abcde.1

   1 .TH ABCDE 1
   2 .SH NAME
   3 abcde \- Grab an entire CD and compress it to Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC or Ogg/Speex format.
   4 .SH SYNOPSIS
   5 .B abcde
   6 .I [options] [tracks]
   7 .SH DESCRIPTION
   8 Ordinarily, the process of grabbing the data off a CD and encoding it, then
   9 tagging or commenting it, is very involved.
  10 .BR abcde
  11 is designed to automate this. It will take an entire CD and convert it into
  12 a compressed audio format - Ogg/Vorbis, MPEG Audio Layer III, Free Lossless
  13 Audio Codec (FLAC) or Ogg/Speex. With one command, it will:
  14 .TP
  15 .B *
  16 Do a CDDB query over the Internet to look up your CD or use a locally stored CDDB entry
  17 .TP
  18 .B *
  19 Grab a track from your CD
  20 .TP
  21 .B *
  22 Compress it to Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC and/or Ogg/Speex format
  23 .TP
  24 .B *
  25 Comment or ID3 tag it
  26 .TP
  27 .B *
  28 Give it an intelligible filename
  29 .TP
  30 .B *
  31 Delete the intermediate WAV file (or save it for later use)
  32 .TP
  33 .B *
  34 Repeat until finished
  35 .SH OPTIONS
  36 .TP
  37 .B \-1
  38 Encode the whole CD in a single file. The resulting file uses the CD title
  39 for tagging.
  40 .TP
  41 .B \-a [actions]
  42 Comma-delimited list of actions to perform. Can be one or more of:
  43 cddb, read, normalize, encode, tag, move, playlist, clean. Normalize
  44 and encode imply read. Tag implies cddb, read, encode. Move implies
  45 cddb, read, encode, tag. Playlist implies cddb. The default is to
  46 do all actions except normalize and playlist.
  47 .TP
  48 .B \-b
  49 Enable batch mode normalization. See the BATCH configuration variable.
  50 .TP
  51 .B \-c [filename]
  52 Specifies an additional configuration file to parse. Configuration options
  53 in this file override those in /etc/abcde.conf or $HOME/.abcde.conf.
  54 .TP
  55 .B \-C [discid]
  56 Allows you to resume a session for
  57 .I discid
  58 when you no longer have the CD available (abcde will automatically resume if
  59 you still have the CD in the drive). You must have already finished at
  60 least the "read" action during the previous session.
  61 .TP
  62 .B \-d [devicename]
  63 CD\-ROM block device that contains audio tracks to be read.
  64 .TP
  65 .B \-D
  66 Capture debugging information (you'll want to redirect this \- try 'abcde \-D
  67 2>logfile')
  68 .TP
  69 .B \-j [number]
  70 Start [number] encoder processes at once. Useful for SMP systems. Overrides
  71 the MAXPROCS configuration variable. Set it to "0" when using distmp3 to avoid
  72 local encoding processes.
  73 .TP
  74 .B \-k
  75 Keep the wav files after encoding.
  76 .TP
  77 .B \-l
  78 Use the low-diskspace algorithm. See the LOWDISK configuration variable.
  79 .TP
  80 .B \-L
  81 Use a local CDDB repository. See CDDBLOCALDIR variable.
  82 .TP
  83 .B -n
  84 Do not query CDDB database. Create and use a template. Edit the template to
  85 provide song names, artist(s), ...
  86 .TP
  87 .B -N
  88 Non interactive mode. Do not ask anything from the user. Just go ahead.
  89 .TP
  90 .B -m
  91 Create DOS-style playlists, modifying the resulting one by adding CRLF line
  92 endings. Some hardware players insist on having those to work.
  93 .TP
  94 .B \-o [filetype]
  95 Select output type. Can be "ogg", "mp3", "flac" or "spx". Specify a
  96 comma-delimited list of output types to obtain all specified types. See
  97 the OUTPUTTYPE configuration variable.
  98 .TP
  99 .B \-p
 100 Pads track numbers with 0\'s.
 101 .TP
 102 .B \-r [hosts...]
 103 Remote encode on this comma-delimited list of machines using distmp3. See
 104 the REMOTEHOSTS configuration variable.
