Beep on Linux in C
Solution 1
I think the only way to do this is to either use suid to give my own program root access, or to use beep
, which already has suid. I suppose I will just add one more dependency, then, as beep
is not too big anyway.
Thank you for all the answers, I'm sure other libraries are great for more complex signals, but I need a very simple one!
I think this question can be marked as solved / closed, then.
If anybody finds a way to create a beep using the console without superuser-privileges, I'm still interested in this solution :)
Thank you all again.
Solution 2
Please look at the standard linux beep
source code.
http://www.johnath.com/beep/beep.c
It uses KIOCSOUND ioctl to "beep", but you don't need superuser privileges to make it play. I have configured it to be readable and executable by users on the "beep" group.
So my standard user with UID 1000 is in the group with GID 501 (i called it "beep").
Next to this I had to chmod 4750 /usr/bin/beep
and now I'm able to play beeps (in the range 20-20000Hz) without asking for superuser privileges.
Solution 3
The most basic beep is still '\a' , if your terminal supports it:
fprintf(stdout, "\aBeep!\n" );
Solution 4
open("/dev/tty", O_RDONLY); instead /dev/console will work with sound OK for terminal consoles without requiring superuser privileges. But virtual consoles in X session will fail with sound then, even for superuser.
omnidan
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Updated on December 22, 2020Comments
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omnidan over 3 years
I want to generate a beep sound with a specific frequency and length (for different sound signals) using the system beeper (and only the speakers if beeper is not available / accessible). I know it is possible to do this by using ioctl, but that requires root access, which I don't want.
I know I could just use the "beep" command, but that would be a dependency, which, if possible, shouldn't be used (no external dependencies at all, just the basic linux libraries and C).
What I currently have is the following code (but this requires superuser privileges to run):
#include <stdlib.h> #include <fcntl.h> #include <linux/kd.h> int main(int argc, char *argv[]) { int fd = open("/dev/console", O_RDONLY); if (fd == -1 || argc != 3) return -1; return ioctl(fd, KDMKTONE, (atoi(argv[2])<<16)+(1193180/atoi(argv[1]))); }
If there is no other way to do this, then I will use beep, but I would really like to avoid dependencies and integrate the beep directly into my script, but I'm sure somebody here will know a solution / workaround.
I don't really want external libraries as the program should be as lightweight as possible.
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omnidan about 12 yearsI want to keep the program as lightweight as possible
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Basile Starynkevitch about 12 yearsThen just output a bell character
\a
and leave the sound making to the terminal emulator. Of course, you can't change the pitch and tone of that sound... -
omnidan about 12 years@BasileStarynkevitch Yeah, of course that's possible, too, but I want specific frequencies to differ the signals a bit.
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omnidan about 12 yearsYeah, but that's just one frequency.
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wildplasser about 12 yearsI said it was basic ... Sorry about that.(the reaction might still be usable for people who visit this page afterwards.)
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U. Windl over 4 yearsThere is a
beep
command, like in github.com/NaWer/beep/tree/master/Music