Bug#418855: (g)mplayer enters infinite loop when using -loop 0

[Reimar Döffinger <Reimar.Doeffinger@gmx.de>]

> On 17 Feb 2023, at 00:49, Lorenzo <plorenzo@disroot.org> wrote:
> 
> Control: tags -1 confirmed upstream
> 
> Hello,
> 
> On Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:48:08 +0200 Bernard Jungen
> <bern8817@euphonynet.be> wrote:
>> Package: mplayer
>> Version: 1.0~rc1-13
>> Severity: minor
>> 
>> gmplayer enters infinite loop when doing the following:
>> [...] 
>> As for mplayer, it continuously displays the error message if the
>> file doesn't exist.
> 
> This is still happening with mplayer 1.5
> 
> $ mplayer -loop 0 anyfile
> MPlayer UNKNOWN-12 (C) 2000-2023 MPlayer Team
> do_connect: could not connect to socket
> connect: No such file or directory
> Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote
> control.
> 
> Playing anyfile.
> File not found: 'anyfile'
> Failed to open anyfile.
> 
> 
> Playing anyfile.
> File not found: 'anyfile'
> Failed to open anyfile.

As far as I know this is intentional and documented behaviour.
It acts the same as if you had specified "anyfile" infinitely many times on the command-line.
It is useful behaviour in case the file might be created or replaced.
I suspect the behaviour you wanted is the one you get when you add -loop 0 after the file name.