This is xhippo.info, produced by makeinfo version 4.8 from xhippo.texi.

START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* xhippo: (xhippo.info).  A GTK-based playlist manager for various sound players.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY

   This file documents GNU `xhippo', a GTK-based front-end and playlist
manager for sound players.

   Copyright (C) 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007 Adam Sampson

   Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
preserved on all copies.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
permission notice identical to this one.

   Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.


File: xhippo.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Introduction,  Prev: (dir),  Up: (dir)

GNU `xhippo'
************

Adam Sampson, <ats@offog.org> v3.5, 27th August 2007

   This document gives information about how to use GNU `xhippo', a
GTK-based front-end and playlist manager for sound players.

* Menu:

* Introduction::
* Installation::
* Invocation::
* GUI::
* Config file::
* gtkrc::
* Distribution::
* Contact::


File: xhippo.info,  Node: Introduction,  Next: Installation,  Prev: Top,  Up: Top

1 Introduction
**************

GNU `xhippo' is a generic playlist manager program for a variety of
UNIX sound players. It's been shown to work with `mpg123', `madplay',
`bplay', `s3mod', `tracker', `xmp', `mtvp', `splay', `ogg123' and
`timidity', and should work with more-or-less anything that can take a
filename on the command line. It is capable of automatically deciding
which player to use depending on a file's extension; the defaults are
set in a config file. It uses textual playlist files, which are easily
generated with the `find' or `locate' utilities. The interface of
`xhippo' is very loosely modelled on the shareware `HippoPlayer' player
for the Amiga.

   `xhippo' 3 is firmly in maintainance mode; I will continue to fix
bugs if anyone finds any, but new users are strongly advised to try out
the rewritten `Potamus' branch which will eventually become `xhippo' 4,
available from `http://offog.org/code/potamus.html'.

   `xhippo' was developed under GNU/Linux, but it contains nothing
Linux-specific, so it will probably work on any UNIX-like system where
gcc, glib and GTK are available. (Additionally, it supports GNU long
options where `getopt_long' is available.)  If you're using NetBSD or
FreeBSD, a port is available--see *Note Installation::.  `xhippo' can
be compiled as a GNOME 1 application, and it can be compiled against
GTK+ 1.2, 2.0 or 2.2. `xhippo' supports standard drag-and-drop (which
works with the GNOME, KDE and ROX file managers, and any other
supporting the standard protocol).

   `xhippo' comes with NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
You may redistribute copies of GNU `xhippo' under the terms of the GNU
General Public License. For more information about these matters, see
the file named `COPYING'.

   If you've installed a previous version of `xhippo', read the
`ChangeLog' for information on what's changed recently.

   `xhippo' uses GNU gettext for internationalisation; you can pick the
language you want by setting your `LANG' environment variable.  If your
C library's gettext support doesn't work, you can give the
`--with-included-gettext' option to the `configure' script to make it
use the copy of gettext included in the package.

   If you've downloaded `xhippo', please send me some mail to tell me
what you think of it.  Suggestions for improvements will be gratefully
received.


File: xhippo.info,  Node: Installation,  Next: Invocation,  Prev: Introduction,  Up: Top

2 Installation
**************

Before reading this section, check that your operating system
distribution doesn't already contain a package for `xhippo'. If it
does, then you will probably be best off using that rather than building
it by hand. If it doesn't, or if you want to use a more recent version,
then read on.

   `xhippo' uses `GTK+', and requires `GTK+ 1.2' or higher; it needs
`gtk-config' in your path in order to build. It uses GNU `automake' and
`autoconf', so it will automatically detect some features of your
system that can affect `xhippo''s performance. If you have `libid3tag'
from the `libmad' package installed (available along with the `madplay'
MPEG audio player, which works well with `xhippo', from
`http://mad.sourceforge.net/'), `xhippo' will use it to read ID3 tags.
(If you don't have it installed, `xhippo' will use its own simple
implementation which only understands ID3v1.)

