How do I start audacious from the command line, *paused* , showing which track to play next?

[3-14152898]

Hi.

I want audacious, when started from the command line, to not play by default but instead show the list of tracks for me to select which one to play. I just couldn't figure out what to do. Conversely I want it to create a new tab (or playlist, I guess) instead of appending to the current one (I have several tabs loaded by default when it starts).

Here's what I've tried, noting carefully audacious is not already running:

audacious -e --show-jump-box <directory or files>, not only does audacious start playing (which is not what I want) but also fills the currently selected playlist (which is not what I want either)

audacious --show-jump-box -E <directory or files> audacious starts playing, which is not what I want.
audacious --show-jump-box --stop -E <directory or files> same thing.
audacious --show-jump-box -E --stop <directory or files> same thing.
audacious --show-jump-box --pause -E <directory or files> same thing.
audacious --show-jump-box -E --pause <directory or files> same thing.
audacious --show-jump-box --play-pause -E <directory or files> same thing.
audacious --show-jump-box -E --play-pause <directory or files> same thing.

In all of these cases, audacious loads, runs and shows the jump list. That's what I want. But it also starts playing in all of these cases, that's not what I want.

That behaviour is irrelevant of what I set for File > Settings > Playlist > Behaviour > ["Resume on startup", "Pause instead of resuming"]. Checking or un-checking either of these two options doesn't change anything.

I've read the man pages, three times, just couldn't figure out what to do and how.

I have audacious 4.4.2 with Qt interface. I'm also running Xfce 4.20 on Manjaro Linux, for what it's worth.

Relevant plugins, checked, are

General

• Audio CD menu items
• Desktop notifications
• MPRIS2 server
• Status icon

Effect

None

Visualisation

None

Input

All of them (19)

Playlist

All of them (7)

Transport

All of them (3)

Any hint/advice?

[mschwendt]

Have you looked into using "audtool" yet? It's the CLI that comes with Audacious.

[3-14152898]

I had no idea that tool existed. I only checked the man page (as well as the command line help, of course) and it would have never occurred to me to use another tool than the player itself (after all it exposes a command line interface, right). Do you mean what I asked for is not possible? If so, then the man page and the documentation should at least expand on what those command line arguments are supposed to mean and do because in that state, it's just completely unclear.

From what I read of audtool, it's for controlling an existing instance. I've explicitly stated audacious was not loaded nor running. What I want is to start audacious in stop or pause mode while specifying a list of media files.

TL;DR: can audacious not be started without playing automatically when media files are passed on the command line?

[mschwendt]

Do you mean what I asked for is not possible?

I've pointed at the tool, because using it you could escape the restrictions of the GUI. It offers a lot of options already that are a nice solution to controlling a running instance of Audacious. Some users do more than running the most basic commands of audtool, they run it within custom script solutions.

The following rather simple commands would do what you want:

$ audacious
$ audtool new-playlist
$ audtool playlist-addurl SOME_FILE_OR_SOME_DIRECTORY
$ audtool jumptofile-show
$

If so, then the man page and the documentation should at least expand on what those command line arguments are supposed to mean and do because in that state, it's just completely unclear.

With increasing complexity of a tool, there is a bit of a learning curve, of course. You may need to start somewhere and experiment with some of the commands. But in my opinion, and since the manual is over 380 lines long already, there is no immediate need to expand it.

Perhaps give an example of what specific section in the manual you've found unclear while playing with some of the commands.

[3-14152898]

I'm sorry but I don't see any benefit in running four commands to replace a single parameter on the command line. No offence meant of course. If I have to do that many operations¹, then I'm afraid I see no benefit compared with staying with the GUI.

Whether run from the command line or the GUI, audacious does not play automatically. With that in mind, there's no benefit from that suggestion compared with dropping a folder into a new tab and double-clicking the desired track. It's even shorter and faster to do that from the GUI's perspective than typing what you suggested. I only hoped audacious command line arguments would do what I expected... although I should say "I had hoped I understood audacious man page and command line help correctly to trust it would do what I wanted". Clearly, I was wrong, which is the point I'm trying to make.

My comment about the man page was about changing the wording to remove any ambiguity because in its current wording, it's not 100% clear as to what to expect from the command line arguments. From your suggestion (although you said nothing about that) I deduce the command line arguments of audacious are meant to control an existing (read: already running) instance, is that correct?

All in all, the only problem I have is that audacious automatically starts playing [even] when passed command line argument --show-jump-box. It makes no behavioural sense and is, to me (although I'm not certain I'd be the only one to see it that way), a logical flaw. It's like "Oh, you're about to ask me to play something else than the first track by default? Nevermind, I'll play it anyway..."

See what I mean?

¹ Yes, I'm aware I can still write a script for that but that's not the point I wanted to raise.

[mschwendt]

From your suggestion (although you said nothing about that) I deduce the command line arguments of audacious are meant to control an existing (read: already running) instance, is that correct?

Why would you think that? Several of the options that can be passed to "audacious" are about starting Audacious. Others are about sending something to an already running instance.

¹ Yes, I'm aware I can still write a script for that but that's not the point I wanted to raise.

Still this is only the community Q&A discussion board. Nothing of what I've pointed out is authoritative. If you feel Audacious doesn't do what you want it to do, you may need to wait for feedback from one of the developers, or submit a patch that modifies the current code.