[Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

scatherinch · 2026-02-03 19:57:46

NCMPCPP has been telling me that my playlist is too large whenever I try and add my music library. I looked through the wiki but I don't see anything related to this error on it. It used to add my entire directory without this sort of complaining, but it's since stopped after some permissions got changed in my home folder. (I don't think that's related, but it's worth mentioning as it happened the same time this started). I'm not sure what to do and scratching the internet hasn't yielded much to get around this. Can someone help me get this set back to normal behavior/what should I do?

Last edited by scatherinch (2026-02-10 21:21:43)

V1del · 2026-02-03 20:14:56

A literal google search for your exact title gives a gemini response mentioning two config keys to set this, namely max_playlist_length and max_command_list_size. If your collection didn't grow unexpectedly it's very likely that "some permissions got changed" may prevent the config from being read properly and a potentially adjusted value not being looked at which sets the default value to 16384.

So what "some permissions changed" happened exactly?

ls -lR $HOME/.config/mpd #or wherever your actual configuration is supposed to lie

Also dumping an entire music library into the playlist is probably not really the envisioned way of doing this, look into things like https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ashuffle if you want to shuffle through your whole library without loading everything into the playlist.

Last edited by V1del (2026-02-03 20:19:47)

scatherinch · 2026-02-03 21:11:50

Originally, I did try adding that Into the configuration file. I do believe I have more music than I should, I did add some circa a few days before this. Is there a specific area in the config file I should add those lines to make it work?

I've been trying to learn Linux more in depth and Arch definitely has a higher curve to it going from more user-friendly distros. I was studying how permissions actually worked and ran the wrong command at the wrong place, resulting in a broken home folder (noob mistake...yeah...). I believe the command was chmod 0700 (owner can read, write, execute, but group and world can't?).

Not surprisingly, all sorts of other problems began appearing because of this and I'm not sure how to get the home folder back to the state it was before without just reinstalling the system from scratch, which I really don't want to do.

Last edited by scatherinch (2026-02-11 17:47:43)

V1del · 2026-02-03 21:34:29

It shouldn't matter where, simply a single line with the wanted size number: https://mpd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/us … imitations

You really should fix your home dir perms, this will likely be the least of your problems if you indeed ran what you claim to have ran. Did you do this recursively? What output do you get from

sudo ls -al $HOME #Redact embarassing filenames, but leave the perms and the ownership info intact

scatherinch · 2026-02-03 21:51:07

Yes, it was recursively. ( sudo chmod -R 0700 /home/<username> )

edited output:

