[mythtv-users] frontend network control port

[Raymond Wagner]

On 12/11/2010 12:07, Richard Morton wrote:
>> This is as designed, and its a bug.  The '@' character is not on the list of
>> 'approved characters', so it gets filtered out by the control server.
> Sorry Raymond, I guess you are getting frustrated with me... I still
> dont know what I should do. In my black and white view of the world,
> it is either as designed or it is a bug, not both!!!

https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/blob/master/mythtv/programs/mythfrontend/networkcontrol.cpp#L419

There is a regular expression there that filters out characters that the 
control server doesn't think should be sent.  It is doing exactly as it 
is designed, so in that sense, it is working as intended.

> If it is not supported... is there another way to initiate playback of
> a mythvideo file using the network control port?

The addition of the 'play file' command was done at some point 
afterward, and was apparently not tested against content in anything 
other than the Default storage group.  It is supposed to work, but 
because of the above regular expression, the '@' gets filtered out, and 
the player is never given the proper file to access.

While adding a simple '@' to that list of characters and compiling would 
seem a simple enough fix, that line also has the consequence of 
filtering out any non-ASCII characters.  I've pinged the relevant dev on 
IRC, but go ahead and file a ticket if you want.  As far as I can tell, 
this bug has existed all the way back to 0.22 when 'play file' was 
added, meaning the call has never worked properly.