1 <!doctype refentry PUBLIC "-//Davenport//DTD DocBook V3.0//EN" [
3 <!-- Fill in your name for FIRSTNAME and SURNAME. -->
4 <!ENTITY dhfirstname "<firstname>Matt</firstname>">
5 <!ENTITY dhsurname "<surname>Zimmerman</surname>">
6 <!-- Please adjust the date whenever revising the manpage. -->
7 <!ENTITY dhdate "<date>Feb 2, 2005</date>">
8 <!-- SECTION should be 1-8, maybe w/ subsection other parameters are
9 allowed: see man(7), man(1). -->
10 <!ENTITY dhsection "<manvolnum>1</manvolnum>">
11 <!ENTITY dhemail "<email>mdz@debian.org</email>">
12 <!ENTITY dhusername "Matt Zimmerman">
13 <!ENTITY dhucpackage "<refentrytitle>FLAC</refentrytitle>">
14 <!ENTITY dhpackage "flac">
16 <!ENTITY debian "<productname>Debian GNU/Linux</productname>">
17 <!ENTITY gnu "<acronym>GNU</acronym>">
30 <year>2002,2003,2004,2005</year>
31 <holder>&dhusername;</holder>
41 <refname>&dhpackage;</refname>
43 <refpurpose>Free Lossless Audio Codec</refpurpose>
47 <command>flac</command>
48 <arg choice=opt><replaceable>options</replaceable></arg>
50 <arg><replaceable>infile.wav</replaceable></arg>
51 <arg><replaceable>infile.aiff</replaceable></arg>
52 <arg><replaceable>infile.raw</replaceable></arg>
53 <arg><replaceable>infile.flac</replaceable></arg>
58 <command>flac</command>
60 <arg>-d</arg> <arg>--decode</arg>
61 <arg>-t</arg> <arg>--test</arg>
62 <arg>-a</arg> <arg>--analyze</arg>
64 <arg choice=opt><replaceable>OPTIONS</replaceable></arg>
65 <arg choice=opt rep=repeat><replaceable>infile.flac</replaceable></arg>
69 <title>DESCRIPTION</title>
71 <para><command>flac</command> is a command-line tool for
72 encoding, decoding, testing and analyzing FLAC streams.
77 <title>OPTIONS</title>
79 <para>A summary of options is included below. For a complete
80 description, see the HTML documentation.</para>
83 <title>General Options</title>
87 <term><option>-v</option>, <option>--version</option>
90 <para>Show the flac version number</para>
95 <term><option>-h</option>, <option>--help</option>
98 <para>Show basic usage and a list of all options</para>
103 <term><option>-H</option>, <option>--explain</option>
106 <para>Show detailed explanation of usage and all options</para>
111 <term><option>-d</option>, <option>--decode</option>
114 <para>Decode (the default behavior is to encode)</para>
119 <term><option>-t</option>, <option>--test</option>
122 <para>Test a flac encoded file (same as -d
123 except no decoded file is written)</para>
128 <term><option>-a</option>, <option>--analyze</option>
131 <para>Analyze a FLAC encoded file (same as -d
132 except an analysis file is written)</para>
137 <term><option>-c</option>, <option>--stdout</option>
140 <para>Write output to stdout</para>
145 <term><option>-s</option>, <option>--silent</option>
148 <para>Silent mode (do not write runtime
149 encode/decode statistics to stderr)</para>
154 <term><option>--totally-silent</option>
157 <para>Do not print anything of any kind,
158 including warnings or errors. The exit
159 code will be the only way to determine
160 successful completion.</para>
165 <term><option>-f</option>, <option>--force</option>
168 <para>Force overwriting of output files. By default,
169 flac warns that the output file already exists and
170 continues to the next file.</para>
175 <term><option>-o</option> <replaceable>filename</replaceable>, <option>--output-name</option>=<replaceable>filename</replaceable></term>
177 <para>Force the output file name (usually flac just
178 changes the extension). May only be used when
179 encoding a single file. May not be used in
180 conjunction with --output-prefix.</para>
185 <term><option>--output-prefix</option>=<replaceable>string</replaceable></term>
187 <para>Prefix each output file name with the given
188 string. This can be useful for encoding or decoding
189 files to a different directory. Make sure if your
190 string is a path name that it ends with a trailing
196 <term><option>--delete-input-file</option>
199 <para>Automatically delete the input file after a
200 successful encode or decode. If there was an
201 error (including a verify error) the input file
202 is left intact.</para>
207 <term><option>--skip</option>={<replaceable>#</replaceable>|<replaceable>mm:ss.ss</replaceable>}</term>
209 <para>Skip over the first number of samples of the input.
