Check-in after database failure

[clinton/abcde.git] / abcde.1

.TH ABCDE 1
.SH NAME
abcde \- Grab an entire CD and compress it to Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC or Ogg/Speex format.
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B abcde
.I [options] [tracks]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Ordinarily, the process of grabbing the data off a CD and encoding it, then
tagging or commenting it, is very involved.
.BR abcde
is designed to automate this. It will take an entire CD and convert it into
a compressed audio format - Ogg/Vorbis, MPEG Audio Layer III, Free Lossless
Audio Codec (FLAC) or Ogg/Speex. With one command, it will:
.TP
.B *
Do a CDDB query over the Internet to look up your CD or use a locally stored CDDB entry
.TP
.B *
Grab a track from your CD
.TP
.B *
Compress it to Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC and/or Ogg/Speex format
.TP
.B *
Comment or ID3 tag it
.TP
.B *
Give it an intelligible filename
.TP
.B *
Delete the intermediate WAV file (or save it for later use)
.TP
.B *
Repeat until finished
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
.B \-1
Encode the whole CD in a single file. The resulting file uses the CD title
for tagging.
.TP
.B \-a [actions]
Comma-delimited list of actions to perform. Can be one or more of:
cddb, read, normalize, encode, tag, move, playlist, clean. Normalize
and encode imply read. Tag implies cddb, read, encode. Move implies
cddb, read, encode, tag. Playlist implies cddb. The default is to
do all actions except normalize and playlist.
.TP
.B \-b
Enable batch mode normalization. See the BATCH configuration variable.
.TP
.B \-c [filename]
Specifies an additional configuration file to parse. Configuration options
in this file override those in /etc/abcde.conf or $HOME/.abcde.conf.
.TP
.B \-C [discid]
Allows you to resume a session for
.I discid
when you no longer have the CD available (abcde will automatically resume if
you still have the CD in the drive). You must have already finished at
least the "read" action during the previous session.
.TP
.B \-d [devicename]
CD\-ROM block device that contains audio tracks to be read.
.TP
.B \-D
Capture debugging information (you'll want to redirect this \- try 'abcde \-D
2>logfile')
.TP
.B \-j [number]
Start [number] encoder processes at once. Useful for SMP systems. Overrides
the MAXPROCS configuration variable. Set it to "0" when using distmp3 to avoid
local encoding processes.
.TP
.B \-k
Keep the wav files after encoding.
.TP
.B \-l
Use the low-diskspace algorithm. See the LOWDISK configuration variable.
.TP
.B \-L
Use a local CDDB repository. See CDDBLOCALDIR variable.
.TP
.B -n
Do not query CDDB database. Create and use a template. Edit the template to
provide song names, artist(s), ...
.TP
.B -N
Non interactive mode. Do not ask anything from the user. Just go ahead.
.TP
.B -m
Create DOS-style playlists, modifying the resulting one by adding CRLF line
endings. Some hardware players insist on having those to work.
.TP
.B \-o [filetype]
Select output type. Can be "ogg", "mp3", "flac" or "spx". Specify a 
comma-delimited list of output types to obtain all specified types. See 
the OUTPUTTYPE configuration variable.
.TP
.B \-p
Pads track numbers with 0\'s.
.TP
.B \-r [hosts...]
Remote encode on this comma-delimited list of machines using distmp3. See
the REMOTEHOSTS configuration variable.
.TP
.B \-S [speed]
Set the speed of the CD drive. Needs CDSPEED and CDSPEEDOPTS set properly
and both the program and device must support the capability.
.TP
.B \-v
Show the version and exit
.TP
.B \-V
Be a bit more verbose. On slow networks the CDDB requests might give the
sensation nothins is happening.
.TP
.B \-x
Eject the CD when all tracks have been read. See the EJECTCD configuration
variable.
.TP
.B \-h
Get help information.
.TP
.B [tracks]
A list of tracks you want abcde to process. If this isn't specified, abcde
will process the entire CD. Accepts ranges of track numbers -
"abcde 1-5 7 9" will process tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9.
.SH OUTPUT
Each track is, by default, placed in a separate file named after the track
in a subdirectory named after the artist under the current directory. Each
file is given an extension identifying its compression format, '.ogg',
\'.mp3', '.flac', or '.spx'.
This can be modified using the OUTPUTFORMAT and VAOUTPUTFORMAT
variables in your abcde.conf.
.SH CONFIGURATION
abcde sources two configuration files on startup - /etc/abcde.conf and
$HOME/.abcde.conf, in that order. 
.TP
The configuration variables have to be set as follows:
.TP
.B VARIABLE=value
.TP
Except when "value" needs to be quoted or otherwise interpreted. If other 
variables within "value" are to be expanded upon reading the configuration 
file, then double quotes should be used. If they are only supposed to be 
expanded upon use (for example OUTPUTFORMAT) then single quotes must be used.
