AUTOOL(1)

📦 version 1.9.5, in fedora 43, fedora 44

🎧 AUTOOL 🎧

okay so bestie, welcome to autool — it's from the General Commands Manual section 1, and it's the audio play/record tool that plays nice with audiotool. Think of it as the glow-up replacement you didn't know you needed. 💖

✨ NAME ✨

autool — audio play/record tool compatible with audiotool

📼 SYNOPSYS 📼

(yeah that's how it's spelled in here, we don't make the rules, we just vibe)

audiotool [-audio servername] [-volume percent] [-display displayname]
[-geom geometry]  filename

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So autool is literally a replacement for the Sun audiotool program — the one that ships audio files off to Network Audio System servers. It's giving understudy-that-ate. 👑

You can slot it in two ways:

  • make a symbolic link named audiotool that points at autool, and make sure it comes before the OpenWindows version, or
  • change the OpenWindows deskset bindings database with the binder(1) command.

That's it. That's the whole plan. Slay.

💅 OPTIONS 💅

Here's the lineup, bestie — every single one:

  • -audio servername — tells it which Network Audio System server the files should be played on. Like, "hey, play it over there." 🎶
  • -volume 0-100 — sets the volume as a percentage of the max possible volume. The default is 10 percent. Yes, ten. Tiny. A whisper. Adjust accordingly. 🍓
  • -display displayname — says which X Window System the control panel should show up on. Your screen, your rules.
  • -geom geometry — sets the position and size of the control panel. Move it, resize it, make it yours. ✨

🎀 CONFIGURING OPENWINDOWS TO USE AUTOOL 🎀

OpenWindows girlies, this one's for you. If you wanna make deskset applications use autool to play audio files, here's the whole ritual, step by step:

  1. Run the deskset configuration program binder.
  2. Locate the entry in the scrolling list named audio-file and click on it once with the left mouse button.
  3. From the Props menu, select the Icon... entry with the right mouse button.
  4. Click on the button marked (+) in the lower right corner with the left mouse button. This expands the window, adding another panel to the right. It's giving more.
  5. On the line marked Application in the panel on the right, change audiotool to autool — and heads up, you'll need to specify a full path name if you haven't installed autool in a directory that's in your path. The initial volume (which is a percentage relative to the recorded level; the default is 10) can be increased by inserting the -v percent option between autool and $FILE.
  6. Press the Apply button in the left panel.
  7. Back in the main binder window, press the Save button in the upper left corner.
  8. Restart any deskset applications such as filemgr to have the updated values take effect.

And then? Double clicking in filemgr on file names that end in .snd will now cause autool to be invoked. Iconic. 🦋

ngl, step 8 is the one everyone forgets and then they're like "why isn't it working 😭" — restart the deskset apps, bestie.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

These env vars are the ones autool actually reads:

  • AUDIOSERVER — specifies the default audio server to contact if -audio isn't given on the command line.
  • DISPLAY — if AUDIOSERVER isn't set, this variable gets examined to find the name of the corresponding X Window System display.

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

nas(1)

Copyright 1993, 1994 Network Computing Devices, Inc.

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Dave Lemke, Network Computing Devices, Inc.

and that's the whole page, no cap. this lil beauty is version 1.9.5, living in the General Commands Manual, dated right there at the bottom of the original — go forth and play some audio, main character. 🫶 🎀 💖

📦 where this page comes from