JACK-SELECT(1)

NAME
jack-select - show a systray icon with a pop-up menu to set JACK configuration from presets

SYNOPSIS

jack-select [-h] [--version] [--a2j-autostart] [--a2j-export-hw] [-a] [-c PATH] [-d] [-i] [-v] [preset]

DESCRIPTION

jack-select displays an icon in the system tray (also known as notification area) of your desktop, which shows the status of the JACK audio server and when clicked, presents a pop-up menu, where the user can select from a list of JACK configuration presets created with QjackCtl.

When a preset is selected, the JACK configuration is changed according to the settings of the preset via DBus and then the JACK server is restarted. This allows the user to switch between different JACK audio setups with just two mouse clicks.

When the mouse pointer hovers over the systray icon and JACK is running, a tooltip will show the name of the active preset (if known), the most important parameters of the current configuration and some JACK server statistics.

The entries in the "ALSA-MIDI Bridge" sub-menu allow to configure and start and stop the a2jmidi service.

Lastly, there are menu entries to stop the JACK server and to quit the application.

STARTUP

jack-select may be started from the command-line, from the desktop start menu or along with the user's desktop session, by putting the jack-select.desktop file into the user's autostart folder (<XDG_CONFIG_HOME>/autostart).

When jack-select starts up, it first checks whether there is already a running instance of jack-select. If so, when called with no command argument arguments, it tells the existing jack-select instance to open its menu.

If a preset name is passed as the first positional command-line argument the preset is activated immediately at application startup. If another instance of jack-select is already running, jack-select will tell the existing instance to activate the preset. An invalid preset name is silently ignored.

PRESETS

jack-select reads JACK configuration presets from QjackCtl's configuration file (see FILES section). jack-select does not create or change this file. It parses the file on startup and then checks it at a regular interval. If the file is created, changed or deleted, jack-select will update its menu accordingly.

To create or edit presets, the program QjackCtl can be used. Make the desired changes in its configuration dialog and close it with "Ok" so the changes are saved. The changes will be reflected in the jack-select menu immediately.

QjackCtl stores a nameless preset referred to with the label (default) in its interface. Since there is no way to remove this preset from QjackCtl's interface, jack-select can optionally ignore this preset, unless it is the only preset found in the configuration (see OPTIONS section).

DEVICE DISCOVERY

jack-select is able to detect the presence of ALSA devices and when they are attached or removed. Menu entries for presets, which refer to ALSA devices currently unavailable, will be deactivated. ALSA device discovery can be disabled via a command line option (see OPTIONS section).

ALSA-MIDI TO JACK BRIDGE

jack-select provides a sub-menu with entries to start and stop the a2jmidid ALSA-MIDI to JACK bridge via D-BUS and set related options.

The bridge can be automatically started when activating a JACK preset and you can select whether the bridge also exports hardware MIDI ports as JACK MIDI ports.

The selected options are automatically stored in jack-select's own settings file and can also be overwritten via commadn line options.

OPTIONS

usage: jack-select [-h] [--version] [-a] [-c PATH] [-d] [-i] [-v] [preset]

A systray app to set the JACK configuration from QjackCtl presets via DBus.

positional arguments:
    preset Configuration preset to activate on startup.

optional arguments:

-h, --help
    show this help message and exit

--version
    Show program version and exit.

--a2j-autostart
    Autostart ALSA-MIDI to JACK bridge with JACK.

--a2j-export-hw
    Export hardware MIDI ports via ALSA-MIDI to JACK bridge.

-a, --no-alsa-monitor
    Disable ALSA device monitoring and filtering.

-c PATH, --config PATH
    Path to configuration file (default: <XDG_CONFIG_HOME>/rncbc.org/QjackCtl.conf)

-d, --default
    Activate default preset.

-i, --ignore-default
    Ignore the nameless '(default)' preset if any other presets are stored in the configuration.

-v, --verbose
    Be verbose about what the script does.

FILES

<XDG_CONFIG_HOME>/rncbc.org/QjackCtl.conf
    The default path to QjackCtl's configuration file. This file contains the JACK settings and configuration presets jack-select uses. The path can be changed via a command line option.

<XDG_CONFIG_HOME>/jack-select/settings.ini
    This file stores jack-select-specific settings.

ENVIRONMENT

XDG_CONFIG_HOME
    Specifies the root of the user's configuration directory tree, under which jack-select will look for QjackCtl's configuration file and its own settings (see FILES section).

SEE ALSO

•   Project homepage (https://github.com/SpotlightKid/jack-select)

•   JACK (http://jackaudio.org/)

•   QjackCtl (http://qjackctl.sourceforge.net/)

AUTHOR
Christopher Arndt <chris@chrisarndt.de>

COPYRIGHT
The MIT License (MIT)