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   6 <title>polypaudio @PACKAGE_VERSION@</title>
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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: IPv6 support; PID file support; publish credentials
  48 in X11 root window (<tt>module-x11-publish</tt>; new tool <tt>pacmd</tt>; ESOUND backend; new command <tt>load-sample-dir-lazy</tt>; many, many minor fixes.</p>
  49
  50 <div class="news-date">Thu Oct 28 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  51 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.6.tar.gz">Version 0.6</a> released;
  52 changes include: TCP wrappers support; don't load the complete sound
  53 file into memory when playing back using <tt>pa_play_file()</tt>;
  54 autoload API change; don't load all sound files as FLOAT32; shorten
  55 default buffers; client-side latency interpolation; add new user
  56 volume metrics; add <tt>module-tunnel</tt>, <tt>module-null-sink</tt>,
  57 <tt>module-match</tt> and new tool <tt>paplay</tt>; new API version
  58 macros; many client API improvements; correctly lock cookie file
  59 generation; correctly lock daemon autospawning; print daemon layout to
  60 STDERR on SIGHUP; new options for <tt>pacat</tt>: allow sample type specification.</p>
  61
  62 <div class="news-date">Mon Sep 24 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  63 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.5.1.tar.gz">Version 0.5.1</a> released;
  64 changes include: improve esound protocol compatibility; fix
  65 autospawning via <tt>libesd</tt>; make use of POSIX capabilities;
  66 allow <tt>SCHED_FIFO</tt> scheduling only for users in group
  67 <tt>realtime</tt>; minor build system fix.</p>
  68
  69 <div class="news-date">Mon Sep 20 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  70 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.5.tar.gz">Version 0.5</a> released;
  71 changes include: extensive API improvements, new module
  72 <tt>module-combine</tt> for combining multiple sound cards into one,
  73 gcc 2.95 compatibility, configuration files, add "lazy" samples,
  74 support for source and network latency measurements, add
  75 <tt>module-pipe-source</tt>, many other fixes and improvements.</p>
  76
  77 <div class="news-date">Wed Sep 8 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  78 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.4.tar.gz">Version 0.4</a> released;
  79 changes include: daemon auto spawning, support for <tt>SCHED_FIFO</tt> scheduling, three new modules, proper logging, CPU load watchdog, many fixes.</p>
  80
  81 <div class="news-date">Fri Aug 27 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  82 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.3.tar.gz">Version 0.3</a> released;
  83 changes include: support for both glib 2.0 and glib 1.2, future cancellation, API updates, many fixes, relicense client library to LGPL.</p>
  84
  85 <div class="news-date">Fri Aug 20 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  86 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.2.tar.gz">Version 0.2</a> released;
  87 changes include: added sample cache, introspection API, client API
  88 documentation, module autoloading, glib support, a module for intercepting X11 bell events, and much more.</p>
  89
  90 <div class="news-date">Sat Jul 17 2004: </div> <p class="news-text"><a
  91 href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-0.1.tar.gz">Version 0.1</a> released</p>
  92
  93 <h2><a name="overview">Overview</a></h2>
  94
  95 <p><tt>polypaudio</tt> is a sound server for Linux and other Unix like
  96 operating systems. It is intended to be an improved drop-in
  97 replacement for the <a
  98 href="http://www.tux.org/~ricdude/apps.html">Enlightened Sound
  99 Daemon</a> (ESOUND). It is my ultimate ambition to get Polypaudio into
 100 <a href="http://www.gnome.org/">Gnome</a> as a replacement for ESOUND. In
 101 addition to the features ESOUND provides <tt>polypaudio</tt> has:</p>
 102
 103 <ul>
 104   <li>Extensible plugin architecture (by loading dynamic loadable modules with <tt>dlopen()</tt>)</li>
 105   <li>Support for more than one sink/source</li>
 106   <li>Better low latency behaviour</li>
 107   <li>Embedabble into other software (the core is available as C library)</li>
 108   <li>Completely asynchronous C API</li>
 109   <li>Simple command line interface for reconfiguring the daemon while running</li>
 110   <li>Flexible, implicit sample type conversion and resampling</li>
 111   <li>"Zero-Copy" architecture</li>
 112   <li>Module autoloading</li>
 113   <li>Very accurate latency measurement for playback and recordin.</li>
 114   <li>May be used to combine multiple sound cards to one (with sample rate adjustment)</li>
