MPD(1)

💿 MPD(1) — the Music Player Daemon glow-up 💿

okay so bestie, this is mpd — the MPD documentation page, and honestly? It's kind of iconic. Let's get into it ✨

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🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

mpd [options] [CONF_FILE]

That's it. That's the whole vibe. Options first, then optionally your config file, and we're off 🦋

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🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

okay so MPD is a daemon for playing music, and the way it works is: your music gets played through the configured audio output(s) — which are generally local, but can be remote (yes bestie, remote audio, we love to see it) 💅

The daemon stores info about all the available music, and this info can be easily searched and retrieved. Player control, info retrieval, and playlist management can all be managed remotely. it's giving main character energy fr fr 👑

So when MPD goes looking for a config file, here's the exact order it vibes through:

1. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpd/mpd.conf
2. ~/.mpdconf
3. ~/.mpd/mpd.conf
4. /etc/mpd.conf

…or it just uses CONF_FILE if you passed one. Periodt ✨

You can read more about MPD at http://www.musicpd.org/ — go be nosy, it's fine 🧚

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

every flag, no skips, let's go 🫶

• --help — Output a brief help message. short and sweet, we stan.
• --kill — Kill the currently running mpd session. ⚠️ important disclaimer: the pid_file parameter must be specified in the config file for this to work. no pid_file, no kill, no cap.
• --no-config — Don't read from the configuration file. skipping the config entirely, bold move, lowkey respect.
• --no-daemon — Don't detach from console. it just stays right there with you 💖
• --stderr — Print messages to stderr. all the messages, going straight to stderr.
• --systemd — Used on Linux only so MPD can reliably detect whether it was started as a systemd service. 🚨 real talk: users shouldn't use this switch on the command line. it's not for us, bestie.
• --verbose — Verbose logging. so much logging. every detail. obsessed.
• --version — Print version information. because sometimes you just need to know 👑

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🌸 FILES 🌸

• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpd/mpd.conf — User configuration file (usually ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf). your personal config, your personal era 💜
• /etc/mpd.conf — Global configuration file. the shared one, the everyone one.

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🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

• mpd.conf(5)
• mpc(1)

go read those too, iykyk 🍓

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💀 BUGS 💀

If you find a bug, please report it at ‐

https://github.com/MusicPlayerDaemon/MPD/issues/

(fr fr, they wanna know, don't be shy 🙈)

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Max Kellermann

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🌈 COPYRIGHT 🌈

2003-2025 The Music Player Daemon Project

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okay bestie that's the whole page, every single detail intact, no skips, no cap 💖

version 0.24.18, dated Nov 02, 2026 — that's the MPD(1) energy, slay, you're a Unix girlie now ✨👑💅