code.delx.au - pulseaudio/blob - doc/README.html.in

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  11 <h1><a name="top">polypaudio @PACKAGE_VERSION@</a></h1>
  12
  13 <p><i>Copyright 2004 Lennart Poettering &lt;@PACKAGE_BUGREPORT@&gt;</i></p>
  14
  15 <ul class="toc">
  16     <li><a href="#license">License</a></li>
  17     <li><a href="#news">News</a></li>
  18     <li><a href="#overview">Overview</a></li>
  19     <li><a href="#status">Status</a></li>
  20     <li><a href="#documentation">Documentation</a></li>
  21     <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements</a></li>
  22     <li><a href="#installation">Installation</a></li>
  23     <li><a href="#acks">Acknowledgements</a></li>
  24     <li><a href="#download">Download</a></li>
  25 </ul>
  26
  27 <h2><a name="license">License</a></h2>
  28
  29 <p>This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
  30 modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as
  31 published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the
  32 License, or (at your option) any later version.</p>
  33
  34 <p>This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  35 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  36 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
  37 Lesser General Public License for more details.</p>
  38
  39 <p>You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
  40 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
  41 Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.</p>
  42
  43 <h2><a name="news">News</a></h2>
  44
  45 <div class="news-date">Sun Nov 21 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  46 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.7.tar.gz">Version 0.7</a> released;
  47 changes include: TCP wrappers support; don't load the complete sound
  48 file into memory when playing back using <tt>pa_play_file()</tt>;
  49 autoload API change; don't load all sound files as FLOAT32; shorten
  50 default buffers; client-side latency interpolation; add new user
  51 volume metrics; add <tt>module-tunnel</tt>, <tt>module-null-sink</tt>,
  52 <tt>module-match</tt> and new tool <tt>paplay</tt>; new API version
  53 macros; many client API improvements; correctly lock cookie file
  54 generation; correctly lock daemon autospawning; print daemon layout to
  55 STDERR on SIGHUP; new options for <tt>pacat</tt>: allow sample type specification.</p>
  56
  57 <div class="news-date">Thu Oct 28 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  58 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.6.tar.gz">Version 0.6</a> released;
  59 changes include: TCP wrappers support; don't load the complete sound
  60 file into memory when playing back using <tt>pa_play_file()</tt>;
  61 autoload API change; don't load all sound files as FLOAT32; shorten
  62 default buffers; client-side latency interpolation; add new user
  63 volume metrics; add <tt>module-tunnel</tt>, <tt>module-null-sink</tt>,
  64 <tt>module-match</tt> and new tool <tt>paplay</tt>; new API version
  65 macros; many client API improvements; correctly lock cookie file
  66 generation; correctly lock daemon autospawning; print daemon layout to
  67 STDERR on SIGHUP; new options for <tt>pacat</tt>: allow sample type specification.</p>
  68
  69 <div class="news-date">Mon Sep 24 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  70 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.5.1.tar.gz">Version 0.5.1</a> released;
  71 changes include: improve esound protocol compatibility; fix
  72 autospawning via <tt>libesd</tt>; make use of POSIX capabilities;
  73 allow <tt>SCHED_FIFO</tt> scheduling only for users in group
  74 <tt>realtime</tt>; minor build system fix.</p>
  75
  76 <div class="news-date">Mon Sep 20 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  77 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.5.tar.gz">Version 0.5</a> released;
  78 changes include: extensive API improvements, new module
