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MPD.CONF(5) Music Player Daemon MPD.CONF(5)

NAME

mpd.conf - mpd.conf documentation

DESCRIPTION

mpd.conf is the configuration file for mpd(1).

Usually, that is /etc/mpd.conf, unless a different path is specified on the command line.

If you run MPD as a user daemon (and not as a system daemon), the configuration is read from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpd/mpd.conf (usually ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf). On Android, mpd.conf will be loaded from the top-level directory of the data partition.

Each line in the configuration file contains a setting name and its value, e.g.:

connection_timeout "5"

Lines starting with # are treated as comments and ignored.

For settings that specify a file system path, the tilde (~) is expanded to $HOME. In addition, the following path expansions are supported:

  • $HOME
  • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
  • $XDG_MUSIC_DIR
  • $XDG_CACHE_HOME
  • $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR

Example:

music_directory "~/Music"
db_file "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpd/database"


Some of the settings are grouped in blocks with curly braces, e.g. per-plugin settings:

audio_output {


    type "alsa"


    name "My ALSA output"


    device "iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0"


    mixer_control "PCM"
}


The include directive can be used to include settings from another file; the given file name is relative to the current file:

include "other.conf"


You can use include_optional instead if you want the included file to be optional; the directive will be ignored if the file does not exist:

include_optional "may_not_exist.conf"


See docs/mpdconf.example in the source tarball for an example configuration file.

This manual is not complete, it lists only the most important options. Please read the MPD user manual for a complete configuration guide: <http://www.musicpd.org/doc/user/>

GLOBAL SETTINGS

System Settings

NAME.UNINDENT

This specifies the user that MPD will run as, if set. MPD should never run as root, and you may use this option to make MPD change its user id after initialization. Do not use this option if you start MPD as an unprivileged user.


NAME.UNINDENT

Change to this group. This discards all default groups and uses only this group. Do not use this setting.


PATH.UNINDENT

This specifies the file to save mpd's process ID in.


PATH.UNINDENT

This specifies where the log file should be located. The special value "syslog" makes MPD use the local syslog daemon.


LEVEL.TP Default notice.UNINDENT

Suppress all messages below the given threshold. The following log levels are available:

  • error: errors
  • warning: warnings
  • notice: interesting informational messages
  • info: unimportant informational messages
  • verbose: debug messages (for developers and for troubleshooting)


Client Settings

number.TP Default 6600.UNINDENT

This specifies the port that mpd listens on.


File Settings

PATH.UNINDENT

This specifies where the db file will be stored.


PATH.UNINDENT

The location of the sticker database. This is a database which manages dynamic information attached to songs.


PATH.UNINDENT

This specifies the directory where music is located. If you do not configure this, you can only play streams.


PATH.UNINDENT

This specifies the directory where saved playlists are stored (flat, no subdirectories). If you do not configure this, you cannot save playlists.


PATH.UNINDENT

This specifies if a state file is used and where it is located. The state of mpd will be saved to this file when mpd is terminated by a TERM signal or by the kill command. When mpd is restarted, it will read the state file and restore the state of mpd (including the playlist).


yes or no.TP Default yes.UNINDENT

Control if MPD will follow symbolic links pointing outside the music dir. You must recreate the database after changing this option.


yes or no.TP Default yes.UNINDENT

Control if MPD will follow symbolic links pointing inside the music dir, potentially adding duplicates to the database. You must recreate the database after changing this option.


yes or no.TP Default no.UNINDENT

This specifies the whether to support automatic update of music database when files are changed in music_directory. (Only implemented on Linux.)


number.TP Default unlimited.UNINDENT

Limit the depth of the directories being watched, 0 means only watch the music directory itself.


yes or no.TP Default no.UNINDENT

This specifies whether relative or absolute paths for song filenames are used when saving playlists.


CHARSET.UNINDENT

This specifies the character set used for the filesystem. A list of supported character sets can be obtained by running "iconv -l". The default is determined from the locale when the db was originally created.


Player Settings

yes or no.TP Default no.UNINDENT

Put MPD into pause mode instead of starting playback after startup.


Other Settings

yes or no.TP Default yes.UNINDENT

If yes, and MPD has been compiled with support for Avahi or Bonjour, service information will be published with Zeroconf.


NAME.TP Default Music Player @ %h.UNINDENT

If Zeroconf is enabled, this is the service name to publish. This name should be unique to your local network, but name collisions will be properly dealt with. %h will be replaced with the hostname of the machine running MPD.


See DESCRIPTION and the various AUDIO OUTPUT OPTIONS sections for the format of this block. Multiple audio_output sections may be specified. If no audio_output section is specified, then MPD will scan for a usable audio output.

REQUIRED AUDIO OUTPUT SETTINGS

NAME.UNINDENT

This specifies the audio output type. See the list of supported outputs in mpd --version for possible values.


NAME.UNINDENT

This specifies a unique name for the audio output.


OPTIONAL AUDIO OUTPUT SETTINGS

:type: ``sample_rate:bits:channels``
This specifies the sample rate, bits per sample, and number of channels of audio that is sent to the audio output device. See documentation for the audio_output_format option for more details. The default is to use whatever audio format is passed to the audio output. Any of the three attributes may be an asterisk to specify that this attribute should not be enforced

software, mixer or none.TP Default software.UNINDENT

Specifies how replay gain is applied. software uses an internal software volume control. mixer uses the configured (hardware) mixer control. none disables replay gain on this audio output.


hardware, software or none.TP Default hardware (if supported) or none.UNINDENT

Specifies which mixer should be used for this audio output: the hardware mixer (available for ALSA, OSS and PulseAudio), the software mixer or no mixer (none).


FILES

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mpd/mpd.conf
User configuration file (usually ~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf).
/etc/mpd.conf
Global configuration file.

SEE ALSO

mpd(1), mpc(1)

Author

Max Kellermann

Copyright

2003-2025 The Music Player Daemon Project

February 6, 2026 0.24.8