 115   <li>Client side latency interpolation</li>
 116 </ul>
 117
 118 <p>Both the core and the client API are completely asynchronous making
 119 use of a simple main loop abstraction layer. This allows easy
 120 integration with asynchronous applications using the
 121 <tt>glib</tt>/<tt>gtk</tt> mainloop. Since the asynchronous API
 122 available through <tt>polyplib</tt> is quite difficult to use there is
 123 a simplified synchronous API wrapper <tt>polyplib-simple</tt>
 124 available. A simple main loop implementation is available as well.</p>
 125
 126 <p>The following modules are currently available:</p>
 127
 128 <ul>
 129   <li><tt>module-oss</tt>: driver for Open Sound System audio sinks and sources.</li>
 130   <li><tt>module-oss-mmap</tt>: same as above, but uses <tt>mmap()</tt> access to the audio buffer. Not as compatible</li>
 131   <li><tt>module-alsa-sink</tt>, <tt>module-alsa-source</tt>: drivers for ALSA sinks and sources</li>
 132   <li><tt>module-pipe-sink</tt>, <tt>module-pipe-source</tt>: demonstration module providing UNIX fifos backed sinks/sources</li>
 133   <li><tt>module-combine</tt>: combine multiple sinks into one.</li>
 134   <li><tt>module-sine</tt>: a sine generate sink input.</li>
 135   <li><tt>module-x11-bell</tt>: play a sample from the sample cache on every X11 bell event.</li>
 136   <li><tt>module-x11-publish</tt>: store Polypaudio credentials in the X11 root window.</li>
 137   <li><tt>module-esound-protocol-tcp</tt>, <tt>module-esound-protocol-tcp6</tt>, <tt>module-esound-protocol-unix</tt>: ESOUND compatibility modules (for TCP/IPv6 resp. TCP/IPv6 resp. UNIX domain sockets)</li>
 138   <li><tt>module-native-protocol-tcp</tt>, <tt>module-native-protocol-tcp6</tt>, <tt>module-native-protocol-unix</tt>: Native polypaudio protocol (for TCP/IPv4 resp. TCP/IPv6 resp. UNIX domain sockets)</li>
 139   <li><tt>module-simple-protocol-tcp</tt>, <tt>module-simple-protocol-tcp6</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>
 140   <li><tt>module-cli-protocol-tcp</tt>, <tt>module-cli-protocol-tcp6</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>
 141   <li><tt>module-tunnel-sink</tt>, <tt>module-tunnel-source</tt>: make sinks/sources from other hosts available locally.</li>
 142   <li><tt>module-match</tt>: adjust volume automatically for newly created playback streams based on a regular expression matching table.</li>
 143   <li><tt>module-null-sink</tt>: a clocked sink similar to <tt>/dev/null</tt>.</li>
 144   <li><tt>module-esound-sink</tt>: a sink for forwarding audio data to an ESOUND server.</li>
 145 </ul>
 146
 147 <p><tt>polypaudio</tt> is the successor of my previous, ill-fated
 148 attempt to write a sound server, <a
 149 href="http://asd.sf.net/">asd</a>.</p>
 150
 151 <p>A GTK GUI manager application for polypaudio is the <a
 152 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/paman/">Polypaudio
 153 Manager</a>. Another GTK GUI tool for Polypaudio is the <a
 154 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/pavumeter">Polypaudio Volume
 155 Meter</a>.</p>
 156
 157 <p>There are output plugins for <a
 158 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/xmms-polyp/">XMMS</a>, <a
 159 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/libao-polyp/">libao</a>
 160 (merged in <tt>libao</tt> SVN) and <a
 161 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/gst-polyp/">gstreamer</a>
 162 (merged in <tt>gstreamer-plugins</tt> CVS), <a
 163 href="http://mplayerhq.hu">MPlayer</a> (merged in MPlayer CVS) and <a
 164 href="http://xine.sf.net/">Xine</a> (merged in Xine CVS). Drivers for
 165 <a href="http://www.portaudio.com/">PortAudio</a> will be released
 166 shortly.</p>
 167
 168 <h2><a name="status">Status</a></h2>
 169
 170 <p>Version @PACKAGE_VERSION@ is quite usable. It matches and supersedes ESOUND's feature set in nearly all areas.</p>
 171
 172 <p><b>Warning:</b> polypaudio's client API and protocol are not stable
 173 yet. The client interface is still a moving target and changes from
 174 release to release. The client API's library version number is currently fixed to <tt>0.0.0</tt>.</p>
 175
 176 <h2><a name="documentation">Documentation</a></h2>
 177
 178 <p>There is some preliminary documentation available: <a
 179 href="modules.html"><tt>modules.html</tt></a>, <a
 180 href="cli.html"><tt>cli.html</tt></a>, <a
 181 href="daemon.html"><tt>daemon.html</tt></a>, <a href="FAQ.html"><tt>FAQ.html</tt></a>, .</p>
 182
 183 <h3>First Steps</h3>
 184
 185 <p>Simply start the polypaudio daemon with the argument <tt>-nC</tt></p>
 186
 187 <pre>polypaudio -nC</pre>
 188
 189 <p>This will present you a screen like this:</p>
 190
 191 <pre>Welcome to polypaudio! Use "help" for usage information.
