[SOLVED]new title: convert relative to absolute paths in bash

Question

So the issue was not MPD, i hadn't noticed my script was creating a bad symlink when i passed it a relative path.  new problem, the simplest way to accept any relative path as argument and return an absolute path for use throughout the script.  i'm off to google...
my current version of the solution as a bashrc function:
rel2abs() {
local file="$(basename "$1")"
local dir="$(dirname "$1")"
pushd "${dir:-./}" &>/dev/null && local dir="$PWD"
echo "$dir/$file"
popd &>/dev/null
:: OP ::
so i have this little script that is supposed to allow me to one-time-play an audio file sitting outside my mpd directory by creating a symlink to the file, updating the db, then playing the symlink.  everything's great accept mpd won't follow the symlink when creating/updating the db.
i've restarted mpd and re-create[d]-db both as myself (mpd runs as me) and as root many, many times.  it never changes.  the symlink file is never added to my database... is the manpage lying?  do i file a bug?  can anyone else reproduce?
i don't think it's a perm issue, mpd runs as me and the symlink's target and destination are both under ~/
┌─[ 13:30 ][ blue:~ ]
└─> pacman -Q mpd
mpd 0.15.1-1
man mpd.conf wrote:
follow_outside_symlinks <yes or no>
       Control if MPD will follow symbolic links pointing  outside  the  music  dir.   You  must
       recreate the database after changing this option.  The default is "yes".
follow_inside_symlinks <yes or no>
       Control  if  MPD  will  follow  symbolic links pointing inside the music dir, potentially
       adding duplicates to the database.  You must recreate the database  after  changing  this
       option.  The default is "yes".
/etc/mpd.conf wrote:######################### OTHER OPTIONS ########################
gapless_mp3_playback                    "yes"
#save_absolute_paths_in_playlists       "no"
#metadata_to_use        "artist,album,title,track,name,genre,date,composer,performer,disc"
follow_outside_symlinks                 "yes"
follow_inside_symlinks                  "yes"
┌─[ 13:33 ][ blue:~ ]
└─> ll Music/temp/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 patrick patrick 36 2009-08-13 13:30 apocalyptica_beyond_time.mp3 -> Dropbox/apocalyptica_beyond_time.mp3
┌─[ 13:37 ][ blue:~ ]
└─> mpc ls temp
┌─[ 13:37 ][ blue:~ ]
└─>
i guess i can resort to simply copying the file into the temp directory rather than symlinking... but you archers know how it is, it just bothers you when something should work and it doesn't...
comments and pointers always appreciated.
Last edited by brisbin33 (2009-08-17 20:35:21)

Answer 1

Mind posting your script? I've been using the following perl script to play a file outside of the music directory using mpd (found through the mpd wiki, I think). I'm up for a simpler solution if you found one!
#!/usr/bin/perl
# mpc-play
# version 0.2
# by Ilya "Voyager" Schurov (http://comm.noo.ru/iv-en/)
$MUSIC_PREFIX="/home/[username]/music";
$TEMP_DIR="tmp";
$SCRIPT_NAME="mpc-play";
# warning! all symlinks in $MUSIC_PREFIX/$TEMP_DIR will be lost on start!
$DEBUG=0;
$PWD=`pwd`;
chomp $PWD;
if(!@ARGV)
print "Usage:\n$SCRIPT_NAME <files-to-play>\n";
say_and_do("mpc --no-status stop",$DEBUG);
say_and_do("mpc --no-status clear",$DEBUG);
# removing symlinks from $TEMP_DIR
while(<$MUSIC_PREFIX/$TEMP_DIR/*>)
unlink if(-l);
foreach $file (@ARGV)
$link=$file;
# stripping slashes from arguments
$link=~s/\//_/g;
if($file!~/^\//)
$file="$PWD/$file";
symlink("$file","$MUSIC_PREFIX/$TEMP_DIR/$link")
|| die("Can't create symlink from $file to $MUSIC_PREFIX/$TEMP_DIR/$link: $!");
push @links, $link;
say_and_do("mpc update $TEMP_DIR",$DEBUG);
# now we need to wait while mpd updating DB
do
$stat=`mpc`;
sleep(0.1);
}while($stat=~/^Updating DB/m);
# generating playlist
foreach $link(@links)
$link=~s/\`/\\\`/g;
say_and_do("mpc --no-status add \"$TEMP_DIR/$link\"",$DEBUG);
#let's the music begins! :)
say_and_do("mpc play",$DEBUG);
sub say_and_do
my $str=shift;
my $debug=shift;
print "$str\n" if($debug);
system($str);
Thanks!
Scott