Mpv launcher which helps to have a single instance of mpv running. New videos are opened in a currently running instance of mpv, provided that it was started by runmpv.
runmpv was inspired by umpv (unique mpv) and umpvw (unique mpv windows). The proper naming for this piece of software should've been umpvwj (unique mpv windows java), but that's too many letters for my taste.
You can't use umpv on Windows, because it requires sockets, but mpv uses pipes to communicate. And I didn't want to use umpvw, because I wanted something easily ported to linux.
Also, I like java.
Currently runmpv works under Windows and under Linux.
Basically single instance feature for mpv. Mpv always opens new videos in separate windows. And that's not the behaviour, many users want. If you open videos with runmpv, runmpv first looks for an existing instance of mpv and commands it to start playing the video. If there's no mpv instances open, then runmpv starts one.
Especially convenient if you didn't tune mpv to put its window on top. Also useful, if you want to use mpv hotkeys right after you have opened a new video. Make volume lower for example.
Convenient if you put mpv window to background and just want to bring it to front.
Useful, if mpv is tuned to not close its window, after video is over. Without this feature, a new video would be paused after opening.
What if you are watching Supernatural and then your friend comes to watch an episode of The Boys.
Single instance feature is inconvenient then. runmpv would open an episode of The Boys in the same windows as Supernatural. And after you're done with The Boys, you'll have to look for Supernatural episode you were watching and maybe search for the position you were in.
You could just open The Boys in stock mpv window, but you'd have to keep remembering about having to do that. On the other hand, how good it would have been if episodes of The Boys opened in one window and episodes of Supernaturals opened in the other!
runmpv can do just that by opening videos from different directories in different mpv windows!
Because, all episodes of the current season of Supernatural are probably in one directory and all episodes of the current season of The Boys are probably in another directory.
But that's not default, you have to put openMode=instance-per-directory
in runmpv.properties for this behaviour.
Copy runmpv directory to the directory, where mpv.exe is located and then launch runmpv-install.bat to associate video files with runmpv.exe . You still have to select runmpv manually from a dropdown list, when you play a certain file type for the first time.
If you want to store runmpv.exe in a directory of you choice, you'll have to manually specify mpvHomeDir parameter in runmpv.properties
If mpv is installed with package manager and mpv directory is in your $PATH, then you can copy runmpv to the directory of your choice and tune your environment to open video files with runmpv.
If you want to use custom mpv, then you need to specify mpvHomeDir in runmpv.properties
runmpv uses xdotool to focus mpv window after opening a new video, so it should be installed, if you want the functionality to work.
ln -s <runmpv-directory>/runmpv ~/.local/share/bin/runmpvvideo/x-matroska=runmpv.desktop
video/msvideo=runmpv.desktop
video/x-msvideo=runmpv.desktop
video/x-dv=runmpv.desktop
video/vnd.mpegurl=runmpv.desktop
video/x-m4v=runmpv.desktop
video/quicktime=runmpv.desktop
video/x-sgi-movie=runmpv.desktop
video/mp4=runmpv.desktop
video/mpeg=runmpv.desktop
video/vnd.mpegurl=runmpv.desktop
video/quicktime=runmpv.desktop
video/x-flv=runmpv.desktop
video/x-ogm+ogg=runmpv.desktop
video/3gpp=runmpv.desktop
video/x-mpeg=runmpv.desktop
video/x-ms-wmv=runmpv.desktop
video/x-ms-asf=runmpv.desktop
video/x-matroska=runmpv.desktop
video/ogg=runmpv.desktopupdate-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applicationsThis is how you start new mpv instance, or tell existing instance to load a new file.
runmpv.exe <path-to-video-file>Use runmpv.properties file to configure runmpv. Here is an example of a configuration.