 105 .TP
 106 .B \-S [speed]
 107 Set the speed of the CD drive. Needs CDSPEED and CDSPEEDOPTS set properly
 108 and both the program and device must support the capability.
 109 .TP
 110 .B \-v
 111 Show the version and exit
 112 .TP
 113 .B \-V
 114 Be a bit more verbose. On slow networks the CDDB requests might give the
 115 sensation nothins is happening.
 116 .TP
 117 .B \-x
 118 Eject the CD when all tracks have been read. See the EJECTCD configuration
 119 variable.
 120 .TP
 121 .B \-h
 122 Get help information.
 123 .TP
 124 .B [tracks]
 125 A list of tracks you want abcde to process. If this isn't specified, abcde
 126 will process the entire CD. Accepts ranges of track numbers -
 127 "abcde 1-5 7 9" will process tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9.
 128 .SH OUTPUT
 129 Each track is, by default, placed in a separate file named after the track
 130 in a subdirectory named after the artist under the current directory. Each
 131 file is given an extension identifying its compression format, '.ogg',
 132 \'.mp3', '.flac', or '.spx'.
 133 This can be modified using the OUTPUTFORMAT and VAOUTPUTFORMAT
 134 variables in your abcde.conf.
 135 .SH CONFIGURATION
 136 abcde sources two configuration files on startup - /etc/abcde.conf and
 137 $HOME/.abcde.conf, in that order.
 138 .TP
 139 The configuration variables have to be set as follows:
 140 .TP
 141 .B VARIABLE=value
 142 .TP
 143 Except when "value" needs to be quoted or otherwise interpreted. If other
 144 variables within "value" are to be expanded upon reading the configuration
 145 file, then double quotes should be used. If they are only supposed to be
 146 expanded upon use (for example OUTPUTFORMAT) then single quotes must be used.
 147 .TP
 148 All sh escaping/quoting rules apply.
 149 .TP
 150 Here is a list of options abcde recognizes:
 151 .TP
 152 .B CDDBURL
 153 Specifies a server to use for CDDB lookups.
 154 .TP
 155 .B OGGENCODERSYNTAX
 156 Specifies the style of encoder to use for the Ogg/Vorbis encoder. Valid options
 157 are \'oggenc\' (default for Ogg/Vorbis) and \'vorbize\'.
 158 This affects the default location of the binary,
 159 the variable to pick encoder command-line options from, and where the options
 160 are given.
 161 .TP
 162 .B MP3ENCODERSYNTAX
 163 Specifies the style of encoder to use for the MP3 encoder. Valid options are
 164 \'lame\' (default for MP3), \'gogo\', \'bladeenc\', \'l3enc\' and \'mp3enc\'.
 165 Affects the same way as explained above for Ogg/Vorbis.
 166 .TP
 167 .B FLACENCODERSYNTAX
 168 Specifies the style of encoder to use for the FLAC encoder. At this point only
 169 \'flac\' is available for FLAC encoding.
 170 .TP
 171 .B SPEEXENCODERSYNTAX
 172 Specifies the style of encoder to use for Speex encoder. At this point only
 173 \'speexenc\' is available for Ogg/Speex encoding.
 174 .TP
 175 .B NORMALIZERSYNTAX
 176 Specifies the style of normalizer to use.  Valid options are \'default\'
 177 and \'normalize'\ (and both run \'normalize\'), since we only support it, ATM.
 178 .TP
 179 .B HELLOINFO
 180 Specifies the Hello information to send to the CDDB server. The CDDB
 181 protocol requires you to send a valid username and hostname each time you
 182 connect. The format of this is username@hostname.
 183 .TP
 184 .B CDDBLOCALDIR
 185 Specifies a directory where we store a local CDDB repository. The entries must
 186 be standard CDDB entries, with the filename being the DISCID value. Other
 187 CD playing and ripping programs (like Grip) store the entries under ~/.cddb
 188 and we can make use of those entries.
 189 .TP
 190 .B CDDBCOPYLOCAL
 191 Store local copies of the CDDB entries under the $CDDBLOCALDIR directory.
 192 .TP
 193 .B CDDBUSELOCAL
 194 Actually use the stored copies of the CDDB entries. Can be overriden using the
 195 "-L" flag (if is CDDBUSELOCAL in "n"). If an entry is found, we always give
 196 the choice of retrieving a CDDB entry from the internet.
