buffer.c

This program reads data from standard input, buffers it, then writes it to standard output. The default buffer size is 4 Mbytes (4194304 bytes in this case, not 4000000). Call it as buffer 42 to use a 42 Mbyte buffer. I use this program to buffer the PCM data extracted from RealAudio^TM crap before feeding it to an MP3 encoder.

Implemented by a simple select() loop and a ring of buffers.

Source code: buffer.c.
Compile like this: gcc -O3 -o buffer buffer.c
How to reduce the verbosity level: buffer 2>/dev/null

Typical use:

URL=rtsp://www.example.com/encoder/1729.rm
MINUTES=60

mkfifo audiodump.wav
buffer < audiodump.wav | lame --quiet -b 128 - foo.mp3 &
(sleep `expr $MINUTES \* 60`; echo "quit") | \
        mplayer -really-quiet -ao pcm -vc dummy -vo null \
                -slave -cache 500 $URL