.TP 
All sh escaping/quoting rules apply.
.TP
Here is a list of options abcde recognizes:
.TP
.B CDDBURL
Specifies a server to use for CDDB lookups.
.TP
.B OGGENCODERSYNTAX
Specifies the style of encoder to use for the Ogg/Vorbis encoder. Valid options 
are \'oggenc\' (default for Ogg/Vorbis) and \'vorbize\'.
This affects the default location of the binary,
the variable to pick encoder command-line options from, and where the options
are given.
.TP
.B MP3ENCODERSYNTAX
Specifies the style of encoder to use for the MP3 encoder. Valid options are
\'lame\' (default for MP3), \'gogo\', \'bladeenc\', \'l3enc\' and \'mp3enc\'.
Affects the same way as explained above for Ogg/Vorbis.
.TP
.B FLACENCODERSYNTAX
Specifies the style of encoder to use for the FLAC encoder. At this point only
\'flac\' is available for FLAC encoding.
.TP
.B SPEEXENCODERSYNTAX
Specifies the style of encoder to use for Speex encoder. At this point only
\'speexenc\' is available for Ogg/Speex encoding.
.TP
.B NORMALIZERSYNTAX
Specifies the style of normalizer to use.  Valid options are \'default\'
and \'normalize'\ (and both run \'normalize\'), since we only support it, ATM.
.TP
.B HELLOINFO
Specifies the Hello information to send to the CDDB server. The CDDB
protocol requires you to send a valid username and hostname each time you
connect. The format of this is username@hostname.
.TP
.B CDDBLOCALDIR
Specifies a directory where we store a local CDDB repository. The entries must
be standard CDDB entries, with the filename being the DISCID value. Other
CD playing and ripping programs (like Grip) store the entries under ~/.cddb
and we can make use of those entries.
.TP
.B CDDBCOPYLOCAL
Store local copies of the CDDB entries under the $CDDBLOCALDIR directory.
.TP
.B CDDBUSELOCAL
Actually use the stored copies of the CDDB entries. Can be overriden using the 
"-L" flag (if is CDDBUSELOCAL in "n"). If an entry is found, we always give 
the choice of retrieving a CDDB entry from the internet.
.TP
.B OUTPUTDIR
Specifies the directory to place completed tracks/playlists in.
.TP
.B WAVOUTPUTDIR
Specifies the temporary directory to store .wav files in. Abcde may use up
to 700MB of temporary space for each session (although it is rare to use
over 100MB for a machine that can encode music as fast as it can read it).
.TP
.B OUTPUTFORMAT
Specifies the format for completed Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC or Ogg/Speex filenames.
Variables are included
using standard shell syntax. Allowed variables are GENRE, ALBUMFILE, ARTISTFILE,
TRACKFILE, and TRACKNUM. Default is
\'${ARTISTFILE}/${TRACKFILE}.${OUTPUTTYPE}\'.
Make sure to use single quotes around this variable. TRACKNUM is
automatically zero-padded.
.TP
.B OUTPUTTYPE
Specifies the encoding format to output, as well as the default extension and
encoder. Defaults to "ogg". Valid settings are "ogg" (Ogg/Vorbis), "mp3"
(MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3), "flac" (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and "spx" 
(Ogg/Speex). Values like "ogg,mp3" encode the tracks in both Ogg/Vorbis and MP3
formats.
.P
For each value in OUTPUTTYPE, abcde expands a different process for encoding,
tagging and moving, so you can use the format placeholder, OUTPUT, to create 
different subdirectories to hold the different types. The variable OUTPUT will
be 'ogg', 'mp3', 'flac' and/or 'spx', depending on the OUTPUTTYPE you define.
For example
.P
OUTPUTFORMAT='${OUTPUT}/${ARTISTFILE}/${ALBUMFILE}/${TRACKNUM}._${TRACKFILE}'
.TP
.B VAOUTPUTFORMAT
Just like OUTPUTFORMAT but for Various Artists discs. Default is whatever
OUTPUTFORMAT is set to.
.TP
.B PATHNAMES
The following configuration file options specify the pathnames of their
respective utilities: LAME, GOGO, BLADEENC, L3ENC, XINGMP3ENC, MP3ENC,
VORBIZE, OGGENC, FLAC, SPEECENC, ID3, ID3V2, CDPARANOIA, CDDA2WAV, HTTPGET,
CDDISCID, CDDBTOOL, EJECT, NORMALIZE, DISTMP3, VORBISCOMMENT, and CDSPEED.
