1CDRSKIN(1) General Commands Manual CDRSKIN(1)
2
6 cdrskin - burns preformatted data to CD-R or CD-RW via libburn.
7
9 cdrskin [options|track_source_addresses]
10
12 cdrskin is a program that provides some of cdrecord's options in a com‐
13 patible way. You don't need to be root to use it.
14 Overview of features:
16 Blanking of CD-RW.
17 Burning of data or audio tracks to CD.
18 Either in versatile Track at Once mode (TAO)
19 or in Session at Once mode for seamless tracks.
20 Multi session (follow-up sessions in TAO only).
21 Bus scan, burnfree, speed options, retrieving media info, padding,
22 fifo.
23 See section EXAMPLES at the end of this text.
24 Known deficiencies:
26 No DVD support yet.
27 Track recording model:
29 The input-output entities which get processed are called tracks. A
30 track stores a stream of bytes.
31 Each track is initiated by one track source address argument, which may
32 either be "-" for standard input or the address of a readable file. If
33 no write mode is given explicitely then one will be chosen which
34 matches the peculiarities of track source and the state of the output
35 media.
36 There can be more than one track burned by a single run of cdrskin.
38 CDs can be kept appendable so that further tracks can be written to
39 them in subsequent runs of cdrskin (see option -multi). Info about the
40 addresses of burned tracks is kept in a table of content (TOC) on media
41 and can be retrieved via cdrskin option -toc. These informations are
42 also used by the operating systems' CD-ROM read drivers.
43 In general there are two types of tracks: data and audio. They differ
45 in sector size, throughput and readability via the systems' CD-ROM
46 drivers resp. by music CD players.
47 If not explicitely option -audio is given, then any track is burned as
48 data unless the track source is a file with suffix ".wav" or ".au" and
49 has a header part which identifies it as MS-WAVE resp. SUN Audio with
50 suitable parameters. Such files are burned as audio tracks by default.
51 While audio tracks just contain a given time span of acoustic vibra‐
53 tions, data tracks may have an arbitray meaning. Nevertheless, ISO-9660
54 filesystems are established as a format which can represent a tree of
55 directories and data files on all major operating systems. Such
56 filesystem images can be produced by programs mkisofs or genisoimage.
57 They can also be extended by follow-up tracks if prepared properly. See
58 the man pages of said programs. cdrskin is able to fulfill the needs
59 about their option -C.
60 Another type of data track content are archive formats which originally
61 have been developed for magnetic tapes. Only formats which mark a
62 detectable end-of-archive in their data are suitable with CD, though.
63 Well tested are the archivers afio and star. Not suitable seems GNU
64 tar.
65 Recordable CD Media:
67 CD-R can be initially written only once and eventually extended until
68 they get closed (or are spoiled because they are overly full). After
69 that they are read-only.
70 CD-RW media can be blanked to make them re-usable for another round of
71 overwriting. Blanking damages the previous content but does not make it
72 completely unreadable. It is no effective privacy precaution. Multiple
73 cycles of blanking and overwriting with random numbers might be.
74
76 --help Show non-cdrecord compatible options.
77 -help Show cdrecord compatible options.
79 -version
81 Print cdrskin id line, compatibility lure line, libburn version,
82 cdrskin version, version timestamp, build timestamp (if avail‐
83 able), and then exit.
84 Alphabetical list of options which are intended to be compatible with
86 original cdrecord by Joerg Schilling:
87 -atip Retrieve some info about media state. With CD-RW print "Is
89 erasable".
90 -audio Announces that the subsequent tracks are to be burned as audio.
92 The source is supposed to be uncompressed headerless PCM, 44100
93 Hz, 16 bit, stereo. For little-endian byte order (which is usual
94 on PCs) use option -swab. Input files with suffix .wav are exam‐
95 ined wether they have a header in MS-WAVE format confirming
96 those parameters and eventually raw audio data get extracted
97 automatically. Same is done for suffix .au and SUN Audio.
98 blank=type
100 Blank a CD-RW disc. This is combinable with burning in the same
101 run of cdrskin. The type given with blank= selects the particu‐
102 lar behavior:
103 help Print this list of blanking types.
105 all Blank the entire disk.