  79 <tt>module-combine</tt> for combining multiple sound cards into one,
  80 gcc 2.95 compatibility, configuration files, add "lazy" samples,
  81 support for source and network latency measurements, add
  82 <tt>module-pipe-source</tt>, many other fixes and improvements.</p>
  83
  84 <div class="news-date">Wed Sep 8 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  85 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.4.tar.gz">Version 0.4</a> released;
  86 changes include: daemon auto spawning, support for <tt>SCHED_FIFO</tt> scheduling, three new modules, proper logging, CPU load watchdog, many fixes.</p>
  87
  88 <div class="news-date">Fri Aug 27 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  89 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.3.tar.gz">Version 0.3</a> released;
  90 changes include: support for both glib 2.0 and glib 1.2, future cancellation, API updates, many fixes, relicense client library to LGPL.</p>
  91
  92 <div class="news-date">Fri Aug 20 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  93 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.2.tar.gz">Version 0.2</a> released;
  94 changes include: added sample cache, introspection API, client API
  95 documentation, module autoloading, glib support, a module for intercepting X11 bell events, and much more.</p>
  96
  97 <div class="news-date">Sat Jul 17 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  98 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.1.tar.gz">Version 0.1</a> released</p>
  99
 100 <h2><a name="overview">Overview</a></h2>
 101
 102 <p><tt>polypaudio</tt> is a sound server for Linux and other Unix like
 103 operating systems. It is intended to be an improved drop-in
 104 replacement for the <a
 105 href="http://www.tux.org/~ricdude/apps.html">Enlightened Sound
 106 Daemon</a> (ESOUND). In addition to the features ESOUND provides
 107 <tt>polypaudio</tt> has:</p>
 108
 109 <ul>
 110   <li>Extensible plugin architecture (by loading dynamic loadable modules with <tt>dlopen()</tt>)</li>
 111   <li>Support for more than one sink/source</li>
 112   <li>Better low latency behaviour</li>
 113   <li>Embedabble into other software (the core is available as C library)</li>
 114   <li>Completely asynchronous C API</li>
 115   <li>Simple command line interface for reconfiguring the daemon while running</li>
 116   <li>Flexible, implicit sample type conversion and resampling</li>
 117   <li>"Zero-Copy" architecture</li>
 118   <li>Module autoloading</li>
 119   <li>Very accurate latency measurement for playback and recordin.</li>
 120   <li>May be used to combine multiple sound cards to one (with sample rate adjustment)</li>
 121   <li>Client side latency interpolation</li>
 122 </ul>
 123
 124 <p>Both the core and the client API are completely asynchronous making
 125 use of a simple main loop abstraction layer. This allows easy
 126 integration with asynchronous applications using the
 127 <tt>glib</tt>/<tt>gtk</tt> mainloop. Since the asynchronous API
 128 available through <tt>polyplib</tt> is quite difficult to use there is
 129 a simplified synchronous API wrapper <tt>polyplib-simple</tt>
 130 available. A simple main loop implementation is available as well.</p>
 131
 132 <p>The following modules are currently available:</p>
 133
 134 <ul>
 135   <li><tt>module-oss</tt>: driver for Open Sound System audio sinks and sources.</li>
 136   <li><tt>module-oss-mmap</tt>: same as above, but uses <tt>mmap()</tt> access to the audio buffer. Not as compatible</li>
 137   <li><tt>module-alsa-sink</tt>, <tt>module-alsa-source</tt>: drivers for ALSA sinks and sources</li>
 138   <li><tt>module-pipe-sink</tt>, <tt>module-pipe-source</tt>: demonstration module providing UNIX fifos backed sinks/sources</li>
 139   <li><tt>module-combine</tt>: combine multiple sinks into one.</li>
 140   <li><tt>module-sine</tt>: a sine generate sink input.</li>
 141   <li><tt>module-x11-bell</tt>: play a sample from the sample cache on every X11 bell event.</li>
