Provided by: ncmpc_0.52-1_amd64 
NAME
ncmpc - ncmpc Documentation
DESCRIPTION
ncmpc is a command-line client for the Music Player Daemon (MPD).
By default, ncmpc connects to the local MPD instance. A different MPD instance can be selected using the
command line options --host and --port, or by setting the environment variables MPD_HOST and MPD_PORT:
ncmpc --host=musicserver --port=44000
You can connect to a "local" socket by setting the host to a file path (e.g. "/run/mpd/socket").
Abstract sockets can be used with a "@" prefix (e.g. "@mpd").
To use a password with MPD, set MPD_HOST to password@host or use the command line option --password.
Values from the command line override values from the environment.
SYNOPSIS
ncmpc [options]
OPTIONS
-?, --help
Display help.
-V, --version
Display version information and build-time configuration.
-c, --colors
Enable colors.
-C, --no-colors
Disable colors.
-m, --mouse
Enable mouse.
--host=HOST
The MPD host to connect to.
--port=PORT, -p PORT
The port to connect to.
-P, --password=PASSWORD
Use password when connecting.
-f, --config=FILE
Read configuration from file.
-k, --key-file=FILE
Read key bindings from file.
CONFIGURATION
When ncmpc starts it tries to read the user's configuration file, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ncmpc/config (usually
~/.config/ncmpc/config). If no user configuration file is found then ncmpc tries to load the global
settings from $SYSCONFDIR/ncmpc/config (the actual path is displayed in the output of the --version
option). An example configuration file (config.sample) is shipped with ncmpc.
Connection
host = HOST - The MPD host to connect to.
port = PORT - The port to connect to.
password = PASSWORD - Use password when connecting.
timeout = TIMEOUT - Attempt to reconnect to mpd if a response to a command is not received within TIMEOUT
seconds. Specifying a value in the configuration file overrides the "MPD_TIMEOUT" environment variable.
If no timeout is specified in the configuration file or in the environment, the default is 5 seconds.
Interface
show-title-bar = yes|no - "no" allows hiding the title bar.
show-server-address = yes|no - "yes" shows the server address in the title bar. This is disabled by
default because most people use only one MPD instance.
enable-mouse = yes|no - Enable mouse support (if enabled at compile time).
screen-list = SCREEN1 SCREEN2... - A list of screens to cycle through when using the commands screen-next
(bound to "Tab" by default) and screen-prev ("Shift+Tab"). Valid choices, if enabled at compile time,
are:
help, playlist, browse, library, search, lyrics, outputs, chat, song, keydef
The default is playlist browser, i.e. the "Tab" key cycles only between those two pages.
library-page-tags = TAG1 TAG2 ... - A list of tags to group the library page. The default is artist
album.
search-mode = MODE - Default search mode for the search screen. MODE must be one of title, artist, album,
filename, and artist+title, or an integer index (0 for title, 1 for artist etc.).
auto-center = yes|no - Enable/disable auto center mode. When auto center mode is enabled ncmpc centers
the current track in the playlist window.
scroll-offset = NUM - Keep at least NUM lines above and below the cursor on list windows, if possible.
find-show-last = yes|no - Show the most recent query instead of a blank line for a find.
find-wrap = yes|no - Wrapped find mode.
wrap-around = yes|no - Wrapped cursor movement.
bell-on-wrap = yes|no - Ring bell when find wraps around.
audible-bell = yes|no - Sound audible bell on alerts.
visible-bell = yes|no - Visible bell on alerts.
crossfade-time = CROSSFADE TIME - Default crossfade time in seconds.
seek-time = NUM - Seek forward/backward by NUM seconds.
lyrics-timeout = NUM - Quits downloading lyrics of a song after the timeout of NUM seconds is reached, if
NUM is greater than zero.
jump-prefix-only = yes|no - When using the jump command, search for the prefix of an entry. That means
typing "m" will start to the first entry which begins with "m".
lyrics-autosave = yes|no - Automatically save lyrics after receiving them.
lyrics-show-plugin = yes|no - Show the name of the plugin used to receive lyrics on the lyrics screen.
text-editor = EDITOR - The text editor used for editing lyrics.
chat-prefix = PREFIX - Prefix messages send with the chat screen with PREFIX. By default they are
prefixed with the current user name enclosed by < and > and a space (i.e. "<name> ").
second-column = yes|no - Display song length in a second column.
Display
welcome-screen-list = yes|no - Show a list of the screens in the top line.
wide-cursor = yes|no - Make the cursor as wide as the screen.
hardware-cursor = yes|no - Use the terminal's hardware cursor instead of inverse colors.
hide-cursor = NUM - Hide the playlist cursor after NUM seconds of inactivity.
scroll = yes|no - Scroll the title if it is too long for the screen.
scroll-sep = STRING - the separator to show at the end of the scrolling title.
list-format = SONG FORMAT - The format used to display songs in the main window.
search-format = SONG FORMAT - The format used to display songs in the search window. Default is to use
list-format.
status-format = SONG FORMAT - The format used to display songs on the status line.
status-message-time = TIME - The time, in seconds, for which status messages will be displayed.
display-time = yes|no - Display the time in the status bar when idle.
timedisplay-type = elapsed|remaining|none - Sets whether to display remaining or elapsed time in the
status window. Default is elapsed. none doesn't show the time at all.
visible-bitrate = yes|no - Show the bitrate in the status bar when playing a stream.
set-xterm-title = yes|no - Change the XTerm title (ncmpc will not restore the title).
xterm-title-format = SONG FORMAT - The format used to for the xterm title when ncmpc is playing.