210 This works for both encoding and decoding, but not
211 testing. The alternative form mm:ss.ss can be used
212 to specify minutes, seconds, and fractions of a
218 <term><option>--until</option>={<replaceable>#</replaceable>|[<replaceable>+</replaceable>|<replaceable>-</replaceable>]<replaceable>mm:ss.ss</replaceable>}</term>
220 <para>Stop at the given sample number for each input file.
221 This works for both encoding and decoding, but not testing.
222 The given sample number is not included in the decoded
223 output. The alternative form mm:ss.ss can be used to
224 specify minutes, seconds, and fractions of a second. If a
225 `+' (plus) sign is at the beginning, the --until point is
226 relative to the --skip point. If a `-' (minus) sign is at
227 the beginning, the --until point is relative to end of the
233 <term><option>--ogg</option></term>
236 <para>When encoding, generate Ogg FLAC output instead
237 of native FLAC. Ogg FLAC streams are FLAC streams
238 wrapped in an Ogg transport layer. The resulting
239 file should have an '.ogg' extension and will still
240 be decodable by flac.</para>
241 <para>When decoding, force the input to be treated as
242 Ogg FLAC. This is useful when piping input from
243 stdin or when the filename does not end in '.ogg'.</para>
248 <term><option>--serial-number</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
251 <para>When used with --ogg, specifies the serial number to
252 use for the first Ogg FLAC stream, which is then
253 incremented for each additional stream. When encoding and
254 no serial number is given, flac uses a random number for
255 the first stream, then increments it for each additional
256 stream. When decoding and no number is given, flac uses
257 the serial number of the first page.</para>
265 <title>Analysis Options</title>
269 <term><option>--residual-text</option>
272 <para>Includes the residual signal in the analysis
273 file. This will make the file very big, much
274 larger than even the decoded file.</para>
279 <term><option>--residual-gnuplot</option>
282 <para>Generates a gnuplot file for every subframe;
283 each file will contain the residual distribution
284 of the subframe. This will create a lot of
293 <title>Decoding Options</title>
297 <term><option>--cue=[<replaceable>#.#</replaceable>][-[<replaceable>#.#</replaceable>]]</option></term>
299 <para>Set the beginning and ending cuepoints to decode.
300 The optional first #.# is the track and index point at
301 which decoding will start; the default is the beginning
302 of the stream. The optional second #.# is the track
303 and index point at which decoding will end; the default
304 is the end of the stream. If the cuepoint does not
305 exist, the closest one before it (for the start point)
306 or after it (for the end point) will be used. If those
307 don't exist, the start of the stream (for the start
308 point) or end of the stream (for the end point) will be
309 used. The cuepoints are merely translated into sample
310 numbers then used as --skip and --until. A CD track can
311 always be cued by, for example, --cue=9.1-10.1 for track
312 9, even if the CD has no 10th track.</para>
317 <term><option>-F</option>, <option>--decode-through-errors</option>
320 <para>By default flac stops decoding with an error
321 and removes the partially decoded file if it
322 encounters a bitstream error. With -F, errors are
323 still printed but flac will continue decoding to
324 completion. Note that errors may cause the decoded
325 audio to be missing some samples or have silent
334 <title>Encoding Options</title>
338 <term><option>-V</option>, <option>--verify</option></term>
341 <para>Verify a correct encoding by decoding the
342 output in parallel and comparing to the
348 <term><option>--lax</option></term>
351 <para>Allow encoder to generate non-Subset
352 files. The resulting FLAC file may not be
353 streamable or might have trouble being played
354 in all players (especially hardware devices),
355 so you should only use this option in
356 combination with custom encoding options meant
362 <term><option>--replay-gain</option></term>
365 <para>Calculate ReplayGain values and store them
366 as FLAC tags, similar to vorbisgain. Title
367 gains/peaks will be computed for each input
368 file, and an album gain/peak will be computed
369 for all files. All input files must have the
370 same resolution, sample rate, and number of
371 channels. Only mono and stereo files are
372 allowed, and the sample rate must be one of
373 8, 11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, or 48
374 kHz. Also note that this option may leave a
375 few extra bytes in a PADDING block as the exact
376 size of the tags is not known until all files
377 are processed. Note that this option cannot be
378 used when encoding to standard output (stdout).