drwx------ 36 user user     4096 Feb  3 15:26 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 user user     4096 Aug 17  2024 ..
-rwx------  1 user user     140 Feb  3 14:29 .bash_history
-rwx------  1 user user     21 Aug  1  2024 .bash_logout
-rwx------  1 user user     57 Feb  2  2023 .bash_profile
-rwx------  1 user user     181 Feb  2 09:02 .bashrc
drwx------ 20 user user     4096 Feb  3 15:13 .cache
drwx------ 71 user user     4096 Feb  3 16:32 .config
drwx------  2 user user     4096 Feb  3 04:25 Desktop
-rwx------  1 user user     5616 Feb  2 09:14 .dircolors
drwx------  6 user user     4096 Feb  3 04:06 Documents
drwx------  2 user user     4096 Jun  5  2024 .dosbox
drwx------  3 user user     4096 Jan 21  2025 .dotnet
drwx------  2 user user    36864 Feb  3 02:21 Downloads
-rwx--x--x  1 user user       68 May 31  2025 redacted executable
drwx------ 10 user user     4096 Jul 29  2025 redacted
drwx------  2 user user    4096 Jan 18 17:57 .fontconfig
drwx------  2 user user    4096 Jan 12 06:44 .fonts
drwx------  5 user user    4096 Feb 29  2024 .gnupg
-rwx------  1 user user      577 Jun  8  2025 .gtkrc-2.0
drwx------  5 user user     4096 Jun  8  2025 .icons
drwx------  2 user user     4096 Jan 12  2025 redactted
-rwx------  1 user user     429 Nov  9 18:28 .imwheelrc
drwx------  5 user user    4096 Aug 17  2024 .local
-rwx--x--x  1 user user      47 Apr  4  2024 redacted
drwx------ 12 user user    4096 Jan 17  2025 redacted
drwx------  3 user user     4096 Aug 17  2024 .mono
drwx------  3 user user     4096 Sep 21  2024 redacted
drwx------  2 user user     4096 Nov 22 17:08 Music
drwx------  2 user user    4096 Feb  3 14:33 Pictures
drwx------  3 user user     4096 Feb  3 04:26 .pki
-rwx--x--x  1 user user 65598656 Oct 15 15:37 redacted executable
drwx------  2 user user    4096 Feb  3 00:44 Public
-rwx------  1 user user      726 Jan 29 21:46 redacted
drwx------  5 user user     4096 Aug 17  2024 redacted
drwx------  2 user user    4096 Aug 19  2024 RMG
drwx------  3 user user     4096 Feb  3 14:29 .ssh
drwx------  2 user user     4096 Feb  3 04:27 .steam
lrwxrwxrwx  1 user user      31 Feb  3 04:27 redacted symlink
lrwxrwxrwx  1 user user       29 Feb  3 04:27 redacted symlink
-rwx--x--x  1 user user      359 Aug 17  2024 redacted executable
drwx------  2 user user     4096 Oct 13 17:42 Templates
drwx------  4 user user    4096 Sep 21  2024 redacted
drwx------  2 user user     4096 Feb  3 01:07 redacted
drwx------  9 user user    4096 Dec  8  2024  redacted
-rwx--x--x  1 user user      373 Aug  8  2024 redacted executable
drwx------  3 user user     4096 Feb 29  2024 .var
drwx------  2 user user     4096 Jul 21  2025 Videos
-rwx------  1 user user     1225 Apr  9  2025 .viminfo
drwx------  3 user user    4096 Feb 29  2024 redacted
drwx------  5 user user     4096 Feb  3 04:14 .wine
-rwx--x--x  1 user user      357 Aug  8  2024 redacted executable
-rwx------  1 user user      56 Feb  3 14:58 .Xauthority
-rwx------  1 user user      224 Apr  4  2024 .xbindkeysrc
-rwx------  1 user user      250 Jul  9  2024 .xinitrc
drwx------ 16 user user     4096 Jan 26 11:31 redacted
-rwx------  1 user user     259 Jul  9  2024 .xprofile
-rwx------  1 user user     116 Jun 25  2024 .yarnrc

edit: also it's news to me that program has a limitation to how much content it can display, i really didn't know...i definitely have more than 16,384 songs

edit: i was told that 0700 should be for hardening and security reasons, but i guess that's not good?

Last edited by scatherinch (2026-02-03 22:02:27)

seth · 2026-02-03 22:10:08

i was told that 0700 should be for hardening and security reasons, but i guess that's not good?

No. More like idiotic.
"go-rwx" is mostly* reasonable but setting random files executable (don't run u-x now…) is hardly making things secure.

* what's the euid of your mpd process?

ps aux | grep mpd

it's news to me that program has a limitation to how much content it can display

These settings are various limitations to prevent MPD from using too many resources (denial of service).

It's not so much the display part.

Tbc, you indeed have and want a playlist > 16k songs?
Why??

scatherinch · 2026-02-03 22:40:07

No. More like idiotic.
"go-rwx" is mostly* reasonable but setting  random files executable (don't run u-x now…) is hardly making things secure.

Those 'executables' are honestly just shell files that I made to launch utilities like maim and the occasional game from my window manager's command line, none of them are foreign programs

So then should I run sudo chmod -R go-rwx then? Admittedly, I never understood the symbolic method of setting the permissions as opposed to the octal way. to my defense, that's how I was taught.

