SPLAY(1)

📦
version 0.9.5.2 · 2 versions
, in debian bookworm, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble

💖 SPLAY(1) — like, the manual page for splay, bestie 💖

okay so welcome to the splay page, section 1 of the Applications/Sound manuals. she's a sound player, she's iconic, and she's about to be your new main character. let's get into it 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

splay — the player for MPEG-1,2 Audio layer 1,2,3 files. yes, all three layers. she does not discriminate, she plays them all 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

splay [-2VMfmrsv] [-k num] [-d dev] [-l list] [-t num] filenames...

that's the whole vibe right there. flags go brrr, filenames go at the end ✨

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so Splay is the sound file player, the one for MPEG-1,2 Audio files and stuff. and the way that you can also play all of those files using a list file?? obsessed.

and with pthread?? she can play sound files smoother. literally built different. no cap 🫶

💅 OPTIONS 💅

Splay has several options. several!! let's go one by one, don't skip, every single one matters 🔥

  • -2 — play MPEG-Audio files with half-frequency. if you use this option you may play MPEG audio files with a job that exhausts CPU very much. it's giving "my laptop is fighting for its life" energy 😭
  • -f — display info on the played and remaining frames and time. little stats moment, we love to see it ✨
  • -m — force to mono. she'll play in mono even if the file is in stereo. single-channel era 🎀
  • -r — Repeat forever. and if you do -r with -s, the list files get shuffled every time. eternal loop, periodt 👑
  • -s — Shuffle play. if you give a list file or a number of files, Splay will rearrange them randomly. and with -r every time the order of files is changed. chaos mode: activated 🦋
  • -v[v[v]] — Verbose, Very verbose, Very very verbose. yes bestie, you stack the vs. one v = chatty, two vs = chattier, three vs = she will not stop talking 💀
  • -M — play the MPEG file from standard input. pipe it in, she'll handle it 🫶
  • -V — show version number. say hi to her real quick 🌈
  • -t num — num of frames were saved during playing. when the CPU is so busy and prevents splay from decoding, splay will play back using the saved frames. this feature lets you do other jobs freely while listening to MPEG music. it's giving multitasking queen ✨
  • -k num — num of frames are skipped at the start of playing. cut to the good part, we get it 💅
  • -d dev — change the device file. the default device file is /dev/dsp. if you can't use this device file, or you can output raw type data to a file, you can use this option. here's the rules, listen close:
    • if the first character of dev is /, dev would be considered as a device file
    • if the first character of dev is -, dev would be considered as standard output
    • otherwise dev would be considered as a normal file
  • -l list — select the list file. http:// can be used. (e.g. http://localhost/abc.m3u). remote playlists, she said yes 🌸
  • filenames — you can put several files, and use http://. if you use the -l option, these will be ignored. sorry bestie, list file takes priority, that's just the rules 🙈
lowkey important reminder: if you pass -l, your filenames are just gonna sit there unread. don't be shocked, it's literally in the docs 💖

okay that's the whole page, you're basically a splay expert now, go forth and play your MPEG audio files 🎀🦋✨

this absolute classic was written by Woo-jae Jung way back on Aug 3 1997, and it's the SPLAY(1) page, so like... respect the elder. she ate and left no crumbs 👑💜

📦 where this page comes from