gRPC Control

The player can now be controlled using gRPC calls. The definition for the service can be found here. By default, this runs on port 43234.

The mtrack command itself supports several subcommands for gRPC interaction of the running player:

$ mtrack play
$ mtrack play --from "1:23.456"  # Start playback from a specific time
$ mtrack previous
$ mtrack next
$ mtrack stop
$ mtrack switch-to-playlist all_songs|playlist
$ mtrack status
$ mtrack active-effects  # Print all active lighting effects
$ mtrack cues  # List all cues in the current song's lighting timeline

This will allow for multiple, arbitrary connections to the player, potentially from clients outside the device the player is running on. It should also be handy for “oh crap” moments at gigs when your MIDI controller isn’t behaving well. While not ideal, you’ll still at least be able to control the player.

One note: there is no security on this at present. I don’t advise running mtrack on a public network to begin with, but I would advise disabling the gRPC server if for some reason the network the player is running on is wide open.