audioplay(1) User Commands audioplay(1)NAMEaudioplay - play audio files
SYNOPSISaudioplay [-iV] [-v vol] [-d dev] [file]...
DESCRIPTION
The audioplay utility copies the named audio files (or the standard
input if no filenames are present) to the audio device. If no input
file is specified and standard input is a tty, the program exits with
an error message.
The input files must contain a valid audio file header. The encoding
information in this header is matched against the capabilities of the
audio device and, if the data formats are incompatible, an error mes‐
sage is printed and the file is skipped. Compressed ADPCM (G.721)
monaural audio data is automatically uncompressed before playing.
Minor deviations in sampling frequency (that is, less than 1%) are
ordinarily ignored. This allows, for instance, data sampled at 8012 Hz
to be played on an audio device that only supports 8000 Hz. If the -V
option is present, such deviations are flagged with warning messages.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-d dev Device: The dev argument specifies an alternate audio device
to which output should be directed. If the -d option is not
specified, the AUDIODEV environment variable is consulted
(see below). Otherwise, /dev/audio is used as the default
audio device.
-i Immediate: If the audio device is unavailable (that is,
another process currently has write access), audioplay ordi‐
narily waits until it can obtain access to the device. When
the -i option is present, audioplay prints an error message
and exits immediately if the device is busy.
-v vol Volume: The output volume is set to the specified value
before playing begins, and is reset to its previous level
when audioplay exits. The vol argument is an integer value
between 0 and 100, inclusive. If this argument is not speci‐
fied, the output volume remains at the level most recently
set by any process.
-V Verbose: Prints messages on the standard error when waiting
for access to the audio device or when sample rate devia‐
tions are detected.
−\? Help: Prints a command line usage message.
OPERANDS
file File Specification: Audio files named on the command line are
played sequentially. If no filenames are present, the standard
input stream (if it is not a tty) is played (it, too, must con‐
tain an audio file header). The special filename − can be used
to read the standard input stream instead of a file. If a rela‐
tive path name is supplied, the AUDIOPATH environment variable
is consulted (see below).
USAGE
See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of audioplay when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
AUDIODEV The full path name of the audio device to write to, if no
-d argument is supplied. If the AUDIODEV variable is not
set, /dev/audio is used.
AUDIOPATH A colon-separated list of directories in which to search
for audio files whose names are given by relative path‐
names. The current directory (.) can be specified explic‐
itly in the search path. If the AUDIOPATH variable is not
set, only the current directory is searched.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Architecture │SPARC, x86 │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │audio/audio-utilities │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Committed │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
SEE ALSOaudioconvert(1), audioctl(1), audiorecord(1), attributes(5), large‐
file(5), audio(7I)BUGSaudioplay currently supports a limited set of audio format conversions.
If the audio file is not in a format supported by the audio device, it
must first be converted. For example, to convert to voice format on the
fly, use the command:
example% audioconvert -f voice myfile | audioplay
The format conversion is not always be able to keep up with the audio
output. If this is the case, you should convert to a temporary file
before playing the data.
SunOS 5.11 1 Dec 2009 audioplay(1)