 197 .TP
 198 .B OUTPUTDIR
 199 Specifies the directory to place completed tracks/playlists in.
 200 .TP
 201 .B WAVOUTPUTDIR
 202 Specifies the temporary directory to store .wav files in. Abcde may use up
 203 to 700MB of temporary space for each session (although it is rare to use
 204 over 100MB for a machine that can encode music as fast as it can read it).
 205 .TP
 206 .B OUTPUTFORMAT
 207 Specifies the format for completed Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC or Ogg/Speex filenames.
 208 Variables are included
 209 using standard shell syntax. Allowed variables are GENRE, ALBUMFILE, ARTISTFILE,
 210 TRACKFILE, and TRACKNUM. Default is
 211 \'${ARTISTFILE}/${TRACKFILE}.${OUTPUTTYPE}\'.
 212 Make sure to use single quotes around this variable. TRACKNUM is
 213 automatically zero-padded.
 214 .TP
 215 .B OUTPUTTYPE
 216 Specifies the encoding format to output, as well as the default extension and
 217 encoder. Defaults to "ogg". Valid settings are "ogg" (Ogg/Vorbis), "mp3"
 218 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3), "flac" (Free Lossless Audio Codec) and "spx"
 219 (Ogg/Speex). Values like "ogg,mp3" encode the tracks in both Ogg/Vorbis and MP3
 220 formats.
 221 .P
 222 For each value in OUTPUTTYPE, abcde expands a different process for encoding,
 223 tagging and moving, so you can use the format placeholder, OUTPUT, to create
 224 different subdirectories to hold the different types. The variable OUTPUT will
 225 be 'ogg', 'mp3', 'flac' and/or 'spx', depending on the OUTPUTTYPE you define.
 226 For example
 227 .P
 228 OUTPUTFORMAT='${OUTPUT}/${ARTISTFILE}/${ALBUMFILE}/${TRACKNUM}._${TRACKFILE}'
 229 .TP
 230 .B VAOUTPUTFORMAT
 231 Just like OUTPUTFORMAT but for Various Artists discs. Default is whatever
 232 OUTPUTFORMAT is set to.
 233 .TP
 234 .B PATHNAMES
 235 The following configuration file options specify the pathnames of their
 236 respective utilities: LAME, GOGO, BLADEENC, L3ENC, XINGMP3ENC, MP3ENC,
 237 VORBIZE, OGGENC, FLAC, SPEECENC, ID3, ID3V2, CDPARANOIA, CDDA2WAV, HTTPGET,
 238 CDDISCID, CDDBTOOL, EJECT, NORMALIZE, DISTMP3, VORBISCOMMENT, and CDSPEED.
 239 .TP
 240 .B COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
 241 If you wish to specify command-line options to any of the programs abcde
 242 uses, set the following configuration file options: LAMEOPTS, GOGOOPTS,
 243 BLADEENCOPTS, L3ENCOPTS, XINGMP3ENCOPTS, MP3ENCOPTS, VORBIZEOPTS,
 244 OGGENCOPTS, FLACOPTS, SPEEXOPTS, ID3OPTS, ID3V2OPTS, CDPARANOIAOPTS,
 245 CDDA2WAVOPTS, HTTPGETOPTS, CDDBTOOLOPTS, EJECTOPTS, DISTMP3OPTS,
 246 NORMALIZEOPTS, CDSPEEDOPTS, and CDSPEEDVALUE.
 247 .TP
 248 .B CDROM
 249 If set, it points to the CD-Rom device which has to be used for audio
 250 extraction. Abcde tries to guess the right device, but it may fail.
 251 .TP
 252 .B MAXPROCS
 253 Defines how many encoders to run at once. This makes for huge speedups
 254 on SMP systems. You should run one encoder per CPU at once for maximum
 255 efficiency, although more doesn't hurt very much. Set it "0" when using
 256 mp3dist to avoid getting encoding processes in the local host.
 257 .TP
 258 .B LOWDISK
 259 If set to y, conserves disk space by encoding tracks immediately after
 260 reading them. This is substantially slower than normal operation but
 261 requires several hundred MB less space to complete the encoding of an
 262 entire CD. Use only if your system is low on space and cannot encode as
 263 quickly as it can read.