* what's the euid of your mpd process?

user 1955 0.1 0.1 1041680 67972 ? Ssl 14:58 0:12 mpd
user 738445 0.0 0.0 7540 4196 pts/2 S+ 17:32 0:00 grep --color=auto mpd

Tbc, you indeed have and want a playlist > 16k songs?
Why??

My window manager's configuration has a built-in feature linked to mpd that allows me to glide through tracks and change them using hotkeys, thus, it feels incomplete due to this limitation and i know it's not going to play all of the music when i do this

edit: but just curiosity - go-rwx - g(group)o(others)-r(read)w(write)x(execute)?

Last edited by scatherinch (2026-02-03 22:53:18)

seth · 2026-02-03 22:57:25

So then should I run sudo chmod -R go-rwx then?

No. Running "chmod -R" is rarely a good idea and you should never sudo it

Those executables are honestly just shell files

You turned all sorts of files executable.

I never quite understood the symbolic method of setting the permissions

The main aspect is to reasonably *adjust* permissions, rather than flattening them.

mpd seems to run under your user, did you fix the mpd.conf, restart mpd and do you then still encounter the error?

My window manager has a built-in feature linked to mpd that allows me to glide through tracks and change them using hotkeys

1. why are you then using ncmpcpp
2. you mean it requires something like "mpc listall"?
Having an mpc playlist that's just a copy of the mpd database sounds clumsy…

scatherinch · 2026-02-03 23:12:25

No. Running "chmod -R" is rarely a good idea and you should never sudo it

You turned all sorts of files executable.

What would you recommend I do then? I'd like to put everything back to the way I had it when I first spawned the home user.

mpd seems to run under your user, did you fix the mpd.conf, restart mpd and do you then still encounter the error?

Yeah, but like the first responder said, it's just not possible to display so many entries and I did add those lines from the documentation and now that I understand what's going on, that in fact it has nothing to do with ncmpcpp and this is about permissions, I'll just change the thread topic

1. why are you then using ncmpcpp
2. you mean it requires something like "mpc listall"?
Having an mpc playlist that's just a copy of the mpd database sounds clumsy…

No, I don't suppose I need it, it was just very minimalistic and I liked the aesthetic. I ran it in a different tab and browsed through the music inside of it using my mouse. I could just use a different music player like audacious or something (I understand now that it has nothing to do with MPD)

loqs · 2026-02-04 00:10:47

scatherinch wrote:

What would you recommend I do then? I'd like to put everything back to the way I had it when I first spawned the home user.

Do you have a snapshot or backup from before you changed the permissions? Otherwise you could create a new user, run all commands that create configs in that users home directory then compare permissions. Or you attempt to determine what needs to be executable and remove it from all other files.
Edit:
Note you can set umask 0077 which would create files with 0600 and directories 0700. Of course executables can change their own umask and it only applies to new files but it is much safer than recursive `chmod`.

Last edited by loqs (2026-02-04 01:33:06)

seth · 2026-02-04 08:40:56

my playlist is too large

is unlikely related to "permissions"; did you restart mpd after editing the config (which now looks like what)?
You can use file to semi-automatically decide whether a file needs to be executable, but notably you want directories to be executable (what means you're allowed to enter them)

scatherinch · 2026-02-05 12:36:30

is unlikely related to "permissions"; did you restart mpd after editing the config (which now looks like what)?
You can use file to semi-automatically decide whether a file needs to be executable, but notably you want directories to be executable (what means you're allowed to enter them)

I figured that out, yes, thank you very much.

My issue, however, as it turns out, has nothing to do with this program as I thought. I've changed the permissions of all my files in the home folder and those on two other drives (yes, I tried to restore from a backup, but in the backups, all the permissions were also screwed up, meaning I've copied those to the external drive with the wrong permissions in the past (maybe about a year ago, I don't even know how long I've copying them with the same vulnerable permissions!). For instance, there are a couple of folders I have for running bottles and I can no longer access these when I run the problems. Steam is randomly freezing, I can't use bottles, etc. I'm not even sure what I would do at this point.

