CLI-based module music player that uses VLC

playmod.rb

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

#  playmod: plays module and other audio files in a directory using vlc
#
# on macOS: brew cask install vlc

require 'open3'
require 'io/console'

# Keep a copy of the child VLC process's PID around to terminate it nicely
# if we crash out
cpid = nil

# Trap CTRL+C and make sure we kill any child VLC process
trap ("SIGINT") do
  Process.kill("SIGINT", cpid) if cpid
  exit
end

# Go through every file in the directory by default
# (since module files have many different extensions, .s3m, .xm, .it, .mod, etc.)
Dir[ARGV.first || '*'].each do |file|
  # Use UNIX `file` to identify the type of file
  # Both MIME type (-I) and non-MIME type results are useful as 
  # .s3m files do not result in a audio/* MIME type for some reason..
  type = IO.popen(["file", "-b", "-I", file]).read + IO.popen(["file", "-b", file]).read
  next unless type =~ /audio|module|sound/i

  # It's audio, so let's call vlc to play it
  puts "Playing #{file}"
  # --intf dummy means no GUI interface is displayed
  # (cvlc works similarly but is not standard on macOS)
  si, so, w = Open3.popen2e("vlc", "--intf", "dummy", "-q", file, "vlc://quit")

  # Store the PID
  cpid = w.pid

  # Check STDIN in every second
  # If 'enter' is pressed, skip the track
  loop do
    r = IO.select([STDIN], [], [], 1)

    if r && r.first.first.read(1) == "\n"
      Process.kill("SIGINT", cpid)
      break
    end

    # If the current VLC ends, move on as well
    if !w.alive?
      break
    end
  end
end

Just run this in a folder full of .s3m, .mod, .xm, .it and similar files, and if you've got VLC installed, it'll play them nicely from the command line. Inspired by @bisqwit who does something similar.

Note that this script uses no unusual Ruby features and requires no third party gems, so should run on any modernish system that has Ruby installed.