metaflac(1) Free Lossless Audio Codec metadata tool metaflac(1)
NAME
metaflac - program to list, add, remove, or edit metadata in one or
more FLAC files.
SYNOPSIS
metaflac [ options ] [ operations ] FLACfile ...
DESCRIPTION
Use metaflac to list, add, remove, or edit metadata in one or more FLAC
files. You may perform one major operation, or many shorthand
operations at a time.
GENERAL USAGE
metaflac is the command-line .flac file metadata editor. You can use
it to list the contents of metadata blocks, edit, delete or insert
blocks, and manage padding.
metaflac takes a set of “options” (though some are not optional) and a
set of FLAC files to operate on. There are three kinds of “options”:
• Major operations, which specify a mode of operation like listing
blocks, removing blocks, etc. These will have sub-operations
describing exactly what is to be done.
• Shorthand operations, which are convenient synonyms for major
operations. For example, there is a shorthand operation –show-
sample-rate that shows just the sample rate field from the STREAMINFO
metadata block.
• Global options, which affect all the operations.
All of these are described in the tables below. At least one shorthand
or major operation must be supplied. You can use multiple shorthand
operations to do more than one thing to a file or set of files. Most
of the common things to do to metadata have shorthand operations. As
an example, here is how to show the MD5 signatures for a set of three
FLAC files:
metaflac --show-md5sum file1.flac file2.flac file3.flac
Another example; this removes all DESCRIPTION and COMMENT tags in a set
of FLAC files, and uses the –preserve-modtime global option to keep the
FLAC file modification times the same (usually when files are edited
the modification time is set to the current time):
metaflac --preserve-modtime --remove-tag=DESCRIPTION
--remove-tag=COMMENT file1.flac file2.flac file3.flac
OPTIONS
--preserve-modtime
Preserve the original modification time in spite of edits.
--with-filename
Prefix each output line with the FLAC file name (the default if
more than one FLAC file is specified). This option has no
effect for options exporting to a file, like –export-tags-to.
--no-filename
Do not prefix each output line with the FLAC file name (the
default if only one FLAC file is specified).
--no-utf8-convert
Do not convert tags from UTF-8 to local charset, or vice versa.
This is useful for scripts, and setting tags in situations where
the locale is wrong.
--dont-use-padding
By default metaflac tries to use padding where possible to avoid
rewriting the entire file if the metadata size changes. Use
this option to tell metaflac to not take advantage of padding
this way.
SHORTHAND OPERATIONS
--show-md5sum
Show the MD5 signature from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-min-blocksize
Show the minimum block size from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-max-blocksize
Show the maximum block size from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-min-framesize
Show the minimum frame size from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-max-framesize
Show the maximum frame size from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-sample-rate
Show the sample rate from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-channels
Show the number of channels from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-bps
Show the # of bits per sample from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-total-samples
Show the total # of samples from the STREAMINFO block.
--show-vendor-tag
Show the vendor string from the VORBIS_COMMENT block.
--show-tag=name
Show all tags where the field name matches `name'.
--show-all-tags
Show all tags. This is an alias for –export-tags-to=-.
--remove-tag=name
Remove all tags whose field name is `name'.
--remove-first-tag=name
Remove first tag whose field name is `name'.
--remove-all-tags
Remove all tags, leaving only the vendor string.
--remove-all-tags-except=NAME1[=NAME2[=...]]
Remove all tags, except the vendor string and the tag names
specified. Tag names must be separated by an = character.
--set-tag=field
Add a tag. The field must comply with the Vorbis comment spec,
of the form “NAME=VALUE”. If there is currently no tag block,
one will be created.
--set-tag-from-file=field
Like --set-tag, except the VALUE is a filename whose contents
will be read verbatim to set the tag value. Unless --no-
utf8-convert is specified, the contents will be converted to
UTF-8 from the local charset. This can be used to store a
cuesheet in a tag (e.g. --set-tag-from-
file=“CUESHEET=image.cue”). Do not try to store binary data in
tag fields! Use APPLICATION blocks for that.
--import-tags-from=file
Import tags from a file. Use `-' for stdin. Each line should
be of the form NAME=VALUE. Multi-line comments are currently
not supported. Specify --remove-all-tags and/or --no-
utf8-convert before --import-tags-from if necessary. If FILE is
`-' (stdin), only one FLAC file may be specified.
--export-tags-to=file
Export tags to a file. Use `-' for stdout. Each line will be
of the form NAME=VALUE. Specify --no-utf8-convert if necessary.
--import-cuesheet-from=file
Import a cuesheet from a file. Use `-' for stdin. Only one
FLAC file may be specified. A seekpoint will be added for each
index point in the cuesheet to the SEEKTABLE unless --no-cued-
seekpoints is specified.
--export-cuesheet-to=file
Export CUESHEET block to a cuesheet file, suitable for use by CD
authoring software. Use `-' for stdout. Only one FLAC file may
be specified on the command line.
--import-picture-from={FILENAME|SPECIFICATION}
Import a picture and store it in a PICTURE metadata block. More
than one --import-picture-from command can be specified. Either
a filename for the picture file or a more complete specification
form can be used. The SPECIFICATION is a string whose parts are
separated by | (pipe) characters. Some parts may be left empty
to invoke default values. FILENAME is just shorthand for
“||||FILENAME”. For details on the specification, see the
section Picture specification in the flac(1) man page.