   To compile, change to the source directory and do

     ./configure
     make

   If you want (minimal) GNOME 1 support, do `./configure --with-gnome'
instead of `./configure'. If you wish to use `GTK+ 2.0' or higher, do
`./configure --with-gtk2'.  If you encounter problems finding GTK while
building, do `./configure --help' to find out how to specify where GTK
files are stored.  If you want to install into a different place, do
`./configure --prefix=/usr/local/xhippo' or wherever.  Several other
options are available; try `./configure --help' for more information.

   To install the program, do

     make install

   Each user who wants to use `xhippo' should create a `.xhippo'
directory in their home directory.  `xhippo' will look for the `config'
and `gtkrc' files there, and will save its window state into the
`winstate' file there if configured to. Playlists should be kept in a
`.xhippo/playlists/' directory.

   `xhippo' finds your home directory by looking for the `HOME'
environment variable. If this is not set by default, you should add a
line of the form

     export HOME=`pwd`
   or your shell's equivalent to your profile script.


File: xhippo.info,  Node: Invocation,  Next: GUI,  Prev: Installation,  Up: Top

3 Invocation
************

To use `xhippo', you need to give it at least one playlist. You can
either load a playlist by specifying it on the command line or in the
config file, or you can build a playlist by dropping files from a file
manager into the `xhippo' window or using the "Add Song" option on the
pop-up menu.

   Playlists are files containing names of files to play, one per line.
This is compatible with XMMS's playlist format, so if you have an XMMS
playlist called `Nice', you could do `xhippo $HOME/.x11amp/Nice' to use
it. (GQmpeg can also import `xhippo' playlists.)  Alternately, you can
generate them with the `find' command; for instance, if you keep your
.ogg files in your `$HOME/sound' directory, you could do

     find $HOME/sound -name *.ogg | sort >$HOME/.xhippo/playlists/ogg
     xhippo $HOME/.xhippo/playlists/ogg
   to make a playlist and play it. (With a little trickery, `xhippo' can
be persuaded to automatically build playlists from a directory on
startup; see the example config file for more information.)

   Playlists can also include other playlists by name; to do this, put a
line of the form

     !foo
   in the playlist.  `xhippo' will then try to load the file `foo' as a
playlist, inserting its entries into the list at that point. If the
`-i' command-line option or `readid3' config-file option are enabled,
`xhippo' will try to find ID3 tags in the listed files and will put
them in the list rather than the filenames if found.

   To start playing automatically once a playlist is loaded, use the
`-a' option anywhere on the command line (or the `autostart' command in
the config file).

   You can specify multiple playlists on the command line.
Alternatively, you can specify the `-f' option to make `xhippo' treat
command-line arguments as files to be added to the playlist rather than
playlists to load (for instance, `xhippo -f *.ogg'), or `-D' to make
`xhippo' treat command-line arguments as directories to be searched for
playable files.

   `xhippo -h' or `xhippo --help' will give you some simple help
instructions.


File: xhippo.info,  Node: GUI,  Next: Config file,  Prev: Invocation,  Up: Top

4 GUI
*****

The status line shows a little information about the player; it shows
the number of playlist entries upon startup, and what player is being
used to play the current song (and the PID of the player process, if you
use `-p' or `showpid:1' in the config file). To start a song, click on
it in the list, or click "Next" to pick either a random song (see the
`mustplayall' config file option below to find out how to control
this), or the next song in the playlist, depending on the setting of
the "Random" checkbox. Clicking on "Prev" will play the previous song
(if the "Random" checkbox is enabled, the last random song picked). To
restart the current song from the beginning, click "Restart". To stop,
click "Stop".

   `xhippo' supports a number of keyboard accelerators: `r' for
Restart, `s' or keypad `/' for Stop, `p' or keypad `+' for Pause, `n',
keypad `*' or keypad `-' for Next, `b' for Prev, ``' for Mini, `h' for
Random, `a' for Add File, `d' for Add Directory, `l' for Load Playlist,
`v' for Save Playlist, `o' for Sort By Name, `w' for Sort By Swapped
Name, `t' for Sort By Mtime, `c' for Clear Playlist, `0' to `9' for
user-defined menu entries and `q' for quit.

