1mozplugger(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual mozplugger(7)
2
6 mozplugger - a multimedia plugin for UNIX Web browsers that supports
7 the mozilla npapi
8
11 MozPlugger is a browser plugin which can show many types of multimedia
12 inside your Browser. To accomplish this, MozPlugger uses external pro‐
13 grams such as mplayer, xanim, mtv, timidity and tracker.
14
17 You can configure mozplugger by changing the mozpluggerrc file(s).
18 These can be located in any of the following directories depending on
19 the browser:
20 For mozilla (and chromium) browsers
22 $MOZPLUGGER_HOME/
24 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mozplugger/
25 $HOME/.config/mozplugger/
26 $HOME/.mozplugger/
27 $HOME/.mozilla/
28 $MOZILLA_HOME/
29 /etc/
30 /usr/etc/
31 /usr/local/mozilla/
32 For netscape browsers
34 $MOZPLUGGER_HOME/
36 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mozplugger/
37 $HOME/.config/mozplugger/
38 $HOME/.mozplugger/
39 $HOME/.netscape/
40 /etc/
41 /usr/etc/
42 /usr/local/netscape/
43 For opera browsers
45 $MOZPLUGGER_HOME/
47 $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mozplugger/
48 $HOME/.config/mozplugger/
49 $HOME/.mozplugger/
50 $HOME/.opera/
51 $OPERA_HOME/
52 /etc/
53 /usr/etc/
54 The command mozplugger-update must be run after installation and each
58 time the configuration file changes or new helper applications are
59 added to the system or old helper applications removed.
60 mozplugger-update will use the first mozpluggerrc it finds and ignore
62 any others for each different browser installed on the system. The
63 search order is from top of the list above, but skipping places not
64 applicable to the particular browser that the config is being parsed
65 for. mozplugger-update then caches processed results in files located
66 at $XDG_CACHE_HOME/mozplugger/
67 The format of mozpluggerrc is very simple. The file is subdivided into
69 sections. Each section starts with a plugin name and version in square
70 brackets. This represents a class of mozplugger plugin. The name and
71 version will be displayed as a separate plugin when viewing installed
72 plugins in your browser. Some java script relies on the name and ver‐
73 sion of a plugin matching some value, hence the reason for seperate
74 sections in mozpluggerrc. Two brackets are required because m4 pro‐
75 cessing needs to escape the brackets. e.g.
76 [[multimedia player @ 10.1]]
78 Within each section, the general layout is to have one or more lines
80 describing mime types followed by one or more lines describing commands
81 used to handle those mime types. Lines beginning with # are considered
82 comments and are ignored. Here is a simple example:
83 video/mpeg: mpeg: Mpeg video
85 video/quicktime: qt,mov: Mpeg video
86 : xanim +W$window -Zr +q +Ze +f $file
87 Each line describing a mime type has three fields:
89 mime type : extensions : description
92 mime type
95 The mime type is the standardized name for the content type you
96 want MozPlugger to handle. This must be the same type as the web
97 server claims the file to be, or MozPlugger will not be used for
98 that file, regardless of the extension. Note: Some web servers
99 incorrectly report the wrong mime type, blame the web server
100 adminstrator not mozplugger.
101 extensions
103 This is a comma separated list of extensions that should be
104 associated with this particular mime type. The extensions are
105 only used when a web server does not report what type of file it
106 is, or when loading files directly from disk.
107 description
109 This is the description that shows up in about:plugins and in
110 the application preferences section in Mozilla.
111 Lines that describe what command to use for a mime type must begin
115 with a whitespace and have two fields:
116 flags : command
119 flags This is a space separated list of flags associated with the com‐
122 mand and tells mozplugger how to handle this command. See below
123 for further details.
124 command
126 This is a command which is sent to /bin/sh when handling this
127 mime type. Mozplugger assumes the command line starts with the
128 name of an application followed by various arguments passed to
129 that application.
130
133 When running, mozplugger-update it will pass the mozpluggerrc file
134 through m4, a general purpose macro processor (assuming m4 is
135 installed). This provides the ablity to use macros within mozpluggerrc
136 especially for those commonly used command lines. m4 brings text
137 replacement, parameter substitution, file inclusion, string manipula‐
138 tion, conditional evaluation, arthemtic expressions, etc to mozplug‐
139 gerrc. Please see m4 documentation for more details.
140
143 When MozPlugger is called from your browser, it looks through the
144 cached processed configuration files and finds a matching mime type.
145 When a matching mimetype is found, it tries to figure out which command
147 to use. Commands that have the flags loop, embed, noembed, link and
148 fmatch will be rejected if they do not match what is expected from the
149 associated HTML code (see later for details).
150 In addition for a command to be chosen the application has to be avail‐
152 able. This will have been checked by mozplugger-update which will have
153 assumed the first word of the command is the name of an application and
154 search $PATH for that application. If that application is not found
155 mozplugger-update will not have cached that in the processed config
156 files. The output from mozplugger-update will indicate when applica‐
157 tions have not been found.
158 Of the commands that remain, Mozplugger looks for the first command
160 that has the stream flag set. If there is not such a command line, Moz‐
161 plugger then downloads the file and picks the first (of the remaining)
162 commands.
