The Music Player Daemon - User's Manual
Introduction
Installation
We recommend that you use the software installation routines of
your distribution to install MPD. Most operating systems have a
MPD package, which is very easy to install.
Installing on Debian/Ubuntu
Install the package mpd:
apt-get install mpd
Compiling from source
Download the source tarball from the MPD home
page and unpack it:
tar xjf mpd-0.14.2.tar.bz
cd mpd-0.14.2
Make sure that all the required libraries and build tools are
installed. The INSTALL file has a list.
Now configure the source tree:
./configure
The --help argument shows a list of
compile-time options. When everything is ready and
configured, compile:
make
And install:
make install
Configuration
Configuring audio outputs
Audio outputs are devices which actually play the audio chunks
produced by MPD. You can configure any number of audio output
devices, but there must be at least one. If none is
configured, MPD attempts to auto-detect. Usually, this works
quite well with ALSA, OSS and on Mac OS X.
To configure an audio output manually, add an
audio_output block to
mpd.conf:
audio_output {
type "alsa"
name "my ALSA device"
device "hw:0"
}
Plugin reference
Output plugins
<varname>alsa</varname>
The "Advanced Linux Sound Architecture" plugin uses
libasound. It is recommended if you
are using Linux.
Setting
Description
device
NAME
Sets the device which should be used. This can be
any valid ALSA device name. The default value is
"default", which makes
libasound choose a device. It
is recommended to use a "hw" or "plughw" device,
because otherwise, libasound
automatically enables "dmix", which has major
disadvantages (fixed sample rate, poor resampler,
...).
use_mmap
yes|no
If set to yes, then
libasound will try to use
memory mapped I/O.
buffer_time
US
Sets the device's buffer time in microseconds.
Don't change unless you know what you're doing.
period_time
US
Sets the device's period time in microseconds.
Don't change unless you really know what you're
doing.
auto_resample
yes|no
If set to no, then
libasound will not attempt to
resample, handing the responsibility over to MPD.
It is recommended to let MPD resample (with
libsamplerate), because ALSA is quite poor at doing
so.
auto_channels
yes|no
If set to no, then
libasound will not attempt to
convert between different channel numbers.
auto_format
yes|no
If set to no, then
libasound will not attempt to
convert between different sample formats (16 bit, 24
bit, floating point, ...).
<varname>ao</varname>
The ao plugin uses the portable
libao library.
<varname>fifo</varname>
The fifo plugin writes raw PCM data to a
FIFO (First In, First Out) file. The data can be read by
another program.
<varname>jack</varname>
The jack plugin connects to a JACK
server.
<varname>mvp</varname>
The mvp plugin uses the proprietary
Hauppauge Media MVP interface. We do not know any user of
this plugin, and we do not know if it actually works.
<varname>null</varname>
The null plugin does nothing. It
discards everything sent to it.
Setting
Description
sync
yes|no
If set to no, then the timer
is disabled - the device will accept PCM chunks at
arbitrary rate (useful for benchmarking). The
default behaviour is to play in real time.
<varname>oss</varname>
The "Open Sound System" plugin is supported on most Unix
platforms.
Setting
Description
device
PATH
Sets the path of the PCM device. If not specified,
then MPD will attempt to open
/dev/sound/dsp and
/dev/dsp.
<varname>osx</varname>
The "Mac OS X" plugin uses Apple's CoreAudio API.
<varname>pipe</varname>
The pipe plugin starts a program and
writes raw PCM data into its standard input.
<varname>pulse</varname>
The pulse plugin connects to a PulseAudio
server.
<varname>shout</varname>
The shout plugin connects to a ShoutCast
or IceCast server. It forwards tags to this server.