liter

Liter is a command line tool to manipulate endpoint device volume.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Installation
• Usage

Features

1. Get, set, mute, step up, or step down the volume of the default* endpoint device (e.g. a headphone).
2. If an endpoint device is connected or disconnected to PC, liter should detect the change and allow manipulating the new default endpoint device.

* Windows API

Installation

Pre-built Binaries

Checkout releases.

Build from Source

Dependencies

• Linux: (not supported)
• MacOS: (not supported)
• Windows 7, 8, 8.1: (not tested)
• Windows 10: Windows 10 SDK

Building

The CMakeLists.txt is provided as an example instead of a ready-to-use CMake file, since some environment parameters require manually setup. Now let's break it down.

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8.2)

project(liter)

set(CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS 1)  # Set to 1 to enable generating the compilation database.

set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE Release)         # Set to Debug if you need to debug.

file(GLOB_RECURSE HEADERS "include/*.h")
file(GLOB_RECURSE SOURCES "src/*.cpp")

# WINDOWS_SDK_INCLUDE_DIR can be set in CMakeLists.txt or system environment
# variables in Windows. The value should be something like:
#   C:\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.17763.0
include_directories(
  ${WINDOWS_SDK_INCLUDE_DIR}/um
  include
)

# Similarly, WINDOWS_SDK_LIB_DIR should be something like:
#   C:\Windows Kits\10\Lib\10.0.17763.0
link_directories(
  ${WINDOWS_SDK_LIB_DIR}/um/x86
)

add_executable(liter src/main.cpp src/liter.cpp)

Usage

The executable of liter takes no arguments, instead, it takes in arguments after it is launched. This makes it keep track of the endpoint device we are interfacing, instead of getting the device every time an action is performed.

For demonstration or debugging purpose, one may set the DEBUG macro to true in main.cpp to enable echoing of the inputs. The following demonstrations are based on such configuration.

Exit

To terminate the program, pass x (i.e. "eXit") when Action: is prompted in the terminal.

$ liter
Action: x
$

Get Volume

To get the current volume level (0.0 ~ 1.0), pass g ("get") when Action: is prompted in the terminal. Then the volume level will be shown as Volume: <level>. In Windows, the range of volume is from 0 to 100, therefore a volume level 0.1 means a volume of 10.

$ liter
Action: g
Volume: 0.1

If DEBUG is set to false, the interaction should be like:

$ liter
g
0.1

Which make it easier for a wrapper to parse the stdout result.

Set Volume

To set a volume level, pass s ("set") when Action: is prompted in the terminal. Then it will ask you for another input for Param: which is for the target volume level. The following example sets the volume to 12.

$ liter
Action: s
Param: 0.12
Volume: 0.12

If a number smaller than 0.0 or bigger than 1.0 is passed, the feedback will be -1.

$ liter
Action: s
Param: 1.3
Volume: -1

Please notice that, if 0.0 is passed, the volume is set to 0 but you may still hear sounds, which is different from mute.

Mute Volume

To mute, besides passing m ("mute") when Action: is prompted, another argument is required for Param: - non-zero for mute, zero for un-mute. When mute, the feedback is 0; when un-mute, the volume level before mute is feedbacked.

Please notice that, the volume level is in fact remained when mute, but 0 is feedbacked instead for better indication. To get the volume level after mute, use g.

$ liter
Action: g
Volume: 0.12

Action: m
Param: 1.0
Volume: 0

Action: g
Volume: 0.12

$ liter
Action: m
Param: 0.0
Volume: 0.2

Step Up Volume

To step up the volume, besides passing u ("up") when Action: is prompted. In Windows 10, the default step is 0.02.

$ liter
Action: g
Volume: 0.12

Action: u
Volume: 0.14

Step Down Volume

To step down the volume, besides passing d ("down") when Action: is prompted. In Windows 10, the default step is 0.02.

$ liter
Action: g
Volume: 0.14

Action: d
Volume: 0.12