further horrid memory debugging stuff

[disorder] / README.raw

* DisOrder Raw Format Players

** Purpose

The purpose of raw format players is:

   * Support pausing of playing tracks, with the audio device closed when not
     in active use.

   * Eliminate the inter-track gap.

   * Perhaps in the future support network play.

** Usage

To use raw format, use the execraw module and make the command choose the
"disorder" libao driver.

You should pass the "fragile" option to ogg123.  This is because ogg123 ignores
write errors!

mpg321 does not appear to have this bug.

For _non_ raw players it is advisable to use the new --wait-for-device option.
This repeatedly tries to open the audio device before starting the player
proper.  It times out after a couple of seconds.

See disorder_config(5) and the example configuration file for further
information and examples.

** Low-Level Details

Raw format players are started slightly differently to normal ones.  Before
they are executed a pipe is created and one end passed to a special speaker
process, which is spawned by the main server at startup.  The file descriptor
of the player's end is identified by $DISORDER_RAW_FD.

The expected data format is a ao_sample_format structure followed by the raw
sample data.  However, this may be changed without notice in future versions of
DisOrder.  If you need a stable interface here for some reason then get in
touch.

Raw format players may be started before the track is to be played, and (if the
track is then removed from the queue before it reaches the head) terminated
before the track ever reaches a physical speaker.  The point of this is to
allow audio data to be ready to play the moment the previous track end, without
having to wait for the player to start up.  There is no way for a player to
tell that this is going on.

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