1metaflac(1) Free Lossless Audio Codec metadata tool metaflac(1)
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6 metaflac - program to list, add, remove, or edit metadata in one or
7 more FLAC files.
8
10 metaflac [ options ] [ operations ] FLACfile ...
11
13 Use metaflac to list, add, remove, or edit metadata in one or more FLAC
14 files. You may perform one major operation, or many shorthand opera‐
15 tions at a time.
16
18 metaflac is the command-line .flac file metadata editor. You can use
19 it to list the contents of metadata blocks, edit, delete or insert
20 blocks, and manage padding.
21 metaflac takes a set of “options” (though some are not optional) and a
23 set of FLAC files to operate on. There are three kinds of “options”:
24 • Major operations, which specify a mode of operation like listing
26 blocks, removing blocks, etc. These will have sub-operations de‐
27 scribing exactly what is to be done.
28 • Shorthand operations, which are convenient synonyms for major opera‐
30 tions. For example, there is a shorthand operation –show-sample-rate
31 that shows just the sample rate field from the STREAMINFO metadata
32 block.
33 • Global options, which affect all the operations.
35 All of these are described in the tables below. At least one shorthand
37 or major operation must be supplied. You can use multiple shorthand
38 operations to do more than one thing to a file or set of files. Most
39 of the common things to do to metadata have shorthand operations. As
40 an example, here is how to show the MD5 signatures for a set of three
41 FLAC files:
42 metaflac --show-md5sum file1.flac file2.flac file3.flac
44 Another example; this removes all DESCRIPTION and COMMENT tags in a set
46 of FLAC files, and uses the –preserve-modtime global option to keep the
47 FLAC file modification times the same (usually when files are edited
48 the modification time is set to the current time):
49 metaflac --preserve-modtime --remove-tag=DESCRIPTION --remove-tag=COM‐
51 MENT file1.flac file2.flac file3.flac
52
54 --preserve-modtime
55 Preserve the original modification time in spite of edits.
56 --with-filename
58 Prefix each output line with the FLAC file name (the default if
59 more than one FLAC file is specified). This option has no ef‐
60 fect for options exporting to a file, like –export-tags-to.
61 --no-filename
63 Do not prefix each output line with the FLAC file name (the de‐
64 fault if only one FLAC file is specified).
65 --no-utf8-convert
67 Do not convert tags from UTF-8 to local charset, or vice versa.
68 This is useful for scripts, and setting tags in situations where
69 the locale is wrong.
70 --dont-use-padding
72 By default metaflac tries to use padding where possible to avoid
73 rewriting the entire file if the metadata size changes. Use
74 this option to tell metaflac to not take advantage of padding
75 this way.
76
78 --show-md5sum
79 Show the MD5 signature from the STREAMINFO block.
80 --show-min-blocksize
82 Show the minimum block size from the STREAMINFO block.
83 --show-max-blocksize
85 Show the maximum block size from the STREAMINFO block.
86 --show-min-framesize
88 Show the minimum frame size from the STREAMINFO block.
89 --show-max-framesize
91 Show the maximum frame size from the STREAMINFO block.
92 --show-sample-rate
94 Show the sample rate from the STREAMINFO block.
95 --show-channels
97 Show the number of channels from the STREAMINFO block.
98 --show-bps
100 Show the # of bits per sample from the STREAMINFO block.
101 --show-total-samples
103 Show the total # of samples from the STREAMINFO block.
104 --show-vendor-tag
106 Show the vendor string from the VORBIS_COMMENT block.
107 --show-tag=name
109 Show all tags where the field name matches `name'.
110 --show-all-tags
112 Show all tags. This is an alias for –export-tags-to=-.
113 --remove-tag=name
115 Remove all tags whose field name is `name'.
116 --remove-first-tag=name
118 Remove first tag whose field name is `name'.
119 --remove-all-tags
121 Remove all tags, leaving only the vendor string.
122 --remove-all-tags-except=NAME1[=NAME2[=...]]
124 Remove all tags, except the vendor string and the tag names
125 specified. Tag names must be separated by an = character.
