1ncmpc(1)                                                              ncmpc(1)
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3
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NAME

6       ncmpc - curses Music Player Daemon (MPD) client.
7

SYNOPSIS

9       ncmpc [options]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       ncmpc  is a client for MPD, the Music Player Daemon.  ncmpc connects to
13       a MPD running on a machine on the local network.
14
15       By default, ncmpc connects to  localhost:6600.   This  can  be  changed
16       either at compile-time, or by exporting the MPD_HOST and MPD_PORT envi‐
17       ronment variables, or by the command line options --host and --port.
18
19       $ ncmpc --host=musicserver --port=44000
20
21       To use a password with mpd, set MPD_HOST to password@host  or  use  the
22       command  line option --password. Values from the command line overrides
23       values from the environment.
24
25       Read more about MPD on http://www.musicpd.org
26
27

OPTIONS

29       -?, --help
30              Display help.
31
32       -V, --version
33              Display version information and build-time configuration.
34
35       -c, --colors
36              Enable colors.
37
38       -C, --no-colors
39              Disable colors.
40
41       -m, --mouse
42              Enable mouse.
43
44       -M, --no-mouse
45              Disable mouse.
46
47       -h, --host=HOSTNAME
48              Specify MPD host.
49
50       -p, --port=PORT
51              Connect to server on PORT.
52
53       -P, --password=PASSWORD
54              Use password when connecting.
55
56       -f, --config=FILE
57              Read configuration from file.
58
59       -k, --key-file=FILE
60              Read key bindings from FILE.
61
62       Mandatory or optional arguments to long options are also  mandatory  or
63       optional for any corresponding short options.
64

CONFIGURATION

66       When  ncmpc  starts  it  tries  to  read the user's configuration file,
67       ~/.ncmpc/config. If no user configuration  file  is  found  then  ncmpc
68       tries  to  load  the global settings from $SYSCONFDIR/ncmpc/config (the
69       actual path is displayed in the output of  the  --version  option).  An
70       example  configuration  file  (config.sample)  should  be provided with
71       ncmpc.
72
73
74
75
76   Connection
77       host = HOST
78              Connect to mpd running on the specified host.
79
80       port = PORT
81              Connect to mpd on the specified port.
82
83       password = PASSWORD
84              Connect to mpd using the specified password.
85
86       timeout = TIMEOUT
87              Attempt to reconnect to mpd if a response to a  command  is  not
88              received  within TIMEOUT seconds. Specifying a value in the con‐
89              figuration file overrides the  "MPD_TIMEOUT"  environment  vari‐
90              able. If no timeout is specified in the configuration file or in
91              the environment, the default is 5 seconds.
92
93   Interface
94       enable-mouse = yes|no
95              Enable mouse support (if enabled at compile time).
96
97       screen-list = SCREEN1 SCREEN2...
98              A list of screens to cycle through when using the  previous/next
99              screen  commands. Valid choices, if enabled at compile time, are
100              playlist, browse, artist, help, search,  song,  keydef,  lyrics,
101              outputs, and chat.
102
103       search-mode = MODE
104              Default  search  mode for the search screen. MODE must be one of
105              title, artist, album, filename, and artist+title, or an interger
106              index (0 for title, 1 for artist etc.).
107
108       auto-center = yes|no
109              Enable/disable  auto  center  mode.  When  auto  center  mode is
110              enabled ncmpc centers the current track in the playlist window.
111
112       scroll-offset = NUM
113              Keep at least NUM lines above and below the cursor on list  win‐
114              dows, if possible.
115
116       find-show-last = yes|no
117              Show the most recent query instead of a blank line for a find.
118
119       find-wrap = yes|no
120              Wrapped find mode.
121
122       wrap-around = yes|no
123              Wrapped cursor movement.
124
125       bell-on-wrap = yes|no
126              Ring bell when find wraps around.
127
128       audible-bell = yes|no
129              Sound audible bell on alerts.
130
131       visible-bell = yes|no
132              Visible bell on alerts.
133
134       crossfade-time = CROSSFADE TIME
135              Default crossfade time in seconds.
136
137       seek-time = NUM
138              Seek forward/backward by NUM seconds.
139
140       lyrics-timeout = NUM
141              Quits downloading lyrics of a song after the timeout of NUM sec‐
142              onds is reached, if NUM is greater than zero.
143
144       jump-prefix-only = yes|no
145              When using the jump command, search for the prefix of an  entry.
146              That means typing "m" will start to the first entry which begins
147              with "m".
148
149       lyrics-autosave = yes|no
150              Automatically save lyrics after receiving them.
151
152       lyrics-show-plugin = yes|no
153              Show the name of the plugin used to receive lyrics on the lyrics
154              screen.
155
156       text-editor = EDITOR
157              The text editor used for editing lyrics.
158
159       text-editor-ask = yes|no
160              Ask before starting an editor.
161
162       chat-prefix = PREFIX
163              Prefix  messages  send  with  the  chat  screen  with PREFIX. By
164              default they are prefixed with the current user name enclosed by
165              < and > and a space (i.e. "<name> ").
166
167       second-column = yes|no
168              Display song length in a second column.
169
170   Display
171       welcome-screen-list = yes|no
172              Show a list of the screens in the top line on startup.
173
174       wide-cursor = yes|no
175              Make the cursor as wide as the screen.
176
177       hardware-cursor = yes|no
178              Use the terminal's hardware cursor instead of inverse colors.
179
180       hide-cursor = NUM
181              Hide the playlist cursor after NUM seconds of inactivity.
182
183       scroll = yes|no
184              Scroll the title if it is too long for the screen.
185
186       scroll-sep = STRING
187              the separator to show at the end of the scrolling title.
188
189       list-format = SONG FORMAT
190              The format used to display songs in the main window.
191
192       search-format = SONG FORMAT
193              The  format  used to display songs in the search window. Default
194              is to use list-format.
195
196       status-format = SONG FORMAT
197              The format used to display songs on the status line.
198
199       status-message-time = TIME
200              The time, in seconds, for which status  messages  will  be  dis‐
201              played.
202
203       display-time = yes|no
204              Display the time in the status bar when idle.
205
206       timedisplay-type = elapsed/remaining
207              Sets  whether to display remaining or elapsed time in the status
208              window. Default is elapsed.
209
210       visible-bitrate = yes|no
211              Show the bitrate in the status bar when playing a stream.
212
213       set-xterm-title = yes|no
214              Change the XTerm title (ncmpc will not restore the title).
215
216       xterm-title-format = SONG FORMAT
217              The format used to for the xterm title when ncmpc is playing.
218
219   Colors
220       enable-colors = yes|no
221              Enable/disable colors.
222
223       color background = COLOR
224              Set the background color. If the background color is assigned to
225              the  keyword  none,  ncmpc will not change the background color.
226              Standard colors are: black, red, green, yellow,  blue,  magenta,
227              cyan  and  white.  Terminal specific colors can also be given as
228              integers.
229
230       color title = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
231              Set the text color and attributes for the title row. Text colors
232              are the same as for the background. Valid attributes are: stand‐
233              out, underline, reverse, blink, dim, and bold.
234
235       color title-bold = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
236              Set the text color for the title row (the bold part).
237
238       color line = COLOR
239              Set the color of the line on the second row.
240
241       color line-flags = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
242              Set the text color used to indicate mpd flags on the second row.
243
244       color list = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
245              Set the text color in the main area of ncmpc.
246
247       color list-bold = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
248              Set the bold text color in the main area of ncmpc.
249
250       color browser-directory = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
251              Set the text color used to display directories  in  the  browser
252              window.
253
254       color browser-playlist = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
255              Set the text color used to display playlists in the browser win‐
256              dow.
257
258       color progressbar = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
259              Set the color of the progress indicator.
260
261       color status-state = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
262              Set the text color used to display mpd status in the status win‐
263              dow.
264
265       color status-song = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
266              Set the text color used to display song names in the status win‐
267              dow.
268
269       color status-time = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
270              Set the text color used to display time the status window.
271
272       color alert = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
273              Set the text color used to display alerts in the status window.
274
275       colordef COLOR = R, G, B
276              Redefine any of the base colors. The RGB values must be  integer
277              values  between  0  and  1000.   Note: Only some terminals allow
278              redefinitions of colors!
279
280

