ncspot
ncspot is a ncurses Spotify client written in Rust using librespot. It is heavily inspired by ncurses MPD clients, such as ncmpc. My motivation was to provide a simple and resource friendly alternative to the official client as well as to support platforms that currently don't have a Spotify client, such as the *BSDs.
Table of Contents
- ncspot
Resource Footprint Comparison
Measured using ps_mem on Linux during playback:
| Client | Private Memory | Shared Memory | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| ncspot | 22.1 MiB | 24.1 MiB | 46.2 MiB |
| Spotify | 407.3 MiB | 592.7 MiB | 1000.0 MiB |
Installation
On macOS
ncspot is available via Homebrew:
brew install ncspot
On Windows
ncspot is available via Scoop:
scoop install ncspot
On Linux
Requirements:
- Rust
- Python 3 (needed for building
rust-xcbdependency) libpulse-dev(orportaudio-dev, if you want to use the PortAudio backend)libncurses-devandlibssl-devlibdbus-1-devlibxcb+ development headers (for clipboard access)pkg-config- A Spotify premium account
On Debian based systems you need following packages for development headers:
sudo apt install libncursesw5-dev libdbus-1-dev libpulse-dev libssl-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev
For Fedora, these dependencies are required:
dnf install pulseaudio-libs-devel libxcb-devel openssl-devel ncurses-devel dbus-devel
Building a Debian Package
You can use cargo-deb create in order to build a Debian package from source. Install it with:
cargo install cargo-deb
Then you can build a Debian package with:
cargo deb
You can find it under target/debian.
Build
Install the latest ncspot release using:
cargo install ncspot
Or build it yourself using:
cargo build --release
# NB: add these flags on Windows
cargo build --release --no-default-features --features rodio_backend,cursive/pancurses-backend
-
Both approaches require a working Rust installation.
-
For debugging, you can pass a debug log filename and log stderr to a file, e.g. :
RUST_BACKTRACE=full cargo run -- -d debug.log 2> stderr.log
Audio Backends
By default ncspot is built using the PulseAudio backend. To make it use the PortAudio backend (e.g. for *BSD or macOS) or Rodio backend (e.g. for Windows), you need to recompile ncspot with the respective features:
# PortAudio (BSD/macOS)
cargo run --no-default-features --features portaudio_backend,cursive/pancurses-backend
# Rodio (Windows)
cargo run --no-default-features --features rodio_backend,cursive/pancurses-backend
Key Bindings
The keybindings listed below are configured by default. Additionally, if you run ncspot with MPRIS support, you may be able to use media keys to control playback depending on your desktop environment settings. Have a look at the configuration section if you want to set custom bindings.
Navigation
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
| ? | Show help screen. |
| F1 | Queue (See specific commands). |
| F2 | Search. |
| F3 | Library (See specific commands). |
| F8 | Album Art (if compiled with the cover feature). |
| / | Open a Vim-like search bar (See specific commands). |
| : | Open a Vim-like command prompt (See specific commands). |
| Escape | Close Vim-like search bar or command prompt. |
| Q | Quit ncspot. |
Playback
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
| Return | Play track or playlist. |
| Space | Queue track or playlist. |
| . | Play the selected item after the currently playing track. |
| P | Move to the currently playing track in the queue. |
| S | Save the currently playing track to your library. |
| D | Remove the currently playing track from your library. |
| Shift+P | Toggle playback (i.e. Play/Pause). |
| Shift+S | Stop playback. |
| Shift+U | Update the library cache (tracks, artists, albums, playlists). |
| < | Play the previous track. |
| > | Play the next track. |
| F | Seek forward. |
| Shift+F | Seek forward with a 10-second step. |
| B | Seek backwards. |
| Shift+B | Seek backwards with a 10-second step. |
| - | Decrease volume by 1. |
| + | Increase volume by 1. |
| [ | Decrease volume by 5. |
| ] | Increase volume by 5. |
| R | Toggle Repeat mode. |
| Z | Toggle Shuffle state. |
Context Menus
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
| O | Open a detail view or context for the selected item. |
| Shift+O | Open a context menu for the currently playing track. |
| A | Open the album view for the selected item. |
| Shift+A | Open the artist view for the selected item. |
| M | Open the recommendations view for the selected item. |
| Shift+M | Open the recommendations view for the currently playing track. |
| Ctrl+V | Open the context menu for a Spotify link in your clipboard. |
| Backspace | Close the current view. |
When pressing O:
- If the selected item is not a track, it opens a detail view.
- If the selected item is a track, it opens a context menu with:
- "Show Artist"
- "Show Album"
- "Share"
- "Add to playlist"
- "Similar tracks"
Sharing
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
| X | Copy a shareable URL of the currently selected item to the system clipboard. |
| Shift+X | Copy a shareable URL of the currently playing track to the system clipboard. |
Queue
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
| C | Clear the entire queue. |
| D | Delete the currently selected track. |
| Ctrl+S | Delete the currently selected track. |
Library
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
| D | Delete the currently selected playlist. |
Vim-Like Search Bar
| Key | Command |
|---|---|
| n | Previous search occurrence. |
| N | Next search occurrence. |
Vim-Like Commands
You can open a Vim-style command prompt using :, and close it at any time with Escape.
