.\" $OpenBSD: midicat.1,v 1.17 2011/06/20 20:18:44 ratchov Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 2006 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: June 20 2011 $ .Dt MIDICAT 1 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm midicat .Nd MIDI server and manipulation tool .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm midicat .Op Fl dl .Op Fl a Ar flag .Op Fl i Ar file .Op Fl L Ar addr .Op Fl o Ar file .Op Fl q Ar port .Op Fl s Ar name .Op Fl U Ar unit .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility can merge any number of MIDI inputs and broadcast the result to any number of MIDI outputs, similarly to a hardware MIDI thru box. MIDI streams are typically MIDI ports or plain files containing raw MIDI data. .Pp The .Nm utility can also act as a MIDI server in which case MIDI streams correspond to client connections. The server capability allows any MIDI-capable application to send MIDI messages to MIDI hardware or to another application in a uniform way. .Pp The options are as follows: .Bl -tag -width Ds .It Fl a Ar flag Control whether .Nm opens MIDI ports connected to the thru box only when needed or keeps them open all the time. If the flag is .Va on then MIDI ports are kept open all the time, ensuring no other program can steal any of them. If the flag is .Va off , then they are automatically closed, allowing other programs to have direct access to MIDI ports, or the corresponding hardware to be disconnected. The default is .Va on . .It Fl d Increase log verbosity. .Nm logs on .Em stderr until it daemonizes. .It Fl i Ar file Read data to send from this file. If the option argument is .Sq - then standard input will be used. .It Fl L Ar addr Specify a local network address to listen on in server mode. .Nm will listen on TCP port 11041+n, where n is the unit number specified with .Fl U . Without this option, .Nm listens on the .Ux Ns -domain socket only, and is not reachable from any network. If the option argument is .Sq - then .Nm will accept connections from any address. .It Fl l Detach and become a daemon. .It Fl o Ar file Write received data into this file. If the option argument is .Sq - then standard output will be used. .It Fl q Ar port Send and receive data from this .Xr sndio 7 MIDI port. .It Fl s Ar name Expose a MIDI thru box to which MIDI programs can connect. Preceding streams .Pq Fl ioq are subscribed to this thru box. The given .Ar name corresponds to the .Dq option part of the .Xr sndio 7 device name string. .It Fl U Ar unit Unit number to use when running in server mode. Each .Nm server instance has a unique unit number, used in .Xr sndio 7 device names. The default is 0. .El .Pp If files .Pq Fl io are specified but no ports .Pq Fl q are specified, the default .Xr sndio 7 port is used. If no streams .Pq Fl ioq are specified, server mode is assumed and a thru box is created as if .Fl s Ar default was used as the last argument. .Pp Generally MIDI applications are real-time. To reduce jitter, especially on busy machines, the server can be started by the super-user, in which case it will run with higher priority. Any user will still be able to connect to it, but for privacy reasons only one user may have connections to it at a given time. .Pp If .Nm is sent .Dv SIGHUP , .Dv SIGINT or .Dv SIGTERM , then processing terminates. .Sh EXAMPLES The following dumps MIDI data received from the default port: .Bd -literal -offset indent $ midicat -o - | hexdump -e '1/1 "%x"' .Ed .Pp The following sends raw MIDI data to the .Pa rmidi:5 port: .Bd -literal -offset indent $ midicat -i sysexfile -q rmidi:5 .Ed .Pp The following connects .Pa rmidi:5 and .Pa rmidi:6 ports: .Bd -literal -offset indent $ midicat -q rmidi:5 -q rmidi:6 .Ed .Pp The following creates a MIDI thru box and daemonizes, allowing MIDI programs to send data to each other instead of using hardware MIDI ports: .Bd -literal -offset indent $ midicat -l .Ed .Pp The following creates a MIDI thru box and subscribes the .Pa rmidi:5 port, allowing multiple MIDI programs to use the port simultaneously: .Bd -literal -offset indent $ midicat -q rmidi:5 -s default .Ed .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr aucat 1 , .Xr midi 4 , .Xr sndio 7 .Sh BUGS The ability to merge multiple inputs is provided to allow multiple applications producing MIDI data to keep their connection open while idling; it does not replace a fully featured MIDI merger.