[Icecast] Automatic Update of MP3 Files

Sat Sep 27 08:05:33 UTC 2014

On 09/26/2014 10:33 PM, Gene Steinberg wrote:
> Please make an effort to actually respond to what I asked, and don’t presume to tell me what I did wrong and how it’s my fault — or his fault.

That's exactly what I'm doing, I'm trying to figure out what situation
you are in, so that I can properly respond to your questions, without
having to resort to guessing and assumptions. This inevitably leads to
more questions, before you start getting answers.
So far the situation is becoming more clear but there are still fairly
many question marks preventing me from giving you a concise and targeted
answer.

> I assume the distribution is the one on the Icecast site. I have a CentOS 6.5 server, using cPanel/WHM.

The clean way to install Icecast on CentOS6 would be from the EPEL6
repository. RPMforge maybe too (haven't tried myself).
A third option would be that a package of Icecast 2.4 from my OBS
repository was installed.
In addition there are:
- SRPM rebuilt and installed
- built and installed from source

It would help us to help you further if you could clarify how Icecast
was installed on the machine. You can do this by e.g. checking which
repositories are enabled and by checking the package version of Icecast
using the 'rpm' command. Probably something like "rpm -q icecast".

In most cases you'll have an init script and can use:
/etc/init.d/icecast
That will give you control of the Icecast server process.

Seeing that icegenerator is in /usr/local that means it was installed
from source, combined with the instructions you posted previously there
seems to be no init script for that.

To sum up, I can currently state:
- Use the init script to start/stop Icecast
- Follow the instructions given to you for the rest

Regarding your "dynamic reload" problem, my previous statement remains.

"I'm not familiar with Icegenerator.
Have you tried reading its documentation?
http://www.becrux.com/index.php?page=projects&name=icegenerator

If that doesn't fit your bill you could switch to a different source
client that's capable to reload its play list dynamically. That might be
e.g. ez-stream, but there are many."

If you give us some more information about your work flow for populating those playlists someone on the list might be able to suggest a better suited source client or a modifictation to your current setup.

> give me a real step-by-step answer.

Without understand your situation fully, it is impossible to give you
"exact steps".
At the risk of angering you further I'm going to say, that what you are
asking for goes in some aspects beyond the scope of this list:
We offer help to people who want to figure things out and help
themselves, we do not do individual project work on behalf of other people.
That said you are welcome to solicit paid help for your particular setup
on this list. Usually we see several answers to such requests.

Best regards

Thomas Ruecker

> Gene Steinberg
>
>
>> On Sep 26, 2014, at 1:05 PM, Thomas B. Rücker <thomas at ruecker.fi> wrote:
>>
>> On 09/26/2014 07:15 PM, Gene Steinberg wrote:
>>> Linked file means the original MP3 file posted on the server.
>>>
>>> init script? Tell me where to find one? That’s what the Web guy evidently didn’t know, since he’s not experienced at Icecast.
>> If Icecast was installed from a distribution package, then there usually
>> is a distribution specific way to start/stop/etc the server, in this
>> case Icecast. In most cases this is an init script. Although nowadays
>> systemd is becoming more popular and there it would be a service
>> definition file.
>>
>> Long story short:
>> There should be one already. Depending on what your "web guy" did to
>> Icecast and its configuration, it may or may not work though.
>>
>> It sounds like what you need is a proper system administrator and not a
>> "web guy".
>>
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Thomas
>>
>>
>>
>>>> On Sep 26, 2014, at 12:11 PM, Thomas B. Rücker <thomas at ruecker.fi> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 09/26/2014 01:57 PM, Gene Steinberg wrote:
>>>>> Well, not quite. The radio network that carries my two radio shows does on-demand and live.
>>>>>
>>>>> We just wanted an on-demand streamer for our own needs.
>>>> I don't understand why you call this on demand, but then use a source
>>>> client to stream it, that's not really on-demand, that's still
>>>> considered streaming.
>>>>
>>>> On demand is usually considered something where the content is always
>>>> started from the beginning (unless client and server explicitly
>>>> implement resume).
>>>>
>>>>> The code from our webmaster to update after a linked file is replaced is:
>>>> What is a "linked file"? What does this mean?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 1) You need to update the playlist file with the new show.
>>>>>
>>>>> 	A) PARACAST FILE LIVES HERE: /usr/local/etc/paracast.m3u
>>>>> 	B) TECH NIGHT OWN FILE LIVES HERE: /usr/local/etc/nightowl.m3u
>>>> Given that the file names here match the file names in 3) (except the
>>>> m3u/cfg file extension), I'm going to guess that those are play lists
>>>> that then are being streamed.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 2) Shut down/restart icecast. (there may be ways of not having to restart the stream, but it's beyond me)
>>>>>
>>>>> 	A) RUN THIS COMMAND: ps -C icecast
>>>>> 	B) Get the PID # that is shown for icecast
>>>>> 	C) RUN THIS COMMAND (where PID# is from above): kill PID# 
>>>>> 	D) RUN THIS COMMAND: /usr/bin/icecast -c /etc/icecast.xml -b
>>>>> 	E) You MIGHT have to hit CTRL-C after that last step to return to prompt.
>>>> This is most certainly NOT necessary. What would make you think that you
>>>> need to do this?
>>>> Also why are you not using an init script?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> 3) Restart icegenerator (this is what serves the mp3 files to icecast)
>>>>>
>>>>> 	A) RUN THIS COMMAND: /usr/local/bin/icegenerator -f /usr/local/etc/paracast.cfg
>>>>> 	B) RUN THIS COMMAND: /usr/local/bin/icegenerator -f /usr/local/etc/nightowl.cfg
>>>>>
>>>>> So what am I missing? Can we make this dynamic?
>>>> I'm not familiar with Icegenerator.
>>>> Have you tried reading its documentation?
>>>> http://www.becrux.com/index.php?page=projects&name=icegenerator
>>>>
>>>> If that doesn't fit your bill you could switch to a different source
>>>> client that's capable to reload its play list dynamically. That might be
>>>> e.g. ez-stream, but there are many.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>>
>>>> Thomas
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> On Sep 25, 2014, at 11:56 PM, Thomas B. Rücker <thomas at ruecker.fi> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 09/26/2014 12:39 AM, Gene Steinberg wrote:
>>>>>>> So I have a new Icecast setup with two channels, each of which carries a link to MP3 files.
>>>>>> Icecast is intended for live streaming, not for serving static files.
>>>>>> Which of both are you doing here?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Whenever I update the .m3u file to reflect a changed link, I have to restart Icecast and the Icegenerator to make it recognize the change.
>>>>>> Where do you update a m3u file? Icecast generates dynamic m3u files for
>>>>>> streams, so creating your own is usually not necessary.
>>>>>> Or is this something in your source client side (Icegenerator?).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Cheers
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thomas
>>>>>>
>>>>>>