GNUMP3d - The GNU Streaming MP3 / OGG Vorbis Server. Homepage: http://www.gnump3d.org/ Version : 3.0 Author : Steve Kemp NOTE ---- All development of this branch of the project has ceased. In the future there might be a GNUMP3d 3.x branch writen in modern Perl, or Ruby, supporting an SQLite back-end. However there are no plans to start on this in the short-term future. Contents -------- This README file is split into the following sections. Please read it all before reporting bugs, or problems: Introduction Supported Platforms Installing Configuration Running Customisation Documentation Mailing Lists Reporting Bugs License (GPL) Alternative Solutions Thanks Comments / Suggestions / Patches? Recent Changes Introduction ------------ This server attempts to provide an attractive interface to browsing and streaming a large MP3 or OGG collection via your web browser. It allows MP3's and OGG Vorbis files to be served to any media player which supports audio streaming. Supported players include XMMS, FreeAmp and WinAmp. In addition to this support is also present for streaming MPEG video files direct to clients. -- NOTE: The streaming of movies requires a player capable of supporting HTTP downloads. - The streaming is very versatile; individual files may be played directly, whole directory trees can be streamed, you may even choose to listen to audio files which match a particular pattern. The display of files is built up in real-time; which means that you don't need to restart the server when adding music to your collection. Although as an optimization song tag details are only refreshed when a supplied indexing script runs. Supported Platforms ------------------- This software was primarily developed under Debian GNU/Linux, and should run on any similar GNU/Linux development platform. Because the software is written with the portable scripting language, Perl, it should also run under other flavours of Unix. GNUMP3d has been tested upon the following platforms: GNU/Linux FreeBSD OpenBSD NetBSD Solaris Microsoft Windows(*) -- (*) Using the most current version of the ActiveState Perl distribution only. Installing under Unix --------------------- From the unpacked archive simply run 'make install'. The software can also be purged by running 'make uninstall' - if you have the original unpackaged archive. After installing the software you may well want to run the test scripts, you can do this by simply running 'make test'. Any failures at this point are bugs - and should certainly be reported as such. Configuration ------------- When the server starts it looks for the global configuration file, which defaults to /etc/gnump3d/gnump3d.conf - you may instead copy this file to your home directory, as '.gnump3drc' in which case the personal configuration file will override the system wide one. You may supply the location of an alternative configuration file via the '--config' command line option. NOTE: You will definitely need to edit the config file prior to running the server for the first time. Running ------- The first time you start the server you should make sure you have a current "index" of your music. To generate an index please run the script 'gnump3d-index' after updating your configuration file as discussed above. Once you have an index you should run the main script, 'gnump3d' to start the streaming server. Once the server is started point a web browser at the host and port which you have specified, and browse/stream away. After you have verified that the server works you may wish to run it in the background. To do this create a startup script for your platform and mail it to me - if there isn't one included in 'rcfiles/' Customisation ------------- The appearance of the server may be changed by switching to a new theme. The themes may be browsed and selected from the HTML pages which are generated - if you wish to change the default theme please see the configuration variable 'theme' in gnump3d.conf for details. You may freely modify the theme files themselves, or create a new theme to change the appearance of the server. (Theme files are stored in a directory with the name of the theme in the /usr/share/gnump3d/ directory). Documentation ------------- The documentation included with this software includes several 'man pages' which are installed along with the software, those along with this document, and the project's website should contain all the information you need to run the software. The man pages should be installed when you install the software, if you need help on something try the following commands: man gnump3d man gnump3d.conf man gnump3d-top Mailing Lists ------------- There are two mailing lists which you can turn to if you'd like help, assistance, or discussion on this software. Full details of these are given on the project's website, at the following URL: http://www.gnump3d.org/lists.html NOTE: You must be subscribed to the mailing lists in order to post messages. This is a regretable position made necessary by the amount of spam an open mailing list would receive. Reporting Bugs -------------- For a bug report to be useful it needs to contain as much information as possible. A simple means of giving all the relevant information is to use the integrated bug reporting plugin. (Obviously you can't use this if the bug you wish to report concerns plugins ;). To use the bug reporting plugin simply point your web browser at: http://server:port/bug/ Enter the text of your report into the text area, and click on the submit button. If you're not using the bug reporting plugin simply send me an email. To assure prompt attention please include the following information: 1. Your operating system, and version: Run 'uname -a', and 'arch' and send me the results. 2. The version of GNUMP3d you're using. Run 'gnump3d --version' and send me the results. 2a. The output of 'gnump3d --dump-plugins' if you're having problems with the plugin support. 3. The browser/client/MP3 player you're using. If you can send a patch that would be great; if not the more detailed your report is the better. License ------- As the name might suggest, this software is distributed under the terms of the GNU Public License, version 2. Please find a copy of the GNU Public License included with the source archive in the file COPYING, it will also be accessible from the server itself; read the startup banner for details. Alternative Solutions --------------------- Here's a brief list of alternative solutions which you may want to investigate if this software doesn't quite meet your needs. Edna - http://edna.sourceforge.net/ This is very similar to this application, in fact this server was initially modelled after Edna. Edna lacks searching facilities, tag display for OGG files, and is written in Python. Ample - http://ample.sourceforge.net/ This is a simple server which is comparable to Shoutcast. KPlaylist - http://www.kplaylist.net/ This is a PHP-based solution which allows you to add individual files to your playlist via your web browser then play it. KPlaylist requires a database backend. Thanks ------ I'm indebted towards many people who sent me bugfixes, corrections, interesting questions and suggestions. It is with their help that this software is what it is today, and I can't thank them highly enough. Any remaining bugs are of course entirely my fault. Comments / Suggestions / Patches? --------------------------------- I optimistically welcome comments, feedback, suggestions, updated documentation and contributed themes/logos. If you really like the software consider purchasing something from the wishlist you'll find displayed at http://www.gnump3d.org/ Steve ---