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beep-file

A simple utility for creating PC Speaker music

Requirements

  • python
  • pcspkr kernel module must be loaded
  • /dev/input/by-path/platform-pcspkr-event-spkr must be writable by the current user (See Arch Wiki)

Installation

Install the requirements, if not already met.

Clone the repo & add it to the PATH, or download the file, put it in a directory on the PATH (such as /usr/local/bin, or ~/.local/bin) and mark it executable.

Usage

Use beep-file <path to file with instructions> to execute PC Speaker instructions contained in the given beep-file script.

Syntax

The beep-file script contains lines of speaker tones to play and the time for which to play them.
Here's an example beep-script:

#! /home/mini_bomba/mini_bomba-utils/bin/beep-file
500   200
1000  200
1500  200
x     500
2000  200

The interpreter understands comments (using # as the starting character) and allows for empty and comment lines. This makes is possible to use a shebang line at the start. The location of the beep-file executable will obviously depend on where you cloned this repo to.

The lines that are not ignored by the interpreter due to being empty, must have 2 white-space separated columns of integers. The left column controls the tone frequency, the right column controls the time the tone is being played for, in milliseconds. You may use x as the frequency to create a silent segment. The frequency cannot be negative or higher than 65535. (though anything over 10000 can barely be heard)

Loops

Simple loops can be created by using [ <iteration count> to open the loop and ] to close it. Any code between those characters will be repeated <iteration count> times. Nested loops are supported.

Example script using nested loops:

#!/home/mini_bomba/mini_bomba-utils/bin/beep-file
150 100
[ 5
    200 100
    [ 3
        500 100
        x   500
    ]
]
350 100

Errors

If a syntax error is found, the segment may be skipped or silenced, depending on the error. Issues with the frequency column produce a silent segment, issues with the time column or the count of columns skip the segment.
In all cases of a syntax error, an error message is printed.