ALSA Request Device

A small utility that reserves an audio-device on a modern GNU/Linux desktop.

Motivation

The tool is intended to be used with ALSA applications that are not in a position to send dbus request by themselves.

Description

This tool sends a request to the session message bus to reserve an audio-device: Other applications which may currently use the device are asked to release it (which may or may not succeed depending on the given priority -p).

If the device can be acquired, alsa_request_device keeps running and answers requests pertaining to the device. It terminates if either STDIN is closed, a SIGINT or SIGTERM is sent or some other application requests the device with a higher priority.

If a PID is given alsa_request_device watches the process and also terminates when the process with the given PID exits.

The device remains reserved as long as alsa_request_device runs.

For further information please see the included man page.