<B><TT>flac</TT></B> is the command-line file encoder/decoder. The input to the encoder and the output to the decoder must either be RIFF WAVE format, or raw interleaved sample data. <B><TT>flac</TT></B> only supports linear PCM samples (in other words, no A-LAW, uLAW, etc.). Another restriction (hopefully short-term) is that the input must be 8, 16, or 24 bits per sample. This is not a limitation of the FLAC format, just the reference encoder/decoder.
</P>
<P>
- <B><TT>flac</TT></B> assumes that RIFF WAVE files will have the extension ".wav"; this may be overridden with a command-line option. For piped-in data, <B><TT>flac</TT></B> tries to determine the type by looking at the beginning of the file. Other than this, <B><TT>flac</TT></B> makes no assumptions about file extensions, though the convention is that FLAC files have the extension ".flac" (or ".fla" on ancient file systems like FAT-16).
+ <B><TT>flac</TT></B> assumes that files ending in ".wav" or that have the RIFF WAVE header present are WAVE files; this may be overridden with a command-line option; it also assumes that files ending in ".ogg" are Ogg-FLAC files. Other than this, <B><TT>flac</TT></B> makes no assumptions about file extensions, though the convention is that FLAC files have the extension ".flac" (or ".fla" on ancient file systems like FAT-16).
</P>
<P>
- Before going into the full command-line description, a few other things help to sort it out: 1) <B><TT>flac</TT></B> encodes by default, so you must use <B>-d</B> to decode; 2) the options <B><TT>-0</TT></B> .. <B><TT>-9</TT></B> that control the compression level actually are just synonyms for different groups of specific encoding options (described later) and you can get the same effect by using the same options; 3) <B><TT>flac</TT></B> behaves similarly to gzip in the way it handles input and output files.
+ Before going into the full command-line description, a few other things help to sort it out: 1) <B><TT>flac</TT></B> encodes by default, so you must use <B>-d</B> to decode; 2) the options <B><TT>-0</TT></B> .. <B><TT>-8</TT></B> that control the compression level actually are just synonyms for different groups of specific encoding options (described later) and you can get the same effect by using the same options; 3) <B><TT>flac</TT></B> behaves similarly to gzip in the way it handles input and output files.
</P>
<P>
<B><TT>flac</TT></B> will be invoked one of four ways, depending on whether you are encoding, decoding, testing, or analyzing:
</TR>
<TR>
<TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#F4F4CC">
+ <TT>-H</TT>
+ </TD>
+ <TD>
+ Show the long usage screen. Running <B><TT>flac</TT></B> without arguments shows the short help screen by default.
+ </TD>
+ </TR>
+ <TR>
+ <TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#F4F4CC">
<TT>-d</TT>
</TD>
<TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#F4F4CC">
+ <TT>--ogg</TT>
+ </TD>
+ <TD>
+ When encoding, generate Ogg-FLAC output instead of native-FLAC. Ogg-FLAC streams are FLAC streams wrapped in an Ogg transport layer. The resulting file should have an '.ogg' extension and will still be decodable by <TT><B>flac</B></TT>.<P>
+ When decoding, force the input to be treated as Ogg-FLAC. This is useful when piping input from stdin or when the filename does not end in '.ogg'.
+ </TD>
+ </TR>
+ <TR>
+ <TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#F4F4CC">
<TT>--lax</TT>
</TD>
<TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#F4F4CC">
- <TT>-0 .. -9</TT>
+ <TT>-0 .. -8</TT>
</TD>
<TD>
Fastest compression .. highest compression. The default is <TT>-5</TT>.
</TR>
<TR>
<TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#F4F4CC">
- <TT>-9</TT>
- </TD>
- <TD>
- Synonymous with <TT>-l 32 -b 4608 -m -e -E -r 16 -p</TT>. This is painfully slow but gives you the maximum compression <B><TT>flac</TT></B> can do for the given block size. It is more of a theoretical option without much practical use, since <TT>-8</TT> will get you within tiny fractions of a percent of <TT>-9</TT> and much faster.
- </TD>
- </TR>
- <TR>
- <TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#F4F4CC">
<TT>-e</TT>
</TD>
<TD>
<TT>-R #</TT>
</TD>
<TD>
- Set the Rice parameter search distance. Defaults to 0. The residual coder will search for the best Rice parameter +/- this number for each residual partition. This option is expensive (run time for -R n will typically be (2n)*30% over that of -R 0) and doesn't give much of a gain. As a matter of fact, none of the -0..-9 options currently use it since -R > 1 is not consistently better like it should be.
+ Set the Rice parameter search distance. Defaults to 0. The residual coder will search for the best Rice parameter +/- this number for each residual partition. This option is expensive (run time for -R n will typically be (2n)*30% over that of -R 0) and doesn't give much of a gain. As a matter of fact, none of the -0..-8 options currently use it since -R > 1 is not consistently better like it should be.
</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
Treat the input file (or output file if decoding) as a raw file, regardless of the extension.
</TD>
</TR>
- <TR>
- <TD NOWRAP ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" BGCOLOR="#F4F4CC">
- <TT>-fw</TT>
- </TD>
- <TD>
- Treat the input file (or output file if decoding) as a RIFF WAVE file, regardless of the extension.
- </TD>
- </TR>
</TABLE>
</TD></TR></TABLE>
</P>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
+ <term><option>-H</option>
+ </term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Show detailed help screen</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
<term><option>-d</option>
</term>
<listitem>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
+ <term><option>--ogg</option></term>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>When encoding, generate Ogg-FLAC output instead
+ of native-FLAC. Ogg-FLAC streams are FLAC streams
+ wrapped in an Ogg transport layer. The resulting
+ file should have an '.ogg' extension and will still
+ be decodable by <TT><B>flac</B></TT>.<P></para>
+ <para>When decoding, force the input to be treated as
+ Ogg-FLAC. This is useful when piping input from
+ stdin or when the filename does not end in '.ogg'.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
<term><option>--lax</option></term>
<listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-0</option>..<option>-9</option></term>
+ <term><option>-0</option>..<option>-8</option></term>
<listitem>
<para>Fastest compression..highest compression
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
-
- <varlistentry>
- <term><option>-9</option></term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Synonymous with -l 32 -b 4608 -m -e -E -r 16 -p
- (very slow!)</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
- <term><option>-S-</option> <option>-m-</option> <option>-M-</option> <option>-e-</option> <option>-E-</option> <option>-p-</option> <option>-V-</option> <option>--delete-input-file-</option> <option>--lax-</option>
+ <term><option>-S-</option> <option>-m-</option> <option>-M-</option> <option>-e-</option> <option>-E-</option> <option>-p-</option> <option>-V-</option> <option>--delete-input-file-</option> <option>--lax-</option> <option>--ogg-</option>
</term>
<listitem>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
- <varlistentry>
- <term><option>-fw</option></term>
-
- <listitem>
- <para>Force to RIFF WAVE.</para>
- </listitem>
- </varlistentry>
-
</variablelist>
</refsect2>
projects / platform / upstream / flac.git / commitdiff