I have a Bash script which connects to MPD server and display current song and also accepts some keys to control the player. I have stripped some functions from it a few times when I needed to write a Bash script to do something with MPD, e.g. showing Last.fm playcount in Conky. A few times, I wanted to know what metadata of MPD command currentsong provides, I quick hacked the script and made it printed out the returned data.

I think it’s time to write a simple client to accept command and print out the response. Stripping that Bash script was my first thought, then I decided to write a Python script, instead. It’s not because I prefer Python or something, just I hadn’t written a single line Python code for a long time.

Before I showed you that Python code, there is one more thing I just found out. A really really simple client for MPD, which is telnet tool.

$ telnet 0 6600
Trying 0.0.0.0...
Connected to 0.
Escape character is '^]'.
OK MPD 0.15.0
currentsong
file: A/Alexandria Maillot/Just Another Girl/Just Another Girl.mp3
Time: 224
Artist: Alexandria Maillot
AlbumArtist: Alexandria Maillot
Title: Just Another Girl
Album: Just Another Girl
Track: 1/4
Genre: Pop
Composer: Alexandria Maillot and Joby Baker
Pos: 1
Id: 159
OK
stats
artists: 56
albums: 56
songs: 392
uptime: 124
playtime: 54
db_playtime: 84859
db_update: 1291807454
OK
pasus
ACK [5@0] {} unknown command "pasus"
pause
OK
play
OK
close
Connection closed by foreign host.

You don’t really need mpc if you are a script nut with nc (netcat) or expect. If you don’t need to process the response, you can always give commands to MPD, e.g.


echo "next" | telnet 0 6600

This will make MPD to play next song.

Now the Python code:


#!/usr/bin/env python

try:
  import readline
except ImportError:
  pass
import socket
import sys


HOST = 'localhost'
PORT = 6600
RECV_SIZE = 2**20 # One megabyte
try:
  s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
  print 'Connecting to %s:%d...' % (HOST, PORT)
  s.connect((HOST, PORT))
except socket.error:
  print 'Unable to connect.'
  sys.exit(1)

print s.recv(RECV_SIZE)
print '*** <Control+C> to exit ***\n'

while True:
  try:
    cmd = raw_input(">>> ")
    if cmd:
      s.send(cmd + '\n')
      if 'close' in cmd:
        break
      print s.recv(RECV_SIZE)
  except KeyboardInterrupt:
    break

print
s.close()

A sample interaction:


% ./smpdc.py
Connecting to localhost:6600...
OK MPD 0.15.0

*** <Control+C> to exit ***

>>> currentsong
file: A/Alexandria Maillot/Just Another Girl/Just Another Girl.mp3
Time: 224
Artist: Alexandria Maillot
AlbumArtist: Alexandria Maillot
Title: Just Another Girl
Album: Just Another Girl
Track: 1/4
Genre: Pop
Composer: Alexandria Maillot and Joby Baker
Pos: 1
Id: 159
OK

>>> playlist
0:A/A Lion Named Roar/Shoot It Straight.mp3
1:A/Alexandria Maillot/Just Another Girl/Just Another Girl.mp3
2:A/Ana Free/Keep On Walking.mp3
3:A/Ana Free/Questions In My Mind.mp3
4:S/Stars/Stars_Dead_Hearts.mp3
OK

>>> next
OK

>>> currentsong
file: A/Ana Free/Questions In My Mind.mp3
Time: 231
Artist: Ana Free
AlbumArtist: Ana Free
Title: Questions In My Mind
Album: Radian
Track: 1/5
Date: 2010
Genre: Pop Rock
Composer: Ana Gomes Ferreira and Blake Harris Brandes
Pos: 3
Id: 161
OK

>>> close