FAQ

   1 0. INTRODUCTION
   2    ============
   3
   4 Q. Who created abcde? Who develops it nowadays?
   5 A. It was originally created by Robert Woodcook. He decided to give up
   6    maintaining it at some point in 2002 and Jesus Climent took over.  Contact
   7    jesus.climent@hispalinux.es if you have a problem or a suggestion.
   8
   9
  10 1. INSTALLATION
  11    ============
  12
  13 Q. How can I install abcde on my system?
  14 A. To get abcde you can use a pre-packaged version, available for Debian,
  15    FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and others.
  16    In case you want to install your own release, you need to download the
  17    sources and install the complementary programs (abcde is just a frontend
  18    and its functionality is provided by other programs).
  19
  20    abcde needs cd-discid. Grab it from:
  21    http://www.hispalinux.es/~data/files/cd-discid/
  22
  23    Read the README files for a complete list of requirements.
  24
  25 Q. I have a problem, and I reported some time ago. Have you solved it already?
  26 A. Maybe. Try downloading the trunk of the development from
  27    http://svn.hispalinux.es/svn/abcde/trunk
  28
  29 Q. When are you going to release a new version?
  30 A. When it is ready. I keep on having new ideas and adding them to the trunk
  31    (stored in the URL above), so I dont release until all the ideas are
  32    finished.
  33
  34
  35 2. EXECUTION
  36    =========
  37
  38 Q. Low on disk space?
  39 A. abcde has different algorithms to schedule ripping and encoding - to
  40    optimize for disk conservation, use -l. You can also define
  41    WAVOUTPUTDIR=/some/other/path to your /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf to
  42    store the WAV files on another NFS shared fisk, for example.
  43    Also, UNIX pipes have also been implemented, using "-P", so abcde reads and
  44    encodes the tracks from the CD at once. However, it has the drawback that
  45    only one format can be encoded at a time.
  46
  47 Q. How can i make abcde encode faster? My CD reader is way faster than the pace
  48    it can encode my tracks.
  49 A. abcde can take advantage of SMP systems, just like make. Try 'abcde -j 2' -
  50    it'll run two encoder jobs while it rips the next track.
  51    You can also make use of systems which are networked, with the help of
  52    distmp3. For example, MachineA has a better CPU power and MachineB has a CD
  53    drive. Run distmp3host (included in distmp3) on Machine A, and then run
  54    abcde -r MachineA from MachineB (where "MachineA" is a dns name or IP
  55    address). Use this in combination with '-j 0' to shift all encoding off the
  56    local machine.
  57
  58 Q. I am having problems with *my CD reading program* reading the drive as a
  59    user.
  60 A. You might have to add yourself (or the users who want to use abcde) to the
  61    cdrom group and change the permissions of the cdrom device to 660. If you
  62    have a SCSI cdrom drive, check the permissions of /dev/sg* as well.
  63
  64 Q. I would like to give the trackname and the artist_name directly to the
  65    encoder (in my case oggenc), but found no documentation.
  66 A. That is not possible, since abcde gets the information from CDDB database.
  67    You can create a template and fill it with the option "-n". Also, you can
  68    get the CDDB entry and edit it yourself. abcde has also an option to drop
  69    back to a template if you like none of the CDDB entries, selecting 0 from
  70    the CDDB options.
  71
  72 Q. (Thanks to Amaya) Where are those options and settings defined? Why dont
  73    you include a proper abcde.conf as an example?
  74 A. I do. It should be installed under /etc/abcde.conf and contains more or
  75    less all the defaults abcde uses. You can use $(HOME)/.abcde.conf to
  76    override those defaults. More information can be obtained from the man page
  77    which can be consulted using "man abcde".
  78
  79 Q. I keep on getting files with ".ogg.ogg" extension. What am I doing wrong?
  80 A. The code for multiple-output adds automatically the extension of the
  81    different outputs you select with the "-o" extension (or with OUTPUTTYPE
  82    variable). Erase the ".${OUTPUTTYPE}" part from the OUTPUTFORMAT variable
  83    in /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf
  84
  85 Q. I have modified some of the options, and now CDDB has stopped working.
  86 A. Check that you have modified everything in the right way. For instance, if
  87    you modify the HTTPGET program you might want to set some options of your
  88    own. If you use the predefined ones (wget, curl and fetch) abcde will try
  89    to use some defaults. Keep in mind that the output should go to the output
  90    as standard output, to be saved in a file for later use.
