4 Q. Who created abcde? Who develops it nowadays?
5 A. It was originally created by Robert Woodcook. He decided to give up
6 maintaining it at some point in 2002 and Jesus Climent took over. In 2012,
7 Colin Tuckley and Steve McIntyre joined in to help. Currently Steve maintains
8 abcde along with Andrew Strong. Contact either with comments or suggestions
9 at the following email addresses:
10 Steve McIntyre <93sam@@debian.org>
11 Andrew Strong <andrew.david.strong@gmail.com>
17 Q. How can I install abcde on my system?
18 A. To get abcde you can use a pre-packaged version, available for Debian,
19 FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and others.
20 In case you want to install your own release, you need to download the
21 source and install the complementary programs (abcde is just a frontend
22 and its functionality is provided by other programs).
24 abcde needs cd-discid. Grab it from:
25 http://www.hispalinux.es/~data/files/cd-discid/
27 Read the README files for a complete list of requirements.
29 Q. I have a problem, and I reported some time ago. Have you solved it already?
30 A. Maybe. Try downloading the master branch of the development from
31 https://git.einval.com/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=abcde.git
33 Q. When are you going to release a new version?
34 A. When it is ready. :-) We keep on adding new ideas to the trunk
35 (stored in the URL above) and release periodically when we think
42 Q. I want to force abcde 2.x to behave more like 1.x. How do I do it?
43 A. Put these options in your abcde.conf:
50 A. abcde has different algorithms to schedule ripping and encoding - to
51 optimize for disk conservation, use -l. You can also define
52 WAVOUTPUTDIR=/some/other/path to your /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf to
53 store the WAV files on another NFS shared fisk, for example.
54 Also, UNIX pipes have also been implemented, using "-P", so abcde reads and
55 encodes the tracks from the CD at once. However, it has the drawback that
56 only one format can be encoded at a time.
58 Q. How can i make abcde encode faster? My CD reader is way faster than the pace
59 it can encode my tracks.
60 A. abcde can take advantage of SMP systems, just like make. Try 'abcde -j 2' -
61 it'll run two encoder jobs while it rips the next track.
62 You can also make use of systems which are networked, with the help of
63 distmp3. For example, MachineA has a better CPU power and MachineB has a CD
64 drive. Run distmp3host (included in distmp3) on Machine A, and then run
65 abcde -r MachineA from MachineB (where "MachineA" is a dns name or IP
66 address). Use this in combination with '-j 0' to shift all encoding off the
69 Q. I am having problems with *my CD reading program* reading the drive as a
71 A. You might have to add yourself (or the users who want to use abcde) to the
72 cdrom group and change the permissions of the cdrom device to 660. If you
73 have a SCSI cdrom drive, check the permissions of /dev/sg* as well.
75 Q. I would like to give the trackname and the artist_name directly to the
76 encoder (in my case oggenc), but found no documentation.
77 A. That is not possible, since abcde gets the information from CDDB database.
78 You can create a template and fill it with the option "-n". Also, you can
79 get the CDDB entry and edit it yourself. abcde has also an option to drop
80 back to a template if you like none of the CDDB entries, selecting 0 from
83 Q. (Thanks to Amaya) Where are those options and settings defined? Why dont
84 you include a proper abcde.conf as an example?
85 A. We do. It should be installed under /etc/abcde.conf and contains more or
86 less all the defaults abcde uses. You can use $(HOME)/.abcde.conf to
87 override those defaults. More information can be obtained from the man page
88 which can be consulted using "man abcde".
90 Q. I keep on getting files with ".ogg.ogg" extension. What am I doing wrong?
91 A. The code for multiple-output adds automatically the extension of the
92 different outputs you select with the "-o" extension (or with OUTPUTTYPE
93 variable). Erase the ".${OUTPUTTYPE}" part from the OUTPUTFORMAT variable
94 in /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf
96 Q. I have modified some of the options, and now CDDB has stopped working.
97 A. Check that you have modified everything in the right way. For instance, if
98 you modify the HTTPGET program you might want to set some options of your
99 own. If you use the predefined ones (wget, curl and fetch) abcde will try
100 to use some defaults. Keep in mind that the output should go to the output
101 as standard output, to be saved in a file for later use.
