MPVCTL

Command line access to mpv with extended functionality.

Required

• mpv
• socat / nc: socat preferred due to the differing implementations of netcat across UNIXes.

Usage

mpvctl requires the use of mpv and its --input-ipc-server option.

mpvctl automatically opens an IPC-server for you when adding files to be played, but by default will close the IPC-server when all files have finished playing.

To keep the ipc-server open permanently, use:

.. code-block:: sh

$ mpv --input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpvsocket

You can also specify the default IPC server in your $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpv.conf which will make the most recent mpv instance you start be controllable via mpvctl:

.. code-block:: sh

input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpvsocket

Help Text

.. BEGIN HELP TEXT

Output of mpvctl --help

usage::

   mpvctl [-h]

          ...

Utility to control mpv from the command line.

TIME FORMAT: For commands that accept TIME, valid time literals include.

• 10 ten seconds.
• -10m minus 10 minutes.
• 1.5h one and a half hours.
• 01:32:02 one hour, 32minutes and 2 seconds.

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

subcommands: valid sub-commands

:quit: Quit the 'mpv' instance. :pause: Stop playing. :play: Start playing. :play-pause: Toggle between play & pause. :next: Play the next item in the playlist. :prev: Play the previous item in the playlist. :seek: Seek relative to the current playback position. :add: Add file(s) to the playlist. :stash: Stash the current state and clear the playlist. :delete-current: Delete the file that is currently playing (using the systems "trash").

Subcommand: quit

usage::

   mpvctl quit [-h]

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

Subcommand: pause

usage::

   mpvctl pause [-h]

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

Subcommand: play

usage::

   mpvctl play [-h]

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

Subcommand: play-pause

usage::

   mpvctl play-pause [-h]

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

Subcommand: next

usage::

   mpvctl next [-h]

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

Subcommand: prev

usage::

   mpvctl prev [-h]

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

Subcommand: seek

usage::

   mpvctl seek [-h] TIME

positional arguments: TIME Time string (see TIME format)

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

Subcommand: add

usage::

   mpvctl add [-h] [--replace] [--change] FILES [FILES ...]

positional arguments: FILES One or more file-paths, with support for paths relative to the current working directory.

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit --replace Replace the current playlist instead of adding to the current playlist. --change Change the track to the newly added files (ignored when --replace is passed in).

Subcommand: stash

usage::

   mpvctl stash [-h] {list,drop,pop,peek} ...

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

sub-sub-commands: valid stash sub-commands

{list,drop,pop,peek} Stash additional help list List stashes. drop Drop the last stash, optionally by index. pop Pop the stash (removing it from the file-system). peek Load the stash (without removing it).

Subcommand: delete-current

usage::

   mpvctl delete-current [-h]

options: -h, --help show this help message and exit

.. END HELP TEXT