  91
  92    If abcde seems to be ignoring your configuration options or not running
  93    commands such as the encoder, you may have misquoted something. Config
  94    options such as the following do not work:
  95
  96    LAMEOPTS=-h -k
  97
  98    Try this instead:
  99
 100    LAMEOPTS='-h -k'
 101
 102 Q. How can I separate the different output files I get using multiple-output
 103    support?
 104 A. Use the OUTPUT variable in PLAYLISTFORMAT and OUTPUTFORMAT. It holds the
 105    different output file types you passed to abcde (i.e., ogg, mp3, flac)
 106    during playlist creation and file/directory creation.
 107
 108 Q. I have a CD with a data track, and abcde complaints it cannot read/encode
 109    it.
 110 A. It is not easy to find a data track on a CD. Right now, I can only think
 111    of getting the track info from CDDB and ask the user for continuing should
 112    a "data" track name is found. But the solution is far from been optimal.
 113    For now, if you find a "data" track and you know the number, restart abcde
 114    specifying the tracks to be encoded, leaving out the data one.
 115    From version 2.2 onwards, abcde includes some checkings with cdparanoia, to
 116    try to get this right.
 117
 118 Q. I am requested to have "eject" when setting the speed although I do not use
 119    it for anything.
 120 A. If you do not use cdparanoia, eject is used for setting the speed of the
 121    cdrom drive. You can substitute it for "setcd" with "-x" as the argument,
 122    but you have to install it manually (setcd is, at least, available in
 123    Debian).
 124    Another way to get the same results is using the pre_read function, defined
 125    in your /etc/abcde.conf file.
 126
 127 Q. I have a CD set with 1+ discs, and want to have them in the same directory,
 128    sorted properly. What can abcde do for me?
 129 A. Set abcde to rip the first CD and give it the option "-t 101". Use a generic
 130    name for the CD, and reuse it with the rest of the CDs, editing the CDDB
 131    entries. Use "-t 201" for the second CD and so on. Use "-w <comment>" to
 132    add a comment about the CD you are ripping (-w "disc #"). Alternatively you
 133    can use only the "-t ###" option and then move all the files to the same
 134    directory, but the tag/comment information on the files will differ. If you
 135    want the tagged track number to be set to the modified number you should use
 136    "-T ###".
 137    Even better! If you use "-W <cd_number>", abcde will put a comment to every
 138    CD set ("CD <number>") and modify the number of the tracks both in the file
 139    name and the tag/comment information.
 140
 141 Q. I have a live concert. I want to encode it in a single file. How do i do it?
 142 A. Use "-1" and it will be encoded in a single file. Use "-M" to make a CUE
 143    sheet file where the information about the tracks is stored.
 144
 145 3. CDDB
 146    ====
 147
 148 Q. I need to go through an HTTP proxy for CDDB access.
 149 A. No problem, just export your http_proxy variable first so wget/fetch/curl
 150    can see it.
 151
 152 Q. I already store CDDB entries in my hard disc. Can I make use of them?
 153 A. Piece of cake. Just edit CDDBLOCALDIR to point to the repository and give
 154    abcde the "-L" flag to make use of it.
 155
 156 Q. Fine, now it uses local CDDB, but I have no network connection. How can I
 157    disable CDDB checks?
 158 A. Use the "-L -n" combination. It will try to use local CDDB entries, and if
 159    nothing can be found, it will use a template. You will be also given the
 160    choice to edit such template.
 161
 162 Q. How can I use some other CDDB information provider?
 163 A. abcde now uses FreeDB by default. To use a different FreeDB mirror or
 164    another CDDB service, change the CDDBURL option in your abcde.conf.
