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play_stdin.sh

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About play_stdin.sh

playstdin.sh is a lightweight set of shell scripts designed to stream audio between two Unix-like machines using standard UNIX pipes and netcat. Ideally suited for low-resource environments such as Raspberry Pi, this tool enables audio transmission without requiring complex backend systems like PulseAudio or JACK. The system operates in a client-server model. The server machine, which requires ncat from the nmap package and ffplay, listens for incoming audio streams and handles playback. The client machine, needing only a standard netcat utility, captures any audio file supported by FFmpeg and pipes it over the network to the server. Users configure both sides by setting appropriate IP addresses and port numbers in the provided scripts. Once the server is active, the client can initiate streaming simply by piping an audio file into the script, such as piping an MP3 file directly to the play command. The software includes built-in controls to pause or stop the stream remotely from the client side, allowing for

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README.md

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play_stdin.sh

Stream audio via UNIX pipes

This simple set of scripts allows streaming audio between two Linux machines, for example, a laptop and a Raspberry Pi. No audio backends such as Pulseaudio or JACK are required, the list of dependencies is very small.

Requirements (server)

  • ncat (from nmap)
  • ffplay

    Requirements (client)

  • netcat (any)

Instructions

Server

Get the script

SSH into your server, and download the scripts via git:

git clone https://github.com/connor-brooks/play_stdin.sh.git

Install dependancies

If you're using a Raspberry Pi:

sudo apt-get install ffplay nmap

Configure (optional)

With the text editor of you choice, edit line 2 of play_stdin_server.sh and change the CONTROLLER_PORT variable to whatever port you want, for example run:

nano play_stdin_server.sh

Change the port number, and save.

Run the server

To start the server, run the following command: ./play_stdin_server.sh &

You can now disconnect from the Raspberry Pi, but before you do, make sure to take note of your servers IP address, buy running the following:

sudo ifconfig

Generally your ip address will be in the format of 192.168.xxx.xxx

Client

Get the script

git clone https://github.com/connor-brooks/play_stdin.sh.git

Configure:

Using the text editor of your choice, edit line 2 and 3 of play_stdin.sh to match the port and IP of your server.

Play some music

cat music.mp3 | ./play_stdin.sh &

Where music.mp3 is the song you'd like to play.

Play and pause

To pause from your client:

./play_stdin.sh TOGGLE

Or to stop the stream:

./play_stdin.sh STOP

Notes

  • You can easily bind the toggle and stop commands using xbindkeys for a more seamless experience
  • It is possible to stream any audio format supported by FFmpeg
  • If you are using netcat-traditional or netcat-openbsd on your server you may run into some issues, it is recommended to use ncat from the nmap package