 264 .TP
 265 .B BATCH
 266 If set to y, enables batch mode normalization, which preserves relative
 267 volume differences between tracks of an album. Also enables nogap encoding
 268 when using the \'lame\' encoder.
 269 .TP
 270 .B KEEPWAVS
 271 It defaults to no, so if you want to keep those wavs ripped from your CD,
 272 set it to "y". You can use the "-k" switch in the command line. The default
 273 behaviour with KEEPWAVS set is the keep the temporary directory and the wav
 274 files even you have requested the "clean" action.
 275 .TP
 276 .B PADTRACKS
 277 If set to "y", it adds 0's to the file numbers to complete a two-number
 278 holder. Usefull when encoding tracks 1-9.
 279 .TP
 280 .B PLAYLISTFORMAT
 281 Specifies the format for completed playlist filenames. Works like the
 282 OUTPUTFORMAT configuration variable. Default is
 283 \'${ARTISTFILE}_\-_${ALBUMFILE}.m3u\'.
 284 Make sure to use single quotes around this variable.
 285 .TP
 286 .B PLAYLISTDATAPREFIX
 287 Specifies a prefix for filenames within a playlist. Useful for http
 288 playlists, etc.
 289 .TP
 290 .B COMMENT
 291 Specifies a comment to embed in the ID3 or Ogg comment field of each
 292 finished track. Can be up to 28 characters long. Supports the same
 293 syntax as OUTPUTFORMAT. Does not currently support ID3v2.
 294 .TP
 295 .B REMOTEHOSTS
 296 Specifies a comma-delimited list of systems to use for remote encoding using
 297 distmp3. Equivalent to -r.
 298 .TP
 299 .B mungefilename
 300 mungefilename() is an abcde shell function that can be overridden via
 301 abcde.conf. It takes CDDB data as $1 and outputs the resulting filename on
 302 stdout. It defaults to eating control characters, apostrophes and
 303 question marks, translating spaces and forward slashes to underscores, and
 304 translating colons to an underscore and a hyphen.
 305 .br
 306 If you modify this function, it is probably a good idea to keep the forward
 307 slash munging (UNIX cannot store a file with a '/' char in it) as well as
 308 the control character munging (NULs can't be in a filename either, and
 309 newlines and such in filenames are typically not desirable).
 310 .TP
 311 .B EJECTCD
 312 If set to "y", abcde will call eject(1) to eject the cdrom from the drive
 313 after all tracks have been read.
 314 .SH BACKEND TOOLS
 315 abcde requires the following backend tools to work:
 316 .TP
 317 .B *
 318 An Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC or Ogg/Speex encoder (oggenc, vorbize, lame, gogo, bladeenc, l3enc, mp3enc, flac, speexenc)
 319 .TP
 320 .B *
 321 An audio CD reading utility (cdparanoia, cdda2wav, dagrab)
 322 .TP
 323 .B *
 324 cd-discid, a CDDB DiscID reading program.
 325 .TP
 326 .B *
 327 An HTTP retrieval program: wget, fetch (FreeBSD) or curl (Mac OS X, among others).
 328 .TP
 329 .B *
 330 (for MP3s) id3 or id3v2, id3 v1 and v2 tagging programs.
 331 .TP
 332 .B *
 333 (optional) distmp3, a client/server for distributed mp3 encoding.
 334 .TP
 335 .B *
 336 (optional) normalize, a WAV file volume normalizer.
 337 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 338 .BR cdparanoia (1),
 339 .BR cdda2wav (1),
 340 .BR dagrab (1),
 341 .BR normalize (1),
 342 .BR oggenc (1),
 343 .BR vorbize (1),
 344 .BR flac (1),
 345 .BR speexenc(1),
 346 .BR id3 (1),
 347 .BR wget (1),
 348 .BR fetch (1),
 349 .BR cd-discid (1),
 350 .BR distmp3 (1),
 351 .BR distmp3host (1),
 352 .BR curl(1)
 353 .SH AUTHOR
 354 Robert Woodcock <rcw@debian.org>
 355 Jesus Climent <jesus.climent@hispalinux.es>