 165
 166
 167 3. FORMATS
 168    =======
 169
 170 Q. What formats can I encode my music to?
 171 A. As for version 2.2, abcde includes support for MP3, Ogg/Vorbis,
 172    Ogg/Speex, Flac and MPP/MP+(Musepack). Support for AAC will be added once
 173    an FLOSS encoder/decoder is working.
 174
 175 Q. I want the new *put the newest and coolest codec there* format to be
 176    supported by abcde. Abcde is so cool but i want to encode also to this
 177    new format...
 178 A. Patches are welcome! ;)
 179    No, seriously, if the format is usable, available for Linux and open
 180    source/free software, it should be fairly easy to integrate. Support for
 181    AAC (m4p) should be the next one to be introduced.
 182
 183 Q. I use Debian/RedHat/(put your Unix flavour here) and MP3 encoding is not
 184    working. What am I doing wrong?
 185 A. Since MP3 is considered non-free (you get it for free, but hardware players
 186    and net broadcasters have to pay license fees), some release engineering
 187    groups and release management teams have decided not to provide MP3 encoding
 188    tools.
 189    These distributions or operative systems have decided to use Ogg/Vorbis as
 190    the default encoding format, since it contains no (known) patent claims
 191    and they are (supposed to be) completely Free (released under a BSD-like
 192    license).
 193    However, there is no strong (at the moment) hardware support, although
 194    some groups and companies are strongly working on getting it, real soon
 195    now. For that reason some people prefer to encode to MP3.
 196
 197    UPDATE *** UPDATE
 198    There are known brands already selling Ogg/Vorbis portable players: Rio,
 199    iRiver, Neuros, iAudio,...
 200    Go buy one and you have no more reasons to use MP3.
 201
 202    If you are among those individuals, you might need to add support for MP3
 203    encoding to your system:
 204    Debian : check http://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat to install lame in your
 205             system. Others prefer bladeenc. Check www.apt-get.org or google.
 206    RedHat : search on rpmfind.net
 207    FreeBSD: By default includes LAME support.
 208    OpenBSD: Available by specifying you want to install the port with LAME
 209             support, or by just installing it later from the ports tree.
 210    NetBSD : Available in pkgsrc.
 211
 212    Others : Please, help me here.
 213
 214 Q. Huh! Why is MPPENCODER (with MPP) and .mpc the extension?
 215 A. Dunno. You must ask the guys who created and defined the format. The
 216    standard is MPEGplus (MPP/MP+) but the files use .mpc extension.
 217
 218
 219 4. MISC PROBLEMS
 220    ==== ========
 221
 222 Q. What happened with normalize?
 223 A. Normalize has changed its name under Debian, which is the GNU/Linux
 224    distribution for developing abcde (well, is The GNU/Linux Distribution
 225    i only use, at the moment). Now it is called normalize-audio.
 226    If you are using some other flavour of OS, you need to change the name
 227    of the executable in your abcde.conf file.
 228
 229 Q. I am using MacOSX and I am having problems to use abcde.
 230 A. Well, I have a Mac, but I use linux on it. I have not been able to find
 231    a way to make it work there, since I do not have the development tools
 232    installed. I have placed a basic support, but some user reports are just
 233    complaining about abcde not encoding the ripped tracks, as if
 234    cdda2wav/cdparanoia/cddafs would never end reading them. If you have such
 235    a system and experience problems, please, report them, and I will try to
 236    work them out with your help.
 237
 238 Q. My hardware player (put it here) does not recognize the playlists created
 239    with abcde. What I am doing wrong?
 240 A. Try using "-m" when creating the playlists, or setting DOSPLAYLIST as an
 241    option in the config file.
 242
 243 OBSOLETE
 244 --------
 245 Q. I set KEEPWAVS to "y" but abcde insists on erasing my directory, along
 246    with the wav tracks. What I am doing wrong?
 247 A. The default action set includes clean, which cleans the temp directory,
 248    if nothing goes wrong. Take the "clean" out from the action list and you
 249    are done.
 250    UPDATE: KEEPWAVS unselects now the clean action.
 251
 252 --
 253 Jesus Climent <jesus.climent@hispalinux.es>