.TP
.B COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
If you wish to specify command-line options to any of the programs abcde
uses, set the following configuration file options: LAMEOPTS, GOGOOPTS,
BLADEENCOPTS, L3ENCOPTS, XINGMP3ENCOPTS, MP3ENCOPTS, VORBIZEOPTS,
OGGENCOPTS, FLACOPTS, SPEEXOPTS, ID3OPTS, ID3V2OPTS, CDPARANOIAOPTS, 
CDDA2WAVOPTS, HTTPGETOPTS, CDDBTOOLOPTS, EJECTOPTS, DISTMP3OPTS,
NORMALIZEOPTS, CDSPEEDOPTS, and CDSPEEDVALUE.
.TP
.B CDROM
If set, it points to the CD-Rom device which has to be used for audio
extraction. Abcde tries to guess the right device, but it may fail.
.TP
.B MAXPROCS
Defines how many encoders to run at once. This makes for huge speedups
on SMP systems. You should run one encoder per CPU at once for maximum
efficiency, although more doesn't hurt very much. Set it "0" when using
mp3dist to avoid getting encoding processes in the local host.
.TP
.B LOWDISK
If set to y, conserves disk space by encoding tracks immediately after
reading them. This is substantially slower than normal operation but
requires several hundred MB less space to complete the encoding of an
entire CD. Use only if your system is low on space and cannot encode as
quickly as it can read.
.TP
.B BATCH
If set to y, enables batch mode normalization, which preserves relative
volume differences between tracks of an album. Also enables nogap encoding
when using the \'lame\' encoder.
.TP
.B KEEPWAVS
It defaults to no, so if you want to keep those wavs ripped from your CD,
set it to "y". You can use the "-k" switch in the command line. The default
behaviour with KEEPWAVS set is the keep the temporary directory and the wav
files even you have requested the "clean" action.
.TP
.B PADTRACKS
If set to "y", it adds 0's to the file numbers to complete a two-number 
holder. Usefull when encoding tracks 1-9.
.TP
.B PLAYLISTFORMAT
Specifies the format for completed playlist filenames. Works like the
OUTPUTFORMAT configuration variable. Default is
\'${ARTISTFILE}_\-_${ALBUMFILE}.m3u\'.
Make sure to use single quotes around this variable.
.TP
.B PLAYLISTDATAPREFIX
Specifies a prefix for filenames within a playlist. Useful for http
playlists, etc.
.TP
.B COMMENT
Specifies a comment to embed in the ID3 or Ogg comment field of each
finished track. Can be up to 28 characters long. Supports the same
syntax as OUTPUTFORMAT. Does not currently support ID3v2.
.TP
.B REMOTEHOSTS
Specifies a comma-delimited list of systems to use for remote encoding using
distmp3. Equivalent to -r.
.TP
.B mungefilename
mungefilename() is an abcde shell function that can be overridden via
abcde.conf. It takes CDDB data as $1 and outputs the resulting filename on
stdout. It defaults to eating control characters, apostrophes and
question marks, translating spaces and forward slashes to underscores, and
translating colons to an underscore and a hyphen.
.br
If you modify this function, it is probably a good idea to keep the forward
slash munging (UNIX cannot store a file with a '/' char in it) as well as
the control character munging (NULs can't be in a filename either, and
newlines and such in filenames are typically not desirable).
.TP
.B EJECTCD
If set to "y", abcde will call eject(1) to eject the cdrom from the drive
after all tracks have been read.
.SH BACKEND TOOLS
abcde requires the following backend tools to work:
.TP
.B *
An Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC or Ogg/Speex encoder (oggenc, vorbize, lame, gogo, bladeenc, l3enc, mp3enc, flac, speexenc)
.TP
.B *
An audio CD reading utility (cdparanoia, cdda2wav, dagrab)
.TP
.B *
cd-discid, a CDDB DiscID reading program.
.TP
.B *
An HTTP retrieval program: wget, fetch (FreeBSD) or curl (Mac OS X, among others).
.TP
.B *
(for MP3s) id3 or id3v2, id3 v1 and v2 tagging programs.
.TP
.B *
(optional) distmp3, a client/server for distributed mp3 encoding.
.TP
.B *
(optional) normalize, a WAV file volume normalizer.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR cdparanoia (1),
.BR cdda2wav (1),
.BR dagrab (1),
.BR normalize (1),
.BR oggenc (1),
.BR vorbize (1),
.BR flac (1),
.BR speexenc(1),
.BR id3 (1),
.BR wget (1),
.BR fetch (1),
.BR cd-discid (1),
.BR distmp3 (1),
.BR distmp3host (1),
.BR curl(1)
.SH AUTHOR
Robert Woodcock <rcw@debian.org>
Jesus Climent <jesus.climent@hispalinux.es>