NAME

       ncmpc - curses Music Player Daemon (MPD) client.

SYNOPSIS

       ncmpc [options]

DESCRIPTION

       ncmpc  is a client for MPD, the Music Player Daemon.  ncmpc connects to a MPD running on a
       machine on the local network.

       By default, ncmpc connects to localhost:6600.  This can be changed either at compile-time,
       or  by  exporting  the MPD_HOST and MPD_PORT environment variables, or by the command line
       options --host and --port.

       $ ncmpc --host=musicserver --port=44000

       To use a password with mpd, set MPD_HOST to password@host or use the command  line  option
       --password. Values from the command line overrides values from the environment.

       Read more about MPD on http://www.musicpd.org

OPTIONS

       -?, --help
              Display help.

       -V, --version
              Display version information and build-time configuration.

       -c, --colors
              Enable colors.

       -C, --no-colors
              Disable colors.

       -m, --mouse
              Enable mouse.

       -M, --no-mouse
              Disable mouse.

       -h, --host=HOSTNAME
              Specify MPD host.

       -p, --port=PORT
              Connect to server on PORT.

       -P, --password=PASSWORD
              Use password when connecting.

       -f, --config=FILE
              Read configuration from file.

       -k, --key-file=FILE
              Read key bindings from FILE.

       Mandatory  or  optional  arguments  to long options are also mandatory or optional for any
       corresponding short options.

CONFIGURATION

       When ncmpc starts it tries to read the user's configuration file, ~/.ncmpc/config.  If  no
       user  configuration  file  is  found  then  ncmpc  tries  to load the global settings from
       $SYSCONFDIR/ncmpc/config (the actual path is displayed in  the  output  of  the  --version
       option). An example configuration file (config.sample) should be provided with ncmpc.

   Connection
       host = HOST
              Connect to mpd running on the specified host.

       port = PORT
              Connect to mpd on the specified port.

       password = PASSWORD
              Connect to mpd using the specified password.

       timeout = TIMEOUT
              Attempt  to  reconnect  to  mpd  if  a response to a command is not received within
              TIMEOUT seconds. Specifying  a  value  in  the  configuration  file  overrides  the
              "MPD_TIMEOUT" environment variable. If no timeout is specified in the configuration
              file or in the environment, the default is 5 seconds.

   Interface
       enable-mouse = yes|no
              Enable mouse support (if enabled at compile time).

       screen-list = SCREEN1 SCREEN2...
              A list of screens to cycle through when using the  previous/next  screen  commands.
              Valid  choices,  if  enabled  at  compile time, are playlist, browse, artist, help,
              search, song, keydef, lyrics, outputs, and chat.

       search-mode = MODE
              Default search mode for the search screen. MODE  must  be  one  of  title,  artist,
              album,  filename, and artist+title, or an interger index (0 for title, 1 for artist
              etc.).

       auto-center = yes|no
              Enable/disable auto center mode. When auto center mode is enabled ncmpc centers the
              current track in the playlist window.

       scroll-offset = NUM
              Keep at least NUM lines above and below the cursor on list windows, if possible.

       find-show-last = yes|no
              Show the most recent query instead of a blank line for a find.

       find-wrap = yes|no
              Wrapped find mode.

       wrap-around = yes|no
              Wrapped cursor movement.

       bell-on-wrap = yes|no
              Ring bell when find wraps around.

       audible-bell = yes|no
              Sound audible bell on alerts.

       visible-bell = yes|no
              Visible bell on alerts.

       crossfade-time = CROSSFADE TIME
              Default crossfade time in seconds.

       seek-time = NUM
              Seek forward/backward by NUM seconds.

       lyrics-timeout = NUM
              Quits  downloading lyrics of a song after the timeout of NUM seconds is reached, if
              NUM is greater than zero.

       jump-prefix-only = yes|no
              When using the jump command, search for the prefix of an entry. That  means  typing
              "m" will start to the first entry which begins with "m".

       lyrics-autosave = yes|no
              Automatically save lyrics after receiving them.

       lyrics-show-plugin = yes|no
              Show the name of the plugin used to receive lyrics on the lyrics screen.

       text-editor = EDITOR
              The text editor used for editing lyrics.

       text-editor-ask = yes|no
              Ask before starting an editor.

       chat-prefix = PREFIX
              Prefix messages send with the chat screen with PREFIX. By default they are prefixed
              with the current user name enclosed by < and > and a space (i.e. "<name> ").

       second-column = yes|no
              Display song length in a second column.

