This simple perl-script allow you to use mpc as general-purpose player like xmms (i.e. to play any file, even if it is outside mpdroot directory).

Download: mirror 1 (version 0.1: outdated)

#!/usr/bin/perl

# mpc-play
# version 0.2
# by Ilya "Voyager" Schurov (http://comm.noo.ru/iv-en/)

$MUSIC_PREFIX="/home/user/mpd-root";
$TEMP_DIR="external";
$SCRIPT_NAME="mpc-play";
# warning! all symlinks in $MUSIC_PREFIX/$TEMP_DIR will be lost on start!

$DEBUG=0;


$PWD=`pwd`;
chomp $PWD;

if(!@ARGV)
{
	print "Usage:\n$SCRIPT_NAME <files-to-play>\n";
}

say_and_do("mpc --no-status stop",$DEBUG);
say_and_do("mpc --no-status clear",$DEBUG);

# removing symlinks from $TEMP_DIR

while(<$MUSIC_PREFIX/$TEMP_DIR/*>)
{
		unlink if(-l);
}


foreach $file (@ARGV)
{
	$link=$file;
		
	# stripping slashes from arguments
	$link=~s/\//_/g;
	if($file!~/^\//)
	{
		$file="$PWD/$file";
	}
		
	symlink("$file","$MUSIC_PREFIX/$TEMP_DIR/$link") 
               || die("Can't create symlink from $file to $MUSIC_PREFIX/$TEMP_DIR/$link: $!");
	push @links, $link;
}
say_and_do("mpc update $TEMP_DIR",$DEBUG);

# now we need to wait while mpd updating DB
do
{
	$stat=`mpc`;
	sleep(0.1);
}while($stat=~/^Updating DB/m);

# generating playlist
foreach $link(@links)
{
	$link=~s/\`/\\\`/g;
	say_and_do("mpc --no-status add \"$TEMP_DIR/$link\"",$DEBUG);
}

#let's the music begins! :)
say_and_do("mpc play",$DEBUG);

sub say_and_do
{
	my $str=shift;
	my $debug=shift;
	print "$str\n" if($debug);
	system($str);
}

Here's a little python script that does essentialy the same, just hacked up because I didn't like some small things about the perl version and I'm not comfortable writing perl. :-)

#!/usr/bin/env python                                                        
import os                                                                                               
import sys                                                                                              
                                                                                                        
MPD_ROOT = '/home/jan/snd'                                                                        
TMP_DIR = 'external'                                                                                    
                                                                                                        
if not len(sys.argv) > 1:                                                                               
    print("Usage:\n{0} <files>".format(sys.argv[0]))                                                    
    sys.exit(1)                                                                                         
                                                                                                        
def still_updating():                                                                                   
    return 'Updating DB' in os.popen('mpc').read()                                                      
                                                                                                        
links = []                                                                                              
for file in sys.argv[1:]:                                                                               
    linkname = os.path.join(TMP_DIR, os.path.basename(file))                                            
    try:                                                                                                
        os.symlink(os.path.abspath(file), os.path.join(MPD_ROOT, linkname))                             
    except OSError:                                                                                     
        pass                                                                                            
    print("Adding " + linkname)                                                                         
    links.append(linkname)                                                                              
                                                                                                        
os.system('mpc update {0} >/dev/null'.format(TMP_DIR))                                                  
                                                                                                        
while still_updating():                                                                                 
    pass                                                                                                
                                                                                                        
for link in links:                                                                                      
    os.system('mpc add "{0}"'.format(link))