Watch for volume changes in ALSA/Pulseaudio

Edit: In the second example, an event isn't generated for me when volume is below 5% or above 100%. The first example works perfectly as far as I know.

pactl subscribe will print out data about the sinks when the volume changes. What I'm doing now is piping the output to a small C program that will run a script.

run.sh:

pactl subscribe | grep --line-buffered "sink" | ./prog

or for a specific sink, e.g. 3:

pactl subscribe | grep --line-buffered "sink #3" | ./prog

prog.c:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[]){
    while(1){
        while(getchar() != '\n');
        system("./volume_notify.sh");
    }
}

When the volume of the sink is changed, pactl will print a line, which will cause the program to run the script.

-or-

Here's an example based on the amixer monitor, as referenced by CL. The while loop will iterate each time the volume changes, so put your callback in there.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <alsa/asoundlib.h>

#define MAX_CARDS 256

int monitor_native(char const *name);
int open_ctl(const char *name, snd_ctl_t **ctlp);
void close_all(snd_ctl_t* ctls[], int ncards);

int main(int argc, char* argv[]){

    const char *ctl_name = "hw:0";

    while(monitor_native(ctl_name) == 1){
        //volume has been changed, do something
        system("~/.volume_notify.sh");
    }

    return 0;
}

int monitor_native(char const *name) {
    snd_ctl_t *ctls[MAX_CARDS];
    int ncards = 0;
    int i, err = 0;

    if (!name) {
        int card = -1;
        while (snd_card_next(&card) >= 0 && card >= 0) {
            char cardname[16];
            if (ncards >= MAX_CARDS) {
                fprintf(stderr, "alsactl: too many cards\n");
                close_all(ctls, ncards);
                return -E2BIG;
            }
            sprintf(cardname, "hw:%d", card);
            err = open_ctl(cardname, &ctls[ncards]);
            if (err < 0) {
                close_all(ctls, ncards);
                return err;
            }
            ncards++;
        }
    } else {
        err = open_ctl(name, &ctls[0]);
        if (err < 0) {
            close_all(ctls, ncards);
            return err;
        }
        ncards++;
    }

    for (;ncards > 0;) {
        pollfd* fds = new pollfd[ncards];

        for (i = 0; i < ncards; i++) {
            snd_ctl_poll_descriptors(ctls[i], &fds[i], 1);
        }

        err = poll(fds, ncards, -1);
        if (err <= 0) {
            err = 0;
            break;
        }

        for (i = 0; i < ncards; i++) {
            unsigned short revents;
            snd_ctl_poll_descriptors_revents(ctls[i], &fds[i], 1, &revents);
            if (revents & POLLIN) {
                snd_ctl_event_t *event;
                snd_ctl_event_alloca(&event);

                if (snd_ctl_read(ctls[i], event) < 0) {
                    continue;
                }
                if (snd_ctl_event_get_type(event) != SND_CTL_EVENT_ELEM) {
                    continue;
                }

                unsigned int mask = snd_ctl_event_elem_get_mask(event);
                if (mask & SND_CTL_EVENT_MASK_VALUE) {
                    close_all(ctls, ncards);
                    return 1;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    close_all(ctls, ncards);
    return 0;
}

int open_ctl(const char *name, snd_ctl_t **ctlp) {
    snd_ctl_t *ctl;
    int err;

    err = snd_ctl_open(&ctl, name, SND_CTL_READONLY);
    if (err < 0) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Cannot open ctl %s\n", name);
        return err;
    }
    err = snd_ctl_subscribe_events(ctl, 1);
    if (err < 0) {
        fprintf(stderr, "Cannot open subscribe events to ctl %s\n", name);
        snd_ctl_close(ctl);
        return err;
    }
    *ctlp = ctl;
    return 0;
}

void close_all(snd_ctl_t* ctls[], int ncards) {
    for (ncards -= 1; ncards >= 0; --ncards) {
        snd_ctl_close(ctls[ncards]);
    }
}

This is possible with the ALSA API.

When you have a control device, call snd_ctl_subscribe_events() to enable events. Then use snd_ctl_read() to read events; to wait for them, use blocking mode or poll(). If the event is of type SND_CTL_EVENT_ELEM, and if its event bit mask contains SND_CTL_EVENT_MASK_VALUE, that element's value has changed.

See the implementation of amixer monitor for an example.