Frame Buffer) to create UI in a headless scenario; if installed, it will be used. Sometimes it's useful to be able to see the UI when writing or debugging tests, though. You can set BT_CHECK_NO_XVFB=1 to disable use of XVfb. You will then see UI windows created on your desktop directly during test runs.

To debug a test suite with gdb, try:

BT_CHECKS="test_bt_edit_app*" make bt_edit.gdb

To run Valgrind's memcheck over a test suite:

BT_CHECKS="test_bt_edit_app*" make bt_edit.valgrind

The Valgrind log file will be found at /tmp/.valgrind.. Logs without errors are deleted automatically after test execution.

You may find that you need to tweak the location of the Valgrind suppression files for your OS (the 'default.supp' file is found there.) If you have that issue, try this:

VALSUPP=/usr/libexec/valgrind BT_CHECKS="test_bt_edit_app*" make -e bt_edit.valgrind

reporting issues

Run the application from a terminal like e.g.:

GST_DEBUG=4 GST_DEBUG_FILE=./debug.log buzztrax-edit

and attach the log file to a bug report at https://github.com/Buzztrax/buzztrax/issues.

If there is a reproducible crash, run:

gdb $(which buzztrax-edit)

and in gdb type r for run and when the application crashed bt to get a backtrace. Share that text in the bugreport.

Buzztrax / buzztrax

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