--export-picture-to=file
Export PICTURE block to a file. Use `-' for stdout. Only one
FLAC file may be specified on the command line. The first
PICTURE block will be exported unless --export-picture-to is
preceded by a --block-number=# option to specify the exact
metadata block to extract. Note that the block number is the
one shown by --list.
--add-replay-gain
Calculates the title and album gains/peaks of the given FLAC
files as if all the files were part of one album, then stores
them as FLAC tags. The tags are the same as those used by
vorbisgain. Existing ReplayGain tags will be replaced. If only
one FLAC file is given, the album and title gains will be the
same. Since this operation requires two passes, it is always
executed last, after all other operations have been completed
and written to disk. All FLAC files specified must have the
same resolution, sample rate, and number of channels. Only mono
and stereo files are allowed, and the sample rate must be 8,
11.025, 12, 16, 18.9, 22.05, 24, 28, 32, 36, 37.8, 44.1, 48, 56,
64, 72, 75.6, 88.2, 96, 112, 128, 144, 151.2, 176.4, 192, 224,
256, 288, 302.4, 352.8, 384, 448, 512, 576, or 604.8 kHz.
--scan-replay-gain
Like --add-replay-gain, but only analyzes the files rather than
writing them to the tags.
--remove-replay-gain
Removes the ReplayGain tags.
--add-seekpoint={#|X|#x|#s}
Add seek points to a SEEKTABLE block. Using #, a seek point at
that sample number is added. Using X, a placeholder point is
added at the end of a the table. Using #x, # evenly spaced seek
points will be added, the first being at sample 0. Using #s, a
seekpoint will be added every # seconds (# does not have to be a
whole number; it can be, for example, 9.5, meaning a seekpoint
every 9.5 seconds). If no SEEKTABLE block exists, one will be
created. If one already exists, points will be added to the
existing table, and any duplicates will be turned into
placeholder points. You may use many --add-seekpoint options;
the resulting SEEKTABLE will be the unique-ified union of all
such values. Example: --add-seekpoint=100x --add-seekpoint=3.5s
will add 100 evenly spaced seekpoints and a seekpoint every 3.5
seconds.
--add-padding=length
Add a padding block of the given length (in bytes). The overall
length of the new block will be 4 + length; the extra 4 bytes is
for the metadata block header.
MAJOR OPERATIONS
--list List the contents of one or more metadata blocks to stdout. By
default, all metadata blocks are listed in text format. Use the
options --block-number, --block-type or --except-block-type to
change this behavior.
--remove
Remove one or more metadata blocks from the metadata. Use the
options --block-number, --block-type or --except-block-type to
specify which blocks should be removed. Note that if both
--block-number and --[except-]block-type are specified, the
result is the logical AND of both arguments. Unless --dont-use-
padding is specified, the blocks will be replaced with padding.
You may not remove the STREAMINFO block.
--block-number=#[,#[...]]
An optional comma-separated list of block numbers to display.
The first block, the STREAMINFO block, is block 0.
--block-type=type[,type[...]]
--except-block-type=type[,type[...]]
An optional comma-separated list of block types to be included
or ignored with this option. Use only one of --block-type or
--except-block-type. The valid block types are: STREAMINFO,
PADDING, APPLICATION, SEEKTABLE, VORBIS_COMMENT, PICTURE. You
may narrow down the types of APPLICATION blocks selected by
appending APPLICATION with a colon and the ID of the APPLICATION
block in either ASCII or hexadecimal representation. E.g.
APPLICATION:abcd for the APPLICATION block(s) whose textual
representation of the 4-byte ID is “abcd” or
APPLICATION:0xXXXXXXXX for the APPLICATION block(s) whose
hexadecimal big- endian representation of the 4-byte ID is
“0xXXXXXXXX”. For the example “abcd” above the hexadecimal
equivalalent is 0x61626364
--application-data-format=hexdump|text
If the application block you are displaying contains binary data
but your --data-format=text, you can display a hex dump of the
application data contents instead using --application-data-
format=hexdump.
--data-format=binary|binary-headerless|text
For use with –list. By default a human-readable text
representation of the data is isplayed. You may specify –data-
format=binary to dump the raw binary form of each metadata
block. Specify –data-format=binary-headerless to omit output of
metadata block headers, including the id of APPLICATION metadata
blocks.
--append
Insert a metadata block from a file. This must be a binary
block as exported with –list –data-format=binary. The insertion
point is defined with –block-number=#. The new block will be
added after the given block number. This prevents the illegal
insertion of a block before the first STREAMINFO block. You may
not –append another STREAMINFO block. It is possible to copy a
metadata block from one file to another with this option. For
example use metaflac --list --data-format=binary
--block-number=6 file.flac > block to export the block, and then
import it with metaflac --append anotherfile.flac < block
--remove-all
Remove all metadata blocks (except the STREAMINFO block) from
the metadata. Unless --dont-use-padding is specified, the
blocks will be replaced with padding.
--merge-padding
Merge adjacent PADDING blocks into single blocks.
--sort-padding
Move all PADDING blocks to the end of the metadata and merge
them into a single block.
SEE ALSO
flac(1)
Version 1.4.3 metaflac(1)