Get file path of movie playing in VLC

bashvlc

If VLC is running, playing a movie at file path X, is there any way I can know what file path X is from a Bash script? (For simplicity's sake we can assume that only one instance of VLC is running.)

Update: I now know this can be done using the following methods. Are there other ways, perhaps a way of asking VLC directly?

AppleScript (macOS only)
lsof (All Unix)

Best Answer

That's an easy one

osascript -e 'tell application "VLC" to get path of current item'

That returns the path to the currently playing movie. If you want more I suggest you select "Open Dictionary.." in the File menu of "Script Editor", select VLC and have a good look. Then do man osascript on the command line for the man page of osascript.

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How to get inode from alias file

Try:

set aliasPath to "Mac OS X:Users:John:Desktop:test.txt alias"

tell application "Finder"
    set myalias to file aliasPath
    set myFile to original item of myalias
end tell

set filePath to myFile as text
set inode to first word of (do shell script "ls -i " & quoted form of (POSIX path of filePath))

MacOS – AppleScript To Manipulate VLC

This AppleScript will open the specified folder in VLC and begin to play the contents:

tell application "VLC"
  OpenURL "file:///Users/grgarside/Desktop/test/"
  play
end tell

Best Answer

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How to get inode from alias file

MacOS – AppleScript To Manipulate VLC

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