mirror of https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv
269 lines
8.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
269 lines
8.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
JSON IPC
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========
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mpv can be controlled by external programs using the JSON-based IPC protocol.
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It can be enabled by specifying the path to a unix socket or a named pipe using
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the option ``--input-ipc-server``. Clients can connect to this socket and send
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commands to the player or receive events from it.
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.. warning::
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This is not intended to be a secure network protocol. It is explicitly
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insecure: there is no authentication, no encryption, and the commands
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themselves are insecure too. For example, the ``run`` command is exposed,
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which can run arbitrary system commands. The use-case is controlling the
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player locally. This is not different from the MPlayer slave protocol.
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Socat example
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-------------
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You can use the ``socat`` tool to send commands (and receive replies) from the
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shell. Assuming mpv was started with:
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::
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mpv file.mkv --input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpvsocket
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Then you can control it using socat:
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::
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> echo '{ "command": ["get_property", "playback-time"] }' | socat - /tmp/mpvsocket
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{"data":190.482000,"error":"success"}
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In this case, socat copies data between stdin/stdout and the mpv socket
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connection.
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See the ``--idle`` option how to make mpv start without exiting immediately or
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playing a file.
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It's also possible to send input.conf style text-only commands:
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::
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> echo 'show-text ${playback-time}' | socat - /tmp/mpvsocket
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But you won't get a reply over the socket. (This particular command shows the
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playback time on the player's OSD.)
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Command Prompt example
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----------------------
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Unfortunately, it's not as easy to test the IPC protocol on Windows, since
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Windows ports of socat (in Cygwin and MSYS2) don't understand named pipes. In
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the absence of a simple tool to send and receive from bidirectional pipes, the
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``echo`` command can be used to send commands, but not receive replies from the
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command prompt.
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Assuming mpv was started with:
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::
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mpv file.mkv --input-ipc-server=\\.\pipe\mpvsocket
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You can send commands from a command prompt:
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::
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echo show-text ${playback-time} >\\.\pipe\mpvsocket
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To be able to simultaneously read and write from the IPC pipe, like on Linux,
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it's necessary to write an external program that uses overlapped file I/O (or
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some wrapper like .NET's NamedPipeClientStream.)
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Protocol
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--------
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Clients can execute commands on the player by sending JSON messages of the
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following form:
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::
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{ "command": ["command_name", "param1", "param2", ...] }
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where ``command_name`` is the name of the command to be executed, followed by a
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list of parameters. Parameters must be formatted as native JSON values
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(integers, strings, booleans, ...). Every message **must** be terminated with
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``\n``. Additionally, ``\n`` must not appear anywhere inside the message. In
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practice this means that messages should be minified before being sent to mpv.
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mpv will then send back a reply indicating whether the command was run
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correctly, and an additional field holding the command-specific return data (it
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can also be null).
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::
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{ "error": "success", "data": null }
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mpv will also send events to clients with JSON messages of the following form:
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::
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{ "event": "event_name" }
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where ``event_name`` is the name of the event. Additional event-specific fields
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can also be present. See `List of events`_ for a list of all supported events.
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Because events can occur at any time, it may be difficult at times to determine
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which response goes with which command. Commands may optionally include a
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``request_id`` which, if provided in the command request, will be copied
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verbatim into the response. mpv does not intrepret the ``request_id`` in any
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way; it is solely for the use of the requester.
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For example, this request:
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::
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{ "command": ["get_property", "time-pos"], "request_id": 100 }
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Would generate this response:
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::
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{ "error": "success", "data": 1.468135, "request_id": 100 }
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All commands, replies, and events are separated from each other with a line
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break character (``\n``).
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If the first character (after skipping whitespace) is not ``{``, the command
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will be interpreted as non-JSON text command, as they are used in input.conf
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(or ``mpv_command_string()`` in the client API). Additionally, lines starting
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with ``#`` and empty lines are ignored.
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Currently, embedded 0 bytes terminate the current line, but you should not
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rely on this.
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Commands
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--------
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In addition to the commands described in `List of Input Commands`_, a few
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extra commands can also be used as part of the protocol:
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``client_name``
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Return the name of the client as string. This is the string ``ipc-N`` with
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N being an integer number.
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``get_time_us``
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Return the current mpv internal time in microseconds as a number. This is
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basically the system time, with an arbitrary offset.
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``get_property``
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Return the value of the given property. The value will be sent in the data
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field of the replay message.
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Example:
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::
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{ "command": ["get_property", "volume"] }
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{ "data": 50.0, "error": "success" }
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``get_property_string``
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Like ``get_property``, but the resulting data will always be a string.
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Example:
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::
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{ "command": ["get_property_string", "volume"] }
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{ "data": "50.000000", "error": "success" }
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``set_property``
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Set the given property to the given value. See `Properties`_ for more
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information about properties.
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Example:
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::
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{ "command": ["set_property", "pause", true] }
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{ "error": "success" }
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``set_property_string``
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Like ``set_property``, but the argument value must be passed as string.
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Example:
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::
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{ "command": ["set_property_string", "pause", "yes"] }
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{ "error": "success" }
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``observe_property``
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Watch a property for changes. If the given property is changed, then an
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event of type ``property-change`` will be generated
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Example:
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::
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{ "command": ["observe_property", 1, "volume"] }
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{ "error": "success" }
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{ "event": "property-change", "id": 1, "data": 52.0, "name": "volume" }
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.. warning::
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If the connection is closed, the IPC client is destroyed internally,
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and the observed properties are unregistered. This happens for example
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when sending commands to a socket with separate ``socat`` invocations.
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This can make it seem like property observation does not work. You must
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keep the IPC connection open to make it work.
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``observe_property_string``
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Like ``observe_property``, but the resulting data will always be a string.
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Example:
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::
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{ "command": ["observe_property_string", 1, "volume"] }
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{ "error": "success" }
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{ "event": "property-change", "id": 1, "data": "52.000000", "name": "volume" }
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``unobserve_property``
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Undo ``observe_property`` or ``observe_property_string``. This requires the
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numeric id passed to the observed command as argument.
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Example:
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::
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{ "command": ["unobserve_property", 1] }
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{ "error": "success" }
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``request_log_messages``
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Enable output of mpv log messages. They will be received as events. The
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parameter to this command is the log-level (see ``mpv_request_log_messages``
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C API function).
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Log message output is meant for humans only (mostly for debugging).
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Attempting to retrieve information by parsing these messages will just
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lead to breakages with future mpv releases. Instead, make a feature request,
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and ask for a proper event that returns the information you need.
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``enable_event``, ``disable_event``
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Enables or disables the named event. Mirrors the ``mpv_request_event`` C
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API function. If the string ``all`` is used instead of an event name, all
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events are enabled or disabled.
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By default, most events are enabled, and there is not much use for this
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command.
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``get_version``
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Returns the client API version the C API of the remote mpv instance
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provides.
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See also: ``DOCS/client-api-changes.rst``.
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UTF-8
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-----
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Normally, all strings are in UTF-8. Sometimes it can happen that strings are
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in some broken encoding (often happens with file tags and such, and filenames
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on many Unixes are not required to be in UTF-8 either). This means that mpv
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sometimes sends invalid JSON. If that is a problem for the client application's
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parser, it should filter the raw data for invalid UTF-8 sequences and perform
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the desired replacement, before feeding the data to its JSON parser.
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mpv will not attempt to construct invalid UTF-8 with broken escape sequences.
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