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