content/blog/2022-07-25-curseradio.org

  1#+date:        <2022-07-25 Mon 00:00:00>
  2#+title:       Operating Curseradio: Command-Line Interface for Internet Radio Streaming
  3#+description: Stepwise instructions for installing and utilizing Curseradio, a lightweight command-line program for streaming radio stations within Linux environments.
  4#+slug:        curseradio
  5#+filetags:    :linux:radio:python:
  6
  7* Overview
  8
  9While exploring some interesting Linux applications, I stumbled across
 10[[https://github.com/chronitis/curseradio][curseradio]], a command-line
 11radio player based on Python.
 12
 13This application is fantastic and incredibly easy to install, so I
 14wanted to dedicate a post today to this app. Let's look at the features
 15within the app and then walk through the installation process I took to
 16get =curseradio= working.
 17
 18* Features
 19
 20The radio player itself is quite minimal. As you can see in the
 21screenshot above, it contains a simple plaintext list of all available
 22categories, which can be broken down further and further. In addition,
 23radio shows are available for listening, alongside regular radio
 24stations.
 25
 26For example, the =Sports= > =Pro Basketball= > =Shows= category contains
 27a number of specific shows related to Professional Basketball.
 28
 29Aside from being able to play any of the listed stations/shows, you can
 30make a channel your favorite by pressing =f=. It will now show up at the
 31top of the radio player in the =Favourites= category.
 32
 33** Commands/Shortcuts
 34
 35| Key(s)     | Command                         |
 36|------------+---------------------------------|
 37| ↑, ↓       | navigate                        |
 38| PgUp, PgDn | navigate quickly                |
 39| Home, End  | to top/bottom                   |
 40| Enter      | open/close folders, play stream |
 41| k          | stop playing stream             |
 42| q          | quit                            |
 43| f          | toggle favourite                |
 44
 45* Installation
 46
 47** Dependencies
 48
 49Before installing =curseradio=, a handful of system and Python packages
 50are required. To get started, install =python3=, =pip3=, and =mpv= on
 51your system. In this example, I'm using Fedora Linux, which uses the
 52=dnf= package manager. You may need to adjust this if you're using a
 53different system.
 54
 55#+begin_src sh
 56sudo dnf install python3 pip3 mpv
 57#+end_src
 58
 59Next, use =pip3= to install =requests=, =xdg=, and =lxml=:
 60
 61#+begin_src sh
 62pip3 install requests xdg lxml
 63#+end_src
 64
 65** Repository Source Installation
 66
 67Once all the dependencies are installed, we can clone the source code
 68and enter that directory:
 69
 70#+begin_src sh
 71git clone https://github.com/chronitis/curseradio && cd curseradio
 72#+end_src
 73
 74Once you're within the =curseradio= directory, you can install the
 75application with the provided =setup.py= script.
 76
 77#+begin_src sh
 78sudo python3 setup.py install
 79#+end_src
 80
 81In my case, I ran into a few errors and needed to create the folders
 82that curseradio wanted to use for its installation. If you don't get any
 83errors, you can skip this and run the app.
 84
 85#+begin_src sh
 86sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/python3.10/
 87sudo mkdir /usr/local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/
 88#+end_src
 89
 90#+begin_src sh
 91sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /usr/local/lib/python3.10/
 92#+end_src
 93
 94* Run the Application
 95
 96Once fully installed without errors, you can run the application!
 97
 98#+begin_src sh
 99python3 /usr/local/bin/curseradio
100#+end_src