-.TH ABCDE 1
+.TH abcde 1
.SH NAME
abcde \- Grab an entire CD and compress it to Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, Ogg/Speex and/or MPP/MP+(Musepack) format.
.SH SYNOPSIS
Capture debugging information (you'll want to redirect this \- try 'abcde \-D
2>logfile')
.TP
-.B \-f
-Force the use of a locally cached CDDB entry and fallback to a template if none
-is found. For faster network-disconnected operation.
+.B \-h
+Get help information.
.TP
.B \-j [number]
Start [number] encoder processes at once. Useful for SMP systems. Overrides
.B \-L
Use a local CDDB repository. See CDDBLOCALDIR variable.
.TP
-.B -n
+.B \-n
Do not query CDDB database. Create and use a template. Edit the template to
provide song names, artist(s), ...
.TP
-.B -N
+.B \-N
Non interactive mode. Do not ask anything from the user. Just go ahead.
.TP
-.B -m
+.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", "spx" or "mpc". Specify a
-comma-delimited list of output types to obtain all specified types. See
-the OUTPUTTYPE configuration variable.
+.B \-M
+Create a CUE file with information about the CD. Together with the possibility
+of creating a single file (see option "\-1"), one can recreate the original CD.
+.TP
+.B \-o [filetype][:filetypeoptions]
+Select output type. Can be "vorbis" (or "ogg"), "mp3", "flac", "spx" or "mpc".
+Specify a comma-delimited list of output types to obtain all specified types.
+See the OUTPUTTYPE configuration variable. One can pass options to the encoder
+for a specific filetype on the command line separating them with a colon. The
+options must be escaped with double-quotes.
.TP
.B \-p
Pads track numbers with 0\'s.
Remote encode on this comma-delimited list of machines using distmp3. See
the REMOTEHOSTS configuration variable.
.TP
-.B \-s [number]
-[DEPRECATED: use -t, see below]
+.B \-R
+Add replaygain information to the id3 or tag information for play
+normalization. Only works with MP3 and Ogg/Vorbis.
.TP
.B \-S [speed]
Set the speed of the CD drive. Needs CDSPEED and CDSPEEDOPTS set properly
Eject the CD when all tracks have been read. See the EJECTCD configuration
variable.
.TP
-.B \-h
-Get help information.
+.B \-w [comment]
+Add a comment to the tracks ripped from the CD.
+.TP
+.B \-W [number]
+Concatenate CD\'s. It uses the number provided to define a comment "CD #" and
+to modify the numbering of the tracks, starting with "#01".
.TP
.B [tracks]
A list of tracks you want abcde to process. If this isn't specified, abcde
in a subdirectory named after the artist under the current directory.
This can be modified using the OUTPUTFORMAT and VAOUTPUTFORMAT
variables in your abcde.conf. Each file is given an extension identifying
-its compression format, '.ogg', '.mp3', '.flac', '.spx', or '.mpc'.
+its compression format, 'vorbis' for '.ogg', '.mp3', '.flac', '.spx', or '.mpc'.
.SH CONFIGURATION
abcde sources two configuration files on startup - /etc/abcde.conf and
$HOME/.abcde.conf, in that order.
.TP
+The configuration options stated on those files can ba overriden by providing
+the appropiate flags at runtime.
+.TP
The configuration variables have to be set as follows:
.TP
.B VARIABLE=value
.B CDDBURL
Specifies a server to use for CDDB lookups.
.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 OGGENCODERSYNTAX
Specifies the style of encoder to use for the Ogg/Vorbis encoder. Valid options
are \'oggenc\' (default for Ogg/Vorbis) and \'vorbize\'.
.TP
.B NORMALIZERSYNTAX
Specifies the style of normalizer to use. Valid options are \'default\'
-and \'normalize'\ (and both run \'normalize-audio\'), since we only support it, ATM.
+and \'normalize'\ (and both run \'normalize-audio\'), 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.
+.B CDROMREADERSYNTAX
+Specifies the style of cdrom reader to use. Valid options are \'cdparanoia\'
+and \'debug\'. It is used for querying the CDROM and obtain a list of valid
+tracks and DATA tracks. Right now, only cdparanoia is supported.
.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.