 142   <li><tt>module-esound-protocol-tcp</tt>, <tt>module-esound-protocol-unix</tt>: ESOUND compatibility modules (for TCP/IP resp. UNIX domain sockets)</li>
 143   <li><tt>module-native-protocol-tcp</tt>, <tt>module-native-protocol-unix</tt>: Native polypaudio protocol (for TCP/IP resp. UNIX domain sockets)</li>
 144   <li><tt>module-simple-protocol-tcp</tt>, <tt>module-simple-protocol-unix</tt>: Simplistic protocol for playback/capture for usage with tools like <tt>netcat</tt> (for TCP/IP resp. UNIX domain sockets)</li>
 145   <li><tt>module-cli-protocol-tcp</tt>, <tt>module-cli-protocol-unix</tt>, <tt>module-cli</tt>: Expose polypaudio's internals whith a simple command line interface. (for TCP/IP resp. UNIX domain sockets resp. STDIN/STDOUT)</li>
 146   <li><tt>module-tunnel-sink</tt>, <tt>module-tunnel-source</tt>: make sinks/sources from other hosts available locally.</li>
 147   <li><tt>module-match</tt>: adjust volume automatically for newly created playback streams based on a regular expression matching table.</li>
 148   <li><tt>module-null-sink</tt>: a clocked sink similar to <tt>/dev/null</tt>.</li>
 149 </ul>
 150
 151 <p><tt>polypaudio</tt> is the successor of my previous, ill-fated
 152 attempt to write a sound server, <a
 153 href="http://asd.sf.net/">asd</a>.</p>
 154
 155 <p>A GTK GUI manager application for polypaudio is the <a
 156 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/paman/">Polypaudio
 157 Manager</a>. Another GTK GUI tool for Polypaudio is the <a
 158 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/pavumeter">Polypaudio Volume
 159 Meter</a>. There are output plugins for <a
 160 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/xmms-polyp/">XMMS</a>, <a
 161 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/libao-polyp/">libao</a> and <a href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/gst-polyp/">gstreamer</a>. Drivers
 162 for <a href="http://mplayerhq.hu">MPlayer</a> and <a href="http://www.portaudio.com/">PortAudio</a> will be released shortly.</p>
 163
 164 <h2><a name="status">Status</a></h2>
 165
 166 <p>Version @PACKAGE_VERSION@ is quite usable. It matches and supersedes ESOUND's feature set in nearly all areas.</p>
 167
 168 <p><b>Warning:</b> polypaudio's client API and protocol are not stable
 169 yet. The client interface is still a moving target and changes from
 170 release to release. The client API's library version number is currently fixed to <tt>0.0.0</tt>.</p>
 171
 172 <h2><a name="documentation">Documentation</a></h2>
 173
 174 <p>There is some preliminary documentation available: <a
 175 href="modules.html"><tt>modules.html</tt></a>, <a
 176 href="cli.html"><tt>cli.html</tt></a>, <a
 177 href="daemon.html"><tt>daemon.html</tt></a>, <a href="FAQ.html"><tt>FAQ.html</tt></a>, .</p>
 178
 179 <h3>First Steps</h3>
 180
 181 <p>Simply start the polypaudio daemon with the argument <tt>-nC</tt></p>
 182
 183 <pre>polypaudio -nC</pre>
 184
 185 <p>This will present you a screen like this:</p>
 186
 187 <pre>Welcome to polypaudio! Use "help" for usage information.
 188 &gt;&gt;&gt; </pre>
 189
 190 <p>Now you can issue CLI commands as described in <a
 191 href="cli.html"><tt>cli.html</tt></a>. Another way to start
 192 <tt>polypaudio</tt> is by specifying a configuration script like that one included in the distribution on the
 193 command line :</p>
 194
 195 <pre>polypaudio -nF polypaudio.pa</pre>
 196
 197 <p>This will load some drivers and protocols automatically.</p>
 198
 199 <p>The best idea is to configure your daemon in <tt>/etc/polypaudio/daemon.conf</tt> and <tt>/etc/polypaudio/default.pa</tt> and to run polypaudio without any arguments.</p>
 200
 201 <p><b>Beware!</b> Unless you pass the option <tt>--sysconfdir=/etc</tt> to
 202 <tt>configure</tt>, the directory <tt>/etc/polypaudio/</tt> is really
 203 <tt>/usr/local/etc/polypaudio/</tt>.</p>
 204
 205 <h3>Developing polypaudio Clients</h3>
 206
 207 <p>You may browse the <a href="http://www.doxygen.org/">Doxygen</a> generated <a
 208 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/polypaudio/doxygen/">programing