103 If abcde seems to be ignoring your configuration options or not running
104 commands such as the encoder, you may have misquoted something. Config
105 options such as the following do not work:
113 Q. How can I separate the different output files I get using multiple-output
115 A. Use the OUTPUT variable in PLAYLISTFORMAT and OUTPUTFORMAT. It holds the
116 different output file types you passed to abcde (i.e., ogg, mp3, flac)
117 during playlist creation and file/directory creation.
119 Q. I have a CD with a data track, and abcde complaints it cannot read/encode
121 A. From version 2.2 onwards, abcde includes some checkings with cdparanoia, to
122 try to get this right.
123 (It is not easy to find a data track on a CD. If you find a "data"
124 track and you know the number, restart abcde specifying the tracks
125 to be encoded, leaving out the data one).
127 Q. I am requested to have "eject" when setting the speed although I do not use
129 A. If you do not use cdparanoia, eject is used for setting the speed of the
130 cdrom drive. You can substitute it for "setcd" with "-x" as the argument,
131 but you have to install it manually (setcd is, at least, available in
133 Another way to get the same results is using the pre_read function, defined
134 in your /etc/abcde.conf file.
136 Q. I have a CD set with 1+ discs, and want to have them in the same directory,
137 sorted properly. What can abcde do for me?
138 A. Set abcde to rip the first CD and give it the option "-t 101". Use a generic
139 name for the CD, and reuse it with the rest of the CDs, editing the CDDB
140 entries. Use "-t 201" for the second CD and so on. Use "-w <comment>" to
141 add a comment about the CD you are ripping (-w "disc #"). Alternatively you
142 can use only the "-t ###" option and then move all the files to the same
143 directory, but the tag/comment information on the files will differ. If you
144 want the tagged track number to be set to the modified number you should use
146 Even better! If you use "-W <cd_number>", abcde will put a comment to every
147 CD set ("CD <number>") and modify the number of the tracks both in the file
148 name and the tag/comment information.
150 Q. I have a live concert. I want to encode it in a single file. How do i do it?
151 A. Use "-1" and it will be encoded in a single file. Use "cue" as an action to
152 make a CUE sheet file where the information about the tracks is stored.
154 Q. Can I use abcde to take a backup of my CD collection?
155 A. Yes. Use "abcde -1 -o flac -a default,cue" and it will create a single-track
156 FLAC file with an embedded cuesheet. Later on, you can use the command
157 "abcde -o vorbis -d flac-file.flac" to extract the individual tracks in
158 Ogg/Vorbis format. Of course you can select whatever format you want.
161 3. CDDB and Musicbrainz
164 Q. I need to go through an HTTP proxy for CDDB access.
165 A. No problem, just export your http_proxy variable first so wget/fetch/curl
168 Q. I already store CDDB entries in my hard disc. Can I make use of them?
169 A. Piece of cake. Just edit CDDBLOCALDIR to point to the repository and give
170 abcde the "-L" flag to make use of it.
172 Q. Fine, now it uses local CDDB, but I have no network connection. How can I
174 A. Use the "-L -n" combination. It will try to use local CDDB entries, and if
175 nothing can be found, it will use a template. You will be also given the
176 choice to edit such template.
178 Q. How can I use some other CDDB information provider?
179 A. abcde now uses FreeDB by default. To use a different FreeDB mirror or
180 another CDDB service, change the CDDBURL option in your abcde.conf.
182 Q. After requesting CDDB data, I received several answers which seem to be
183 quite alike. Can I find out the difference between some of them?
184 A. Yes. When asked which one you want to select, use "X,Y" where X and Y are
185 the numbers of the selections you want to find the difference between.