   When the end of a song is reached, `xhippo' will pick either a
random one or the next one from the list depending on whether the
"Random" checkbox is set or not. Optionally, `xhippo' can scroll the
list so that the randomly-picked song is at the top of the visible
section; to enable this, use the `-s' command-line option, or the
`scroll:1' config-file option below. To quit, use your window manager's
close button, pick Quit from the pop-up menu or send `xhippo' a
`SIGINT' `Ctrl-C'.

   If you check the "Mini" checkbox, the list of files will disappear,
making the window smaller; unchecking it will make it reappear. You can
make `xhippo' start up in this "minified" state by using the `-t'
switch or the `startmini:1' option in your config file.

   You can drop `file:' URLs (such as files from your file manager) onto
the `xhippo' window to add songs to the playlist (if you drop a
directory, it will search the directory for files to add). Other URLs
(such as `http:') are not supported, as there's no simple mechanism that
all players understand to stream a file from a network connection.

   Right-clicking on the playlist or the status bar will bring up a
pop-up menu, which allows you to bring up an information window for a
song showing the song's size, location and the date it was last
modified, move songs up and down within the playlist, remove songs from
the playlist, add songs or directories to the playlist, sort the
playlist by song name, swapped song name (the part after the first `-'
in the name) or song mtime, load and save playlists, or bring up the
preferences dialog. The default directory for loading and saving
playlists is `$HOME/.xhippo/playlists'. Left-clicking on the status bar
will bring up the information window for the song that is currently
playing.

   If you use the `-w' switch or the `savewinstate' config file option,
`xhippo' will save its window position and size to your
`$HOME/.xhippo/winstate' file when you close the window, and will
reload it on startup.


File: xhippo.info,  Node: Config file,  Next: gtkrc,  Prev: GUI,  Up: Top

5 Config file
*************

`xhippo' searches for its config file as `/usr/local/etc/xhippo.config'
(or wherever you specified with the `--prefix' option to `configure'),
`$HOME/.xhippo/config' and `xhippo.config' (in the current directory);
all that are present will be read.

   Most config-file options have a command-line equivalent; these
support both traditional (`-x') and GNU-style long (`--extended')
options.  The long options have the same name as the config-file
options; `--option' is equivalent to `option:1' in the config file
(i.e. it forces the option on). The command-line options override the
config file. Invoke `xhippo' as `xhippo --help' for more information.

   Many config-file options are alterable from within the GUI at runtime
through the Preferences dialog, which can be brought up from the
context menu.

   A config file line starting with a `#' will be ignored.

   Lines have the format `command:arg1:arg2...'. Arguments can be of
several types: booleans, integers, strings and sort types. Booleans
represent on/off conditions; `yes', `on', `true' or any non-zero
integer will enable the attribute, and any other value will disable it.
For sort types, `none' (or any other unrecognised value) means don't
sort, `name' (or, for backwards compatibility, any non-zero numeric
value) means sort by name, `swapped' means sort by swapped name,
`mtime' means sort by mtime.

   The following configuration commands are accepted:

`type:extension:command[:options]'
     When `xhippo' encounters a file whose name ends in .EXTENSION, it
     will use `command FILE' to play it. The extension is
     case-insensitive. `options' is optional and controls how the
     player will be started by `xhippo'; if it contains `g' then the
     player will be started in its own process group (necessary to
     properly kill some multithreaded players); if it contains `i' then
     the player will be started with stdin connected to `/dev/null'.
     Examples: `type:mp3:mpg123 -b 1024', `type:ogg:ogg123:i'

     About the only requirement that `xhippo' has on the players that
     it uses is that they must quit cleanly when sent a `SIGTERM', and
     be pauseable with `SIGSTOP' and `SIGCONT'. Some versions of the
     multithreaded `ogg123' have the problem that, when sent a
     `SIGTERM', the main thread exits immediately but the audio device
     isn't closed until the buffer is empty (which could be up to a
     couple of seconds later). This means that `xhippo' thinks the
     player has exited before the audio device is available again. This
     is merely annoying if your operating system and hardware permits
     the audio device to be opened by multiple processes at once, but
     if it doesn't, then when a song finishes xhippo will attempt to
     start the next and fail, and do this repeatedly until the audio
     device is available again. One solution is to use another Vorbis
     player instead of `ogg123' (such as the somewhat-more-heavyweight
     `mplayer').