+.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 CDDBCOPYLOCAL
-Store local copies of the CDDB entries under the $CDDBLOCALDIR directory.
+.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 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.
+.B INTERACTIVE
+Set to "n" if you want to perform automatic rips, without user intervention.
+.TP
+.B NICE VALUES
+Define the values for priorities (nice values) for the different CPU-hungry
+processes: encoding (ENCNICE), CDROM read (READNICE) and distributed encoder
+with distmp3 (DISTMP3NICE).
+.TP
+.B PATHNAMES
+The following configuration file options specify the pathnames of their
+respective utilities: LAME, GOGO, BLADEENC, L3ENC, XINGMP3ENC, MP3ENC, VORBIZE,
+OGGENC, FLAC, SPEEXENC, MPPENC, ID3, ID3V2, CDPARANOIA, CDDA2WAV, CDDAFS,
+CDDISCID, CDDBTOOL, EJECT, MD5SUM, DISTMP3, VORBISCOMMENT, NORMALIZE, CDSPEED,
+VORBISGAIN, MKCUE and HTTPGET.
+.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, SPEEXENCOPTS, MPPENCOPTS, ID3OPTS, ID3V2OPTS, CDPARANOIAOPTS,
+CDDA2WAVOPTS, CDDAFSOPTS, CDDBTOOLOPTS, EJECTOPTS, DISTMP3OPTS, NORMALIZEOPTS,
+CDSPEEDOPTS, MKCUEOPTS,VORBISCOMMMENTOPTS, METAFLACOPTS and HTTPGETOPTS.
+.TP
+.B CDSPEEDVALUE
+Set the value of the CDROM speed. The default is to read the disc as fast as
+the reading program and the system permits. The steps are defined as 150kB/s
+(1x).
+.TP
+.B ACTIONS
+The default actions to be performed when reading a disc.
+.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 OUTPUTDIR
Specifies the directory to place completed tracks/playlists in.
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 OUTPUTTYPE
+Specifies the encoding format to output, as well as the default extension and
+encoder. Defaults to "vorbis". Valid settings are "vorbis" (or "ogg")
+(Ogg/Vorbis), "mp3" (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III), "flac" (Free Lossless Audio
+Codec), "spx" (Ogg/Speex) and "mpc" (MPP/MP+ (Musepack)). Values like
+"vorbis,mp3" encode the tracks in both Ogg/Vorbis and MP3 formats.
+.br
+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 'vorbis', 'mp3', 'flac', 'spx' and/or 'mpc', depending on the OUTPUTTYPE you define.
+For example
+.br
+OUTPUTFORMAT='${OUTPUT}/${ARTISTFILE}/${ALBUMFILE}/${TRACKNUM}._${TRACKFILE}'
+.TP
.B OUTPUTFORMAT
Specifies the format for completed Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, Ogg/Speex or MPP/MP+
(Musepack) filenames.
automatically zero-padded, when the number of encoded tracks is higher than
9. When lower, you can force with '-p' in the command line.
.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 III), "flac" (Free Lossless Audio Codec), "spx" (Ogg/Speex)
-and "mpc" (MPP/MP+ (Musepack)). 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', 'spx' and/or 'mpc', 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, MPPENC, 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, SPEEXENCOPTS, MPPENCOPTS, 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
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
If set to "y", some operations which are usually now shown to the end user
are visible, such as CDDB queries. Usefull for initial debug and if your
network/CDDB server is slow.
+.SH EXAMPLES
+Possible ways one can call abcdeĆ
+.TP
+.B abcde
+Will work in most systems
+.TP
+.B abcde -d /dev/cdrom2
+If the CDROM you are reding from is not the standard /dev/cdrom (in GNU/Linux systems)
+.TP
+.B abcde -o vorbis,flac
+Will create both Ogg/Vorbis and Ogg/FLAC files.
+.TP
+.B abcde -o vorbis:"-b 192"
+Will pass "-b 192" to the Ogg/Vorbis encoder, without having to modify the
+config file
+.TP
+.B abcde -W 1
+For double CDs settings: will create the 1st CD starting with the track number
+101, and will add a comment "CD 1" to the tracks
.SH BACKEND TOOLS
abcde requires the following backend tools to work:
.TP