From e0f0f6fe26b7f8d941a20f2c86564b83e5fb52cb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Alessandro Ghedini <alessandro@ghedini.me>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 22:35:37 +0200
Subject: manpage: add JSON IPC documentation

---
 DOCS/man/ipc.rst | 140 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 140 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 DOCS/man/ipc.rst

(limited to 'DOCS/man/ipc.rst')

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+JSON IPC
+========
+
+mpv can be controlled by external programs using the JSON-based IPC protocol. It
+can be enabled by specifying the path to a unix socket using the option
+``--input-unix-socket``. Clients can connect to this socket and send commands to
+the player or receive events from it.
+
+Protocol
+--------
+
+Clients can execute commands on the player by sending JSON messages of the
+following form:
+
+::
+
+    { "command": ["command_name", "param1", "param2", ...] }
+
+where ``command_name`` is the name of the command to be executed, followed by a
+list of parameters. Parameters must be formatted as native JSON values
+(integers, strings, booleans, ...). Every message **must** be terminated with
+``\n``. Additionally, ``\n`` must not appear anywhere inside the message. In
+practice this means that messages should be minified before being sent to mpv.
+
+mpv will then send back a reply indicating whether the command was run
+correctly, and an additional field holding the command-specific return data (it
+can also be null).
+
+::
+
+    { "error": "success", "data": null }
+
+mpv will also send events to clients with JSON messages of the following form:
+
+::
+
+    { "event": "event_name" }
+
+where ``event_name`` is the name of the event. Additional event-specific fields
+can also be present. See `List of events`_ for a list of all supported events.
+
+Commands
+--------
+
+Additionally to  the commands described in `List of Input Commands`_, a few
+extra commands can also be used as part of the protocol:
+
+``client_name``
+    Return the name of the client as string. This is the string ``ipc-N`` with
+    N being an integer number.
+
+``get_time_us``
+    Return the current mpv internal time in microseconds as a number. This is
+    basically the system time, with an arbitrary offset.
+
+``get_property``
+    Return the value of the given property. The value will be sent in the data
+    field of the replay message.
+
+    Example:
+
+    ::
+
+        { "command": ["get_property", "volume"] }
+        { "data": 50.0, "error": "success" }
+
+``get_property_string``
+    Like ``get_property``, but the resulting data will always be a string.
+
+    Example:
+
+    ::
+
+        { "command": ["get_property_string", "volume"] }
+        { "data": "50.000000", "error": "success" }
+
+``set_property``
+    Set the given property to the given value. See `Properties`_ for more
+    information about properties.
+
+    Example:
+
+    ::
+
+        { "command": ["set_property", "pause", true] }
+        { "error": "success" }
+
+``set_property_string``
+    Like ``set_property``, but the argument value must be passed as string.
+
+    Example:
+
+    ::
+
+        { "command": ["set_property_string", "pause", "yes"] }
+        { "error": "success" }
+
+``observe_property``
+    Watch a property for changes. If the given property is changed, then an
+    event of type ``property-change`` will be generated
+
+    Example:
+
+    ::
+
+        { "command": ["observe_property", 1, "volume"] }
+        { "error": "success" }
+        { "event": "property-change", "id": 1, "data": 52.0, "name": "volume" }
+
+``observe_property_string``
+    Like ``observe_property``, but the resulting data will always be a string.
+
+    Example:
+
+    ::
+
+        { "command": ["observe_property", 1, "volume"] }
+        { "error": "success" }
+        { "event": "property-change", "id": 1, "data": "52.000000", "name": "volume" }
+
+``unobserve_property``
+    Undo ``observe_property`` or ``observe_property_string``. This requires the
+    numeric id passed to the observe command as argument.
+
+    Example:
+
+    ::
+
+        { "command": ["unobserve_property", 1] }
+        { "error": "success" }
+
+``suspend``
+    Suspend the mpv main loop. There is a long-winded explanation of this in
+    the C API function ``mpv_suspend()``. In short, this prevents the player
+    from displaying the next video frame, so that you don't get blocked when
+    trying to access the player.
+
+``resume``
+    Undo one ``suspend`` call. ``suspend`` increments an internal counter, and
+    ``resume`` decrements it. When 0 is reached, the player is actually resumed.
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