107 fast Minimally blank the entire disk.
109 -checkdrive
111 Retrieve some info about the addressed drive. Exits with non-
112 zero value if the drive cannot be found and opened.
113 -dao Alias for option -sao. Write disk in Session at Once mode.
115 -data Subsequent tracks are data tracks. This option is default and
117 only needed to mark the end of the range of an eventual option
118 -audio.
119 dev=target
121 Sets the (pseudo-)SCSI address of the drive to use. Valid are at
122 least the X,Y,Z addresses listed with option -scanbus, ATA:X,Y,Z
123 addresses listed with options dev=ATA -scanbus, the device file
124 addresses listed with option --devices , volatile libburn drive
125 numbers (numbering starts at "0"). Other device file addresses
126 which lead to the same drive might work too.
127 If no dev= is given, volatile address "dev=0" is assumed. That
128 is the first drive found being available. Better avoid this on
129 multi-drive systems.
130 The special target "help" lists hints about available addressing
131 formats. Be aware that option --old_pseudo_scsi_adr changes the
132 meaning of Bus,Target,Lun addresses.
133 driveropts=opt
135 Set "driveropts=burnfree" to enable the drive's eventual protec‐
136 tion mechanism against temporary lack of source data (i.e. buf‐
137 fer underrun). It is not an error to do this with a drive that
138 has no such capabilities.
139 -dummy Try to perform the drive operations without actually affecting
141 the inserted media. There is no guarantee that this will work
142 with a particular drive in a particular write mode. Blanking is
143 prevented reliably, though.
144 -eject Eject the disk after work is done.
146 -force Assume that the user knows better in situations when cdrskin or
148 libburn are insecure about drive or media state. This includes
149 the attempt to blank media which are classified as unknown or
150 unsuitable, and the attempt to use write modes which libburn
151 believes they are not supported by the drive.
152 Use this only when in urgent need.
153 fs=size
155 Set the fifo size to the given value. The value may have
156 appended letters which multiply the preceding number:
157 "k" or "K" = 1024 , "m" or "M" = 1024k , "g" or "G" = 1024m ,
158 "s" or "S" = 2048
159 Set size to 0 in order to disable the fifo (default is "4m").
160 The fifo buffers an eventual temporary surplus of track source
161 data in order to provide the drive with a steady stream during
162 times of temporary lack of track source supply. The larger the
163 fifo, the longer periods of poor source supply can be compen‐
164 sated. But a large fifo needs substantial time to fill up if
165 not curbed via option fifo_start_at=size.
166 gracetime=seconds
168 Set the grace time before starting to write. (Default is 0)
169 -msinfo
171 Retrieve multi-session info for preparing a follow-up session by
172 option -C of programs mkisofs or genisoimage. Print result to
173 standard output. This option redirects to stderr all message
174 output besides its own result string, which consists of two num‐
175 bers. The result string shall be used as argument of option -C
176 with said programs. It gives the start address of the most
177 recent session and the predicted start address of the next ses‐
178 sion to be appended. The string is empty if the most recent ses‐
179 sion was not written with option -multi.
180 -multi This option keeps the CD appendable after the current session
182 has been written. Without it the disk gets closed and may not
183 be written any more - unless it is a CD-RW and gets blanked
184 which causes loss of its content.
185 The following sessions can only be written in -tao mode.
186 In order to have all filesystem content accessible, the eventual
187 ISO-9660 filesystem of a follow-up session needs to be prepared
188 in a special way by the filesystem formatter program. mkisofs
189 and genisoimage expect particular info about the situation which
190 can be retrieved by cdrskin option -msinfo.
191 To retrieve an archive file which was written as follow-up ses‐
192 sion, you may use option -toc to learn about the "lba" of the
193 desired track number.
194 -nopad Do not add trailing zeros to the data stream. Nevertheless,
196 since there seems to be no use for audio tracks with incomplete
197 last sector, this option applies only to data tracks. There it
198 is default.
199 -pad Add 30 kB of trailing zeros to each data track. (This is not
201 sufficient to avoid problems with various CD-ROM read drivers.)
202 padsize=size
204 Add the given amount of trailing zeros to the next data track.
205 This option gets reset to padsize=0 after that next track is
206 written. It may be set again before the next track argument.