187 Q. I get stuck at the screen with multiple CDDB results. How do I exit this
188 screen so I can make my final selection?
189 A. abcde tries to use the system's default pager to display these results
190 and thus the actual application used and the method to exit from this
191 application may vary from system to system.
192 Many systems will be using the applications 'more' or 'less' as their
193 pager and the common key to exit this screen is the letter 'q'. If this
194 does not work on your system you should investigate what your system's
195 default pager application is and from there learn the correct method of
198 Q. I don't like CDDB/FreeDB. How can I use Musicbrainz instead?
199 A. Set CDDBMETHOD=musicbrainz and try it!
202 4. abcde and Album Art
205 Q. Can abcde download album art?
206 A. As of abcde 2.7 it is possible to download a suitable cover
207 image from within abcde that can be used by applications such
208 as Audacious and vlc to illustrate playback with an album cover.
209 Many hardware playback devices such as iPODs will also use this
210 image during playback and show it on the device's display.
212 Q. How does album art downloading work?
213 A. The details are contained in abcde within a new function called
214 'getalbumart' which can be called either from the commandline or
215 from within an ~/.abcde.conf file. The technique works in 3 possible
218 1. If CDDBMETHOD is musicbrainz the album art is downloaded from
219 coverartarchive by MBID (MusicBrainz Identifier)
220 2. If 1 fails, download is tried from amazon by ASIN (Amazon
221 Standard Identification Number)
222 3. If if 1 and 2 fail or CDDBMETHOD is cddb the album art will
223 be downloaded using glyrc by artist + album title
225 You will need to install your distro's package of glyr, a music
226 related metadata search engine, and it is strongly advised that
227 you use 'musicbrainz' for your cddb lookups. To access the more
228 advanced features of getalbumart it is also strongly advised that
229 you install the ImageMagick package of your distro. getalbumart
230 will work without ImageMagick but functionality will be reduced.
232 Q. What settings and options should I select?
233 A. If you want to operate abcde from the commandline only you will
234 get reasonable results with something like either of the following:
236 abcde -o mp3:-V2 -a default,getalbumart
239 But to experience all of the options of getalbumart you should also
240 consider setting the following in your ~/.abcde.conf file:
242 #----------------------------------------------------------------#
243 CDDBMETHOD=musicbrainz # Use MusicBrainz for CDDB
244 ACTIONS=default,getalbumart # Select the album art action + default
246 # Give the path to the metadata search application glyrc. Add any
251 # Give the path to ImageMagick's 'identify' which is used to give a
252 # commandline summary of the album art and also assist in any conversions.
253 # Add any 'identify' options:
257 # Give the path to ImageMagick's 'display' which will show the album art.
258 # The options below are the abcde default, feel free to add your own:
260 DISPLAYCMDOPTS="-resize 512x512 -title abcde_album_art"
262 # Give the path to ImageMagick's 'convert' which is used to convert album
263 # art to the format specified in ALBUMARTTYPE. Add any 'convert' options:
266 # If you want to run CONVERTOPTS on all files (including those specified
267 # in ALBUMARTTYPE) set the following to "y":
268 ALBUMARTALWAYSCONVERT="n"
270 # By default the filename will be cover.jpg and the file format will
271 # be jpeg. 'convert' will automagically change other formats to jpeg:
272 ALBUMARTFILE="cover.jpg"
274 #----------------------------------------------------------------#
276 There are more hints concerning commandline options in the sample
277 abcde.conf file included with your abcde package. Good news is that
278 the existing defaults will work well without any extra adjustments :).
280 Q. Can I manually select album art?
281 A. If you have set INTERACTIVE=y (this is the default) then you will have
282 the opportunity to manually select the album art of your choice either
283 from online by typing in a URL or by typing in the path to a local file.
