Audacious - OLD, PLEASE USE GITHUB DISCUSSIONS/ISSUES

You have to create a separate user account (otherwise the two instances would fight over configuration files and the D-Bus interface).

Thanks,

but I do not really understand the explanation.
Several programs can be run in several instances,
eg. vlc, mplayer/gmplayer, firefox, which also
"fight over configuration files" but apparently
it is not a problem for them, they run happily
parallel to their other instances.

And how come that on windows is possible?
Doesn't it fight over config files in windows?

If audacious can't be run in several instances
parallel by the same user it is a serious design flaw.

Istvan

Not a design flaw at all. In fact, it requires a considerable amount of extra code to prevent multiple instances.

I'm not a contributor to the Audacious project, so please understand I'm not speaking for the design team when I suggest you use a different media player, or fork the code and start your own version of the project.

Short explanation:

It's not a design flaw, just something that we don't have the time/manpower to implement.

Longer explanation:

If you run multiple instances of the Windows version, they will indeed fight over the configuration files. The last instance to exit will overwrite the configuration of the others, or, if the timing is just right, two instances will try to write their own configuration at the same time and end up corrupting it. The only reason multiple instances happen in Windows is that there is no inter-process communication; as a result, you can't double-click on a file in Windows Explorer and have it open in an already-running instance of Audacious.

I don't know how VLC or MPlayer work, but more complex programs such as Firefox in fact do not allow multiple instances. (Hence the error message you sometimes get if you run Firefox twice at the same instant, hitting a race condition: "Firefox is already running but is not responding.") What Firefox does instead is to allow multiple windows controlled by the same instance. Someday Audacious may get to the point where it can do the same. The first step would be to allow playback from multiple playlists at the same time. This would require enormous changes to the present code. Afterward, it would be comparatively easy to display each playlist in its own window, giving the appearance (as Firefox does) of multiple instances.

I should also note that if you want the Windows behavior in Linux, you can simply pass the --disable-dbus option to ./configure. But don't complain when this disables all the features that depend on D-Bus support.

Thank you for the answer.

I might try --disable-dbus; I don't know how easy is to recompile audacious.
As for firefox it has -no-remote option, according to man firefox:
-no-remote
Don't try to control an already running instance.

The thing is that audacious should be able to play different (or even the same)
audio files parallel. For example I want to compare 2 versions of a song which
have only minor differences. For this I have to listen to a short part of the song
of version 1 and then version 2. The sequence is:
1. Start listening to version 1
2. Pause
3. Start listening to version 2
4. Pause
5. Continue listening version 1 from the point is was paused
6. Pause
7. Continue listening version 2 from the point is was paused
8. Pause
9. Repeat 5-8

Currently this can not be done with audacious.

According to what you wrote this is not a design flaw indeed,
but this option should be a feature. I understand that implementing
it requires more manpower.

Regarding "fighting over config files" should not be a problem as I
think mostly the program only reads config files. In case of
changing a config file the last change should overwrite the existing
config and be final.

Thanks again,

Istvan