Colors
enable-colors = yes|no - Enable/disable colors. Defaults to yes.
The colors used by ncmpc can be customized. The color directive can be used to change how a certain
style looks. It can contain a text color and attributes. The following standard colors can be specified
by name (official reference):
black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white
Example:
color list = cyan
Modern terminals support up to 256 colors, but they are not standardized. You can select them by
specifying the number. Example:
color title = 42
The background color can be specified after the text color separated by a slash. You can omit the text
color if you want to change only the background color:
color title = white/blue
color title = /blue
The color none uses the terminal's default color.
Attributes can be used to modify the font appearance. The following attributes can be specified (‐
official reference), though many of them are not supported by prevalent terminals:
standout, underline, reverse, blink, dim, bold
Example:
color alert = red blink
color background = COLOR - Set the default background color.
color title = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color and attributes for the title row, which displays
the page names.
color title-bold = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Like title, but refers to emphasized parts of the title row,
i.e. the hot keys for switching to a specific page.
color line = COLOR - Set the color of the line on the second row.
color line-flags = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color used to indicate mpd flags on the second
row.
color list = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color in the main area of ncmpc.
color list-bold = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the bold text color in the main area of ncmpc.
color browser-directory = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color used to display directories in the
browser window.
color browser-playlist = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color used to display playlists in the
browser window.
color progressbar = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the color of the progress indicator.
color progressbar-background = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the color of the progress indicator background.
color status-state = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color used to display mpd status in the status
window.
color status-song = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color used to display song names in the status
window.
color status-time = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color used to display time the status window.
color alert = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color used to display alerts in the status window.
color input = COLOR[,ATTRIBUTE]... - Set the text color of text input controls.
colordef COLOR = R, G, B - Redefine any of the base colors. The RGB values must be integer values between
0 and 1000. Note: Only some terminals allow redefinitions of colors!
KEYS
When ncmpc starts it tries to read user-defined key bindings from the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ncmpc/keys
(usually ~/.config/ncmpc/keys) file. If no user-defined key bindings are found then ncmpc tries to load
the global key bindings from $SYSCONFDIR/ncmpc/keys (the actual path is displayed on the help screen).
You can view ncmpc's key bindings by pressing '1' (help) when ncmpc is running. To edit key bindings
press 'K' and use the key editor in ncmpc.
SONG FORMAT
Format of song display for status and the list window. The metadata delimiters are: %artist%,
%albumartist%, %composer%, %performer%, %title%, %album%, %shortalbum%, %track%, %disc, %genre%, %name%,
%time%, %date%, %file%, %shortfile%.
The [] operators are used to group output such that if none of the metadata delimiters between [ and ]
are matched, then none of the characters between [ and ] are output; literal text is always output. &
and | are logical operators for and and or. # is used to escape characters.
Some useful examples for format are:
"%file%"
and:
"[[%artist% - ]%title%]|%file%"
Another one is:
"[%artist%|(artist n/a)] - [%title%|(title n/a)]"
TABLES
As an experimental feature, the queue can be displayed as a table. Beware, this feature is really
experimental, and future versions may do incompatible changes.
To configure this, add columns to the configuration file, e.g.:
song-table-column = "Artist" "%artist%|%name%|%file%" min=20 fraction=2
song-table-column = "Title" "%title%" min=20 fraction=2
song-table-column = "Album" "%album%" min=10 fraction=1
song-table-column = "Time" "%time%" min=8 fraction=0
Each column has a caption, a format string specifying what is being displayed, a minimum width (in
terminal cells) and a fraction specifying how much of excess width will be assigned to this column.
In the above example, the "Time" column will have a fixed width of 8 because fraction=0.
CHAT PROTOCOL
If ncmpc has been compiled with "chat" support, it uses the client-to-client protocol available in MPD
0.17 or higher to communicate with other clients. In order to receive messages it subscribes to the
channel with the name "chat", and displays any message sent there as-is. When the user enters a message,
it is first with the prefix specified by the chat-prefix option (or the default prefix), and then sent to
the "chat" channel for others to read.
BUGS
Report bugs on https://github.com/MusicPlayerDaemon/ncmpc/issues
Note ---
Since MPD uses UTF-8, ncmpc needs to convert characters to the charset used by the local system. If you
get character conversion errors when your running ncmpc you probably need to set up your locale. This is
done by setting any of the LC_CTYPE, LANG or LC_ALL environment variables (LC_CTYPE only affects
character handling).
SEE ALSO
mpd(1), mpc(1), locale(5), locale(7)
AUTHOR
Max Kellermann
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2004-2021 The Music Player Daemon Project
0.52 Feb 20, 2025 NCMPC(1)