285 Q. What if I want my album art embedded?
286 A. The philosophy of getalbumart at the moment is to simply place the album
287 art in the same location as the encoded files. Perhaps this will change
288 one day. In the meantime you can use abcde's post_encode function in
289 your ~/.abcde.conf file to embed the album art. Here is an example for
290 mp3 embedding using eyeD3:
292 #----------------------------------------------------------------#
295 ARTISTFILE="$(mungefilename "$TRACKARTIST")"
296 ALBUMFILE="$(mungefilename "$DALBUM")"
297 YEAR=${CDYEAR:-$CDYEAR}
299 if [ "$VARIOUSARTISTS" = "y" ] ; then
300 FINDPATH="$(eval echo "$VAOUTPUTFORMAT")"
302 FINDPATH="$(eval echo "$OUTPUTFORMAT")"
305 FINALDIR="$(dirname "$OUTPUTDIR/$FINDPATH")"
308 if [ "$OUTPUTTYPE" = "mp3" ] && [ "$TAGGER" = "$EYED3" ] ; then
309 vecho "Preparing to embed the album art..." >&2
311 vecho "Not embedding album art, you need mp3 output and eyeD3 tagging..." >&2
315 if [ -e "cover.jpg" ] ; then
318 eyeD3 --add-image cover.jpg:FRONT_COVER "$i"
320 mkdir backup && mv cover.jpg backup
321 vecho "Your files have had the album art embedded..." >&2
323 vecho "No album art found so no image embedded..." >&2
326 #----------------------------------------------------------------#
328 Variations of the 'for' loop in this example should work for other encoding
329 types. For example with flac:
331 #--------------------
334 metaflac --import-picture-from=cover.jpg "$i"
336 #--------------------
338 With other appropriate adjustments to the $OUTPUTTYPE and $TAGGER checks of
345 Q. What formats can I encode my music to?
346 A. As for version 2.2, abcde includes support for MP3, Ogg/Vorbis,
347 Ogg/Speex, Flac and MPP/MP+(Musepack). Support for AAC will be added once
348 an FLOSS encoder/decoder is working.
350 Q. I want the new *put the newest and coolest codec there* format to be
351 supported by abcde. Abcde is so cool but i want to encode also to this
353 A. Patches are welcome! ;)
354 No, seriously, if the format is usable, available for Linux and open
355 source/free software, it should be fairly easy to integrate. Support for
356 AAC (m4p) should be the next one to be introduced.
358 Q. I use Debian/RedHat/(put your Unix flavour here) and MP3 encoding is not
359 working. What am I doing wrong?
360 A. Since MP3 is considered non-free (you get it for free, but hardware players
361 and net broadcasters have to pay license fees), some release engineering
362 groups and release management teams have decided not to provide MP3 encoding
364 These distributions or operating systems have decided to use Ogg/Vorbis as
365 the default encoding format, since it contains no (known) patent claims
366 and they are (supposed to be) completely Free (released under a BSD-like
368 However, there is no strong (at the moment) hardware support, although
369 some groups and companies are strongly working on getting it, real soon
370 now. For that reason some people prefer to encode to MP3.
373 There are known brands already selling Ogg/Vorbis portable players: Rio,
374 iRiver, Neuros, iAudio,...
375 Go buy one and you have no more reasons to use MP3.
377 If you are among those individuals, you might need to add support for MP3
378 encoding to your system:
379 Debian : check http://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat to install lame in your
380 system. Others prefer bladeenc. Check www.apt-get.org or google.
381 RedHat : search on rpmfind.net
382 FreeBSD: By default includes LAME support.
383 OpenBSD: Available by specifying you want to install the port with LAME
384 support, or by just installing it later from the ports tree.
385 NetBSD : Available in pkgsrc.
387 Others : Please, help us here.
389 Q. Huh! Why is MPPENCODER (with MPP) and .mpc the extension?
390 A. Dunno. You must ask the guys who created and defined the format. The
391 standard is MPEGplus (MPP/MP+) but the files use .mpc extension.
393 Q. Why do I get .aac files instead of .m4a files when I encode with faac?
394 A. Faac uses mp4v2 to create aac files in an m4a or mp4 container. Some
395 Linux distros have disabled this mp4v2 support due to a licensing issue
396 and this leave faac only capable of generating mpeg-2/ADTS streams.
