scmus tutorial
Step 1: Starting scmus
Step 2: Adding Music to the Queue
Step 3: Controlling Playback
Step 4: Managing the Queue
Step 5: The Playlist Editor
Step 6: Find that Track
Step 7: Customization
Step 8: Quit
Step 9: Further Reading
When you first launch scmus (just type scmus in a terminal and press Enter)
it will open to the queue view. This is where the current queue of tracks is
displayed.
Press 1 to switch to the library view. You should see a list of playlists,
followed by a list of artists. Use the arrow keys or hjkl to navigate through
this list. To add music to the play queue, move the cursor over the desired
entry (this can be a playlist, artist, album or track, depending on where you
are in the hierarchy) and press a.
If you prefer to browse your library via the filesystem hierarchy, press 5
to switch to the browser view. This view behaves identically to the
library view.
Press 3 to go back to the queue view. Use the up and down arrow keys or
jk to select a track you'd like to hear, and press Enter to play it. Here's
some keys to control play:
Press c to pause/unpause
Press right/left to seek forwards/backwards 5 seconds
Press >/< to seek forwards/backwards 1 minute
scmus has some options to control what plays next (if anything) when the track ends. The state of these settings are shown in the bottom right corner, and may be toggled by pressing the corresponding key:
S (Single)R (Repeat)r (random)C (Cconsume)Tracks in the queue may be moved by marking them with spacebar, and then
pasting them at the cursor with p or P (p moves tracks after the
cursor, whereas P moves them under the cursor). To remove a track from the
queue, select it and then press d. Multiple tracks can be deleted in one
operation by marking them and then pressing d. To remove all tracks from
the queue, press D.
Press 1 to switch to the library view, and then locate some tracks that
you would like to add to a playlist. With the tracks selected, press A to
add them to a playlist. If there is no playlist currently loaded into the
editor, you will be prompted to enter the name for a new playlist.
Press 2 to switch to the playlist view. The tracks you just added should
be listed here, similar to how they appear in the queue view. In fact, all
of the queue management keybindings work identically in the playlist view,
with the exception that D unloads the playlist rather than removing tracks
from it.
When you are done editing your playlist, you can load it to the play queue by
selecting it in the library or browser view and pressing a.
On any view, press / to enter search mode. You may then enter a search
query on the command line (the bottom line) to search the current view. Press
Enter after typing your query, and then press n and N to repeat the
search forward and backward respectively using the same query.
Press 4 to switch to the search view. In this view, you can search for
tracks in the mpd database. Press i to begin editing the first parameter of
your query. This can be a simple keyword, or a metadata-constrained parameter
such as artist:boris.
Press a to add another parameter to the search, then select it and press i
again to edit it. The results returned for the search query will be the logical
AND of all the parameters.
To remove a parameter, select it and press d.
Finally, press Enter to execute the search. The search results will be
appended to the list below the line which reads Results. Add tracks to the
play queue by selecting them and pressing a. Remove tracks from the results
by selecting them and pressing d, or press D to remove all tracks from the
results list.
scmus has some settings that you can tweak, like changing the way tracks are displayed or changing the keybindings.
Press 7 to switch to options view. Here you can view and edit the
customizable options in scmus. Select an option and press i to begin editing
it. Press Enter when you are done.
Press 8 to switch to bindings view. Here you can view and edit the key
bindings. Press i with a binding selected to begin editing it. Press Enter
when you are finished editing.
Please note that options and key bindings changed within scmus itself are in effect only for the current session (they are not saved). You must create a configuration file in order to permanently change the settings.
See scmus(1) for a description of the options in scmus, and scmus(3) for a list of functions which may be used in key bindings.
When you're done, press q and then y to quit.
scmus comes with a general reference manual as well as a programming reference.
Now that you've got the basics down they should be intelligible. Try man scmus
in a terminal to view the general program reference, or man 3 scmus to see
the programming reference.