Pipe/redirect input/output (stdin/stdout); may need -t
-d, --default-device Use the default audio device (where available)
-n, --null Use the null' file handler; e.g. with synth effect
-p, --sox-pipe Alias for-t sox -'
SPECIAL FILENAMES (infile only):
"|program [options] ..." Pipe input from external program (where supported) http://server/file Use the given URL as input file (where supported)
GLOBAL OPTIONS (gopts) (can be specified at any point before the first effect):
--buffer BYTES Set the size of all processing buffers (default 8192)
--clobber Don't prompt to overwrite output file (default)
--combine concatenate Concatenate all input files (default for sox, rec)
--combine sequence Sequence all input files (default for play)
-D, --no-dither Don't dither automatically
--dft-min NUM Minimum size (log2) for DFT processing (default 10)
--effects-file FILENAME File containing effects and options
-G, --guard Use temporary files to guard against clipping
-h, --help Display version number and usage information
--help-effect NAME Show usage of effect NAME, or NAME=all for all
--help-format NAME Show info on format NAME, or NAME=all for all
--i, --info Behave as soxi(1)
--input-buffer BYTES Override the input buffer size (default: as --buffer)
--no-clobber Prompt to overwrite output file
-m, --combine mix Mix multiple input files (instead of concatenating)
--combine mix-power Mix to equal power (instead of concatenating)
-M, --combine merge Merge multiple input files (instead of concatenating)
--magic Use magic' file-type detection
--multi-threaded Enable parallel effects channels processing
--norm Guard (see --guard) & normalise
--play-rate-arg ARG Defaultrate' argument for auto-resample with `play'
--plot gnuplot|octave Generate script to plot response of filter effect
-q, --no-show-progress Run in quiet mode; opposite of -S
--replay-gain track|album|off Default: off (sox, rec), track (play)
-R Use default random numbers (same on each run of SoX)
-S, --show-progress Display progress while processing audio data
--single-threaded Disable parallel effects channels processing
--temp DIRECTORY Specify the directory to use for temporary files
-T, --combine multiply Multiply samples of corresponding channels from all
input files (instead of concatenating)
--version Display version number of SoX and exit
-V[LEVEL] Increment or set verbosity level (default 2); levels:
1: failure messages
2: warnings
3: details of processing
4-6: increasing levels of debug messages
FORMAT OPTIONS (fopts):
Input file format options need only be supplied for files that are headerless.
Output files will have the same format as the input file where possible and not
overridden by any of various means including providing output format options.
-v|--volume FACTOR Input file volume adjustment factor (real number)
--ignore-length Ignore input file length given in header; read to EOF
-t|--type FILETYPE File type of audio
-e|--encoding ENCODING Set encoding (ENCODING may be one of signed-integer,
unsigned-integer, floating-point, mu-law, a-law,
ima-adpcm, ms-adpcm, gsm-full-rate)
-b|--bits BITS Encoded sample size in bits
-N|--reverse-nibbles Encoded nibble-order
-X|--reverse-bits Encoded bit-order
--endian little|big|swap Encoded byte-order; swap means opposite to default
-L/-B/-x Short options for the above
-c|--channels CHANNELS Number of channels of audio data; e.g. 2 = stereo
-r|--rate RATE Sample rate of audio
-C|--compression FACTOR Compression factor for output format
--add-comment TEXT Append output file comment
--comment TEXT Specify comment text for the output file
--comment-file FILENAME File containing comment text for the output file
--no-glob Don't `glob' wildcard match the following filename
AUDIO FILE FORMATS: 8svx aif aifc aiff aiffc al amb amr-nb amr-wb anb au avr awb caf cdda cdr cvs cvsd cvu dat dvms f32 f4 f64 f8 fap flac fssd gsm gsrt hcom htk ima ircam la lpc lpc10 lu mat mat4 mat5 maud mp2 mp3 nist ogg paf prc pvf raw s1 s16 s2 s24 s3 s32 s4 s8 sb sd2 sds sf sl sln smp snd sndfile sndr sndt sou sox sph sw txw u1 u16 u2 u24 u3 u32 u4 u8 ub ul uw vms voc vorbis vox w64 wav wavpcm wv wve xa xi
PLAYLIST FORMATS: m3u pls
AUDIO DEVICE DRIVERS: alsa oss ossdsp pulseaudio
EFFECTS: allpass band bandpass bandreject bass bend biquad chorus channels compand contrast dcshift deemph delay dither divide+ downsample earwax echo echos equalizer fade fir firfit+ flanger gain highpass hilbert input# ladspa loudness lowpass mcompand noiseprof noisered norm oops output# overdrive pad phaser pitch rate remix repeat reverb reverse riaa silence sinc spectrogram speed splice stat stats stretch swap synth tempo treble tremolo trim upsample vad vol
Also maybe it would be good to switch to a better website, like gitlab or github. Sourceforge is buggy; it took me several hours to get my password reset (even though there was nothing wrong with the old one), and it deleted the first version of this ticket.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
The problem is that if you pass the wrong option, or if you forget an option, then you have to scroll up through multiple pages of mostly irrelevant text before you can get to see the error message ("play FAIL sox: Not enough input filenames specified") that tells you what you did wrong.
If you never make a mistake then this bug does not affect you. However, if you do make a mistake, then the behavior is not very helpful. I'd prefer that the software only displays the help text when the user passes "--help".
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
$ play -c 2 -r 44100 -L -b 16 --buffer 128 synth brownnoise gain -40
play: SoX v14.4.2
play FAIL sox: Not enough input filenames specified
Usage summary: [gopts] [[fopts] infile]... [fopts] [effect [effopt]]...