207 About size specifiers, see option fs=.
208 -raw96r
210 Write disk in RAW/RAW96R mode. This mode allows to put more pay‐
211 load bytes into a CD sector but obviously at the cost of error
212 correction. It can only be used for tracks of fixely predicted
213 size. Some drives allow this mode but then behave strange or
214 even go bad for the next few attempts to burn a CD. One should
215 use it only if inavoidable.
216 -sao Write disk in Session At Once mode. This mode is able to put
218 several audio tracks on CD without producing audible gaps
219 between them. It can only be used for tracks of fixely predicted
220 size. This implies that track arguments which depict stdin or
221 named pipes need to be preceeded by option tsize= or by option
222 tao_to_sao_tsize=.
223 -scanbus
225 Scan the system for drives. On Linux the drives at /dev/s* and
226 at /dev/hd* are to be scanned by two separate runs. One without
227 dev= for /dev/s* and one with dev=ATA for /dev/hd* devices.
228 (Option --drives lists all available drives in a single run.)
229 Drives which are busy or which offer no rw-permission to the
230 user of cdrskin are not listed. Busy drives get reported in form
231 of warning messages.
232 The useful fields in a result line are:
233 Bus,Target,Lun Number) 'Vendor' 'Mode' 'Revision'
234 speed=number
236 Set speed of drive. With data CD, 1x speed corresponds to a
237 throughput of 150 kB/s. It is not an error to set a speed higher
238 than is suitable for drive and media. One should stay within a
239 realistic speed range, though.
240 -swab Announce that the raw audio data source of subsequent tracks is
242 byte swapped versus the expectations of cdrecord. This option is
243 suitable for audio where the least significant byte of a 16 bit
244 word is first (little-endian, Intel). Most raw audio data on PC
245 systems are available in this byte order. Less guesswork is
246 needed if track sources are in format MS-WAVE in a file with
247 suffix ".wav".
248 -tao Write disk in Track At Once (TAO) mode. This mode can be used
250 with track sources of unpredictable size, like standard input or
251 named pipes. It is also the only mode that can be used for writ‐
252 ing to appendable CD which already hold data.
253 -toc Print the table of content (TOC) which describes the tracks
255 recorded on CD. The output contains all info from option -atip
256 plus lines which begin with "track: " followed by the track
257 number, the word "lba:" and a number which gives the start
258 address of the track. Addresses are counted in CD sectors which
259 with data tracks hold 2048 bytes each.
260 Example. Retrieve an afio archive from track number 2:
262 tracknumber=2
263 lba=$(cdrskin dev=/dev/cdrom -toc 2>&1 | \
264 grep '^track: [ 0-9][0-9]' | \
265 tail +"$tracknumber" | head -1 | \
266 awk '{ print $4}' )
267 dd if=/dev/cdrom bs=2048 skip="$lba" | \
268 afio -t - | less
269 tsize=size
271 Announces the exact size of the next track source. This is nec‐
272 essary with any write mode other than -tao if the track source
273 is not a regular disk file, but e.g. "-" (standard input) or a
274 named pipe. About size specifiers, see option fs=.
275 If the track source does not deliver the predicted amount of
276 bytes, the remainder of the track is padded with zeros. This is
277 not considered an error. If on the other hand the track source
278 delivers more than the announced bytes then the track on CD gets
279 truncated to the predicted size and cdrskin exits with non-zero
280 value.
281 -v Increment verbose level by one. Startlevel is 0 with only few
283 messages. Level 1 prints progress report with long running
284 operations and also causes some extra lines to be put out with
285 info retrieval options. Level 2 additionally reports about
286 option settings derived from arguments or startup files. Level 3
287 is for debugging and useful mainly in conjunction with somebody
288 who had a look into the program sourcecode.
289 Alphabetical list of options which are genuine to cdrskin and intended
291 for normal use:
292 --allow_setuid
294 Disable the program abort triggered by an insecure discrepance
295 between login user and effective user which indicates applica‐
296 tion of chmod u+s to the program binary. One should not do this
297 chmod u+s , but it is an old cdrecord tradition.
