.\" $OpenBSD: sndio.7,v 1.1 2009/07/25 09:55:12 ratchov Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2007 Alexandre Ratchov <alex@caoua.org>
.\"
.\" 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: July 25 2009 $
.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 aucat 1
and
.Xr midicat 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 aucat 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 midicat 1 .
.Sh DEVICE NAMES
From the user's perspective every audio interface, MIDI port,
.Xr aucat 1
or
.Xr midicat 1
service has a name of the form:
.Bd -literal -offset center
type:unit[.option]
.Ed
.Pp
This information is used by audio and MIDI applications to determine
how to access the audio or MIDI device or service.
.Bl -tag -width "option"
.It Pa type
The type of the audio or MIDI device.
Possible values for audio devices are
.Pa aucat
and
.Pa sun ,
corresponding to
.Xr aucat 1
sockets and hardware
.Xr audio 4
devices.
Possible values for MIDI devices are
.Pa midithru
and
.Pa rmidi ,
corresponding to
.Xr midicat 1
software MIDI thru boxes and hardware
.Xr midi 4
ports respectively.
.It Pa unit
For hardware audio or MIDI devices, this corresponds to
the character device minor number.
For audio or MIDI devices created with
.Xr aucat 1
or
.Xr midicat 1
it corresponds to the server
.Em unit
number, typically 0.
.It Pa option
Corresponds to the profile string registered using the
.Fl s
option of
.Xr aucat 1 .
Only meaningful for
.Pa aucat
device types.
.El
.Pp
For example:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width "aucat:0.rear" -offset 3n -compact
.It Pa sun:0
First hardware audio device.
.It Pa aucat:0
Default device of the first
.Xr aucat 1
audio server.
.It Pa aucat:0.rear
First
.Xr aucat 1
server;
device registered with
.Fl s Fa rear .
.It Pa rmidi:5
Hardware MIDI port number 5.
.It Pa midithru:0
First software MIDI thru box created with
.Xr aucat 1 .
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width "AUDIODEVICEXXX" -compact
.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 "/tmp/aucat-xxx/softaudioNXXX" -compact
.It Pa /dev/audioN
Audio devices.
.It Pa /dev/rmidiN
MIDI ports.
.It Pa /tmp/aucat-xxx/softaudioN
Audio devices provided by
.Xr aucat 1 .
.It Pa /tmp/aucat-xxx/midithruN
MIDI thru boxes provided by
.Xr midicat 1 .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr aucat 1 ,
.Xr midicat 1 ,
.Xr mio_open 3 ,
.Xr sio_open 3 ,
.Xr audio 4 ,
.Xr midi 4