397 These streams should correctly have the .aac file extension and some
398 players (such as Audacious) will not even play mpeg-2/ADTS streams when
399 they are placed in an .m4a container.
400 As of version 2.7 abcde tests the version of faac being used for mp4v2
401 support and then appropriately places the audio either in .m4a or .aac.
402 Note that tagging is not possible with mpeg-2/ADTS streams in .aac.
404 Q. How do I encode to Apple Lossless Audio Codec (alac)?
405 A. As of abcde 2.7.1 there are 3 ways to encode to alac: using qaac, refalac
406 or FFmpeg. To use qaac or refalac follow the installation directions here:
408 http://www.andrews-corner.org/qaac.html#installation
410 and then set your ~/.abcde.conf file as follows:
412 AACENCODERSYNTAX=qaac
413 QAAC="$HOME/.wine/drive_c/qaac/qaac.exe"
414 # Or use the Open Source alac encoder with this small hack:
415 # QAAC="$HOME/.wine/drive_c/qaac/refalac.exe"
416 QAACENCOPTS="--alac --threading --verbose"
419 To use FFmpeg (or avconv) set your ~/.abcde.conf file as follows:
421 AACENCODERSYNTAX=ffmpeg
423 # Or give the path to avconv instead:
425 FFMPEGENCOPTS="-c:a alac"
428 And then sit back and enjoy the music :)
430 Q. Will FFmpeg be used with abcde for any other audio formats?
431 A. The plan is to use FFmpeg (or avconv) when FFmpeg has a good quality native
432 encoder available. For example FFmpeg has a low quality native native encoder
433 for Vorbis and AAC which will not be used but a great reverse engineered alac
434 encoder that has been used in abcde. FFmpeg also has a good WavPack encoder
435 that has been added in abcde 2.7.1 which can be added into your ~/.abcde.conf
438 # WVENCODERSYNTAX=wavpack
439 WVENCODERSYNTAX=ffmpeg
443 # Appropriate options:
444 FFMPEGENCOPTS="-c:a wavpack -compression_level 6"
445 WAVPACKENCOPTS="-hx3"
446 # Correct output type:
449 You can see in this example how easy it is to switch from one WavPack encoder to
450 another by changing the comment mark '#' on the WVENCODERSYNTAX line. For mp2
451 encoding with FFmpeg try the following:
453 # MP2ENCODERSYNTAX=twolame
454 MP2ENCODERSYNTAX=ffmpeg
458 FFMPEGENCOPTS='-c:a mp2 -b:a 320k'
459 TWOLAMENCOPTS='--bitrate 320'
460 # Correct output type:
463 So currently FFmpeg supports: alac, wavpack and mp2. FFmpeg native aac support will
464 be added when it comes out of 'experimental'. FFmpeg is also used as the default
465 encoder for the Matroska or mka container. A typical example, using the FFmpeg
466 native ac3 encoder, is:
468 MKAENCODERSYNTAX=ffmpeg
470 FFMPEGENCOPTS="-c:a ac3 -b:a 448k"
473 Other suitable codecs for this usage are Vorbis, MP2, MP3, LC-AAC, HE-AAC, WMAv1,
474 WMAv2, eAC3 and Opus. There is much more to come in the future for abcde and FFmpeg!
480 Q. What is/are 'USEPIPES'??
481 A. This is a slightly different method of ripping and encoding with abcde
482 utilising Unix pipes. Using this method a program sends as output what
483 another programs expects as input without writing the information to the
484 hard disk. For it to work with abcde, a ripper must send the data of the
485 CD tracks which are ripped to the 'standard output', while sending other
486 information and error messages to 'standard error' so that the encoder
487 does not get confused. The encoder program needs to be able to encode the
488 information send to it by reading from the standard input (which is what
489 the ripper sends to the standard output).
