Mplayer Shuffle Command: Play Files In Random Order

How do I play files in random order using the mplayer command line player under Linux / Unix operating systems?

You can play most files such as MPEG/VOB, AVI, ASF/WMA/WMV, RM, QT/MOV/MP4, Ogg/OGM, MKV, VIVO, FLI, NuppelVideo, yuv4mpeg, FILM and RoQ files in random order using the following command syntax:

 
mplayer -shuffle -playlist YOUR-PLAY-LIST-HERE
 

How Do I Generate a Playlist?

mplayer can play files according to a playlist file type such as ASX, Winamp, SMIL, or one-file-per-line format. You can use the find command to generate a playlist for mplayer:
$ cd /path/to/music/dir
$ find -type f -iname \*.mp3 > playlist.txt

mplayer Shuffle Mode Command

Type the following command:
$ mplayer -shuffle -playlist playlist.txt