298 --any_track
300 Allow source_addresses to begin with "-" (plus further charac‐
301 ters) or to contain a "=" character. By default such arguments
302 are seen as misspelled options. It is nevertheless not possible
303 to use one of the options of cdrecord-2.01.
304 --demand_a_drive
306 Exit with a nonzero value if no drive can be found during a bus
307 scan.
308 --devices
310 List the device file addresses of all accessible drives. In
311 order to get listed a drive has to offer rw-permission for the
312 cdrskin user and it may not be busy. Busy drives are reported
313 as "SORRY" messages on standard error.
314 Each available drive gets listed by a line containing the fol‐
315 lowing fields:
316 Number dev='Devicefile' rw-Permissions : 'Vendor' 'Model'
317 Number and Devicefile can both be used with option dev=, but
318 number is volatile (numbering changes if drives become busy).
319 Normal users might not see all drives unless the superuser
320 enabled access by chmod o+rw after using cdrskin --devices to
321 get an overview of the situation. That's why current rw-Permis‐
322 sions are listed.
323 fifo_start_at=size
325 Do not wait for full fifo but start burning as soon as the given
326 number of bytes is read. This option may be helpful to bring the
327 average throughput near to the maximum throughput of a drive. A
328 large fs= and a small fifo_start_at= combine a quick burn start
329 and a large savings buffer to compensate for temporary lack of
330 source data. At the beginning of burning, the software protec‐
331 tion against buffer underun is as weak as the size of
332 fifo_start_at= . So it is best if the drive offers hardware pro‐
333 tection which has to be enabled by driveropts=burnfree.
334 --no_rc
336 Only if used as first command line argument this option prevents
337 reading and interpretation of eventual startup files. See sec‐
338 tion FILES below.
339 --single_track
341 Accept only the last argument of the command line as track
342 source address.
343 Alphabetical list of options which are only intended for very special
345 situations and not for normal use:
346 --abort_handler
348 Establish default signal handling not to leave a drive in busy
349 state but rather to shut it down and to wait until it has ended
350 the final operations. This option is only needed for revoking
351 eventual --ignore_signals or --no_abort_handler.
352 dev_translation=<sep><from><sep><to>
354 Set drive address alias. This was necessary before cdrskin-0.2.4
355 to manually translate cdrecord addresses into cdrskin addresses.
356 <sep> is a single character which may not occur in the address
357 string <from>. <from> is an address as expected to be given by
358 the user via option dev=. <to> is the address to be used instead
359 whenever <from> is given. More than one translation instruction
360 can be given in one cdrskin run.
361 E.g.: dev_translation=+ATA:1,0,0+/dev/sg1 dev_transla‐
362 tion=+ATA:1,1,0+/dev/sg2
363 --drive_abort_on_busy
365 Linux specific: Abort process if a busy drive is encountered.
366 --drive_blocking
368 Linux specific: Try to wait for a busy drive to become free.
369 This is not guaranteed to work with all drivers. Some need non‐
370 blocking i/o.
371 --drive_not_exclusive
373 Linux specific: Do not ask the operating system to prevent open‐
374 ing busy drives. Wether this leads to senseful behavior depends
375 on operating system and kernel.
376 --drive_scsi_exclusive
378 Linux specific: Try to exclusively reserve device files
379 /dev/srN, /dev/scdM, /dev/stK of drive. this would be helpful
380 to protect against collisions with program growisofs. Regret‐
381 tably on Linux kernel 2.4 with ide-scsi emulation this seems not
382 to work. Wether it becomes helpful with new Linux systems has to
383 be evaluated.
384 --fifo_disable
386 Disable fifo despite any fs=.
387 --fifo_per_track
389 Use a separate fifo for each track.
390 grab_drive_and_wait=seconds
392 Open the addressed drive, wait the given number of seconds,
393 release the drive, and do normal work as indicated by the other
394 options used. This option helps to explore the program behavior
395 when faced with busy drives. Just start a second cdrskin with
396 option --devices while grab_drive_and_wait= is still active.
397 --ignore_signals
399 Try to ignore any signals rather than to abort the program. This
400 is not a very good idea. You might end up waiting a very long
401 time for cdrskin to finish.