490 Usually Unix/Linux programs deal with the standard input/output by using
491 the special file name '-', as in the following example:
493 cdripper -o - | audioencoder -i - -o file.ext
495 The 'cdripper' program uses the flag '-o' to identify the file it will
496 output the data to. For the 'audioencoder' program to be able to read
497 the output through a Unix pipe (the '|' symbol), the output needs to be
498 sent to the standard output using the '-' special filename. Once the
499 output has been piped to 'audioencoder' we use the same special filename
500 to read the information as input with the '-i' flag and output it to
501 'file.ext' with the '-o' flag.
503 Q. How do I use USEPIPES with abcde?
504 A. You can run USEPIPES in either of two ways:
506 1. Add 'USEPIPES=y' to your ~/.abcde.conf file
507 2. Use the commandline option 'abcde -P'
509 Q. Do all rippers and encoders work with USEPIPES?
510 A. No :). Keep in mind that every ripper and encoder differs from in each
511 other in the way they interact with pipes and not all rippers and encoders
512 will use or understand the '-o' and '-' options. Currently (August 2015) the
513 following rippers and encoders work:
515 Rippers: cdparanoia, debug, libcdio, cdda2wav, flac, pird.
516 Encoders: mp3enc, lame, bladeenc, oggenc, opusenc, flac, speexenc,
517 mpcenc, wavpack, faac, neroAacEnc, fdkaac, qaac, fhgaacenc,
520 Q. Can I add a ripper or encoder which is not supported?
521 A. Sure! If you plan to use a ripper or encoder which is not supported you
522 need to know how to use the ripper/encoder. For example, cdparanoia just
523 uses '-' as the output filename and works. The program used to decode
524 FLAC files (yes, abcde supports 'ripping' from a FLAC file :) uses '-c'.
525 To add support for a ripper called 'cdripper' which uses the '-' special
526 flag for outputting to the standard output, you need to open the config
527 file (either /etc/abcde.conf or ~/.abcde.conf) and add the line:
529 PIPERIPPER_cdripper="-"
531 For an encoder called 'audioencoder' which uses '--stdin' to read the pipe
532 input, you need to add:
534 PIPE_audioencoder="--stdin"
536 Of course, you should try your configuration and report it to the abcde
537 developers so that it can be included in future versions of abcde. If
538 you are familiar with POSIX shell programing, please open "abcde" and
539 take a look at the lines below the one marked with "###USEPIPESSUPPORT###",
540 the required syntax is reasonably clear.
545 Q. What happened with normalize?
546 A. Normalize has changed its name under Debian, which is the GNU/Linux
547 distribution for developing abcde (well, is The GNU/Linux Distribution
548 Steve uses, at the moment). Now it is called normalize-audio.
549 If you are using some other flavour of OS, you need to change the name
550 of the executable in your abcde.conf file.
552 Q. I am using MacOSX and I am having problems to use abcde.
553 A. Well, I have a Mac, but I use linux on it. I have not been able to find
554 a way to make it work there, since I do not have the development tools
555 installed. I have placed a basic support, but some user reports are just
556 complaining about abcde not encoding the ripped tracks, as if
557 icedax/cdda2wav/cdparanoia/cddafs would never end reading them. If you have
558 such a system and experience problems, please, report them, and I will
559 try to work them out with your help.
561 Q. My hardware player (put it here) does not recognize the playlists created
562 with abcde. What I am doing wrong?
563 A. Try using "-m" when creating the playlists, or setting DOSPLAYLIST as an
564 option in the config file.
568 Q. I set KEEPWAVS to "y" but abcde insists on erasing my directory, along
569 with the wav tracks. What I am doing wrong?
570 A. The default action set includes clean, which cleans the temp directory,
571 if nothing goes wrong. Take the "clean" out from the action list and you
573 UPDATE: KEEPWAVS unselects now the clean action.
576 Steve McIntyre <93sam@@debian.org>
577 Andrew Strong <andrew.david.strong@gmail.com>