3 Paraslash is an acronym for
5 Play, archive, rate and stream large audio sets happily
7 It contains the following programs:
9 - para_server (obligatory):
11 This server listens on a specified tcp port and accepts the
12 usual commands such as play, stop, pause, next. However, there
13 are many more commands.
15 For audio streaming, at least one sender must be activated.
16 At the moment, paraslash contains two internal senders:
18 The http sender is recommended for public streams that can
19 be played by any player like mpg123, xmms, winamp...
21 The ortp sender is recommended for LAN streaming and for
22 private streams that require authentication.
24 It is possible to activate more than one sender simultaneously.
25 All senders have the same set of commands that allow to
26 control the access permissions of the stream.
28 para_server needs a database tool to work, mainly to determine
29 which song to stream next. There are two database tools
30 available: mysql and dopey. The former is recommended as dopey
31 is only meant as a fallback and as a starting point for people
32 that want to write their own database tool for paraslash.
34 The mysql database tool connects to a mysql server which
35 holds information on your audio files. It has several unusual
36 features, see README.mysql for details.
38 - para_client (obligatory):
40 The client program to connect to para_server.
42 - para_recv (optional)
44 A command line http/ortp stream grabber.
46 - para_filter (optional)
48 An filter program that converts from stdin and writes to
49 stdout. This one is independent from the rest of paraslash,
50 so it might be useful also for different purposes.
52 para_filter combines an mp3 decoder an oggvorbis decoder
53 and a volume normalzer. New filters can be added easily due
54 to the modular design. If more than one filter is specified,
55 the given filters are 'piped' together in-memory, i.e. without
56 calling any of the read(2)/write(2)/select(2) etc. functions.
58 - para_play (optional)
60 A small wav/raw player for alsa.
62 - para_audiod (optional, but recommended):
64 The local daemon that starts playback and collects information
65 from para_server to be forwarded to local clients.
67 para_audiod reads the audio stream from the network if
68 para_server indicates that there is a stream available. It may
69 be sent through any of the supported filters (see para_filter
70 above) before the result is fed to the output software
71 (default: para_play) which must be capable of reading from
72 stdin, but is not restricted otherwise.
74 - para_audioc (optional, but recommended)
76 A small client that can talk to para_audiod. Used to control
77 para_audiod and to receive status info. It can also be used to
78 grab the stream at any point in the filter chain. para_audioc
79 is needed by para_gui, para_sdl_gui and para_krell, see below.
81 - para_gui (optional, but recommended):
83 Themable ncurses-based gui. It calls para_audioc and presents
84 the obtained information in an ncurses window. para_gui
85 provides key-bindings for the most common commands and new
86 key-bindings can be added easily.
88 - para_sdl_gui (optional):
90 SDL-based gui. Similar to para_gui but presents its output in
91 an X window (fullscreen mode is also available) and can display
92 jpg images on a per song basis. para_sdl_gui provides an input
93 prompt to enter arbitrary commands. However, it can also be used
94 non-interactively (e.g. as a screen saver) via the -i switch.
96 - para_krell (optional, only useful in conjunction with the mysql dbtool):
98 A plugin for gkrellm which shows small pictures of the
99 current song. It allows you to launch 27 different commands
100 by clicking in different areas of its picture (9 small squares
103 - para_fade (optional):
105 A (Linux-only) alarm clock and volume-fader.
107 - para_dbadm (optional, only useful in conjunction with the mysql dbtool):
109 Very simple curses-based frontend which uses libmenu. Useful
110 for quickly changing the attributes of the current song
111 (e.g. from para_gui as an external command).
113 - para_slider (optional, only useful in conjunction with the mysql dbtool):
115 A small X application which shows a scrollbar for each
116 attribute defined in the mysql database. It creates a stream
117 definition from the values of the scrollbars. This allows
118 to smoothly change the mood of the given stream without any
121 - bash_completion (optional):
123 A small bash script for inclusion in ~/.bashrc. It gives you
124 command line completion for some paraslash commands.
130 - gcc, the gnu compiler collection (shipped with distro): gcc-3
131 or newer is prefered, but gcc-2.95 is still supported. Note
132 that gcc-2.95 may spit out many warnings like unused function
133 parameters and missing initializers. These are all harmless
136 - openssl (needed by server, client): usually shipped with
137 distro, but you might have to install the "development"
140 http://www.openssl.org/
142 - software mixing, e.g. ALSA and the direct mixing plugin (dmix)
144 If you want to use the mysql-based dbtool (recommended), you also need
150 These are usually shipped with the distro but probably not installed
153 The mp3 decoder of para_filter is based on libmad:
155 http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/
157 If you prefer to use the libmad package provided by your distributor,
158 make sure to install the corresponding development package as well.
160 If you want to stream ogg vorbis files you'll need:
162 - libogg, libvorbis, libvorbisfile, and a command line ogg vorbis
163 player, e.g. para_filter or ogg123.
165 http://www.xiph.org/downloads/
167 Note that para_audiod still works even if neither mp3 nor ogg support
168 was compiled in. You'll have to use the --no_default_filters option
169 in this case (and e.g. "mpg123 -" as the stream write command).
171 If you intend to use the optional ortp streamer:
175 http://www.linphone.org/ortp/
178 For the optional SDL-based gui, the following packages must be installed:
180 - X (usually shipped with distro)
184 - libSDL (usually shipped with distro)
186 http://www.libsdl.org/index.php
190 http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_image/
192 For para_slider, the zero memory widget library is neccessary. Get it at
194 http://www710.univ-lyon1.fr/~exco/ZMW/
196 Finally, para_krell needs
204 http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gkrellm/gkrellm.html
208 Distribution of paraslash is covered by the GNU GPL. See file COPYING.
212 The mysql database tool assumes that the basenames of your audio files
213 are unique. If this is not the case, don't use this database tool,
214 rename your files, or create your own database tool.
218 Author: Andre Noll <maan@systemlinux.org>
219 Comments and bug reports are welcome.