sndio for Debian
----------------

While sndio is not usable as an output option for most Debian packages at this
time, it is useful for interoperability with OpenBSD systems over the network;
OpenBSD machines can use sndiod on Debian as an output, and aucat/midicat on
Debian can play audio on a remote sndiod as well. As an example, this is useful
with the mpd package's "pipe" output driver:

# in mpd.conf
audio_output {
                type            "pipe"
                name            "remote sndiod"
                command         "aucat -f snd@remote-host,0/0 -i -"
                format          "48000:16:2"
}

sndio on Debian may also be useful for developers who wish to test OpenBSD audio
support in their software, and of course administrators can build custom
binaries that use sndio.

Users of non-Linux architectures should be aware that libsndio does not
currently support local audio devices on their kernels. sndio clients (including
sndiod) are, however, still capable of using remote instances of sndiod for
audio I/O.

 -- Peter Piwowarski <peterjpiwowarski@gmail.com>  Mon, 07 Sep 2015 19:27:30 -0400