KEYS

282       When ncmpc starts it tries to read user-defined key bindings  from  the
283       ~/.ncmpc/keys  file.  If  no  user-defined  key bindings are found then
284       ncmpc tries to load the global key bindings from $SYSCONFDIR/ncmpc/keys
285       (the actual path is displayed on the help screen).
286
287       You  can view ncmpc's key bindings by pressing '1' (help) when ncmpc is
288       running. To edit key bindings press 'K'  and  use  the  key  editor  in
289       ncmpc.
290

SONG FORMAT

292       Format  of  song  display for status and the list window.  The metadata
293       delimiters  are:  %artist%,  %albumartist%,  %composer%,   %performer%,
294       %title%,   %album%,  %shortalbum%,  %track%,  %disc,  %genre%,  %name%,
295       %time%, %date%, %file%, %shortfile%.
296
297       The [] operators are used to group output such  that  if  none  of  the
298       metadata  delimiters  between '[' and ']' are matched, then none of the
299       characters between '[' and ']' are output; literal text is always  out‐
300       put.  '&'  and '|' are logical operators for AND and OR. '#' is used to
301       escape characters.
302
303       Some useful examples for format are:
304
305          "%file%"
306
307       and
308
309          "[[%artist% - ]%title%]|%file%"
310
311       Another one is:
312
313          "[%artist%|(artist n/a)] - [%title%|(title n/a)]"
314
315

CHAT PROTOCOL

317       If ncmpc has been compiled with "chat" support, it uses the  client-to-
318       client  protocol  available  in  MPD 0.17 or higher to communicate with
319       other clients. In order to receive messages it subscribes to the  chan‐
320       nel  with  the  name "chat", and displays any message sent there as-is.
321       When the user enters a message, it is first with the  prefix  specified
322       by the chat-prefix option (or the default prefix), and then sent to the
323       "chat" channel for others to read.
324

BUGS

326       Report bugs on http://www.musicpd.org/mantis/
327

NOTE

329       Since MPD uses UTF-8, ncmpc needs to convert characters to the  charset
330       used  by  the local system. If you get character conversion errors when
331       your running ncmpc you probably need to set up  your  locale.  This  is
332       done  by  setting any of the LC_CTYPE, LANG or LC_ALL environment vari‐
333       ables (LC_CTYPE only affects character handling).
334
335

SEE ALSO

337       mpc(1), mpd(1), locale(5), locale(7)
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341                                   June 2005                          ncmpc(1)
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