126 --set-tag=field
128 Add a tag. The field must comply with the Vorbis comment spec,
129 of the form “NAME=VALUE”. If there is currently no tag block,
130 one will be created.
131 --set-tag-from-file=field
133 Like --set-tag, except the VALUE is a filename whose contents
134 will be read verbatim to set the tag value. Unless --no-
135 utf8-convert is specified, the contents will be converted to
136 UTF-8 from the local charset. This can be used to store a
137 cuesheet in a tag (e.g. --set-tag-from-file=“CUESHEET=im‐
138 age.cue”). Do not try to store binary data in tag fields! Use
139 APPLICATION blocks for that.
140 --import-tags-from=file
142 Import tags from a file. Use `-' for stdin. Each line should
143 be of the form NAME=VALUE. Multi-line comments are currently
144 not supported. Specify --remove-all-tags and/or --no-utf8-con‐
145 vert before --import-tags-from if necessary. If FILE is `-'
146 (stdin), only one FLAC file may be specified.
147 --export-tags-to=file
149 Export tags to a file. Use `-' for stdout. Each line will be
150 of the form NAME=VALUE. Specify --no-utf8-convert if necessary.
151 --import-cuesheet-from=file
153 Import a cuesheet from a file. Use `-' for stdin. Only one
154 FLAC file may be specified. A seekpoint will be added for each
155 index point in the cuesheet to the SEEKTABLE unless --no-cued-
156 seekpoints is specified.
157 --export-cuesheet-to=file
159 Export CUESHEET block to a cuesheet file, suitable for use by CD
160 authoring software. Use `-' for stdout. Only one FLAC file may
161 be specified on the command line.
162 --import-picture-from={FILENAME|SPECIFICATION}
164 Import a picture and store it in a PICTURE metadata block. More
165 than one --import-picture-from command can be specified. Either
166 a filename for the picture file or a more complete specification
167 form can be used. The SPECIFICATION is a string whose parts are
168 separated by | (pipe) characters. Some parts may be left empty
169 to invoke default values. FILENAME is just shorthand for
170 “||||FILENAME”. For details on the specification, see the sec‐
171 tion Picture specification in the flac(1) man page.
172 --export-picture-to=file
174 Export PICTURE block to a file. Use `-' for stdout. Only one
175 FLAC file may be specified on the command line. The first PIC‐
176 TURE block will be exported unless --export-picture-to is pre‐
177 ceded by a --block-number=# option to specify the exact metadata
178 block to extract. Note that the block number is the one shown
179 by --list.
180 --add-replay-gain
182 Calculates the title and album gains/peaks of the given FLAC
183 files as if all the files were part of one album, then stores
184 them as FLAC tags. The tags are the same as those used by vor‐
185 bisgain. Existing ReplayGain tags will be replaced. If only
186 one FLAC file is given, the album and title gains will be the
187 same. Since this operation requires two passes, it is always
188 executed last, after all other operations have been completed
189 and written to disk. All FLAC files specified must have the
190 same resolution, sample rate, and number of channels. Only mono
191 and stereo files are allowed, and the sample rate must be 8,
192 11.025, 12, 16, 18.9, 22.05, 24, 28, 32, 36, 37.8, 44.1, 48, 56,
193 64, 72, 75.6, 88.2, 96, 112, 128, 144, 151.2, 176.4, 192, 224,
194 256, 288, 302.4, 352.8, 384, 448, 512, 576, or 604.8 kHz.
195 --scan-replay-gain
197 Like --add-replay-gain, but only analyzes the files rather than
198 writing them to the tags.
