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Play a random .avi file from a media tree

Terminal - Play a random .avi file from a media tree
unset files i; set -f; O=$IFS; while IFS= read -r -d $'\0' files[i++]; do :; done < <(find . -name '*.avi' -print0) && IFS=$O; set +f && echo "Running: mplayer \"${files[ $(( $RANDOM % ${#files[@]} )) ]}\""
2009-02-18 16:53:57
User: DEinspanjer
Functions: echo find read set unset
0
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Play a random .avi file from a media tree

unsets variables used by the one-liner

sets up the IFS bash variable to not be affected by whitespace and disables extra glob expansion

uses read to slurp the results of the find command into an array

selects an element of the array at random to be passed as an argument to mplayer

Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Alternatives

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Terminal - Alternatives

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What others think

If you don't care about embedded newlines in filenames, this version is a little easier on the eyes:

set -f; O=$IFS IFS=$'\n' files=($(find . -name '*.avi')) IFS=$O; set +f && echo "Running: mplayer \"${files[ $(( $RANDOM % ${#files[@]} )) ]}\""
Comment by DEinspanjer 221 weeks and 3 days ago

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