The documentation does not mention that sidplay uses the HVSC's
SongLength.txt file to end songs at the proper time nor does it
describe how to configure it. (As shipped by Debian, sidplay currently
plays sid tunes forever, but that's a a topic for another bug). The
documentation should also mention how to configure a default time to
truncate SIDs which are not listed in the database.

I have attached a patch that fixes those problems.
--- doc/en/sidplay2.1.orig	2011-05-01 21:41:05.000000000 -0700
+++ doc/en/sidplay2.1	2011-05-01 21:40:51.000000000 -0700
@@ -126,8 +126,18 @@
 set sample buffer size.

 .RS
-.SH NOTES
-Place for notes..
+.SH INI FILES
+Sidplay2 stores many useful options that cannot be configured from the command line in a file called \fI~/.sidplay/sidplay2.ini\fR.  For example, by default sidplay2 does not know the duration of SID tunes and will play them forever.  However, this can be fixed easily by downloading the Songlength Database (SLDB) from the High Voltage Sid Collection and specifying the path to that file in sidplay2.ini.  It's also a good idea to specify a default duration for any SID file not found in the database.
+
+.TP
+Example entries from \fI~/.sidplay/sidplay2.ini\fR
+.EX
+[SIDPlay2]
+Songlength Database  = /home/ben/share/emu/C64Music/Songlengths.txt
+Default Play Length  = 3:00
+.EE
+.PP
+
 .SH OTHER INFORMATION
 Sidplay2 Homepage:
http://sidplay2.sourceforge.net/
@@ -145,3 +155,14 @@
 reSID engine - Dag Lem <resid@nimrod.no>
 .br
 man-page     - Mikko Kilponen <mikil@uni.kaapeli.net>
+
+.SH BUGS
+
+.IP \(bu 4
+Sidplay2 ought to come with \fI/usr/share/sidplay/SongLengths.txt\fR instead of making everybody download it to their home directory.
+.IP \(bu 4
+There should be documentation for the options in the INI file, perhaps
+.BR sidplay2.ini (5).
+.IP \(bu 4
+There should be command line equivalents for all INI options.
+

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
sidplay, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 624849@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Laszlo Boszormenyi (GCS) <gcs@debian.org> (supplier of updated sidplay package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2026 21:28:00 +0200
Source: sidplay
Architecture: source
Version: 2.0.9-8
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Laszlo Boszormenyi (GCS) <gcs@debian.org>
Changed-By: Laszlo Boszormenyi (GCS) <gcs@debian.org>
Closes: 624849 1139542
Changes:
 sidplay (2.0.9-8) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Ben Wong <bugs.debian.org@wongs.net> ]
   * Mention the SongLengths.txt database in the man page (closes: #624849).
 .
   [ Laszlo Boszormenyi (GCS) ]
   * Specify tag for libtool linking (closes: #1139542).
   * Refer online version of Free Software Foundation licence.
   * Update watch file.
   * Update Standards-Version to 4.7.2 .
Checksums-Sha1:
 eea7435a734c5821470d8ad82ef2b996868bd049 1789 sidplay_2.0.9-8.dsc
 c5370e2df3e4f3472d2f3723a8380a9a7a39ffbb 9400 sidplay_2.0.9-8.debian.tar.xz
Checksums-Sha256:
 7cf43e00bf908a2a560dec09a88d79ecdb5445ed2402b2e2221f52939651a78d 1789 sidplay_2.0.9-8.dsc
 157aa9edfca611695dc0565e67820c77aba639da5897c54dafe2a45b56d9cfc9 9400 sidplay_2.0.9-8.debian.tar.xz
Files:
 20b0914a4b546fe79673bd1fad7a3a36 1789 sound optional sidplay_2.0.9-8.dsc
 d3dc6b6ad64cd6d796554e5a9e22364a 9400 sound optional sidplay_2.0.9-8.debian.tar.xz
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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=eeap
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----