CDCONTROL(1)

📦 version 15.1, in freebsd 14.5, freebsd 15.1

💿 CDCONTROL(1) — your CD drive's new bestie 💿

okay so first things first: this is a page from the General Commands Manual (yes, the big book of Unix tools), and today's main character is cdcontrol, the compact disc control utility. Let's get into it 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

cdcontrol — the compact disc control utility. that's it, that's the vibe. she controls your CD. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

cdcontrol [-sv] [-f device] [command ...]

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

cdcontrol is a whole program for controlling the audio features of a CD drive. the device is a name like cd0, bestie. 🦋

if you don't give her any command at all, she drops into interactive mode and just reads commands from standard input. no cap, she'll sit there and wait for you. 💅

here are the options she takes:

  • -s — silent mode. she will not print table headers or those human readable comments. quiet queen. 🤫
  • -v — verbose mode. she prints as much information as humanly possible. she's an oversharer and we love her for it. 😭
  • -f device — pick a device, like /dev/cd0. both an absolute path and a filename relative to /dev are fine. this option overrides CDROM. and if neither CDROM nor -f is around? she tries opening first /dev/cdrom, then /dev/cd0. she's got a whole priority list, iykyk. 👑

🎀 the commands, aka the whole menu 🎀

the commands are listed below, and here's the cute part: you only need to type as many characters as are required to uniquely identify a command. so like, be lazy, it's fine, it's encouraged. ✨

also: the word play can be omitted entirely, and the characters + and - can be used in the place of next and prev. shortcuts, periodt. 🔥

  • play first_track [last_track] — play from track first_track to track last_track. the first track has number 1. can be omitted in all cases. 🎵
  • play start_m:start_s.start_f [end_m:end_s.end_f] — play from the absolute address (MSF) defined by start_m in minutes, start_s in seconds and start_f (frame number), to the absolute address defined by end_m in minutes, end_s in seconds and end_f (frame number). the ranges are minutes 0-99, seconds 0-59, frame numbers 0-74. get those numbers right, bestie, the ranges are not vibes. 💀
  • play [#start_block [length]] — play starting from the logical block start_block, using length logical blocks. block girlie. 🧚
  • next [tracks] — skip forward a number of tracks (default 1). we're moving. ⏭️
  • prev [tracks] — skip backward a number of tracks (default 1). we're going back. ⏮️
  • pause — stop playing. do not stop the disc. she's just resting, not quitting. 🙈
  • resume — resume playing. used after the pause command. the comeback arc. 🦋
  • stop — stop the disc. for real this time. 🛑
  • eject — eject the disc. bye bestie 👋
  • close — inject the disc. welcome back bestie 🫶
  • volume — same as the status volume command. ⭐
  • volume level — set the volume of both channels to level. allowed values are in the range 0-255. 🔊
  • volume left_channel right_channel — set the volume of the left channel to left_channel and the volume of the right channel to right_channel. allowed values are in the range 0-255. stereo balance, iconic. 🎧
  • volume mute — turn the sound off. silence era. 🤫
  • volume mono — set the mono mode. 🌸
  • volume stereo — set the stereo mode. 🌈
  • volume left — play the left subtrack on both left and right channels. 🎀
  • volume right — play the right subtrack on both left and right channels. 🎀
  • info — print the table of contents. the receipts. 📋
  • status [audio | media | volume] — print the information about the disc:
    • audio — the current playing status and position 🎶
    • media — the current media catalog status 💿
    • volume — the current values of the volume for left and right channels 🔊
  • cdid — display the serial number of the CD using the method used by the CDDB project (http://www.cddb.org/). she's got the CD's ID, fr fr. 🪪
  • help — print the list of available commands. when in doubt, ask. 💖
  • debug on — enable the debugging mode of the CD device driver. 🔍
  • debug off — disable the driver debugging mode. 🔍
  • reset — perform the hardware reset of the device. hard reset, no soft launch. 💥
  • set msf — set minute-second-frame ioctl mode (default). ⏱️
  • set lba — set LBA ioctl mode. ⏱️
  • speed s — set the highest speed that the drive should use for reading data. the units are multiples of a single speed CDROM (150 KB/s). specify max to use the drive's fastest speed. zoom zoom. 🏎️
  • quit — quit the program. goodbye, you ate. 👑 (also: empty backticks in the original, but the command is just quit — no args, no notes.)

🌿 ENVIRONMENT 🌿

these environment variables affect how cdcontrol runs:

  • CDROM — the CD device to use, if one isn't specified with the -f option. 🎯
  • CDPLAY, CD_DRIVE, DISC, MUSIC_CD — these variables have been deprecated in favour of CDROM. they're the old era, we don't stan them anymore, but they're still listed. 💀

📁 FILES 📁

  • /dev/cd0

🦋 HISTORY 🦋

the cdcontrol command appeared in FreeBSD 2.1. vintage. she's been serving since the 90s. 👑

💜 AUTHORS 💜

  • Jean-Marc Zucconi
  • Andrey A. Chernov
  • Serge V. Vakulenko

okay that's the whole page, bestie, you're officially a CD girlie now 💿✨

sign-off cuteness: this one's the Debian build, dated August 25, 2016 — so when you see it in the wild, that's the source/version footer talking. mwah 💋

📦 where this page comes from