Please see the Install page for quick instructions about how to install and launch LastBASH. You must have a compatible terminal (such as linux or xterm) and, if you wish to use the backend player, you should have MPlayer too. For now.

After you have donwloaded, extracted and installed the program, run it. You do not need to pass any command line parameters, at least at first start.

$ lastbash

It will ask your Last.fm username and password. You should have one. If not, hmmm... go and create an account on Last.fm

You can also pass the Last.fm station name to tune directly into it.

$ lastbash "lastfm://globaltags/rock"
$ lastbash "lastfm://globaltags/classic rock"
$ lastbash "lastfm://user/cstroie/neighbours"
$ lastbash "lastfm://artist/Rammstein/similarartists"

Then, the program will try to connect. If it succeeds, it will save a playlist in ~/.lastbash/playlist.m3u, for you to open with some external player, if you don't want to use the backend it provides.

If you have MPlayer (for the moment, this is the backend), it will start playing automatically. If you don't want to use the backend, you will have to tell LastBASH not to try to run it by setting this in the configuration file:

USE_PLAYER="n"

Then, open your favourite mp3 player, load the above-mentioned playlist and start playing. LastBASH will show you the current playing track, will keep a history of last played tracks and will allow you to control the stream.

For example, to run MPlayer manually (just an example), run it this way:

$ mplayer -cache 512 -playlist ~/.lastbash/playlist.m3u

If you like xmms, run it this way (or just run it and open the playlist):

$ xmms ~/.lastbash/playlist.m3u

To use mpg123, the command is the following:

$ mpg123 -C -v -@ ~/.lastbash/playlist.m3u

Enjoy!

Remote control

If one instance of LastBASH is already running, a second call can send commands to the first one, for example:

$ lastbash -c LOVE
$ lastbash -c SKIP
$ lastbash -c BAN

Or you can change the station this way.

$ lastbash "lastfm://group/LastBASH"

Mozilla Firefox integration

Open Firefox and type in the address bar the following.

about:config

Right click and select New > String . For name type the next string and press OK.

network.protocol-handler.app.lastfm

For value type the full path to the LastBASH program, something like this one.

/usr/bin/lastbash

Now, go to Last.fm and click any lastfm:// url. This will launch a second instance of the program, which will connect to the first one and will pass it the new station name.

Key bindings

Basic key bindings are the following. Please see the man page for more details.

l

Love track

k

Skip track

b

Ban track

r

Refresh track metadata (refresh is automatic, but if you need to, you can use this key to force a refresh)

p

Toggle "Record to Profile" (the P led will change status)

d

Toggle "Discovery mode" (the D led will change status)

u

Enter new Last.fm URL to tune into.

t

Change the station by entering global tags.

g

Change to some group station.

n

Change to the neighbours station.

c

Change to the recommended station.

a

Change to the similar artists station.

f

Change to the fans station.

^D

Toggle Debug mode

^L

Redraw the interface

^S

Toggle history scrolling direction

q

Quit (and stop the backend player too)