 192 &gt;&gt;&gt; </pre>
 193
 194 <p>Now you can issue CLI commands as described in <a
 195 href="cli.html"><tt>cli.html</tt></a>. Another way to start
 196 <tt>polypaudio</tt> is by specifying a configuration script like that one included in the distribution on the
 197 command line :</p>
 198
 199 <pre>polypaudio -nF polypaudio.pa</pre>
 200
 201 <p>This will load some drivers and protocols automatically.</p>
 202
 203 <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>
 204
 205 <p><b>Beware!</b> Unless you pass the option <tt>--sysconfdir=/etc</tt> to
 206 <tt>configure</tt>, the directory <tt>/etc/polypaudio/</tt> is really
 207 <tt>/usr/local/etc/polypaudio/</tt>.</p>
 208
 209 <h3>Developing polypaudio Clients</h3>
 210
 211 <p>You may browse the <a href="http://www.doxygen.org/">Doxygen</a> generated <a
 212 href="http://0pointer.de/lennart/projects/polypaudio/doxygen/">programing
 213 documentation</a> for the client API. (Run <tt>make doxygen</tt> to generate this documentation from the source tree)</p>
 214
 215 <h3>Developing polypaudio Modules</h3>
 216
 217 <p>There are several reasons for writing loadable modules for polypaudio:</p>
 218
 219 <ul>
 220   <li>Device driver support in addition to ALSA/OSS</li>
 221   <li>Protocol support beyond ESOUND's protocol and the native protocol. (such as NAS or a subset of aRts)</li>
 222   <li>New programming interfaces such as XMLRPC or DBUS for controlling the daemon.</li>
 223   <li>Hooking audio event sources directly into polypaudio (similar to <tt>module-x11-bell</tt>)</li>
 224   <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>
 225 </ul>
 226
 227 <p>There is currently no documentation how to write loadable modules
 228 for polypaudio. <i>Read the source, Luke!</i> If you are interested in
 229 writing new modules feel free to contact the author in case you have any
 230 questions.</p>
 231
 232 <h2><a name="requirements">Requirements</a></h2>
 233
 234 <p>Currently, <tt>polypaudio</tt> is tested on Linux and FreeBSD only. It requires an OSS or ALSA compatible soundcard.</p>
 235
 236 <p><tt>polypaudio</tt> was developed and tested on Debian GNU/Linux
 237 "testing" from November 2004, it should work on most other Linux
 238 distributions (and maybe Unix versions) since it uses GNU autoconf and
 239 GNU libtool for source code configuration and shared library
 240 management.</p>
 241
 242 <p><tt>polypaudio</tt> needs <tt>libwrap</tt>, <a
 243 href="http://www.mega-nerd.com/SRC/">Secret Rabbit Code (aka
 244 <tt>libsamplerate</tt>)</a>, <a
 245 href="http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile"><tt>libsndfile</tt></a>, <a
 246 href="http://www.alsa-project.org/">alsa-lib</a> and <a
 247 href="http://www.gtk.org/">GLIB</a>. (The latter is required for
 248 building the GLIB main loop integration module only.)</p>
 249
 250 <h2><a name="installation">Installation</a></h2>
 251
 252 <p>As this package is made with the GNU autotools you should run
 253 <tt>./configure</tt> inside the distribution directory for configuring
 254 the source tree. After that you should run <tt>make</tt> for
 255 compilation and <tt>make install</tt> (as root) for installation of
 256 <tt>polypaudio</tt>.</p>
 257
 258 <h2><a name="acks">Acknowledgements</a></h2>
 259
 260 <p>Eric B. Mitchell for writing ESOUND</p>
 261
 262 <p>Jeff Waugh for creating Ubuntu packages (and hopefully soon Debian)</p>
 263
 264 <p>Miguel Freitas for writing a Polypaudio driver for Xine</p>
 265
 266 <p>Joe Marcus Clarke for porting Polypaudio to FreeBSD</p>
 267
 268 <h2><a name="download">Download</a></h2>
 269
 270 <p>The newest release is always available from <a href="@PACKAGE_URL@">@PACKAGE_URL@</a></p>
 271
 272 <p>The current release is <a href="@PACKAGE_URL@polypaudio-@PACKAGE_VERSION@.tar.gz">@PACKAGE_VERSION@</a></p>
 273
 274 <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>
 275
 276 <pre>svn checkout svn://seth.intheinter.net/polypaudio/trunk polypaudio</pre>
 277
 278 <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>
 279
 280 <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>
 281
 282 <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>
 283
 284 <hr/>
 285 <address class="grey">Lennart Poettering &lt;@PACKAGE_BUGREPORT@&gt;, November 2004</address>
 286 <div class="grey"><i>$Id$</i></div>
 287
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