384 <term><option>--cuesheet</option>=<replaceable>filename</replaceable></term>
387 <para>Import the given cuesheet file and store it in a
388 CUESHEET metadata block. This option may only be used
389 when encoding a single file. A seekpoint will be added
390 for each index point in the cuesheet to the SEEKTABLE
391 unless --no-cued-seekpoints is specified.</para>
396 <term><option>--sector-align</option></term>
399 <para>Align encoding of multiple CD format
400 files on sector boundaries. See the HTML
401 documentation for more information.</para>
406 <term><option>-S</option> {<replaceable>#</replaceable>|<replaceable>X</replaceable>|<replaceable>#x</replaceable>|<replaceable>#s</replaceable>}, <option>--seekpoint</option>={<replaceable>#</replaceable>|<replaceable>X</replaceable>|<replaceable>#x</replaceable>|<replaceable>#s</replaceable>}</term>
410 Include a point or points in a SEEKTABLE. Using #,
411 a seek point at that sample number is added. Using
412 X, a placeholder point is added at the end of a the
413 table. Using #x, # evenly spaced seek points will
414 be added, the first being at sample 0. Using #s, a
415 seekpoint will be added every # seconds (# does not
416 have to be a whole number; it can be, for example, 9.5,
417 meaning a seekpoint every 9.5 seconds). You may use
418 many -S options; the resulting SEEKTABLE will be the
419 unique-ified union of all such values. With no -S
420 options, flac defaults to '-S 10s'. Use --no-seektable
421 for no SEEKTABLE. Note: '-S #x' and '-S #s' will not
422 work if the encoder can't determine the input size before
423 starting. Note: if you use '-S #' and # is >=
424 samples in the input, there will be either no seek
425 point entered (if the input size is determinable
426 before encoding starts) or a placeholder point (if
427 input size is not determinable).</para>
432 <term><option>-P</option> <replaceable>#</replaceable>, <option>--padding</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
435 <para>Tell the encoder to write a PADDING metadata
436 block of the given length (in bytes) after the
437 STREAMINFO block. This is useful if you plan to
438 tag the file later with an APPLICATION block;
439 instead of having to rewrite the entire file later
440 just to insert your block, you can write directly
441 over the PADDING block. Note that the total length
442 of the PADDING block will be 4 bytes longer than
443 the length given because of the 4 metadata block
444 header bytes. You can force no PADDING block at
445 all to be written with --no-padding. The encoder
446 writes a PADDING block of 4096 bytes by default.
452 <term><option>-T</option> <replaceable>FIELD=VALUE</replaceable>, <option>--tag</option>=<replaceable>FIELD=VALUE</replaceable></term>
455 <para>Add a FLAC tag. The comment must adhere to
456 the Vorbis comment spec; i.e. the FIELD must
457 contain only legal characters, terminated by an
458 'equals' sign. Make sure to quote the comment if
459 necessary. This option may appear more than once
460 to add several comments. NOTE: all tags will be
461 added to all encoded files.</para>
466 <term><option>--tag-from-file</option>=<replaceable>FIELD=FILENAME</replaceable></term>
469 <para>Like --tag, except FILENAME is a file whose
470 contents will be read verbatim to set the tag
471 value. The contents will be converted to UTF-8
472 from the local charset. This can be used to
473 store a cuesheet in a tag (e.g.
