Execute on song change

Rmpc provides on_song_change property in the config file which can be used to run a command whenever the song changes. This can be used for various purposes like showing a desktop notification.

Desktop notification on song change

Assuming you have a notification daemon with support for images like dunst running. All song metadata are available to the script as environment variables. For example $TITLE, $FILE, $DURATION, etc.

1. Create a script and place it somewhere. For example ~/.config/rmpc/notify. Below is an example of such script. Edit it to your needs or create a new one.

   ~/.config/rmpc/notify

   #!/usr/bin/env sh
   
   # Directory where to store temporary data
   TMP_DIR="/tmp/rmpc"
   
   # Ensure the directory is created
   mkdir -p "$TMP_DIR"
   
   # Where to temporarily store the album art received from rmpc
   ALBUM_ART_PATH="$TMP_DIR/notification_cover"
   
   # Path to fallback album art if no album art is found by rmpc/mpd
   # Change this to your needs
   DEFAULT_ALBUM_ART_PATH="$TMP_DIR/default_album_art.jpg"
   
   # Save album art of the currently playing song to a file
   if ! rmpc albumart --output "$ALBUM_ART_PATH"; then
       # Use default album art if rmpc returns non-zero exit code
       ALBUM_ART_PATH="${DEFAULT_ALBUM_ART_PATH}"
   fi
   
   # Send the notification
   notify-send -i "${ALBUM_ART_PATH}" "Now Playing" "$ARTIST - $TITLE"

2. Make the script executable

   chmod +x ~/.config/rmpc/notify

3. In your rmpc’s config.ron specify on_song_change property and point it at location of the script from step 1.

   config.ron

   #![enable(implicit_some)]
   #![enable(unwrap_newtypes)]
   #![enable(unwrap_variant_newtypes)]
   (
       address: "/tmp/mpd_socket",
       on_song_change: ["~/.config/rmpc/notify"],
   ...

4. Restart rmpc