xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/speaker.4 (revision e89934bbf778a6d6d6894877c4da59d0c7835b0f)
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3.\" Copyright (c) 2016 Nathanial Sloss <nathanialsloss@yahoo.com.au>
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6.\" Copyright (c) 1993 Christopher G. Demetriou
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36.\" <<Id: LICENSE,v 1.2 2000/06/14 15:57:33 cgd Exp>>
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38.Dd November 23, 2016
39.Dt SPEAKER 4
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm speaker
43.Nd console speaker audio device driver
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Cd "options	PCPPISPEAKER"
46.Cd "spkr0	at pcppi?"
47.Pp
48.Cd "options	VAUDIOSPEAKER"
49.Cd "spkr0	at audio?"
50.Pp
51.In machine/spkr.h
52.Pa /dev/speaker
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54The speaker device driver allows applications to control the console
55speaker on machines with a PC-like 8253 timer implementation or a synthesized
56speaker from an audio device/soundcard.
57.Pp
58Only one process may have this device open at any given time; open() and
59close() are used to lock and relinquish it. An attempt to open() when
60another process has the device locked will return -1 with an
61.Er EBUSY
62error indication. Writes to the device are interpreted as 'play strings' in a
63simple ASCII melody notation. An
64.Fn ioctl
65for tone generation at arbitrary frequencies is also supported.
66.Pp
67For the pcppi device sound-generation does
68.Em not
69monopolize the processor; in fact, the driver
70spends most of its time sleeping while the PC hardware is emitting
71tones. Other processes may emit beeps while the driver is running.
72.Pp
73For the audio device speaker, the speaker uses one of the virtual audio
74channels.
75Enabling this device will also provide a keyboard bell.
76The audio device used for synthesized beeps can be controlled by the
77.Sq hw.beep.device
78sysctl variable.
79.Pp
80Applications may call
81.Fn ioctl
82on a speaker file descriptor to control the speaker driver directly;
83definitions for the
84.Fn ioctl
85interface are in
86.In machine/spkr.h .
87The tone_t structure used in these calls has two fields,
88specifying a frequency (in hz) and a duration (in 1/100ths of a second).
89A frequency of zero is interpreted as a rest.
90.Pp
91At present there are two such ioctls. SPKRTONE accepts a pointer to a
92single tone structure as third argument and plays it. SPKRTUNE accepts a
93pointer to the first of an array of tone structures and plays them in
94continuous sequence; this array must be terminated by a final member with
95a zero duration.
96.Pp
97The play-string language is modelled on the PLAY statement conventions of
98IBM BASIC 2.0. The MB, MF and X primitives of PLAY are not useful in a UNIX
99environment and are omitted. The `octave-tracking' feature is also new.
100.Pp
101There are 84 accessible notes numbered 1-83 in 7 octaves, each running from
102C to B, numbered 0-6; the scale is equal-tempered A440 and octave 3 starts
103with middle C. By default, the play function emits half-second notes with the
104last 1/16th second being `rest time'.
105.Pp
106Play strings are interpreted left to right as a series of play command groups;
107letter case is ignored. Play command groups are as follows:
108.Pp
109CDEFGAB -- letters A through G cause the corresponding note to be played in the
110current octave. A note letter may optionally be followed by an
111.Em accidental sign ,
112one of # + or -; the first two of these cause it to be sharped one
113half-tone, the last causes it to be flatted one half-tone. It may also be
114followed by a time value number and by sustain dots (see below). Time values
115are interpreted as for the L command below;.
116.Pp
117O \*[Lt]n\*[Gt] -- if \*[Lt]n\*[Gt] is numeric, this sets the current octave. \*[Lt]n\*[Gt] may also be one
118of 'L' or 'N' to enable or disable octave-tracking (it is disabled by default).
119When octave-tracking is on, interpretation of a pair of letter notes will
120change octaves if necessary in order to make the smallest possible jump between
121notes. Thus "olbc" will be played as "olb\*[Gt]c", and "olcb" as "olc\*[Lt]b". Octave
122locking is disabled for one letter note following by \*[Gt], \*[Lt] and O[0123456].
123.Pp
124\*[Gt] -- bump the current octave up one.
125.Pp
126\*[Lt] -- drop the current octave down one.
127.Pp
128N \*[Lt]n\*[Gt] -- play note n, n being 1 to 84 or 0 for a rest of current time value.
129May be followed by sustain dots.
130.Pp
131L \*[Lt]n\*[Gt] -- sets the current time value for notes. The default is L4, quarter
132notes. The lowest possible value is 1; values up to 64 are accepted. L1 sets
133whole notes, L2 sets half notes, L4 sets quarter notes, etc..
134.Pp
135P \*[Lt]n\*[Gt] -- pause (rest), with \*[Lt]n\*[Gt] interpreted as for L. May be followed by
136sustain dots. May also be written '~'.
137.Pp
138T \*[Lt]n\*[Gt] -- Sets the number of quarter notes per minute; default is 120. Musical
139names for common tempi are:
140.Bl -column Description Prestissimo "Beats per Minute" -offset indent
141.It Ta Sy Tempo Ta Sy "Beats per Minute"
142.It very slow Ta Larghissimo Ta ""
143.It           Ta Largo Ta 40-60
144.It           Ta Larghetto Ta 60-66
145.It           Ta Grave Ta ""
146.It           Ta Lento Ta ""
147.It           Ta Adagio Ta 66-76
148.It slow Ta Adagietto Ta ""
149.It      Ta Andante Ta 76-108
150.It medium Ta Andantino Ta ""
151.It        Ta Moderato Ta 108-120
152.It fast Ta Allegretto Ta ""
153.It      Ta Allegro Ta 120-168
154.It      Ta Vivace Ta ""
155.It      Ta Veloce Ta ""
156.It      Ta Presto Ta 168-208
157.It very fast Ta Prestissimo Ta ""
158.El
159.Pp
160M[LNS] -- set articulation. MN (N for normal) is the default; the last 1/8th of
161the note's value is rest time. You can set ML for legato (no rest space) or
162MS (staccato) 1/4 rest space.
163.Pp
164Notes (that is, CDEFGAB or N command character groups) may be followed by
165sustain dots. Each dot causes the note's value to be lengthened by one-half
166for each one. Thus, a note dotted once is held for 3/2 of its undotted value;
167dotted twice, it is held 9/4, and three times would give 27/8.
168.Pp
169Whitespace in play strings is simply skipped and may be used to separate
170melody sections.
171.Sh FILES
172.Bl -tag -width Pa -compact
173.It Pa /dev/speaker
174.El
175.Sh SEE ALSO
176.Xr pcppi 4
177.Xr sysctl 8
178.Sh HISTORY
179This
180.Nm
181device was originally for the pcppi PC timer interface.
182Support was added for a synthesized device by Nathanial Sloss, first appearing
183in
184.Nx 8.0
185.Sh AUTHORS
186.An Eric S. Raymond Aq Mt esr@snark.thyrsus.com
187.Sh BUGS
188Due to roundoff in the pitch tables and slop in the tone-generation and timer
189hardware (neither of which was designed for precision), neither pitch accuracy
190nor timings will be mathematically exact.
191.Pp
192There is no volume control.
193.Pp
194In play strings which are very long (longer than your system's physical I/O
195blocks) note suffixes or numbers may occasionally be parsed incorrectly due
196to crossing a block boundary.
197