 209 documentation</a> for the client API. (Run <tt>make doxygen</tt> to generate this documentation from the source tree)</p>
 210
 211 <h3>Developing polypaudio Modules</h3>
 212
 213 <p>There are several reasons for writing loadable modules for polypaudio:</p>
 214
 215 <ul>
 216   <li>Device driver support in addition to ALSA/OSS</li>
 217   <li>Protocol support beyond ESOUND's protocol and the native protocol. (such as NAS or a subset of aRts)</li>
 218   <li>New programming interfaces such as XMLRPC or DBUS for controlling the daemon.</li>
 219   <li>Hooking audio event sources directly into polypaudio (similar to <tt>module-x11-bell</tt>)</li>
 220   <li>For low latency applications such as VOIP: load the VOIP core directly into polypaudio and have a slim GUI frontend to control it.</li>
 221 </ul>
 222
 223 <p>There is currently no documentation how to write loadable modules
 224 for polypaudio. <i>Read the source, Luke!</i> If you are interested in
 225 writing new modules feel free to contact the author in case you have any
 226 questions.</p>
 227
 228 <h2><a name="requirements">Requirements</a></h2>
 229
 230 <p>Currently, <tt>polypaudio</tt> is tested on Linux only. It requires an OSS or ALSA compatible soundcard.</p>
 231
 232 <p><tt>polypaudio</tt> was developed and tested on Debian GNU/Linux
 233 "testing" from July 2004, it should work on most other Linux
 234 distributions (and maybe Unix versions) since it uses GNU autoconf and
 235 GNU libtool for source code configuration and shared library
 236 management.</p>
 237
 238 <p><tt>polypaudio</tt> needs <tt>libwrap</tt>, <a
 239 href="http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC/">Secret Rabbit Code (aka
 240 <tt>libsamplerate</tt>)</a>, <a
 241 href="http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile"><tt>libsndfile</tt></a>, <a
 242 href="http://www.alsa-project.org/">alsa-lib</a> and <a
 243 href="http://www.gtk.org/">GLIB</a>. (The latter is required for
 244 building the GLIB main loop integration module only.)</p>
 245
 246 <h2><a name="installation">Installation</a></h2>
 247
 248 <p>As this package is made with the GNU autotools you should run
 249 <tt>./configure</tt> inside the distribution directory for configuring
 250 the source tree. After that you should run <tt>make</tt> for
 251 compilation and <tt>make install</tt> (as root) for installation of
 252 <tt>polypaudio</tt>.</p>
 253
 254 <h2><a name="acks">Acknowledgements</a></h2>
 255
 256 <p>Eric B. Mitchell for writing ESOUND</p>
 257
 258 <h2><a name="download">Download</a></h2>
 259
 260 <p>The newest release is always available from <a href="@PACKAGE_URL@">@PACKAGE_URL@</a></p>
 261
 262 <p>The current release is <a href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-@PACKAGE_VERSION@.tar.gz">@PACKAGE_VERSION@</a></p>
 263
 264 <p>Get <tt>polypaudio</tt>'s development sources from the <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">Subversion</a> <a href="svn://seth.intheinter.net/polypaudio">repository</a> (<a href="http://0pointer.de/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/?root=polypaudio">viewcvs</a>): </p>
 265
 266 <pre>svn checkout svn://seth.intheinter.net/polypaudio/trunk polypaudio</pre>
 267
 268 <p>If you want to be notified whenever I release a new version of this software use the subscription feature of <a href="http://freshmeat.net/projects/polypaudio/">Freshmeat</a>.</p>
 269
 270 <p><b>New!</b> There is a general discussion <a href="https://seth.intheinter.net/mailman/listinfo/polypaudio-discuss">mailing list for polypaudio</a> available.</p>
 271
 272 <p><b>New!</b> There is now a <a href="http://0pointer.de/trac/polypaudio/">Polypaudio wiki</a> (based on <a href="http://www.edgewall.com/products/trac/">trac</a>) available.</p>
 273
 274 <hr/>
 275 <address class="grey">Lennart Poettering &lt;@PACKAGE_BUGREPORT@&gt;, October 2004</address>
 276 <div class="grey"><i>$Id$</i></div>
 277
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