mirror of
https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv
synced 2024-12-22 06:42:03 +00:00
858bcea5b4
Seems like people get confused by this.
269 lines
8.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
269 lines
8.4 KiB
ReStructuredText
JSON IPC
|
|
========
|
|
|
|
mpv can be controlled by external programs using the JSON-based IPC protocol.
|
|
It can be enabled by specifying the path to a unix socket or a named pipe using
|
|
the option ``--input-ipc-server``. Clients can connect to this socket and send
|
|
commands to the player or receive events from it.
|
|
|
|
.. warning::
|
|
|
|
This is not intended to be a secure network protocol. It is explicitly
|
|
insecure: there is no authentication, no encryption, and the commands
|
|
themselves are insecure too. For example, the ``run`` command is exposed,
|
|
which can run arbitrary system commands. The use-case is controlling the
|
|
player locally. This is not different from the MPlayer slave protocol.
|
|
|
|
Socat example
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
You can use the ``socat`` tool to send commands (and receive replies) from the
|
|
shell. Assuming mpv was started with:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
mpv file.mkv --input-ipc-server=/tmp/mpvsocket
|
|
|
|
Then you can control it using socat:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
> echo '{ "command": ["get_property", "playback-time"] }' | socat - /tmp/mpvsocket
|
|
{"data":190.482000,"error":"success"}
|
|
|
|
In this case, socat copies data between stdin/stdout and the mpv socket
|
|
connection.
|
|
|
|
See the ``--idle`` option how to make mpv start without exiting immediately or
|
|
playing a file.
|
|
|
|
It's also possible to send input.conf style text-only commands:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
> echo 'show-text ${playback-time}' | socat - /tmp/mpvsocket
|
|
|
|
But you won't get a reply over the socket. (This particular command shows the
|
|
playback time on the player's OSD.)
|
|
|
|
Command Prompt example
|
|
----------------------
|
|
|
|
Unfortunately, it's not as easy to test the IPC protocol on Windows, since
|
|
Windows ports of socat (in Cygwin and MSYS2) don't understand named pipes. In
|
|
the absence of a simple tool to send and receive from bidirectional pipes, the
|
|
``echo`` command can be used to send commands, but not receive replies from the
|
|
command prompt.
|
|
|
|
Assuming mpv was started with:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
mpv file.mkv --input-ipc-server=\\.\pipe\mpvsocket
|
|
|
|
You can send commands from a command prompt:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
echo show-text ${playback-time} >\\.\pipe\mpvsocket
|
|
|
|
To be able to simultaneously read and write from the IPC pipe, like on Linux,
|
|
it's necessary to write an external program that uses overlapped file I/O (or
|
|
some wrapper like .NET's NamedPipeClientStream.)
|
|
|
|
Protocol
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
Clients can execute commands on the player by sending JSON messages of the
|
|
following form:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["command_name", "param1", "param2", ...] }
|
|
|
|
where ``command_name`` is the name of the command to be executed, followed by a
|
|
list of parameters. Parameters must be formatted as native JSON values
|
|
(integers, strings, booleans, ...). Every message **must** be terminated with
|
|
``\n``. Additionally, ``\n`` must not appear anywhere inside the message. In
|
|
practice this means that messages should be minified before being sent to mpv.
|
|
|
|
mpv will then send back a reply indicating whether the command was run
|
|
correctly, and an additional field holding the command-specific return data (it
|
|
can also be null).
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "error": "success", "data": null }
|
|
|
|
mpv will also send events to clients with JSON messages of the following form:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "event": "event_name" }
|
|
|
|
where ``event_name`` is the name of the event. Additional event-specific fields
|
|
can also be present. See `List of events`_ for a list of all supported events.
|
|
|
|
Because events can occur at any time, it may be difficult at times to determine
|
|
which response goes with which command. Commands may optionally include a
|
|
``request_id`` which, if provided in the command request, will be copied
|
|
verbatim into the response. mpv does not intrepret the ``request_id`` in any
|
|
way; it is solely for the use of the requester.
|
|
|
|
For example, this request:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["get_property", "time-pos"], "request_id": 100 }
|
|
|
|
Would generate this response:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "error": "success", "data": 1.468135, "request_id": 100 }
|
|
|
|
All commands, replies, and events are separated from each other with a line
|
|
break character (``\n``).
|
|
|
|
If the first character (after skipping whitespace) is not ``{``, the command
|
|
will be interpreted as non-JSON text command, as they are used in input.conf
|
|
(or ``mpv_command_string()`` in the client API). Additionally, lines starting
|
|
with ``#`` and empty lines are ignored.