199 --remove-replay-gain
201 Removes the ReplayGain tags.
202 --add-seekpoint={#|X|#x|#s}
204 Add seek points to a SEEKTABLE block. Using #, a seek point at
205 that sample number is added. Using X, a placeholder point is
206 added at the end of a the table. Using #x, # evenly spaced seek
207 points will be added, the first being at sample 0. Using #s, a
208 seekpoint will be added every # seconds (# does not have to be a
209 whole number; it can be, for example, 9.5, meaning a seekpoint
210 every 9.5 seconds). If no SEEKTABLE block exists, one will be
211 created. If one already exists, points will be added to the ex‐
212 isting table, and any duplicates will be turned into placeholder
213 points. You may use many --add-seekpoint options; the resulting
214 SEEKTABLE will be the unique-ified union of all such values.
215 Example: --add-seekpoint=100x --add-seekpoint=3.5s will add 100
216 evenly spaced seekpoints and a seekpoint every 3.5 seconds.
217 --add-padding=length
219 Add a padding block of the given length (in bytes). The overall
220 length of the new block will be 4 + length; the extra 4 bytes is
221 for the metadata block header.
222
224 --list List the contents of one or more metadata blocks to stdout. By
225 default, all metadata blocks are listed in text format. Use the
226 options --block-number, --block-type or --except-block-type to
227 change this behavior.
228 --remove
230 Remove one or more metadata blocks from the metadata. Use the
231 options --block-number, --block-type or --except-block-type to
232 specify which blocks should be removed. Note that if both
233 --block-number and --[except-]block-type are specified, the re‐
234 sult is the logical AND of both arguments. Unless --dont-use-
235 padding is specified, the blocks will be replaced with padding.
236 You may not remove the STREAMINFO block.
237 --block-number=#[,#[...]]
239 An optional comma-separated list of block numbers to display.
240 The first block, the STREAMINFO block, is block 0.
241 --block-type=type[,type[...]]
243 --except-block-type=type[,type[...]]
245 An optional comma-separated list of block types to be included
246 or ignored with this option. Use only one of --block-type or
247 --except-block-type. The valid block types are: STREAMINFO,
248 PADDING, APPLICATION, SEEKTABLE, VORBIS_COMMENT, PICTURE. You
249 may narrow down the types of APPLICATION blocks selected by ap‐
250 pending APPLICATION with a colon and the ID of the APPLICATION
251 block in either ASCII or hexadecimal representation. E.g. AP‐
252 PLICATION:abcd for the APPLICATION block(s) whose textual repre‐
253 sentation of the 4-byte ID is “abcd” or APPLICATION:0xXXXXXXXX
254 for the APPLICATION block(s) whose hexadecimal big- endian rep‐
255 resentation of the 4-byte ID is “0xXXXXXXXX”. For the example
256 “abcd” above the hexadecimal equivalalent is 0x61626364
257 --application-data-format=hexdump|text
259 If the application block you are displaying contains binary data
260 but your --data-format=text, you can display a hex dump of the
261 application data contents instead using --application-data-for‐
262 mat=hexdump.
263 --data-format=binary|binary-headerless|text
265 For use with –list. By default a human-readable text represen‐
266 tation of the data is isplayed. You may specify –data-for‐
267 mat=binary to dump the raw binary form of each metadata block.
268 Specify –data-format=binary-headerless to omit output of metada‐
269 ta block headers, including the id of APPLICATION metadata
270 blocks.
271 --append
273 Insert a metadata block from a file. This must be a binary
274 block as exported with –list –data-format=binary. The insertion
275 point is defined with –block-number=#. The new block will be
276 added after the given block number. This prevents the illegal
277 insertion of a block before the first STREAMINFO block. You may
278 not –append another STREAMINFO block. It is possible to copy a
279 metadata block from one file to another with this option. For
280 example use metaflac --list --data-format=binary --block-num‐
281 ber=6 file.flac > block to export the block, and then import it
282 with metaflac --append anotherfile.flac < block
283 --remove-all
285 Remove all metadata blocks (except the STREAMINFO block) from
286 the metadata. Unless --dont-use-padding is specified, the
287 blocks will be replaced with padding.
288 --merge-padding
290 Merge adjacent PADDING blocks into single blocks.
291 --sort-padding
293 Move all PADDING blocks to the end of the metadata and merge
294 them into a single block.
295
297 flac(1)
298Version 1.4.3 metaflac(1)