Ubuntu Manpage: alsearch - Search the AudioLink database for music

NAME

       alsearch - Search the AudioLink database for music

SYNOPSIS

       alsearch [OPTION]... search_option... --td=/some/path/to/create/links/

       alsearch [OPTION]... search_option... -s

DESCRIPTION

You can use this script to search for songs in the AudioLink database. You can specify one or several
options for the artist, composer, lyricist, album, etc., as the search criteria.

You can specify several search_option options to search for particular music files. See the section on
"search options" for the list of options.

The search is not case sensitive. alsearch looks for strings as well as sub-strings in the fields being
searched. See the "examples" section for more information.

Specifying the --td (target directory) option is mandatory for creating links to the actual files. This
directory will contain the symbolic links to the actual audio files. The directory will be created if it
doesn't exist.

Creating symbolic links to the actual files is analogous to creating playlists in audio-playing software.
Symbolic links are actually just point to the actual files on the hard disk. This way of creating and
storing playlists is very useful in several ways, some of which are:

1. Compatible across various audio players
Since the "playlists" are actually files represented on your hard disk, you can add whole directories
generated by the alsearch program in the playlist of your audio software. If you switch to another
music player for whatever reason, you still have your playlists. You don't have to bother about
compatibility between the playlist formats of the two players.

2. Can be seen and operated upon in a file browser
As the symbolic links are present on a file-system, your playlist collection can be viewed by using
normal file operations in the shell or using a GUI-based file browsing program. If the file browsing
program is supports file traversals and symlinks, it'll show you the information of the actual song.

OPTIONS

       --help
           Brief usage information

       --host=xxx
           Connects to the MySQL server on the target host. Default is localhost.

       --pass=xxx
           Password for the database

       -s, --na
           Just displays the search results, doesn't create links (simulation mode)

       --td=xxx
           Target-directory in which to create links

       --user=xxx
           Username for the database

       -v, --verbose
           Displays some extra information. Useful for spotting errors and sending debug information.

SEARCH OPTIONS

       --album=xxx
           Search in the "album" field

       --artist=xxx
           Search in the artist/band/performers fields. You can give this option multiple times, for example:

           "alsearch --artist=kishore --artist=asha --td=/songs/asha_kishore"

       --comment=xxx
           Search in the "comment" field

       -c, --composer=xxx
           Search in the "composer" field

       --genre=xxx
           Search in the "genre" field

       -l, --lyricist=xxx
           Search in the "lyricist" field

       --title=xxx
           Search in the "title" field

EXAMPLES

       The options that take arguments can be specified in two ways:

       "alsearch --artist="kishore kumar" --td=/songs/kishore"

       "alsearch --artist "kishore kumar" --td /songs/kishore"

       That is, the option and the argument can be separated with a ' ' (space) or an '=' (equal) sign.

       In case you want to search for a string that has spaces, enclose the string in " ".

       "alsearch --artist=kishore --composer=burman --lyricist=bakshi"

       Will search for songs sung by *Kishore*, composed by *Burman* and written by *Bakshi*. Any name in the
       composer field which have "burman" in them will be matched. This means, it'll find songs composed by RD
       Burman, SD Burman, etc. This is true for all search fields.

BUGS

       Report bugs related to the AudioLink software or the man pages to the audiolink-devel mailing list
       <audiolink-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.

AUTHOR

       This manual page is written and maintained by Amit Shah <amitshah@gmx.net>

COPYRIGHT

       The AudioLink package is Copyright (C) 2003, Amit Shah <amitshah@gmx.net>. All the programs and the
       documentation that come as part of AudioLink are licensed by the GNU General Public License v2 (GPLv2).