   Display
       welcome-screen-list = yes|no
              Show a list of the screens in the top line on startup.

       wide-cursor = yes|no
              Make the cursor as wide as the screen.

       hardware-cursor = yes|no
              Use the terminal's hardware cursor instead of inverse colors.

       hide-cursor = NUM
              Hide the playlist cursor after NUM seconds of inactivity.

       scroll = yes|no
              Scroll the title if it is too long for the screen.

       scroll-sep = STRING
              the separator to show at the end of the scrolling title.

       list-format = SONG FORMAT
              The format used to display songs in the main window.

       search-format = SONG FORMAT
              The format used  to  display  songs  in  the  search  window.  Default  is  to  use
              list-format.

       status-format = SONG FORMAT
              The format used to display songs on the status line.

       status-message-time = TIME
              The time, in seconds, for which status messages will be displayed.

       display-time = yes|no
              Display the time in the status bar when idle.

       timedisplay-type = elapsed/remaining
              Sets  whether to display remaining or elapsed time in the status window. Default is
              elapsed.

       visible-bitrate = yes|no
              Show the bitrate in the status bar when playing a stream.

       set-xterm-title = yes|no
              Change the XTerm title (ncmpc will not restore the title).

       xterm-title-format = SONG FORMAT
              The format used to for the xterm title when ncmpc is playing.

   Colors
       enable-colors = yes|no
              Enable/disable colors.

       color background = COLOR
              Set the background color. If the background color is assigned to the keyword  none,
              ncmpc will not change the background color. Standard colors are: black, red, green,
              yellow, blue, magenta, cyan and white. Terminal specific colors can also  be  given
              as integers.

       color title = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set  the  text  color and attributes for the title row. Text colors are the same as
              for the background. Valid attributes are: standout, underline, reverse, blink, dim,
              and bold.

       color title-bold = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color for the title row (the bold part).

       color line = COLOR
              Set the color of the line on the second row.

       color line-flags = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color used to indicate mpd flags on the second row.

       color list = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color in the main area of ncmpc.

       color list-bold = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the bold text color in the main area of ncmpc.

       color browser-directory = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color used to display directories in the browser window.

       color browser-playlist = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color used to display playlists in the browser window.

       color progressbar = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the color of the progress indicator.

       color status-state = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color used to display mpd status in the status window.

       color status-song = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color used to display song names in the status window.

       color status-time = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color used to display time the status window.

       color alert = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]...
              Set the text color used to display alerts in the status window.

       colordef COLOR = R, G, B
              Redefine  any  of  the base colors. The RGB values must be integer values between 0
              and 1000.  Note: Only some terminals allow redefinitions of colors!

KEYS

       When ncmpc starts it tries to read user-defined key bindings from the ~/.ncmpc/keys  file.
       If no user-defined key bindings are found then ncmpc tries to load the global key bindings
       from $SYSCONFDIR/ncmpc/keys (the actual path is displayed on the help screen).

       You can view ncmpc's key bindings by pressing '1' (help) when ncmpc is  running.  To  edit
       key bindings press 'K' and use the key editor in ncmpc.

SONG FORMAT

       Format  of  song  display  for  status  and the list window.  The metadata delimiters are:
       %artist%, %albumartist%, %composer%, %performer%, %title%, %album%, %shortalbum%, %track%,
       %genre%, %name%, %time%, %date%, %file%, %shortfile%.

       The  []  operators  are  used to group output such that if none of the metadata delimiters
       between '[' and ']' are matched, then none of the  characters  between  '['  and  ']'  are
       output;  literal  text is always output. '&' and '|' are logical operators for AND and OR.
       '#' is used to escape characters.

       Some useful examples for format are:

          "%file%"

       and

          "[[%artist% - ]%title%]|%file%"

       Another one is:

          "[%artist%|(artist n/a)] - [%title%|(title n/a)]"

CHAT PROTOCOL

       If ncmpc has been compiled with "chat" support,  it  uses  the  client-to-client  protocol
       available  in  MPD  0.17  or higher to communicate with other clients. In order to receive
       messages it subscribes to the channel with the name "chat", and displays any message  sent
       there  as-is. When the user enters a message, it is first with the prefix specified by the
       chat-prefix option (or the default prefix), and then sent to the "chat" channel for others
       to read.

BUGS

       Report bugs on http://www.musicpd.org/mantis/

NOTE

       Since  MPD  uses UTF-8, ncmpc needs to convert characters to the charset used by the local
       system. If you get character conversion errors when your running ncmpc you  probably  need
       to  set  up  your  locale.  This  is  done  by setting any of the LC_CTYPE, LANG or LC_ALL
       environment variables (LC_CTYPE only affects character handling).

SEE ALSO

       mpc(1), mpd(1), locale(5), locale(7)

                                            June 2005                                    ncmpc(1)