`autostart:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will play a random song on startup. This is
     equivalent to `-a' on the command line.

`scroll:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will scroll the list when a random item is
     selected so that the selected song is visible. This is equivalent
     to `-s' on the command line.

`mustplayall:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will always pick an item that it hasn't played
     before from the playlist when asked to pick a random entry. This
     continues until it has played all the entries, at which point it
     will just pick a random one as before. This is equivalent to `-m'
     on the command line.

`readid3:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will try to read ID3 tags from the files
     listed in the playlists and will use them as the playlist entries
     if found. This slows down `xhippo' startup considerably, so it's
     disabled by default. This is equivalent to `-i' on the command
     line.

`exec:command'
     COMMAND will be executed as a shell command (using `/bin/sh')
     before any further config commands are parsed.  For an example of
     why I included this, look at the example config file
     (`xhippo.config').

`load:playlist'
     PLAYLIST will be loaded as a playlist file. This is equivalent to
     including PLAYLIST on the command line.

`savewinstate:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will save its window position, size and state
     (whether it is minified or not) between sessions in the
     `$HOME/.xhippo/winstate' file. If it is zero, `xhippo' will allow
     your window manager to place it, will start with a "standard"
     (small) size, and won't start minified (unless the next option is
     specified). This is equivalent to `-w' on the command line.

`startmini:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will start up in the "minified" state, as if
     you'd clicked the "Mini" button (even if the winstate file says
     that the window wasn't tinified). This is equivalent to `-t' (for
     "tiny") on the command line.

`showpid:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will show the PID of its player process in the
     status line when not in mini mode. This is equivalent to `-p' on
     the command line.

`ordered:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will start with the "Random" checkbox turned
     off. This is equivalent to `-o' on the command line.

`stripextension:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will strip the extensions from the filenames
     displayed in the playlist. This is equivalent to `-S' on the
     command line.

`leftscroll:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will place the vertical scrollbar on the left
     side of the playlist.  This looks better with NeXTStep-like
     themes. This is equivalent to `-l' on the command line.

`hideplayeroutput:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will redirect the output (stdout and stderr)
     of child player processes to `/dev/null'. This is equivalent to
     `-q' on the command line.

`sortonload:sorttype'
     SORTTYPE specifies how `xhippo' should sort playlists when they
     are loaded. `-O' on the command line is equivalent to
     `sortonload:name'.

`playlistdir:dir'
     Use DIR as the default directory for loading or saving playlists.

`demanglenames:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will replace `_' (underscores) and `%20's in
     song names with spaces on the display. This is equivalent to `-d'
     on the command line.

`onetime:boolean'
     If enabled and either `ordered' or `mustplayall' are turned on,
     `xhippo' will stop when all the items in the playlist have been
     played. This is equivalent to `-1' on the command line.

`playlisttitle:boolean'
     If enabled, then `xhippo' will set the window title to include the
     name of the current playlist. This is equivalent to `-T' on the
     command line.

`titlebasename:boolean'
     If enabled, then `xhippo' will use the basename of the playlist
     name when setting the window title if `playlisttitle' is set. This
     is equivalent to `-b' on the command line.

`nocheckfiles:boolean'
     Normally, when a playlist is loaded, `xhippo' will check to see
     whether all the listed files exist and discard them if they don't.
     If enabled, then `xhippo' won't bother checking, which will make
     startup significantly faster on large playlists. This is
     equivalent to `-c' on the command line.  Note that `xhippo' will
     read the information if it's needed at a later time, so if you
     sort the playlist by mtime then it'll need to scan all the files
     to get the mtimes.

`writeplaying:boolean'
     If enabled, then `xhippo' will write the name of the song that is
     currently playing to `$HOME/.xhippo/current_song'. (If the file
     cannot be written, `xhippo' will silently ignore it.) This is
     equivalent to `-W' on the command line.

`skippath:integer'
     Normally when displaying song names in the playlist, `xhippo' will
     use the basename of the file (i.e. it will strip off the path to
     the file). If INTEGER is set to something other than zero,
     `xhippo' will only strip the first INTEGER elements of the path;
     this could be useful if you sort your music collection into albums
     and want to display the album names in the playlist. This is
     equivalent to `-k INTEGER' on the command line.

