.\" $OpenBSD: sndio.7,v 1.10 2012/05/23 19:25:11 ratchov Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2007 Alexandre Ratchov .\" .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies. .\" .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: May 23 2012 $ .Dt SNDIO 7 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm sndio .Nd interface to audio and MIDI .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm sndio audio and MIDI system provides access to audio and MIDI hardware and to services provided by .Xr sndiod 1 , summarized below. .Pp Hardware .Xr audio 4 devices correspond to peripherals. Only one application may use any device at a given time. Generally a limited number of encodings, sample rates and channel numbers are supported by the hardware, which may not meet the requirements of audio programs. .Pp To overcome hardware limitations and to allow multiple applications to share the hardware, .Xr sndiod 1 can be used. It exposes one or more software subdevices backed by the underlying hardware, while doing all necessary conversions on the fly. It can mix multiple streams or split the hardware into multiple subdevices, to allow programs to use the hardware concurently. .Pp Hardware MIDI ports correspond to serial connectors provided by the .Xr midi 4 driver. They are typically used to access MIDI hardware (synthesizers, keyboards, control surfaces, etc.), but they do not allow applications to exchange information using the MIDI protocol. .Pp Software MIDI thru boxes allow one application to send MIDI data to other applications connected to the thru box (for instance a software sequencer can send events to multiple software synthesizers). There's no hardware involved: thru boxes are created by .Xr sndiod 1 . .Pp Additionally, .Xr sndiod 1 exposes a MIDI port used to control and monitor audio streams in real time using MIDI. .Sh DEVICE NAMES From the user's perspective every audio interface, MIDI port, and .Xr sndiod 1 service has a name of the form: .Bd -literal -offset center type[@hostname][,unit]/devnum[.option] .Ed .Pp This information is used by audio and MIDI applications to determine how to access the audio device or MIDI port. .Bl -tag -width "hostname" .It Pa type The type of the audio device or MIDI port. Possible values are: .Pp .Bl -tag -width "midithru" -offset 3n -compact .It Pa rsnd Raw .Xr audio 4 device. .It Pa rmidi Raw .Xr midi 4 port. .It Pa snd Audio device exposed by .Xr sndiod 1 . .It Pa midithru MIDI thru box created with .Xr sndiod 1 . .It Pa default Any audio device or MIDI port. .El .It Pa hostname The hostname or address where the remote .Xr sndiod 1 server to connect to is running. .It Pa unit The number of the .Xr sndiod 1 server to connect to, corresponding to the integer specified using the .Fl U option of .Xr sndiod 1 . Useful only if multiple .Xr sndiod 1 servers are running on the same system. .It Pa devnum Device number. For hardware audio or MIDI ports, this corresponds to the character device minor number. For audio devices or MIDI ports created with .Xr sndiod 1 it corresponds to the number of the corresponding .Fl fM option on the command line. .It Pa option Corresponds to the sub-device string registered using the .Fl s option of .Xr sndiod 1 . .El .Pp For example: .Pp .Bl -tag -width "snd/0.rear" -offset 3n -compact .It Pa rsnd/0 First hardware audio device. .It Pa rmidi/5 Hardware MIDI port number 5. .It Pa snd/0 First audio device exposed by .Xr sndiod 1 . .It Pa snd/0.rear Sub-device registered with .Fl s Fa rear . .It Pa midithru/0 First MIDI thru box created with .Xr sndiod 1 . .El .Sh AUTHENTICATION If a shared .Xr sndiod 1 server is running, for privacy reasons only one user may have connections to it at a given time (though the same user could have multiple connections to it). Users are identified by their .Em session cookie , which is automatically generated by audio or MIDI applications upon the first connection to the server. The cookie is stored in .Pa "$HOME/.aucat_cookie" and contains 128 bits of raw random data. .Pp If a session needs to be shared between multiple users, they can connect to the server using the same cookie. .Sh ENVIRONMENT .Bl -tag -width "AUDIODEVICEXXX" -compact .It AUCAT_COOKIE Path to file containing the session cookie to be used when connecting to .Xr sndiod 1 . .It Ev AUDIODEVICE Audio device to use if the application provides no device chooser. .It Ev MIDIDEVICE MIDI port to use if the application provides no MIDI port chooser. .El .Pp Environment variables are ignored by programs with the set-user-ID or set-group-ID bits set. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width "/dev/audioNXXX" -compact .It Pa /dev/audioN Audio devices. .It Pa /dev/rmidiN MIDI ports. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr sndiod 1 , .Xr mio_open 3 , .Xr sio_open 3 , .Xr audio 4 , .Xr midi 4