# Using the client library

The client library can be used as follows:

    client = musicpd.MPDClient()       # create client object
    client.connect()                   # use MPD_HOST/MPD_PORT if set else
                                       #   test ${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}/mpd/socket for existence
                                       #   fallback to localhost:6600
                                       # connect support host/port argument as well
    print(client.mpd_version)          # print the mpd protocol version
    print(client.cmd('one', 2))        # print result of the command "cmd one 2"
    client.disconnect()                # disconnect from the server

For a list of supported commands, their arguments (as MPD currently understands them), and the functions used to parse their responses see Available commands.

See the MPD protocol documentation for more details.

Command lists are also supported using command_list_ok_begin() and command_list_end() :

    client.command_list_ok_begin()       # start a command list
    client.update()                      # insert the update command into the list
    client.status()                      # insert the status command into the list
    results = client.command_list_end()  # results will be a list with the results

Provide a 2-tuple as argument for command supporting ranges (cf. MPD protocol documentation for more details). Possible ranges are: “START:END”, “START:” and “:” :

    # An intelligent clear
    # clears played track in the queue, currentsong included
    pos = client.currentsong().get('pos', 0)
    # the 2-tuple range object accepts str, no need to convert to int
    client.delete((0, pos))
    # missing end interpreted as highest value possible, pay attention still need a tuple.
    client.delete((pos,))  # purge queue from current to the end

A notable case is the rangeid command allowing an empty range specified as a single colon as argument (i.e. sending just “:”):

    # sending "rangeid :" to clear the range, play everything
    client.rangeid(())  # send an empty tuple

Empty start in range (i.e. “:END”) are not possible and will raise a CommandError.

Commands may also return iterators instead of lists if iterate is set to True:

    client.iterate = True
    for song in client.playlistinfo():
        print song['file']

Each command have a send_<CMD> and a fetch_<CMD> variant, which allows to send a MPD command and then fetch the result later. This is useful for the idle command:

    >>> client.send_idle()
    # do something else or use function like select()
    # http://docs.python.org/howto/sockets.html#non-blocking-sockets
    # ex. select([client], [], [])
    >>> events = client.fetch_idle()

    # more complex use for example, with glib/gobject:
    >>> def callback(source, condition):
    >>>    changes = client.fetch_idle()
    >>>    print changes
    >>>    return False  # removes the IO watcher

    >>> client.send_idle()
    >>> gobject.io_add_watch(client, gobject.IO_IN, callback)
    >>> gobject.MainLoop().run()