Ubuntu – Script to Mute an Application

bashcommand linepulseaudioscripts

My goal is to be able to mute the Spotify application, not the entire system. Using the command: ps -C spotify -o pid= I am able to find the process ID of Spotify, in this case the ID is "22981". With that process ID I would like to search from this list: pacmd list-sink-inputs. That command returns a list like this:

eric@eric-desktop:~$ pacmd list-sink-inputs
Welcome to PulseAudio! Use "help" for usage information.
>>> 1 sink input(s) available.
    index: 0
    driver: <protocol-native.c>
    flags: START_CORKED 
    state: RUNNING
    sink: 1 <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo>
    volume: 0: 100% 1: 100%
            0: -0.00 dB 1: -0.00 dB
            balance 0.00
    muted: no
    current latency: 1019.80 ms
    requested latency: 371.52 ms
    sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
    channel map: front-left,front-right
                 Stereo
    resample method: (null)
    module: 8
    client: 10 <Spotify>
    properties:
        media.role = "music"
        media.name = "Spotify"
        application.name = "Spotify"
        native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
        native-protocol.version = "26"
        application.process.id = "22981"
        application.process.user = "eric"
        application.process.host = "eric-desktop"
        application.process.binary = "spotify"
        window.x11.display = ":0"
        application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
        application.process.machine_id = "058c89ad77c15e1ce0dd5a7800000012"
        application.process.session_id = "058c89ad77c15e1ce0dd5a7800000012-1345692739.486413-85297109"
        application.icon_name = "spotify-linux-512x512"
        module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-media-role:music"

Now I would like to correlate the application.process.id = "22981" to the sink input index which in this case is index: 0. Now with that index number I would then need to to run this command: pacmd set-sink-input-mute 0 1 to mute Spotify and pacmd set-sink-input-mute 0 0 to unmute Spotify. For those commands, the first number would need to be replaced with the index number found earlier, and the next number is the boolean to turn on or off the mute. How can I put this altogether into a script, so I can get a command to mute/unmute the Spotify application?

EDIT:
Both of the scripts below work as expected, can somebody add a toggle which would check muted: yes or muted: no and then mute or unmute accordingly?

EDIT:
I was able to modify glenn jackman's script to add the toggle:

#!/bin/bash

main() {
    local action=toggle
    while getopts :mu option; do 
        case "$option" in 
            m) action=mute ;;
            u) action=unmute ;;
            ?) usage 1 "invalid option: -$OPTARG" ;;
        esac
    done
    shift $((OPTIND - 1))
    local pid=$(pidof "$1")
    if [[ -z "$pid" ]]; then
        echo "error: no running processes for: $1" >&2
    elif [[ "$1" ]]; then
        $action "$1"
    else
        usage 1 "specify an application name" 
    fi
}

usage() {
    [[ "$2" ]] && echo "error: $2"
    echo "Usage: $0 [-m | -u] appname"
    echo "Default: toggle mute"
    echo "Arguments:"
    echo "-m = mute application"
    echo "-u = unmute application"
    exit $1
}

toggle() {
    local status=$(get_status "$1")
    if [[ "$status" == "yes" ]]; then
      unmute "$1"
    elif [[ "$status" == "no" ]]; then
      mute "$1"
    fi
}

mute()   { adjust_muteness "$1" 1; }
unmute() { adjust_muteness "$1" 0; }

adjust_muteness() { 
    local index=$(get_index "$1")
    local status=$(get_status "$1")
    [[ "$index" ]] && pacmd set-sink-input-mute "$index" $2 >/dev/null 
}

get_index() {
    local pid=$(pidof "$1")
    pacmd list-sink-inputs | 
    awk -v pid=$pid '
    $1 == "index:" {idx = $2} 
    $1 == "application.process.id" && $3 == "\"" pid "\"" {print idx; exit}
    '
}

get_status() {
   local pid=$(pidof "$1")
   pacmd list-sink-inputs | 
   awk -v pid=$pid '
   $1 == "muted:" {idx = $2} 
   $1 == "application.process.id" && $3 == "\"" pid "\"" {print idx; exit}
   '
}

main "$@"

Best Answer

Here's my take on your interesting challenge:

#!/bin/bash

main() {
    local action=mute
    while getopts :hu option; do 
        case "$option" in 
            h) usage 0 ;;
            u) action=unmute ;;
            ?) usage 1 "invalid option: -$OPTARG" ;;
        esac
    done
    shift $((OPTIND - 1))

    if [[ "$1" ]]; then
        $action "$1"
    else
        usage 1 "specify an application name" 
    fi
}

usage() {
    [[ "$2" ]] && echo "error: $2"
    echo "usage: $0 [-h] [-u] appname"
    echo "where: -u = ummute application (default action is to mute)"
    exit $1
}

mute()   { adjust_muteness "$1" 1; }
unmute() { adjust_muteness "$1" 0; }

adjust_muteness() { 
    local index=$(get_index "$1")
    [[ "$index" ]] && pacmd set-sink-input-mute "$index" $2 >/dev/null 
}

get_index() {
    local pid=$(pidof "$1")
    if [[ -z "$pid" ]]; then
        echo "error: no running processes for: $1" >&2
    else
        pacmd list-sink-inputs | 
        awk -v pid=$pid '
            $1 == "index:" {idx = $2} 
            $1 == "application.process.id" && $3 == "\"" pid "\"" {print idx; exit}
        '
    fi
}

main "$@"