163
166 Mozplugger supports a JavaScript interface that allows the state of the
167 embedded object (i.e. mozplugger) to be queried from JavaScript. Cur‐
168 rently mozplugger supports the following properties.
169 isPlaying
171 This property has the value true if the application that moz‐
172 plugger launched to handle the embedded object is running and
173 false if either no application was launched or that application
174 has now terminated.
175
178 If for some reason the embedded object fails to be rendered in the
179 browser, this could be a fault with the application as opposed to Moz‐
180 Plugger. To diagnosis the fault it is suggested that first you make
181 sure that any output from the application will be visible to you by
182 removing the noisy flag (if set in mozpluggerrc).
183 Next run the browser from the shell (xterm or equivalent) passing the
185 appropriate browser command line flag to enable output from stdout and
186 stderr to be displayed.
187 For example, for firefox the command line string is:
189 firefox -debug
192 This should allow any output from the application to be visible at the
194 shell and hopefully lead to a diagnosis of the fault.
195
198 autostart
199 This flag indicates that the command uses the $autostart envi‐
200 ronment variable. That is mozplugger will run the command on the
201 assumption that the command/application will check the value of
202 the $autostart environment variable. If this flag is not present
203 and the HTML code for the embedded object indicates autostart is
204 false, mozplugger will not run the command but instead draw a
205 single start button.
206 repeat This flag indicates that the command uses the $repeats environ‐
208 ment variable. That is mozplugger will run the command on the
209 assumption that the command/application will check the value of
210 the $repeats environment variable and perform the repeats. If
211 this flag is not set, mozplugger will perform the required num‐
212 ber of repeats as indicated in the HTML code by calling the com‐
213 mand $repeats times.
214 loop This indicates that the command loops forever. If the HTML code
216 for the embedded object indicates don't loop/repeat forever
217 (e.g. the loop attribute is not present or not set to true), the
218 command on this line will not be used.
219 stream This indicates that this command can take an url. In this case,
221 the environment variable $file contains the URL of the file to
222 play and the browser does not download it. It is assumed that
223 the command can handle the URL. Note: if a username and pass‐
224 word is required for this URL, the command/application will have
225 to obtain this as it is not passed to it from the browser.
226 ignore_errors
228 This flag tells MozPlugger to ignore the exit status of the com‐
229 mand. For example is mozplugger is repeating the command 'n'
230 times and the command exits with an error, normally mozplugger
231 would terminate at this time. With this flag set, mozplugger
232 continues the repeats.
233 noisy This flag tells MozPlugger to redirect the stdout and stderr of
235 the command to /dev/null.
236 swallow (name)
238 This flag tells mozplugger that the command will open a window
239 with the specified name and that Mozplugger will then move this
240 window inside your browser. If name is prefixed with '=' then
241 mozplugger looks for an exact match with the window name, if the
242 prefix is '~' then mozplugger looks for a case insensitive
243 match, if prefixed with '*' then mozplugger looks for a window
244 name that starts with 'name' and is case insensitive. If none of
245 these prefixes then, mozplugger checks if name occurs anywhere
246 in the window name, but is case sensitive. Note any spaces
247 between the brackets are counted as part of the window name.
248 The window name to use in mozpluggerrc can be obtained by using
249 the utility xprop(). Run the command in question, type "xprop
250 WM_CLASS" at a shell prompt and then click on the application
251 window. In addition any occurance of %f in the name is replaced
252 with the filename being loaded (without path), %p is replaced
253 with the full filename including path. Some applications do not
254 like to be swallowed and some window managers do not like win‐
255 dows being managed by mozplugger, so avoid using this option
256 where possible.
257 fmatch (string)
260 This flag defines a command that will be used only if the file‐
261 name or url (i.e. $file) contains 'string'. If 'string' is pre‐
262 fixed with '*' then mozplugger defines a match when the file
263 starts with 'string' (the check is case insensitive). If
264 'string' is prefixed with '%' then mozplugger defines a match
265 when the file ends with 'string' (the check is case insenstive
266 and ignores any parameters at the end of a url {i.e.
267 '?xxx=yyy'}). If none of these prefixes then mozplugger defines
268 a match when the 'string' is found somewhere in the file (but
269 this time match is case sensitive). Note any spaces between the
270 brackets are counted as part of the 'string'.
271 nokill This flag tells MozPlugger to not try to kill the command when
273 leaving the page, and to not start the command in a loop. This
274 is normally used for applications that are not swallowed and can
275 play multiple files, such as xmms.
276 exits This flag tells MozPlugger that the command will exits straight
278 away and hence does not need to be killed when leaving the page,
279 and to not start the command in a loop. This is normally used
280 for applications that just display an image in the $window and
281 then exit.
282 fill This flag tells MozPlugger to maximize a swallowed window.
284 maxaspect
286 This flag tells Mozplugger to maximize a swallowed window while
287 keeping the width/height ratio constant.
288 controls
290 This flag tells MozPlugger to draw controls and is typically
291 used with audio files to display a controller with the buttons
292 play, pause and stop. Be aware if the embedded object has no
293 sub-window defined within the browser's window (e.g. if the HTML
294 uses the tag hidden = true) then the controls will not appear.