474 --tag-from-file="CUESHEET=image.cue"). Do not
475 try to store binary data in tag fields! Use
476 APPLICATION blocks for that.</para>
481 <term><option>-b</option> <replaceable>#</replaceable>, <option>--blocksize</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
484 <para>Specify the block size in samples. The
485 default is 1152 for -l 0, else 4608; must be one of
486 192, 576, 1152, 2304, 4608, 256, 512, 1024, 2048,
487 4096, 8192, 16384, or 32768 (unless --lax is used)</para>
492 <term><option>-m</option>, <option>--mid-side</option></term>
495 <para>Try mid-side coding for each frame (stereo
501 <term><option>-M</option>, <option>--adaptive-mid-side</option></term>
504 <para>Adaptive mid-side coding for all frames (stereo
510 <term><option>-0</option>..<option>-8</option>, <option>--compression-level-0</option>..<option>--compression-level-8</option></term>
513 <para>Fastest compression..highest compression
514 (default is -5). These are synonyms for other
519 <term><option>-0</option>, <option>--compression-level-0</option></term>
522 <para>Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -r 2,2
528 <term><option>-1</option>, <option>--compression-level-1</option></term>
531 <para>Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -M -r 2,2
537 <term><option>-2</option>, <option>--compression-level-2</option></term>
540 <para>Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -m -r 3
546 <term><option>-3</option>, <option>--compression-level-3</option></term>
549 <para>Synonymous with -l 6 -b 4608 -r 3,3
555 <term><option>-4</option>, <option>--compression-level-4</option></term>
558 <para>Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4608 -M -r 3,3
564 <term><option>-5</option>, <option>--compression-level-5</option></term>
567 <para>Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4608 -m -r 3,3
573 <term><option>-6</option>, <option>--compression-level-6</option></term>
576 <para>Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4608 -m -r 4
582 <term><option>-7</option>, <option>--compression-level-7</option></term>
585 <para>Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4608 -m -e -r 6
591 <term><option>-8</option>, <option>--compression-level-8</option></term>
594 <para>Synonymous with -l 12 -b 4608 -m -e -r 6
605 <term><option>--fast</option></term>
608 <para>Fastest compression. Currently
609 synonymous with -0.</para>
614 <term><option>--best</option></term>
617 <para>Highest compression. Currently
618 synonymous with -8.</para>
623 <term><option>-e</option>, <option>--exhaustive-model-search</option></term>
626 <para>Do exhaustive model search
632 <term><option>-A</option> <replaceable>function</replaceable>, <option>--apodization</option>=<replaceable>function</replaceable></term>
635 <para>Window audio data with given the apodization function.
636 The functions are: bartlett, bartlett_hann, blackman,
637 blackman_harris_4term_92db, connes, flattop, gauss(STDDEV),
638 hamming, hann, kaiser_bessel, nuttall, rectangle, triangle,
639 tukey(P), welch.</para>
640 <para>For gauss(STDDEV), STDDEV is the standard deviation
641 (0<STDDEV<=0.5).</para>
642 <para>For tukey(P), P specifies the fraction of the window that
643 is tapered (0<=P<=1; P=0 corresponds to "rectangle" and
644 P=1 corresponds to "hann").</para>
645 <para>More than one -A option (up to 32) may be used. Any
646 function that is specified erroneously is silently dropped.
647 The encoder chooses suitable defaults in the absence of any
648 -A options; any -A option specified replaces the default(s).
