Command: sound

Syntax

sound <file> {,<gain>}

Description

Play a sound file.

Parameters

• <file>
  The file to be played. The default file extension for Windows systems is .wav. For Sun/Solaris it is .au. For other systems there is no default extension.

• <gain>
  A numeric value indicating the sound volume. This is a value between 0 and 100. If omitted, the value of the system numeric gain is used.

Switches

• -def
  Play the sound file regardless of the value of audio. If this switch is omitted, the file will only be played if audio has a non-zero value.

• -k
  Kill (interrupt) the playing of the file. This switch only has an effect on Windows systems, where files can be played asynchronously.

• -loop
  Play the file continuously until interrupted, either from the keyboard (Ctrl-Break or Ctrl-O), or (on Windows systems only) via the sound -k command.

• -syn
  Delay processing the next command until the file has finished playing, or until interrupted. This is the default behavior on Sun/Solaris systems. On Windows, the default behavior is to play the file asynchronously so that command processing can continue while the file is playing.

• -x=<num>
  Number of times to play the file. The default value is 1.

Notes

All audio output can be suppressed by use of the system numeric audio. This identifier must be set before sound is audible. At program startup it is set if audio facilities are available.

Examples

Play a sound file (on Sun/Solaris) twice. We make sure audio is enabled first.

audio = 1
sound mymessage.au,-x=2

Play a sound file in a continous loop. For Windows, this will play music.wav.

sound music,-loop

See Also