SPECIAL FILENAMES (infile, outfile):
-d, --default-device Use the default audio device (where available)
-n, --null Use the
null' file handler; e.g. with synth effect -p, --sox-pipe Alias for-t sox -'SPECIAL FILENAMES (infile only):
"|program [options] ..." Pipe input from external program (where supported)
http://server/file Use the given URL as input file (where supported)
GLOBAL OPTIONS (gopts) (can be specified at any point before the first effect):
--buffer BYTES Set the size of all processing buffers (default 8192)
--clobber Don't prompt to overwrite output file (default)
--combine concatenate Concatenate all input files (default for sox, rec)
--combine sequence Sequence all input files (default for play)
-D, --no-dither Don't dither automatically
--dft-min NUM Minimum size (log2) for DFT processing (default 10)
--effects-file FILENAME File containing effects and options
-G, --guard Use temporary files to guard against clipping
-h, --help Display version number and usage information
--help-effect NAME Show usage of effect NAME, or NAME=all for all
--help-format NAME Show info on format NAME, or NAME=all for all
--i, --info Behave as soxi(1)
--input-buffer BYTES Override the input buffer size (default: as --buffer)
--no-clobber Prompt to overwrite output file
-m, --combine mix Mix multiple input files (instead of concatenating)
--combine mix-power Mix to equal power (instead of concatenating)
-M, --combine merge Merge multiple input files (instead of concatenating)
--magic Use
magic' file-type detection --multi-threaded Enable parallel effects channels processing --norm Guard (see --guard) & normalise --play-rate-arg ARG Defaultrate' argument for auto-resample with `play'--plot gnuplot|octave Generate script to plot response of filter effect
-q, --no-show-progress Run in quiet mode; opposite of -S
--replay-gain track|album|off Default: off (sox, rec), track (play)
-R Use default random numbers (same on each run of SoX)
-S, --show-progress Display progress while processing audio data
--single-threaded Disable parallel effects channels processing
--temp DIRECTORY Specify the directory to use for temporary files
-T, --combine multiply Multiply samples of corresponding channels from all
input files (instead of concatenating)
--version Display version number of SoX and exit
-V[LEVEL] Increment or set verbosity level (default 2); levels:
1: failure messages
2: warnings
3: details of processing
4-6: increasing levels of debug messages
FORMAT OPTIONS (fopts):
Input file format options need only be supplied for files that are headerless.
Output files will have the same format as the input file where possible and not
overridden by any of various means including providing output format options.
-v|--volume FACTOR Input file volume adjustment factor (real number)
--ignore-length Ignore input file length given in header; read to EOF
-t|--type FILETYPE File type of audio
-e|--encoding ENCODING Set encoding (ENCODING may be one of signed-integer,
unsigned-integer, floating-point, mu-law, a-law,
ima-adpcm, ms-adpcm, gsm-full-rate)
-b|--bits BITS Encoded sample size in bits
-N|--reverse-nibbles Encoded nibble-order
-X|--reverse-bits Encoded bit-order
--endian little|big|swap Encoded byte-order; swap means opposite to default
-L/-B/-x Short options for the above
-c|--channels CHANNELS Number of channels of audio data; e.g. 2 = stereo
-r|--rate RATE Sample rate of audio
-C|--compression FACTOR Compression factor for output format
--add-comment TEXT Append output file comment
--comment TEXT Specify comment text for the output file
--comment-file FILENAME File containing comment text for the output file
--no-glob Don't `glob' wildcard match the following filename
AUDIO FILE FORMATS: 8svx aif aifc aiff aiffc al amb amr-nb amr-wb anb au avr awb caf cdda cdr cvs cvsd cvu dat dvms f32 f4 f64 f8 fap flac fssd gsm gsrt hcom htk ima ircam la lpc lpc10 lu mat mat4 mat5 maud mp2 mp3 nist ogg paf prc pvf raw s1 s16 s2 s24 s3 s32 s4 s8 sb sd2 sds sf sl sln smp snd sndfile sndr sndt sou sox sph sw txw u1 u16 u2 u24 u3 u32 u4 u8 ub ul uw vms voc vorbis vox w64 wav wavpcm wv wve xa xi
PLAYLIST FORMATS: m3u pls
AUDIO DEVICE DRIVERS: alsa oss ossdsp pulseaudio
EFFECTS: allpass band bandpass bandreject bass bend biquad chorus channels compand contrast dcshift deemph delay dither divide+ downsample earwax echo echos equalizer fade fir firfit+ flanger gain highpass hilbert input# ladspa loudness lowpass mcompand noiseprof noisered norm oops output# overdrive pad phaser pitch rate remix repeat reverb reverse riaa silence sinc spectrogram speed splice stat stats stretch swap synth tempo treble tremolo trim upsample vad vol
EFFECT OPTIONS (effopts): effect dependent; see --help-effect
[1]$
Also maybe it would be good to switch to a better website, like gitlab or github. Sourceforge is buggy; it took me several hours to get my password reset (even though there was nothing wrong with the old one), and it deleted the first version of this ticket.
I fail to see the problem.
The problem is that if you pass the wrong option, or if you forget an option, then you have to scroll up through multiple pages of mostly irrelevant text before you can get to see the error message ("play FAIL sox: Not enough input filenames specified") that tells you what you did wrong.
If you never make a mistake then this bug does not affect you. However, if you do make a mistake, then the behavior is not very helpful. I'd prefer that the software only displays the help text when the user passes "--help".