402 --no_abort_handler
404 On signals exit even if the drive is in busy state. This is not
405 a very good idea. You might end up with a stuck drive that
406 refuses to hand out the media.
407 --no_blank_appendable
409 Refuse to blank appendable CD-RW. This is a feature that was
410 once builtin with libburn. No information available for what use
411 case it was needed.
412 --no_convert_fs_adr
414 Do only literal translations of dev=. This prevents cdrskin from
415 test-opening device files in order to find one that matches the
416 given dev= specifier.
417 Partly Linux specific: Such opening is needed for Bus,Target,Lun
418 addresses unless option --old_pseudo_scsi_adr is given. It is
419 also needed to resolve device file addresses which are not
420 listed with cdrskin --devices but nevertheless point to a usable
421 drive. (Like /dev/sr0 using the same SCSI address as /dev/sg0.)
422 --old_pseudo_scsi_adr
424 Linux specific: Use and report literal Bus,Target,Lun addresses
425 rather than real SCSI and pseudo ATA addresses. This method is
426 outdated and was never compatible with original cdrecord.
427 tao_to_sao_tsize=size
429 Set an exact fixed size for the next track to be in effect only
430 if the track source cannot deliver a size prediction and no
431 tsize= was specified. This is the fallback from bad old times
432 when cdrskin was unable to burn in mode -tao.
433
435 Get an overview of drives:
436 cdrskin -scanbus
437 cdrskin dev=ATA -scanbus
438 cdrskin --devices
439 Get info about a particular drive or loaded media:
441 cdrskin dev=0,1,0 -checkdrive
442 cdrskin dev=ATA:1,0,0 -atip
443 cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc -toc
444 Make used CD-RW writable again:
446 cdrskin -v dev=/dev/sg1 blank=all -eject
447 cdrskin -v dev=/dev/dvd blank=fast -eject
448 Write ISO-9660 filesystem image:
450 cdrskin -v dev=/dev/hdc speed=12 fs=8m \
451 driveropts=burnfree -sao -eject \
452 padsize=300k my_image.iso
453 Write compressed afio archive on-the-fly:
455 find . | afio -oZ - | \
456 cdrskin -v dev=0,1,0 fs=32m speed=8 driveropts=burnfree \
457 padsize=300k -tao -
458 Write several sessions to the same CD:
460 cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc padsize=300k -multi 1.iso
461 cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc padsize=300k -multi -tao 2.afio
462 cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc padsize=300k -multi -tao 3.afio
463 cdrskin dev=/dev/hdc padsize=300k -tao 4.afio
464 Get the multi-session info for option -C of program mkisofs:
466 c_values=$(cdrskin dev=/dev/sr0 -msinfo 2>/dev/null)
467 mkisofs ... -C "$c_values" ...
468 Write audio tracks:
470 cdrskin -v dev=ATA:1,0,0 speed=48 \
471 driveropts=burnfree -sao \
472 track1.wav track2.au -audio -swab track3.raw
473
475 If not --no_rc is given as the first argument then cdrskin attempts on
476 startup to read the arguments from the following files:
477 /etc/default/cdrskin
479 /etc/opt/cdrskin/rc
480 $HOME/.cdrskinrc
481 The files are read in the sequence given above, but none of them is
483 required for cdrskin to function properly. Each readable line is
484 treated as one single argument. No extra blanks. A first character '#'
485 marks a comment, empty lines are ignored.
486 Example content of a startup file:
488 # This is the default device
489 dev=0,1,0
490 # To accomodate to remnant cdrskin-0.2.2 addresses
491 dev_translation=+1,0,0+0,1,0
492 # Some more options
493 fifo_start_at=0
494 fs=16m
495
497 Formatting track sources for cdrskin:
498 mkisofs(8), genisoimage(8), afio(1), star(1)
499 Other CD burn programs:
501 cdrecord(1), wodim(1)
502 For DVD burning:
504 growisofs(1)
505
507 cdrskin was written by Thomas Schmitt <scdbackup@gmx.net>.
508 This manual page was written by George Danchev <danchev@spnet.net> and
510 Thomas Schmitt, for the Debian project and for all others.
511 December 13, 2006 CDRSKIN(1)