650 <para>When more than one function is specified, then for every
651 subframe the encoder will try each of them separately and
652 choose the window that results in the smallest compressed
653 subframe. Multiple functions can greatly increase the
654 encoding time.</para>
659 <term><option>-l</option> <replaceable>#</replaceable>, <option>--max-lpc-order</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
662 <para>Set the maximum LPC order; 0 means use only the fixed predictors</para>
667 <term><option>-p</option>, <option>--qlp-coeff-precision-search</option></term>
670 <para>Do exhaustive search of LP coefficient
671 quantization (expensive!). Overrides -q;
672 does nothing if using -l 0</para>
677 <term><option>-q</option> <replaceable>#</replaceable>, <option>--qlp-coeff-precision</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
680 <para>Precision of the quantized linear-predictor
681 coefficients, 0 => let encoder decide (min is 5,
687 <term><option>-r</option> [<replaceable>#</replaceable>,]<replaceable>#</replaceable>, <option>--rice-partition-order</option>=[<replaceable>#</replaceable>,]<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
690 <para>Set the [min,]max residual partition order
691 (0..16). min defaults to 0 if unspecified. Default
700 <title>Format Options</title>
704 <term><option>--endian</option>={<replaceable>big</replaceable>|<replaceable>little</replaceable>}</term>
707 <para>Set the byte order for samples</para>
712 <term><option>--channels</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
715 <para>Set number of channels.</para>
720 <term><option>--bps</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
723 <para>Set bits per sample.</para>
728 <term><option>--sample-rate</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
731 <para>Set sample rate (in Hz).</para>
736 <term><option>--sign</option>={<replaceable>signed</replaceable>|<replaceable>unsigned</replaceable>}</term>
739 <para>Set the sign of samples (the default is signed).</para>
744 <term><option>--input-size</option>=<replaceable>#</replaceable></term>
747 <para>Specify the size of the raw input in bytes. If you are
748 encoding raw samples from stdin, you must set this option
749 in order to be able to use --skip, --until, --cue-sheet, or
750 other options that need to know the size of the input
751 beforehand. If the size given is greater than what is
752 found in the input stream, the encoder will complain about
753 an unexpected end-of-file. If the size given is less,
754 samples will be truncated.</para>
759 <term><option>--force-aiff-format</option></term>
762 <para>Force the decoder to output AIFF format. This option
763 is not needed if the output filename (as set by -o) ends
764 with <filename>.aiff</filename>. Also, this option has no
765 effect when encoding since input AIFF is auto-detected.</para>
770 <term><option>--force-raw-format</option></term>
773 <para>Force input (when encoding) or output (when decoding)
774 to be treated as raw samples (even if filename ends
775 in <filename>.wav</filename>).</para>
783 <title>Negative Options</title>
787 <term><option>--no-adaptive-mid-side</option></term>
788 <term><option>--no-decode-through-errors</option></term>
789 <term><option>--no-delete-input-file</option></term>
790 <term><option>--no-exhaustive-model-search</option></term>
791 <term><option>--no-lax</option></term>
792 <term><option>--no-mid-side</option></term>
793 <term><option>--no-ogg</option></term>
794 <term><option>--no-padding</option></term>
795 <term><option>--no-qlp-coeff-precision-search</option></term>
796 <term><option>--no-residual-gnuplot</option></term>
797 <term><option>--no-residual-text</option></term>
798 <term><option>--no-sector-align</option></term>
799 <term><option>--no-seektable</option></term>
800 <term><option>--no-silent</option></term>
801 <term><option>--no-verify</option></term>
803 <para>These flags can be used to invert the sense
804 of the corresponding normal option.</para>
813 <title>SEE ALSO</title>
815 <para>metaflac(1).</para>
817 <para>The programs are documented fully by HTML format
818 documentation, available in
819 <filename>/usr/share/doc/flac/html</filename> on
820 &debian; systems.</para>
823 <title>AUTHOR</title>
825 <para>This manual page was written by &dhusername; &dhemail; for
826 the &debian; system (but may be used by others).</para>
828 <!-- <para>Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify
829 this document under the terms of the <acronym>GNU</acronym> Free
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832 Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy
833 of the license can be found under
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