media_control

Simple mpris-based media control utility, similar to playerctl, but with less features.

This tool has the ability to remember the last used player. Every time this tool is used, the same player will be affected. The selected player can be changed with the next_player or previous_player commands. This change will be remembered the next time this program is run.

Usage

media_control <command>

Available commands

• play
• pause
• playpause or play-pause
• next: next song/video in the playlist.
• previous: previous song/video in the playlist.
• next_player, previous_player: cycle through the active media players.

Example i3 configuration

The tool can be used in the following way in i3wm:

bindsym XF86AudioPlay exec media_control play-pause
bindsym XF86AudioPause exec media_control pause
bindsym XF86AudioNext exec media_control next
bindsym XF86AudioPrev exec media_control previous

# Use Ctrl+Media Next/Prev keys to cycle through players.
bindsym Ctrl+XF86AudioNext exec media_control next_player
bindsym Ctrl+XF86AudioPrev exec media_control previous_player

Differences to playerctl

• Remembers last used media player.
• Allows easy cycling through players.
• Misses some of the more advanced interaction that I never use.
• Shows a notification.

References

• playerctl