5 Paraslash is an acronym for
7 _Play, archive, rate and stream large audio sets happily_
9 It contains the following programs:
15 para_server streams binary audio data (mp3/oggvorbis/m4a/wma files)
16 over local and/or remote networks. It listens on a tcp port and
17 accepts commands such as play, stop, pause, next from authenticated
18 clients. However, there are many more commands.
20 It supports three built-in network streaming methods (senders): http, dccp,
23 * The http sender is recommended for public streams that can be played
24 by any player like mpg123, xmms, itunes, winamp...
26 * The dccp sender requires kernel support for the datagram congestion
29 * The udp sender is recommended for multicast LAN streaming.
31 It is possible to activate more than one sender simultaneously.
33 The built-in audio file selector of paraslash is used to manage your
34 audio files. It maintains statistics on the usage of all available audio
35 files such as last played time, and the number of times each file was
40 * attributes. Allow fine-grained audio file selection.
42 * image table. For storing e.g. album cover art.
44 * lyrics table. For storing lyrics.
46 * playlist table. Stores arbitrary many playlists for later use.
48 * mood mode. Audio file selection works by specifying mood
49 methods involving attributes, pattern matching for file names
50 and more. This allows rather sophisticated configurations
51 and is explained in more detail in
53 <a href="README.afs.html"> README.afs </a>
56 * rename detection. If files are moved or renamed, afs will
57 recognize them despite of this change.
63 The client program to connect to para_server. paraslash commands
64 are sent to para_server and the response is dumped to stdout. This
65 can be used by any scripting language to produce user interfaces with
66 little programming effort.
68 All connections between para_server and para_client are encrypted by
69 default. For each user of paraslash you must create a public/secret
70 RSA key pair for authentication. The authenticated connection is
71 encrypted with a symmetric rc4 session key.
77 A command line http/dccp/udp stream grabber. The http mode of this
78 tool can be used to receive data from any http streaming source.
84 A filter program that converts from stdin and writes to stdout.
86 para_filter combines several decoders (mp3, oggvorbis, aac, wma),
87 a volume normalizer and a cpuple of other filters. New filters can
88 be added easily. It is possible to "chain" any number of filters,
91 para_filter does not depend on other parts of paraslash, so it can
92 be used as a stand-alone command line tool for audio decoding and
99 A small stand-alone program that prints tech info about the given
100 audio file to stdout. It can be instructed to print a "chunk table",
101 an array of offsets within the audio file or to write the content of
102 the audio file in complete chunks 'just in time'.
104 This allows third-party streaming software that is unaware of
105 the particular audio format to send complete frames in real
106 time. Currently, mp3, ogg vorbis, aac and wma are supported.
112 A modular audio stream writer. It supports a simple file writer
113 output plug-in and optional wav/raw players for ALSA (Linux) and for
114 coreaudio (Mac OS). para_write can also be used as a stand-alone wav
121 The local daemon that collects information from para_server.
123 It runs on the client side and connects to para_server. As soon as
124 para_server announces the availability of an audio stream, para_audiod
125 starts an appropriate receiver, any number of filters and a paraslash
126 writer to play the stream. It is possible to capture the stream at
127 any position in the filter chain.
129 Moreover, para_audiod listens on a local socket and sends status
130 information about para_server and para_audiod to local clients on
131 request. Access via this local socket may be restricted by using Unix
132 socket credentials, if available.
138 The client program which talks to para_audiod. Used to control
139 para_audiod, to receive status info, or to grab the stream at any
140 point in the filter chain.
142 para_audioc (hence para_audiod) is needed by para_gui see below.
148 Themable ncurses-based gui. It calls para_audioc and presents
149 the obtained information in an ncurses window. para_gui provides
150 key-bindings for the most common commands and new key-bindings can
157 A (oss-only) alarm clock and volume-fader.
163 A small bash script for inclusion in ~/.bashrc. It gives you command
164 line completion for some paraslash commands.
170 Distribution of paraslash is covered by the GNU GPL, version 2. See file
177 Andre Noll <maan@systemlinux.org>
178 Comments and bug reports are welcome.