plex-nowplaying

A CLI script to show the "Plex Now Playing" status in your terminal.

Purpose

This started out as a quick way to make sure I didn't kick anyone off Plex before doing an update or server reboot. It has become a little bit of of a hobby project to learn more about how the shell works, including a built-in XML parser.

Features

Fully POSIX-compliant
Tested on macOS, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Slackware, and FreeBSD
Now works with a PLEX AUTH TOKEN
Green solid indicator for hardware transcoding, open indicator for software transcoding

Dependencies

A posix compatible shell (sh, bash, ksh, dash)
A download agent; unless specified, will curl, wget, fetch, and nc (ncat/netcat) in that order.

Installation

Clone this repo:

git clone git@github.com:arcadellama/plex-nowplaying.git

Copy or link the script "nowplaying" it into your path, (e.g., ~/.local/bin, or /usr/local/bin). Without any arguments it looks for a Plex server running on your local server.

See "Configuration" below for more options.

I have put it in my .bashrc for the screenshot seen above.

Usage

Example: 'nowplaying -p 192.168.1.1 -w 80 -t <PLEX_AUTH_TOKEN>'

           --help, -h    This screen

  --config, -c <file>    Configuration file. Overrides command args.
  
      --plex, -p <ip>    IP address(es) or domain name of Plex Server
                         separated by commas, no spaces.
                         Default=127.0.0.1

       --port <number>   Plex port (default: 32400)

    --token, -t <path>   Plex Auth Token, optional point to file.

     --timeout <value>   Time to wait for connection, default=1

      --color <on|off>   Color setting. Default is "auto."

  --width, -w <number>   Maximum number of columns width.
                         Default=0, "infinite"

         --version, -v   Show version

         --curl <path>   Force curl as downloader.
                         (Path is optional.)

         --wget <path>   Force wget as downloader.
                         (Path is optional.)

        --fetch <path>   Force fetch as downloader.
                         (Path is optional.)

  --netcat,--nc <path>   Force netcat (nc) as downloader.
                         (Path is optional.)
 
         --verbose, -V   Print every message. Good for debugging.

                --file   Point to a XML file for debugging

Configuration File

If no config file is given with command, nowplaying will look for a configuration file in the following order:

~/.nowplayingrc
~/.config/nowplaying.conf
/usr/local/etc/nowplaying.conf
/etc/nowplaying.conf

Your Plex Server IP and Tokens probably shouldn't be version controlled for the world to see. You can create a configuration file, example is given at nowplaying.conf.sample, and use the "--config </path/to/file>"

Current configurable options are:

NP_PLEX_HOST=127.0.0.1
NP_PLEX_PORT=32400  
NP_PLEX_TOKEN=xxxxxxxx  
NP_TIMEOUT=1
NP_MAX_WIDTH=80
NP_COLOR_MODE=auto

Why can you add more than one Plex host?

This is for checking the same host that might have a different address, depending on your setting. E.g., on a notebook you might have both a LAN address and also the Wireguard address. It is not intended to poll more than one Plex server at a time. While you certainly could, the script will stop once it finds a working Plex server.

What does verbose do?

By default, the script will only show a result if it finds a Plex server with media playing. 'Verbose' mode will tell you why nothing was printed on screen, either because your Plex server has nothing playing, or because it can't be reached.

Known Issues

Providing an incorrect PLEX AUTH TOKEN on a local server or from an IP range that is allowed to access without authorization with too low of a "timeout" option (the default is "1"), you may get an incorrect error report that the server is "unavailable." You can resolve this by either setting a higher "timeout" with "-t 10", not giving a PLEX AUTH TOKEN, or simply using the correct PLEX AUTH TOKEN.

Exit Codes

0 Everything works
1 Something went wrong
2-99 Plex server unreachable/timeout

Roadmap

Add PLEX AUTH TOKEN option for servers without local auth turned off
Remove BASHisms and make it pure sh/posix compatible
Add transcoding indicator
Remove the dependancy on grep, sed, cut, and tput
Add colors, bold, italics, etc.
Fix exit codes
Add netcat (nc) as a default download agent
Add global timeout variable for download agent
Add an option for external config file and/or environment variables

jeremehancock/plex-nowplaying