MPC Bar

A Mac menu bar client for the Music Player Daemon.

Installation

If you have Homebrew, you can simply run these commands to install and launch MPC Bar:

brew install spnw/formulae/mpc-bar
brew services start spnw/formulae/mpc-bar

Configuration

MPC Bar is configured with a ~/.mpc-bar.ini file. Below are the default options. Note that format works just like mpc -f; see the mpc(1) man page for more information. Lines that are commented out in the example do not have any default.

[connection]
host = localhost
port = 6600
# password = qwerty123

[display]
format = [%name%: &[[%artist%|%performer%|%composer%|%albumartist%] - ]%title%]|%name%|[[%artist%|%performer%|%composer%|%albumartist%] - ]%title%|%file%
idle_message = No song playing
show_queue = true                       # Show queue/position info while playing? (true/false)
show_queue_idle = (value of show_queue) # Show queue/position info while idle? (true/false)
# lua_filter = ~/.mpc-bar-filter.lua    # Path to a Lua filter script

Lua filter

Sometimes, especially with Internet radio, your MPD status can end up a lot longer than it needs to be. MPC Bar lets you write a filter script in Lua to massage the status into a more manageable form. Here's an example:

local subs =
  {
    {"^Groove Salad: a nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves.", "[Groove Salad]"},
    {"^Drone Zone: Atmospheric ambient space music. Serve Best Chilled. Safe with most medications.", "[Drone Zone]"},
    {" %[SomaFM%]:", ""},
  }

function filter(s)
  for _, sub in ipairs(subs) do
    s = s:gsub(sub[1], sub[2])
  end
  return s
end

MPC Bar expects a global function called filter, which takes the original MPD status and returns a new status to be used instead.

Currently there is no provision for error reporting. If your code has an error, MPC Bar will just use the original status. You might want to test on your own with the standalone lua interpreter.