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
+Do a CDDB or Musicbrainz query over the Internet to look up your CD or use a locally stored CDDB entry
.TP
.B *
Grab an audio track (or all the audio CD tracks) from your CD
.B \-1
Encode the whole CD in a single file. The resulting file uses the CD title
for tagging. If the resulting format is a flac file with an embedded cuesheet,
-the file can be used as a source for creating other formats. Use "-1 -M -o
-flac" for obtaining such a file.
+the file can be used as a source for creating other formats. Use "\-1 \-o
+flac \-a default,cue" for obtaining such a file.
.TP
.B \-a [actions]
Comma-delimited list of actions to perform. Can be one or more of: cddb, cue,
read, normalize, encode, tag, move, replaygain, playlist, clean. Normalize and
encode imply read. Tag implies cddb, read, encode. Move implies cddb, read,
encode, tag. Replaygain implies cddb, read, encode, tag and move. Playlist
-implies cddb. The default is to do all actions except normalize, replaygain and
-playlist.
+implies cddb. The default is to do all actions except cue, normalize,
+replaygain and playlist.
.TP
.B \-b
Enable batch mode normalization. See the BATCHNORM 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 $HOME/.abcde.conf.
+in this file override those in \fI/etc/abcde.conf\fR or \fI$HOME/.abcde.conf\fR.
.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
+when you no longer have the CD available (\fBabcde\fR 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
not finished. For example, one can read and encode several formats, including
\'.ogg\', and later on execute a \'move\' action with only one of the given
formats. On a normal situation it would erase the rest of those encoded
-formats. In this case, abcde will refuse to execute such command, except if \-f
+formats. In this case, \fBabcde\fR will refuse to execute such command, except if \-f
is used.
.TP
.B \-g
.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
+the MAXPROCS configuration variable. Set it to "0" when using \fBdistmp3\fR to avoid
local encoding processes.
.TP
.B \-k
Create DOS-style playlists, modifying the resulting one by adding CRLF line
endings. Some hardware players insist on having those to work.
.TP
-.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.
-If the cuesheet is embedded in a flac single file it can be used as source for
-encoding other formats (see option "\-d").
-.TP
.B \-o [filetype][:filetypeoptions]
Select output type. Can be "vorbis" (or "ogg"), "mp3", "flac", "spx", "mpc",
"m4a" or "wav". Specify a comma-delimited list of output types to obtain all
Use Unix PIPES to read and encode in one step. It disables multiple encodings,
since the WAV audio file is never stored in the disc.
.TP
+.B \-q [quality]
+Use a pre-defined quality level for the encoding process. Defined as low,
+medium or high. The "medium" value is used to reset the default values if other
+are used in the config file(s).
+.TP
.B \-r [hosts...]
-Remote encode on this comma-delimited list of machines using distmp3. See
+Remote encode on this comma-delimited list of machines using \fBdistmp3\fR. See
the REMOTEHOSTS configuration variable.
.TP
.B \-R
defined directory for matches of the CDDB entry.
.TP
.B \-s [fields...]
-List, separated by comas, the fields to be shown in the CDDB parsed entries.
+List, separated by commas, the fields to be shown in the CDDB parsed entries.
Right now it only uses "year" and "genre".
.TP
.B \-S [speed]
Show the version and exit
.TP
.B \-V
-Be a bit more verbose. On slow networks the CDDB requests might give the
-sensation nothing is happening.
+Be more verbose. On slow networks the CDDB requests might give the
+sensation nothing is happening. Add this more than once to make things
+even more verbose.
.TP
.B \-x
Eject the CD when all tracks have been read. See the EJECTCD configuration
.TP
.B \-X [cue2discid]
Use an alternative "cue2discid" implementation. The name of the binary must be
-exactly that. abcde comes with an implementation in python under the examples
+exactly that. \fBabcde\fR comes with an implementation in python under the examples
directory. The special keyword "builtin" forces the usage of the internal
(default) implementation in shell script.
.TP
.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".
+to modify the numbering of the tracks, starting with "#01". For Ogg/Vorbis and
+FLAC files, it also defines a DISCNUMBER tag.
.TP
.B \-z
-DEBUG mode: it will rip, using cdparanoia, the very first second of each track
+DEBUG mode: it will rip, using \fBcdparanoia\fR, the very first second of each track
and proceed with the actions requested very quickly, also providing some
"hidden" information about what happens on the background. CAUTION: IT WILL
ERASE ANY EXISTING RIPS WITHOUT WARNING!
.TP
.B [tracks]
-A list of tracks you want abcde to process. If this isn't specified, abcde
+A list of tracks you want \fBabcde\fR to process. If this isn't specified, \fBabcde\fR
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.
