aplay(1)

NAME
aplay - An AF play client.

SYNOPSIS
aplay [-server audioserver] [-d device] [-t time] [-g gain] [-e encoding] [-f ] [-c] [-b] [-l] [file]

DESCRIPTION
aplay reads samples from file, or stdin if file is not specified, and sends the sound data to the audio server for playback. The file is assumed to be of a sample format appropriate for the playback device.

OPTIONS

-server audioserver

    Specifies which audio server to connect to in order to play the sound file. If audioserver is not specified, aplay uses the default server. See the AUDIOFILE environment variable.

-d device

    Specifies which audio device to play the sound file through. If device is not specified, aplay defaults to the first device that isn't connected to the telephone.

-t time

    time can be used to adjust the audio device time at which the the aplay client begins to play the sound data. A positive value of time will begin playing time seconds in the future. If time is negative, time seconds of sound data will be "thrown away". The default is 0.1 seconds.

-e ncoding

    encoding will specify the type of the data being read from the file or standard input. Legal values are described in the audio.h header file, and may be obtained via aplay -e xxx. The -e flag simply informs the AF server of the datatype.Some encodings may fail if they are not supported by the AF server. See also aconvert(1).

-g gain

    A gain in dB can be used to attenuate or amplify the sound data prior to mixing in the audio server.

-f

    The -f switch turns on flush mode, which forces aplay to wait until the last sound has been played before exiting.

-c

    The -c switch instructs aplay to play to the canonical sound bytes shipped with the AF kit. This switch depends on the SOUND_PATH environment variable.

-b

    Specifies that for 16 bit data, the bytes are in "Big Endian" byte order (e.g. Sparc, RIOS, PA).

-l

    Specifies that for 16 bit data, the bytes are in "Little Endian" byte order (e.g. Alpha, Intel x86, VAX).

file

    aplay attempts to read from file in the current working directory or from one of the directories in the SOUND_PATH environment variable if it is set.

ENVIRONMENT

AUDIOFILE
    specifies the host and server to use.

SOUND_PATH
    specifies a colon-separated list of directories in which sounds may be found.

BUGS
There is no way to play back a file in preempt mode.

If you encounter a reproducible bug, please submit a problem report to (af-bugs@crl.dec.com).

SEE ALSO
AF(1), arecord(1)

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 1992-1994, Digital Equipment Corporation.
See AF(1) for a full statement of rights and permissions.

AUTHORS
Digital Cambridge Research Lab