My question is...how should I go about properly fixing my permissions to get back into a working state; what is an optimal way of setting permissions? I'm not even sure what I would do at this point; I don't want to lose my data...

Last edited by scatherinch (2026-02-05 12:36:48)

seth · 2026-02-05 14:19:42

Please use [quote][/quote] tags, not "code" tags when quoting posts.

how should I go about properly fixing my permissions

File by file, possibly using

seth wrote:

file to semi-automatically decide whether a file needs to be executable, but notably you want directories to be executable

get back into a working state

What exactly is "not working" and how?
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855

The thread started w/ mpd complaining because you're trying to use humongous playlists and haven't explicitly configured it to allow that…

loqs · 2026-02-05 22:40:00

Is the permissions issue limited to your user's home directory? Is ownership still correct? Is the system running correctly at least for commands that do not involve accessing your user's home directory?

Last edited by loqs (2026-02-05 22:41:20)

scatherinch · 2026-02-10 19:16:14

Is the permissions issue limited to your user's home directory? Is ownership still correct? Is the system running correctly at least for commands that do not involve accessing your user's home directory?

Yes to all. In the end, I had to basically sanitize the directory and its drives and generate new configuration files according (done according to the umask value) by making a new user and spawning fresh files whenever I ran programs. For some important data I wanted to keep, I did:

find . -type d -exec chmod 0755 {} \; 
find . -type f -exec chmod 0644 {} \;

Changed files being marked as executables back to 644 like seth suggested and how the wiki advised folders to be setup with 755

The thread started w/ mpd complaining because you're trying to use humongous playlists and haven't explicitly configured it to allow that…

As far as MPD goes, I did try adding that line and upping the appropriate values in the config, but it didn't make a difference in the end. I just don't know if the program can do this. But that's fine, I can use something like ashuffle.

max_playlist_length		"16384" #size of my library, no luck
max_command_list_size		"2048"           #tried many different values, no luck

The thread started w/ mpd complaining because you're trying to use humongous playlists and haven't explicitly configured it to allow that…

From now on should I just make a new thread for a separate issue or change the topic?

Last edited by scatherinch (2026-02-10 20:16:46)

seth · 2026-02-10 20:29:56

16384 is the default value, https://mpd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/us … imitations
Try something bigger. MUCH bigger.

And seth ceretainly didn't suggest to chmod anything in your $HOME 644 or 755…

scatherinch · 2026-02-10 21:20:16

16384 is the default value, https://mpd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/us … imitations

Alright, I see what I did wrong, sorry for the confusion: I had to kill the daemon and THEN update the DB after adding those two lines with the larger value. It updated and all is good.

And seth ceretainly didn't suggest to chmod anything in your $HOME 644 or 755…

That was a typo, sorry. I meant how you told me about the file command. I followed an article here that advised me to run find and judging by the umask value, that's the way they were to begin with. And the steam issue with the freezing I mentioned earlier was not related to my problems here.- https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/File_p … ric_method

Now my system is accessing things normally again. Changing to solved...

Last edited by scatherinch (2026-02-10 21:24:22)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-02-03 19:57:46

[Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#2 2026-02-03 20:14:56

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#3 2026-02-03 21:11:50

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#4 2026-02-03 21:34:29

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#5 2026-02-03 21:51:07

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#6 2026-02-03 22:10:08

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#7 2026-02-03 22:40:07

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#8 2026-02-03 22:57:25

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#9 2026-02-03 23:12:25

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#10 2026-02-04 00:10:47

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#11 2026-02-04 08:40:56

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#12 2026-02-05 12:36:30

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#13 2026-02-05 14:19:42

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#14 2026-02-05 22:40:00

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#15 2026-02-10 19:16:14

Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

#16 2026-02-10 20:29:56

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Re: [Solved] Permissions Question w/ MPD

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