Dave's Brain

Browse - programming tips - linux play audio on command line

Date: 2011feb2
OS: Linux

Q.  How do I play audio/sounds on the command line with Linux?

A.  If its a .mp3 you can use /usr/bin/mpg123.
If its a .au or .wav you can use /usr/bin/play.

For Red Hat / Fedora mpg123 is in the mpg123 package.
/usr/bin/play is in the sox package. ie
	
	yum install mpg123 sox

will install them.

Here's a small perl command line script which checks the extension
on an audio file and uses appropriate program to play it.

	#!/usr/bin/perl
	
	use strict;
	
	sub isMp3($)
	{
		my($file) = @_;
	
		return $file =~ m/.mp3$/i;
	}
	
	sub play($)
	{
		my($file) = @_;
		my(@args);
	
		if (isMp3($file))
		{
			if (!defined $ENV{'HOME'})
			{
				$ENV{'HOME'} = '/tmp'; # mpg123 needs a home directory
			}
	
			@args = ("/usr/bin/mpg123", $file);
		}
		else
		{
			@args = ("/usr/bin/play", $file);
		}
	
		return system @args == 0;
	}
	
	sub main()
	{
		if (scalar @ARGV != 1)
		{
			printf STDERR "Exactly one audio file required\n";
			exit(1);
		}
	
		play($ARGV[0]);
	}
	
	main();

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