# Path to directory, containing mpv.exe
# Should be absolute path, but place holders can be used
# to denote certain directories
# %h - at the beginning means home directory
# %r - at the beginning means runmpv executable directory
# %v - at the beginning means directory, where video is located
#
# Also, path should end with /. That is important, because
# runmpv concatenates this path and mpv to form full path to
# mpv executable.
#
# Default value under Linux is an empty string "",
# so that runmpv would launch just mpv without prefix.
#
# Default value under Windows is %r/../, because I
# suppose it's convenient ot put directory, which
# contains runmpv to mpv directory.
mpvHomeDir=%r/../
# Describes when runmpv opens a new mpv instance.
# If openMode is anything but instance-per-directory,
# runmpv opens single instance of mpv and always uses it to open videos.
# If openMode is instance-per-directory, then runmpv opens new mpv
# instance to play videos from every directory. And uses existing mpv instance
# to play new files from the same directory.
# Default value is single-instance
openMode=single-instance
# Name of the pipe for JSON IPC.
# Used to identify single mpv instance.
# Pipe is going to be created by mpv.exe
pipeName=runmpv-mpv-pipe
# Path to mpv log file
# This is the file, where mpv.exe (the instance controlled by runmpv)
# will write it's own logs.
# If property is not found, then mpv logging is controlled by
# mpv settings entirely
# Should be absolute path, but place holders can be used
# to denote certain directories
# %h - at the beginning means home directory
# %r - at the beginning means runmpv executable directory
# %v - at the beginning means directory, where video is located
mpvLogFile=%r/runmpv-mpv.log
# Path to emergency logging system, used to diagnose
# why regular logging doesn't work.
# If property is not found, emergency logging system is disabled.
# Should be absolute path, but place holders can be used
# to denote certain directories
# %h - at the beginning means home directory
# %r - at the beginning means runmpv executable directory
# %v - at the beginning means directory, where video is located
runnerLogFile=%r/runmpv.log
# Amount of time after which runmpv decides, that it couldn't launch mpv
# and it's time to quit. Measured in seconds.
# Needed, because if you launch video files from hard drive,
# a lot of time may pass until the HDD spins up
waitSeconds=5
# If true, mpv window is focused after new
# file is loaded. If false, mpv window
# is only focused on first launch.
# Anything but true or false will result
# in na error.
# Only works under windows
# Default value is true
focusAfterOpen=trueGo to graalvm.org, press Download button and when next page is loaded, choose 21.3.0 version and press "Download from GitHub".
On the next page find Java 17 based heading and click a link for Windows (amd64).
Here is a direct link, you can try it before searching for it manually https://github.com/graalvm/graalvm-ce-builds/releases/download/vm-21.3.0/graalvm-ce-java17-windows-amd64-21.3.0.zip
Add GraalVM bin directory to your path
Execute gu install native-image
Probably Visual Studio 2022 will also work, but I have tried VS 2019 on my machine and automatic builds on github are made with VS 2017.
You might want to use chocolatey to install Visual Studio. That's what github action does. To see instructions on how to install chocolatey visit https://chocolatey.org/install .
Here is a quote from there as of 2022.04.30
Run the following command.
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))Then use chocolatey to install Visual Studio.
choco install visualstudio2017-workload-vctoolsTo do that on Windows 10 you manually find Visual Studio 2019 -> x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019 in main menu.
Or you can press WinKey and start typing x64 and x64 Native Tools Command Prompt for VS 2019 will appear in search results.
Before running commands you need to change you working directory to the directory where mpv sources are located.
if not exist build mkdir build
cd build
dir /s /B ..\src\main\*.java > sources.txt
javac -d graalout @sources.txt
call native-image ^
-H:ReflectionConfigurationFiles=../reflection.json ^
--static -cp graalout com.evilcorp.StartSingleMpvInstance runmpv
editbin /SUBSYSTEM:WINDOWS runmpv.exe
xcopy /Y runmpv.exe ..
cd ..Go to graalvm.org, press Download button and when next page is loaded, choose 21.3.0 version and press "Download from GitHub".
On the next page find Java 17 based heading and click a link for Linux (amd64).
Here is a direct link, you can try it before searching for it manually https://github.com/graalvm/graalvm-ce-builds/releases/download/vm-21.3.0/graalvm-ce-java11-linux-amd64-21.3.0.tar.gz
Copy archive contents to a directory of your choice.
Add GraalVM bin directory to your path
Execute gu install native-image
Before running commands you need to change you working directory to the directory where mpv sources are located.
mkdir -p build
find "$PWD"/src/main -type f -name '*.java' > build/sources.txt
cd build || exit
javac -d graalout @sources.txt
native-image \
-H:ReflectionConfigurationFiles=../reflection.json \
--static -cp graalout com.evilcorp.StartSingleMpvInstance runmpv
mkdir -p runmpv-prog
cp ../runmpv.properties runmpv-prog
cp ../logging.properties runmpv-prog
cp ../runmpv-install.bat runmpv-prog
cp ../runmpv-uninstall.bat runmp-prog
cp ../runmpv-document.ico runmpv-prog
mv runmpv runmpv-prog/
mv runmpv-prog runmpv