This can be modified using the OUTPUTFORMAT and VAOUTPUTFORMAT
-variables in your abcde.conf. Each file is given an extension identifying
+variables in your \fIabcde.conf\fR. Each file is given an extension identifying
its compression format, 'vorbis' for '.ogg', '.mp3', '.flac', '.spx', '.mpc', '.aac' or '.wav'.
.SH CONFIGURATION
-abcde sources two configuration files on startup - /etc/abcde.conf and
-$HOME/.abcde.conf, in that order.
-.TP
-The configuration options stated on those files can be overridden by providing
+\fBabcde\fR sources two configuration files on startup - \fI/etc/abcde.conf\fR and
+\fI$HOME/.abcde.conf\fR, in that order.
+.PP
+The configuration options stated in those files can be overridden by providing
the appropriate flags at runtime.
-.TP
+.PP
The configuration variables have to be set as follows:
.TP
.B VARIABLE=value
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.
+All shell escaping/quoting rules apply.
.TP
-Here is a list of options abcde recognizes:
+Here is a list of options \fBabcde\fR recognizes:
.TP
.B CDDBMETHOD
Specifies the method we want to use to retrieve the track information. Two
values are recognized: "cddb" and "musicbrainz". The "cddb" value needs the
CDDBURL and HELLOINFO variables described below. The "musicbrainz" value uses
-Python to establish a conversation with the server for information retrieval.
+the Perl helper script \fBabcde-musicbrainz-tool\fR to establish a
+conversation with the Musicbrainz server for information retrieval.
.TP
.B CDDBURL
Specifies a server to use for CDDB lookups.
.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
+CD playing and ripping programs (like Grip) store the entries under \fI~/.cddb\fR
and we can make use of those entries.
.TP
.B CDDBLOCALRECURSIVE
.TP
.B CDDBUSELOCAL
Actually use the stored copies of the CDDB entries. Can be overridden using the
-"-L" flag (if is CDDBUSELOCAL in "n"). If an entry is found, we always give
+"\-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 SHOWCDDBFIELDS
.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
+set it to "y". You can use the "\-k" switch in the command line. The default
behaviour with KEEPWAVS set is to keep the temporary directory and the wav
files even you have requested the "clean" action.
.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).
+with \fBdistmp3\fR (DISTMP3NICE).
.TP
.B PATHNAMES
The following configuration file options specify the pathnames of their
CUE2DISCID (see option "\-X"), DIFF and HTTPGET.
.TP
.B COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
-If you wish to specify command-line options to any of the programs abcde uses,
+If you wish to specify command-line options to any of the programs \fBabcde\fR uses,
set the following configuration file options: LAMEOPTS, TOOLAMEOPTS, GOGOOPTS,
BLADEENCOPTS, L3ENCOPTS, XINGMP3ENCOPTS, MP3ENCOPTS, VORBIZEOPTS, OGGENCOPTS,
-FLACOPTS, SPEEXENCOPTS, MPPENCOPTS, AACENCOPTS, ID3OPTS, ID3V2OPTS,
+FLACOPTS, SPEEXENCOPTS, MPPENCOPTS, AACENCOPTS, ID3OPTS, ID3V2OPTS, MP3GAINOPTS,
CDPARANOIAOPTS, CDDA2WAVOPTS, CDDAFSOPTS, CDDBTOOLOPTS, EJECTOPTS, DISTMP3OPTS,
NORMALIZEOPTS, CDSPEEDOPTS, MKCUEOPTS, VORBISCOMMMENTOPTS, METAFLACOPTS,
-DIFFOPTS and HTTPGETOPTS.
+DIFFOPTS, FLACGAINOPTS, VORBISGAINOPTS and HTTPGETOPTS.
.TP
.B CDSPEEDVALUE
Set the value of the CDROM speed. The default is to read the disc as fast as
\'flac\' option is defined to extract tracks from a single-track flac file.
.TP
.B CDPARANOIACDROMBUS
-Defined as "d" when using cdparanoia with an IDE bus and as "g" when using
-cdparanoia with the ide-scsi emulation layer.
+Defined as "d" when using \fBcdparanoia\fR with an IDE bus and as "g" when using
+\fBcdparanoia\fR with the ide-scsi emulation layer.
.TP
.B OUTPUTDIR
Specifies the directory to place completed tracks/playlists in.
(Ogg/Vorbis), "mp3" (MPEG-1 Audio Layer III), "flac" (Free Lossless Audio
Codec), "spx" (Ogg/Speex), "mpc" (MPP/MP+ (Musepack)), "m4a" (for M4A (AAC)) or
"wav" (Microsoft Waveform). Values like "vorbis,mp3" encode the tracks in both
-Ogg/Vorbis and MP3 formats.