The following is an abridged list of commonly-used commands. For the full list, see source code.
| Command | Action |
|---|---|
help |
Show current key bindings. |
quitAliases: q, x |
Quit ncspot. |
logout |
Remove any cached credentials from disk and quit ncspot. |
playpauseAliases: pause, toggleplay, toggleplayback |
Toggle playback. |
stop |
Stop playback. |
seek [+|-] |
Seek to the specified position, or seek relative to current position by prepending +/-. Supports mixing time units (e.g. seek 1m42s). Default unit is millisecond. |
repeat [repeat_mode]Aliases: loop |
Set repeat mode. Omit repeat_mode argument to step through the available modes. |
shuffle [on|off] |
Enable or disable shuffle. Omit argument to toggle. |
previous |
Play previous track. |
next |
Play next track. |
focus |
Switch to a screen. |
search |
Search a song. |
clear |
Clear playlist. |
share |
Copies a shareable URL of the item to the system clipboard. |
newplaylist |
Create new playlist with name name. |
sort |
Sort a playlist by sort_key in direction sort_direction. Default direction is ascending. |
exec |
Executes a command in the system shell. Be aware that command output is printed to the terminal, so redirection to /dev/null e.g. by appending 2> /dev/null may be necessary. |
- Supported
repeat_modeare:list|playlist|queuetrack|once|singlenone|off
- Supported
itemare:selected: Selected item.current: Current song.
- Supported
sort_keyare:titlealbumartistdurationadded
- Supported
sort_directionare:a|asc|ascendingd|desc|descending
Configuration
Configuration is saved to ~/.config/ncspot/config.toml (or %AppData%\ncspot\config.toml on Windows). To reload the configuration during runtime use the command prompt by typing :reload.
Possible configuration values are:
| Name | Description | Possible values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
command_key |
Key to open command line | Single character | : |
initial_screen |
Screen to show after startup | "library", "search", "queue", "cover"1 |
"library" |
use_nerdfont |
Turn nerdfont glyphs on/off | true, false |
false |
flip_status_indicators |
Reverse play/pause icon meaning2 | true, false |
false |
backend |
Audio backend to use | String 3 | |
backend_device |
Audio device to configure the backend | String | |
audio_cache |
Enable caching of audio files | true, false |
true |
audio_cache_size |
Maximum size of audio cache in MiB | Number | |
volnorm |
Enable volume normalization | true, false |
false |
volnorm_pregain |
Normalization pregain to apply in dB (if enabled) | Number | 0.0 |
default_keybindings |
Enable default keybindings | true, false |
false |
notify |
Enable desktop notifications | true, false |
false |
bitrate |
Audio bitrate to use for streaming | 96, 160, 320 |
320 |
album_column |
Show album column for tracks | true, false |
true |
gapless |
Enable gapless playback | true, false |
true |
shuffle |
Set default shuffle state | true, false |
false |
repeat |
Set default repeat mode | off, track, playlist |
off |
playback_state |
Set default playback state | "Stopped", "Paused", "Playing", "Default" |
"Paused" |
library_tabs |
Tabs to show in library screen | Array of tracks, albums, artists, playlists, podcasts |
All tabs |
[track_format] |
Set active fields shown in Library/Queue views | See track formatting | |
[theme] |
Custom theme | See custom theme | |
[keybindings] |
Custom keybindings | See custom keybindings |
Custom Keybindings
Keybindings can be configured in [keybindings] section in config.toml, e.g. as such:
[keybindings]
"Shift+i" = "seek +10000"
Proxy
ncspot will respect system proxy settings defined via the http_proxy environment variable.
Theming
The color palette can be modified in the configuration. For instance, to have ncspot match Spotify's official client, you can add the following entries to the configuration file:
[theme]
background = "black"
primary = "light white"
secondary = "light black"
title = "green"
playing = "green"
playing_selected = "light green"
playing_bg = "black"
highlight = "light white"
highlight_bg = "#484848"
error = "light white"
error_bg = "red"
statusbar = "black"
statusbar_progress = "green"
statusbar_bg = "green"
cmdline = "light white"
cmdline_bg = "black"
search_match = "light red"
More examples can be found in this pull request.
Track Formatting
It's possible to customize which fields are shown in Queue/Library views. If you don't define center for example, the default value will be used. Available options for tracks: %artists, %title, %album, %saved, %duration Default configuration:
[track_format]
left = "%artists - %title"
center = "%album"
right = "%saved %duration"
Examples: (Click to show/hide)
Example 1 - Show only album name and track name after it:
[track_format]
left = "%album"
center = "%title"
right = ""
Example 2 - Show track title before artists, and don't show album at all:
[track_format]
left = "%title - %artists"
center = ""
Example 3 - Show everything as default, but hide saved status and track length:
[track_format]
right = ""
Example 4 - Show everything as default, except show title before artists:
[track_format]
left = "%title - %artists"
Example 5 - Show saved status and duration first, followed by track title and artists, with the album last:
[track_format]
left = "|%saved| %duration | %title - %artists"
center = ""
right = "%album"
Cover Drawing
When compiled with the cover feature, ncspot can draw the album art of the current track in a dedicated view (:focus cover or F8 by default) using Überzug. For more information on installation and terminal compatibility, consult that repository.
To allow scaling the album art up beyond its resolution (640x640 for Spotify covers), use the config key cover_max_scale. This is especially useful for HiDPI displays:
cover_max_scale = 2
Authentication
ncspot prompts for a Spotify username and password on first launch, uses this to generate an OAuth token, and stores it to disk.
The credentials are stored in ~/.cache/ncspot/librespot/credentials.json (unless the base path has been changed with the --basepath option).
The :logout command can be used to programmatically remove cached credentials (see Vim-Like Commands above).
i dont think thats how its supposed to look like
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