|
|
|
|
Currently, embedded 0 bytes terminate the current line, but you should not
|
|
rely on this.
|
|
|
|
Commands
|
|
--------
|
|
|
|
In addition to the commands described in `List of Input Commands`_, a few
|
|
extra commands can also be used as part of the protocol:
|
|
|
|
``client_name``
|
|
Return the name of the client as string. This is the string ``ipc-N`` with
|
|
N being an integer number.
|
|
|
|
``get_time_us``
|
|
Return the current mpv internal time in microseconds as a number. This is
|
|
basically the system time, with an arbitrary offset.
|
|
|
|
``get_property``
|
|
Return the value of the given property. The value will be sent in the data
|
|
field of the replay message.
|
|
|
|
Example:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["get_property", "volume"] }
|
|
{ "data": 50.0, "error": "success" }
|
|
|
|
``get_property_string``
|
|
Like ``get_property``, but the resulting data will always be a string.
|
|
|
|
Example:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["get_property_string", "volume"] }
|
|
{ "data": "50.000000", "error": "success" }
|
|
|
|
``set_property``
|
|
Set the given property to the given value. See `Properties`_ for more
|
|
information about properties.
|
|
|
|
Example:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["set_property", "pause", true] }
|
|
{ "error": "success" }
|
|
|
|
``set_property_string``
|
|
Like ``set_property``, but the argument value must be passed as string.
|
|
|
|
Example:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["set_property_string", "pause", "yes"] }
|
|
{ "error": "success" }
|
|
|
|
``observe_property``
|
|
Watch a property for changes. If the given property is changed, then an
|
|
event of type ``property-change`` will be generated
|
|
|
|
Example:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["observe_property", 1, "volume"] }
|
|
{ "error": "success" }
|
|
{ "event": "property-change", "id": 1, "data": 52.0, "name": "volume" }
|
|
|
|
.. warning::
|
|
|
|
If the connection is closed, the IPC client is destroyed internally,
|
|
and the observed properties are unregistered. This happens for example
|
|
when sending commands to a socket with separate ``socat`` invocations.
|
|
This can make it seem like property observation does not work. You must
|
|
keep the IPC connection open to make it work.
|
|
|
|
``observe_property_string``
|
|
Like ``observe_property``, but the resulting data will always be a string.
|
|
|
|
Example:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["observe_property_string", 1, "volume"] }
|
|
{ "error": "success" }
|
|
{ "event": "property-change", "id": 1, "data": "52.000000", "name": "volume" }
|
|
|
|
``unobserve_property``
|
|
Undo ``observe_property`` or ``observe_property_string``. This requires the
|
|
numeric id passed to the observed command as argument.
|
|
|
|
Example:
|
|
|
|
::
|
|
|
|
{ "command": ["unobserve_property", 1] }
|
|
{ "error": "success" }
|
|
|
|
``request_log_messages``
|
|
Enable output of mpv log messages. They will be received as events. The
|
|
parameter to this command is the log-level (see ``mpv_request_log_messages``
|
|
C API function).
|
|
|
|
Log message output is meant for humans only (mostly for debugging).
|
|
Attempting to retrieve information by parsing these messages will just
|
|
lead to breakages with future mpv releases. Instead, make a feature request,
|
|
and ask for a proper event that returns the information you need.
|
|
|
|
``enable_event``, ``disable_event``
|
|
Enables or disables the named event. Mirrors the ``mpv_request_event`` C
|
|
API function. If the string ``all`` is used instead of an event name, all
|
|
events are enabled or disabled.
|
|
|
|
By default, most events are enabled, and there is not much use for this
|
|
command.
|
|
|
|
``get_version``
|
|
Returns the client API version the C API of the remote mpv instance
|
|
provides.
|
|
|
|
See also: ``DOCS/client-api-changes.rst``.
|
|
|
|
UTF-8
|
|
-----
|
|
|
|
Normally, all strings are in UTF-8. Sometimes it can happen that strings are
|
|
in some broken encoding (often happens with file tags and such, and filenames
|
|
on many Unixes are not required to be in UTF-8 either). This means that mpv
|
|
sometimes sends invalid JSON. If that is a problem for the client application's
|
|
parser, it should filter the raw data for invalid UTF-8 sequences and perform
|
|
the desired replacement, before feeding the data to its JSON parser.
|
|
|
|
mpv will not attempt to construct invalid UTF-8 with broken escape sequences.
|