table of contents
| H2CLI(1) | User Commands | H2CLI(1) |
NAME¶
h2cli - a CLI version of the advanced drum machine Hydrogen.
SYNOPSIS¶
h2cli options
DESCRIPTION¶
h2cli does not start up the GUI of Hydrogen but allows to do some batch processing using its core. It can be used in two different ways. Either for exporting a song into an audio file or for checking, extracting, installing, or upgrading an existing drumkit.
OPTIONS¶
- -d, --driver=[AUDIO_DRIVER]
- Use the selected audio driver. The description of this option in the --help output contains all audio drivers available on your system.
- -s, --song=FILE
- Load a song (*.h2song) at startup. Alternatively, you can just pass the filename without this option.
- -p, --playlist=FILE
- Load a playlist (*.h2playlist) at startup.
- -k, --kit=DRUMKIT_NAME
- Load a drumkit at startup.
- -o, --outfile=PATH
- Destination file (export).
- -r, --rate=INT
- Set bitrate while exporting a song.
- -b, --bits=INT
- Set bit depth while exporting a song.
- --compression-level=DOUBLE
- Trade-off between max. quality (0.0) and max. compression (1.0) while exporting a song.
- -I, --interpolation=INT
- Type of interpolation used during resampling (if required) while exporting a song. Available options are 0 (linear) [default], 1 (cosine), 2 (third), 3 (cubic), and 4 (hermite).
- -i, --install=FILE
- Install a drumkit (*.h2drumkit).
- -c, --check=FILE
- Validates a drumkit (*.h2drumkit) against the current drumkit format.
- -l, --legacy-check=FILE
- Validates a drumkit (*.h2drumkit) against the current as well as legacy drumkit formats.
- -u, --upgrade=FILE
- Upgrades a drumkit. The provided file can be either an absolute path to a folder containing a drumkit, an absolute path to a drumkit file (drumkit.xml) itself, or an absolute path to a compressed drumkit (*.h2drumkit). If no target folder was specified using the -t option, a backup of the drumkit is created and the original one is upgraded in place. If a compressed drumkit is provided as first argument, the upgraded drumkit will be compressed as well.
- -x, --extract=FILE
- Extracts the content of a drumkit (*.h2drumkit). If no target is specified using the -t option, this command behaves like --install.
- -t, --target=FOLDER
- Target folder the extracted (-x) or upgraded (-u) drumkit will be stored in. The folder is created if it does not exists yet.
- -O, --osc-port=PORT
- Use custom OSC port.
- -P, --data=PATH
- Use an alternate system data path.
- --user-data=PATH
- Use an alternate user data path.
- The default one is $HOME/.hydrogen.
- --config=PATH
- Use an alternate config path.
- The default one is $HOME/.hydrogen/hydrogen.conf.
- -V, --verbose=[LEVEL]
- Print a lot of debugging info
- Level, if present, may be None, Error, Warning, Info, or Debug.
- -L, --log-file=FILE
- Use custom log file.
- -T, --log-timestamps
- Add timestamps to all log messages.
- -v, --version
- Show version info.
- -h, --help
- Show this help message.
FILES¶
For a comprehensive list of files, configuration, and environmental variables, please see the man page of hydrogen itself.
EXAMPLES¶
Exporting a song into an audio file
- h2cli -s /usr/share/hydrogen/data/demo_songs/GM_kit_demo1.h2song -d GMRockKit -d auto -o ./example.wav
Check the format of a drumkit
- h2cli -c /usr/share/hydrogen/data/drumkits/GMRockKit
BUGS & FEATURES REQUEST¶
If you find any bug or if you would like to propose a new feature, please report it to https://github.com/hydrogen-music/hydrogen/issues
AUTHORS¶
The hydrogen development team. See complete list at Hydrogen's "About" Dialog. You can contact them at <hydrogen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.
SEE ALSO¶
The main graphical application
A player Hydrogen-based songs on the command line
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE¶
Copyright (C) 2002-2008 Alessandro Cominu
Copyright (C) 2008-2025 The hydrogen development team
Hydrogen is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL version 2 or later.
| July 29, 2025 | Hydrogen 1.2.6 |