mpris is a command-line tool for controlling MPRIS v2 capable media players
on Linux (which is practically all of them, nowadays). It is very similar to
playerctl, although predates it by two years and is written in slow and clumsy
Perl.
Dependencies: Net::DBus
Demo:
$ mpris
quodlibet (Quod Libet) – Playing
$ mpris --help
Usage: mpris [{<player>|--all} <cmd> [args...]]
mpris <player> {activate|is-running}
mpris --list
mpris --help {commands|get|set|printf}
$ mpris --all summary
-- quodlibet (Quod Libet) --
[Playing] Gorillaz – El Mañana (0:11/3:49)
Art URL : file:///tmp/tmpcrp88aiz
Length : 3:49
Track ID : /net/sacredchao/QuodLibet/140195105373808
Album : Demon Days
Artist : Gorillaz
xesam:contentCreated : 2005-01-01T00:00:00
Genre : Alternative rock
Last played : 1970-01-01T00:00:00
Title : El Mañana
Track number : 7
URL : file:///home/grawity/Music/archive/Gorillaz%20-%20El%20Ma%C3%B1ana.mp3
Play count : 0
Rating (0..1) : 0.5
(volume: 100%, repeat: none, shuffle: on)
Note: The Git history has many irrelevant-looking commits because it was extracted from the ~/code mega-repo, together with Lib.pm which received changes for various other projects co-located there.