`usercommand:description:command'
     Define a user command. This will add an entry titled DESCRIPTION
     to the context menu (and assign it a numerical accelerator
     starting from `0'); when the entry is picked, COMMAND will be run
     (with a single instance of `%s' in the command replaced by the
     full filename of the selected song, or the empty string if the
     menu is invoked while not over a song).

`commandlinesongs:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will treat command-line arguments as songs to
     add to the playlist rather than playlists to load. This is
     equivalent to `-f' on the command line; you can therefore do
     something like `xhippo -f *.ogg' to start `xhippo' listing all the
     `.ogg' files in the current directory.

`commandlinedirs:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will treat command-line arguments as
     directories to search for songs to add to the playlist.  This is
     equivalent to `-D' on the command line.

`deletewhenplayed:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will remove songs from the playlist once they
     have been played. This is equivalent to `-x' on the command line.

`persistplaylist:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will attempt to load a playlist from
     `$HOME/.xhippo/saved_playlist' on startup (if no other files are
     given on the command line), and will save the current playlist to
     that file on exit. This is equivalent to `-P' on the command line.

`commandlineguess:boolean'
     If enabled, `xhippo' will attempt to guess what the command-line
     arguments are. If they have a known extension (one specified with
     `type' above) then they are assumed to be songs; if they are
     directories they are assumed to be directories; otherwise they are
     assumed to be playlists. You probably want this turned on unless
     you're in the habit of calling your playlist `playlist.ogg'. This
     is equivalent to `-g' on the command line.

`persistfrequently:boolean'
     If enabled and `persistplaylist' is also enabled, `xhippo' will
     save the current playlist whenever a new song is started. You may
     want this if you're in the habit of killing xhippo randomly.



File: xhippo.info,  Node: gtkrc,  Next: Distribution,  Prev: Config file,  Up: Top

6 gtkrc
*******

To allow for customised GTK appearances, `xhippo' reads a standard
gtkrc file in `$HOME/.xhippo/gtkrc'. For more information about gtkrc
files, consult the GTK documentation.


File: xhippo.info,  Node: Distribution,  Next: Contact,  Prev: gtkrc,  Up: Top

7 Distribution
**************

If you want an archive to give to somebody else, invoke `make dist' in
the `xhippo' source directory. This will produce the same
`xhippo-VERSION.tar.gz' file that I distribute. If you wish to mail me
a modified version, do exactly the same (after removing the `doc'
directory); I can then `diff' it against my last release to see what
you've changed. (Alternately, just send me a `diff -Naur' between a
clean distributed `xhippo' and your modified version.)


File: xhippo.info,  Node: Contact,  Prev: Distribution,  Up: Top

8 Contact
*********

`xhippo' is far from perfect. Please contact <bug-xhippo@gnu.org> if
you discover any bugs, or have any suggestions.

   `xhippo' was written by me, Adam Sampson, <ats@offog.org>.  My other
software can always be found at `http://offog.org/'; `xhippo' is now a
GNU (`http://www.gnu.org/') application and is distributed from
`ftp://ftp.gnu.org/' or from mirror sites.

   The original German translation was done by Volker Assmann,
<volka@bigfoot.de>, who was also responsible for betatesting.

   Hubert Feyrer first alerted me to the problems with GTK+-1.0 and 1.1
compatibility, and created the NetBSD package. Rod Taylor created the
FreeBSD port, and Kevin Lo created the OpenBSD port.

   Craig Knudsen provided a routine to read ID3 tags.

   Joseph Turian suggested the idea of file inclusion in playlists.

   Jeff Covey supplied a Perl script which provided the functionality of
the current "Load" button, which encouraged me build the feature in.

   Kevin Everets implemented the Pause button, the leftscroll option,
translated the documentation to texinfo and provided patches for or
suggested various other features.

   Several other people who contributed are credited in the `ChangeLog'
file.



Tag Table:
Node: Top1024
Node: Introduction1436
Node: Installation3876
Node: Invocation6039
Node: GUI8199
Node: Config file11485
Node: gtkrc22090
Node: Distribution22369
Node: Contact22941

End Tag Table