295 embed This flags tells Mozplugger to only use this command if the
297 associated HTML refers to an embedded object that is a small
298 part of a HTML page.
299 noembed
301 This flags tells Mozplugger to only use this command if the
302 associated HTML refers to a separate window that only contains
303 the object.
304 links This flag tells Mozplugger to display as a button within the
306 browser and when pressed to run the command without embedding in
307 the browser. This can be used when swallow does not work.
308 needs_xembed
310 Some applications when embedded requires the Xembed protocol,
311 other applications don't want the Xembed protocol. Add or remove
312 this flag if you find that you cannot move keyboard focus to the
313 embedded window. Currently it appears QT4 based applications
314 require this flag.
315
317 There are some envirnoment variables that control the behaviour of Moz‐
318 plugger.
319 MOZPLUGGER_HOME
321 If MOZPLUGGER_HOME is defined, the folder $MOZPLUGGER_HOME is
322 checked for the configuration file mozpluggerrc and is also used
323 for the base of storing the results of processing mozpluggerrc
324 MOZPLUGGER_TMP
326 If MOZPLUGGER_TMP is defined, then any temporary files are
327 placed in $MOZPLUGGER_TMP.
328 TMPDIR If MOZPLUGGER_TMP is not defined, but TMPDIR is defined, then
330 any temporary files are placed in $TMPDIR/mozplugger-xxx/ where
331 xxx = PID.
332 PATH mozplugger-update uses PATH to look for executables
334 MozPlugger gives some variables to /bin/sh when running the command,
337 these variables are:
338 $autostart
341 This variable contains 1 or 0. When set to 1 it indicates that
342 the command should start playing/showing the associated media.
343 By default it is 0 if controls flag is present and 1 otherwise,
344 but it is overridden if the associated HTML contains the
345 attribute autostart or autoplay. Command/applications that use
346 this environment variable should also have the autostart flag
347 set.
348 $repeats
350 This variable contains how many times the file should be played.
351 By default it is once, but it is overridden if the associated
352 HTML contains the attribute loop, numloop or playcount. Com‐
353 mand/applications which use this environment variable should
354 also have the repeat flag set.
355 $window
357 This is the X window Mozilla has given the plugin. This can be
358 used with applications such as MPlayer to display graphics
359 inside the mozilla window. Be aware if the embedded object has
360 no sub-window defined within the browser's window (e.g. if the
361 HTML uses the tag hidden = true) then the variable will have the
362 value zero (null).
363 $hexwindow
365 Same as $window except the value is expressed as an hexidecimal
366 string in the form 0xNNNNNN where NNNNNN is the hexadecimal dig‐
367 its.
368 $width This is the horizontal resolution in pixels and is taken from
370 the width attribute in the HTML code.
371 $height
373 This is the vertical resolution in pixels and is taken from the
374 height attribute in the HTML code.
375 $file This is the file to play. If the command has the stream flag
377 set, this variable contains the URL of the file to play. This is
378 taken from the associated HTML code. The value is that of the
379 attribute src, data, href, qtsrc, filename, url or location
380 depending on which is present and whether the <EMBED> or
381 <OBJECT> tag is used. If the stream is not set, this variable
382 contains a local temporary file that the browser has created.
383 $fragment
385 This is the part of the original URL that appears after the # if
386 it exists. Sometimes this contains additional information that
387 could be useful for the application e.g. starting page number in
388 a pdf document
389 $mimetype
391 This variable contains the mime type of $file.
392 $VAR_<parameter_name>
394 All the parameters of the <EMBED> or <OBJECT> tags are made
395 available in mozpluggerrc through environment variables. For
396 example the parameter loop="1" in an <EMBED> tag defines the
397 variable VAR_loop=1.
398
401 You have to run mozplugger-update after changing the configuration, or
402 nothing will happen.
403 Netscape 3.x will not play anything for <EMBED> tags for which height
405 or width are zero. This too is a Netscape bug.
406 Occassionally you may notice some zombie mozplugger-helper processes
408 (defunct), this is not a bug, this is by design. The zombie processes
409 occur when either the application exits or when using nokill flag
410 (without exiting the page with the embedded object). The zombie(s) are
411 reaped when closing the web page containing the associated embedded
412 objects.
413 If using behind a non-transparent HTTP proxy, it may be found that the
415 commands using the stream flag do not work. This is because the proxy
416 settings are not passed to the application in the command line. To work
417 around this situation, don't use the stream flag OR edit the mozplug‐
418 gerrc file and passed in necessary proxy setiings via the command line.
419 It has been found that certain combinations of browser, embedded appli‐
421 cations and window managers do not play nicely with the swallow flag.
422 If this happens to you first try adding or removing the "needs_xembed"
423 flag from the associated command in mozpluggerrc, if this fails remove
424 the swallow flag and perhaps use the links flag instead.
425
428 Fredrik Hubinette, author of plugger which mozplugger is a fork of.
429 Louis Bavoil
430 Peter Leese
431 2014 Apr 09 mozplugger(7)