---
name: "icesound"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "icewm"
version: "4.1.0-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/icesound"
---

# icesound(1)

### NAME

```
 icesound - play audio files when interesting GUI events happen
```

### SYNOPSIS

**icesound** \[*OPTIONS*\]

### DESCRIPTION

The [**icewm**(1)](/icewm/1.md) window manager generates so-called GUI events in response to interesting actions, like opening or closing of application windows, switching of workspace, etc.  GUI events are a property of the X root window.  [**icewm**(1)](/icewm/1.md) updates this property whenever a new GUI event occurs.  Interested applications can listen for changes to this property.  There are nearly twenty GUI events defined.

**icesound** responds to these GUI events by playing audio files. These sound files are *.wav* files located in a *sounds* sub-directory in one of the [**icewm**(1)](/icewm/1.md) configuration directories.

**icesound** supports several common audio interfaces.  These are: ALSA, OSS and libAO.  These must be enabled during configuration. ALSA, OSS and libAO all require support for libsndfile, which is a very common library to read audio files.

- **ALSA**

  **ALSA** is rather involved to program and it works, but this could use more testing.  It plays at most one sound at a time.

- **LibAO**

  **LibAO** is a cross-platform audio output library which is a convenient wrapper around a significant number of common audio interfaces.  It has a simple configuration file which is documented in the [**libao.conf**(5)](/libao.conf/5.md) manual page.

- **OSS**

  The *Open Sound System (OSS)* is a cross-platform sound interface, which is fully supported by **icesound**.

When multiple audio interfaces are available **icesound** will examine them all until it finds one which it can connect to and then use that one. By default it prefers them in the order of: **AO**, **ALSA**, **OSS**.

### OPTIONS

### SPECIFIC OPTIONS

- **-d**, **--display**=*DISPLAY*

  X11 display used by [**icewm**(1)](/icewm/1.md) (default: `$DISPLAY`).

- **-s**, **--sample-dir**=*DIRECTORY*

  Specifies a directory with sound files.  The default is: *$HOME/.config/icewm/sounds*, *$HOME/.icewm/sounds*, *CFGDIR/sounds* and *LIBDIR/sounds*.  See the output of `"icewm --directories"`.

- **-i**, **--interface**={**AO**\|**ALSA**\|**OSS**}\[,{**AO**\|**ALSA**\|**OSS**}\]\*

  Specifies the audio output interfaces. One or more of: **AO**, **ALSA**, **OSS** separated by comma's (`","`).

- **-D**, **--device**=*DEVICE*

  Backwards compatibility only: the default device. Please prefer one of the **-A**, **-O** or **-S** options.

- **-O**, **--oss**=*DEVICE*

  Specifies the OSS device (default: */dev/dsp*).

- **-A**, **--alsa**=*DEVICE*

  Specifies the ALSA device (default: `"default"`).

- **-z**, **--snooze**=*MILLISECONDS*

  Specifies the snooze interval between sound events in milliseconds.  Default is 500 milliseconds.

- **-p**, **--play**=*SOUND*

  Plays the given sound (name or number) and exits.

- **-l**, **--list-files**

  Lists the available sound file paths and exits.

- **--list-sounds**

  Lists the supported sound file names and exits.

- **--list-interfaces**

  Lists the supported audio interfaces and exits.

- **-o**, **--output=FILE**

  Redirect all output to *FILE*. A leading tilde or environment variable is expanded.

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  Be verbose and print some information when sound events occur.

### GENERAL OPTIONS

- **-h**, **--help**

  Print a brief usage statement to *stdout* and exit.

- **-V**, **--version**

  Print the program version to *stdout* and exit.

- **-C**, **--copying**

  Print copying permissions to *stdout* for the program and exit.

### EXIT STATUS

- **0**

  Success.

- **1**

  General error.

- **2**

  Command line error.

- **3**

  Subsystems error (i.e cannot connect to server).

### SEE ALSO

[**icewm**(1)](/icewm/1.md), [**libao.conf**(5)](/libao.conf/5.md), [**padsp**(1)](/padsp/1.md), [**aplay**(1)](/aplay/1.md), [**alsamixer**(1)](/alsamixer/1.md).

### BUGS

Please report bugs at \<https://github.com/ice-wm/icewm/issues\>.

### AUTHOR

Brian Bidulock \<mailto:bidulock@openss7.org\>.

See **--copying** for full copyright notice and copying permissions.

### LICENSE

**IceWM** is licensed under the GNU Library General Public License. See the *COPYING* file in the distribution or use the **--copying** flag to display copying permissions.