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)