+Ogg/Vorbis and MP3 formats. For example
+.br
+OUTPUTTYPE=vorbis,flac
.br
-For each value in OUTPUTTYPE, abcde expands a different process for encoding,
+For each value in OUTPUTTYPE, \fBabcde\fR 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', 'mpc', 'm4a' and/or 'wav', depending on the
TRACKNUM, and YEAR. Default is \'${ARTISTFILE}-${ALBUMFILE}/${TRACKNUM}-${TRACKFILE}\'.
Make sure to use single quotes around this variable. TRACKNUM is automatically
zero-padded, when the number of encoded tracks is higher than 9. When lower,
-you can force with
-'-p' in the command line.
+you can force with '\-p' in the command line.
.TP
.B VAOUTPUTFORMAT
Just like OUTPUTFORMAT but for Various Artists discs. The default is 'Various-${ALBUMFILE}/${TRACKNUM}.${ARTISTFILE}-${TRACKFILE}'
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.
+
+Note that this option may also help when reading
+a CD with errors. This is because on a scratchy disk reading is quite timing
+sensitive and this option reduces the background load on the system which
+allows the ripping program more precise control.
.TP
.B BATCHNORM
If set to y, enables batch mode normalization, which preserves relative
.TP
.B REMOTEHOSTS
Specifies a comma-delimited list of systems to use for remote encoding using
-distmp3. Equivalent to -r.
+\fBdistmp3\fR. 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
+mungefilename() is an \fBabcde\fR shell function that can be overridden via
+\fIabcde.conf\fR. 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.
.TP
.B pre_read
pre_read () is a shell function which is executed before the CDROM is read
-for the first time, during abcde execution. It can be used to close the CDROM
+for the first time, during \fBabcde\fR execution. It can be used to close the CDROM
tray, to set its speed (via "setcd" or via "eject", if available) and other
preparation actions. The default function is empty.
.TP
The default function is empty.
.TP
.B EJECTCD
-If set to "y", abcde will call eject(1) to eject the cdrom from the drive
+If set to "y", \fBabcde\fR will call \fBeject\fR(1) to eject the cdrom from the drive
after all tracks have been read. It has no effect when CDROM is set to a flac
file.
.TP
.B EXTRAVERBOSE
-If set to "y", some operations which are usually now shown to the end user
+If set to "1", some operations which are usually now shown to the end user
are visible, such as CDDB queries. Useful for initial debug and if your
-network/CDDB server is slow.
+network/CDDB server is slow. Set to "2" or more for even more verbose
+output.
.SH EXAMPLES
-Possible ways one can call abcde
+Possible ways one can call \fBabcde\fR:
.TP
.B abcde
Will work in most systems
.TP
.B abcde \-d /dev/cdrom2
-If the CDROM you are reading from is not the standard /dev/cdrom (in GNU/Linux systems)
+If the CDROM you are reading from is not the standard \fI/dev/cdrom\fR (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
+Will pass "\-b 192" to the Ogg/Vorbis encoder, without having to modify the
config file
.TP
.B abcde \-W 1
.B abcde \-d singletrack.flac
Will extract the files contained in singletrack using the embedded cuesheet.
.SH BACKEND TOOLS
-abcde requires the following backend tools to work:
+\fBabcde\fR requires the following backend tools to work:
.TP
.B *
An Ogg/Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, Ogg/Speex, MPP/MP+(Musepack) or M4A encoder (oggenc, vorbize, lame, gogo, bladeenc, l3enc, mp3enc, flac, speexenc, mppenc, faac)
.TP
.B *
-An audio CD reading utility (cdparanoia, cdda2wav, dagrab)
+An audio CD reading utility (cdparanoia, icedax, 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). Alternatively, musicbrainz-get-tracks (which depends on Python) can be used to retrieve CDDB information about the CD.
+An HTTP retrieval program: wget, fetch (FreeBSD) or curl (Mac OS X,
+among others). Alternatively, abcde-musicbrainz-tool (which depends on
+Perl and some Musicbrainz libraries) can be used to retrieve CDDB
+information about the CD.
.TP
.B *
(for MP3s) id3 or id3v2, id3 v1 and v2 tagging programs.
(optional) mkcue, a CD cuesheet extractor.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR cdparanoia (1),
+.BR icedax (1),
.BR cdda2wav (1),
.BR dagrab (1),
.BR normalize-audio (1),
.BR mp3gain (1)
.SH AUTHORS
Robert Woodcock <rcw@debian.org>,
-Jesus Climent <jesus.climent@hispalinux.es> and contributions from many others.
+Jesus Climent <jesus.climent@hispalinux.es>,
+Colin Tuckley <colint@debian.org>,
+Steve McIntyre <93sam@debian.org> and contributions from many others.