If you're using deep seek, read this!

Discussion
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The mistake is that it replaces
pacmd list-sink-inputs
with
pactl list sink-inputs
as the latter provides a similar functionality which also works with Pipewire, but has a completely different output, which the script has to parse.

Example outputs from both PA and PW systems to parse

PW:

Sink Input #1158
	Driver: PipeWire
	Owner Module: n/a
	Client: 1157
	Sink: 700
	Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 44100Hz
	Channel Map: front-left,front-right
	Format: pcm, format.sample_format = "\"float32le\""  format.rate = "44100"  format.channels = "2"  format.channel_map = "\"front-left,front-right\""
	Corked: no
	Mute: no
	Volume: front-left: 581 /   1% / -123,14 dB,   front-right: 581 /   1% / -123,14 dB
	        balance 0,00
	Buffer Latency: 0 usec
	Sink Latency: 0 usec
	Resample method: PipeWire
	Properties:
		client.api = "pipewire-pulse"
		pulse.server.type = "unix"
		application.name = "spotify"
		application.process.id = "27389"
		application.process.user = "laco"
		application.process.host = "DellG3"
		application.process.binary = "spotify"
		application.language = "hu_HU.UTF-8"
		window.x11.display = ":1"
		application.process.machine_id = "94739ab9c6c446f2bf361f5351421995"
		media.role = "music"
		media.name = "Spotify"
		node.rate = "1/44100"
		node.latency = "8192/44100"
		stream.is-live = "true"
		node.name = "spotify"
		node.want-driver = "true"
		node.autoconnect = "true"
		media.class = "Stream/Output/Audio"
		port.group = "stream.0"
		adapt.follower.spa-node = ""
		object.register = "false"
		factory.id = "7"
		clock.quantum-limit = "8192"
		node.loop.name = "data-loop.0"
		library.name = "audioconvert/libspa-audioconvert"
		client.id = "125"
		object.id = "104"
		object.serial = "1158"
		pulse.attr.maxlength = "4194304"
		pulse.attr.tlength = "640064"
		pulse.attr.prebuf = "0"
		pulse.attr.minreq = "7056"
		node.driver-id = "91"
		module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-media-role:music"

PA:

1 sink input(s) available.
    index: 9
	driver: <protocol-native.c>
	flags: START_CORKED 
	state: RUNNING
	sink: 0 <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo>
	volume: front-left: 44394 /  68% / -10.15 dB,   front-right: 44394 /  68% / -10.15 dB
	        balance 0.00
	muted: no
	current latency: 1023.38 ms
	requested latency: 980.00 ms
	sample spec: float32le 2ch 44100Hz
	channel map: front-left,front-right
	             Sztereó
	resample method: copy
	module: 11
	client: 118 <spotify>
	properties:
		media.role = "music"
		media.name = "Spotify"
		application.name = "spotify"
		native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
		native-protocol.version = "35"
		application.process.id = "42360"
		application.process.user = "moncsi"
		application.process.host = "moncsi-laptopja"
		application.process.binary = "spotify"
		application.language = "hu_HU.UTF-8"
		window.x11.display = ":0"
		application.process.machine_id = "8aee7cb39dc24c17922ea866a7f090e6"
		application.process.session_id = "2"
		module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-media-role:music"

So a totally different parsing is needed for a PW system.
If you look at the PA output, just parse for “index:”, and any line containing “spotify” after that: the result is the value after “index:”, hence the cut -d: -f2.
It’s simple.
But for PW, we need to parse for node.name, which has to be “spotify”, then what we need really is the object.serial from the same (!!!) node.

This one seems to work reliably (just the relevant snippet from the script):


# Get the client index of Spotify
spotify=$(pactl list sink-inputs | while read line; do
  if [[ -n $(echo $line | grep "node.name") ]]; then
                 name=$(echo $line | awk -F'"' '{print $2}')
                 if [ "$name" != "spotify" ]; then 
                 name=""
                 fi  
  fi
              
  if [ -n "$name" ]; then
                 if [[ -n $(echo $line | grep "object.serial") ]]; then
                       index=$(echo $line | awk -F'"' '{print $2}') 
                       echo $index
                       exit
                 fi     
  fi
done)

How does that compare to the GPT’s conversion? (Relevant snippet):

# Get the client index of Spotify using pactl for PipeWire (should work fine)
spotify=$(pactl list sink-inputs | while read line; do
  [[ -n $(echo $line | grep "index:") ]] && index=$line
  [[ -n $(echo $line | grep Spotify) ]] && echo $index && exit
done | cut -d: -f2)

“Should work fine”, yes should, but doesn’t :smiley:

I still tinker with that script, unti it works fine in every aspect I need (still there’s some fiddling to do).

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