Ubuntu Manpage: cue2toc - convert CUE to TOC format

name
synopsis
description
options
cue format
configuration
limitations
files
see also
bugs
author

NAME

       cue2toc - convert CUE to TOC format

SYNOPSIS

       cue2toc [-dhqv] [-o tocfile] [cuefile]

DESCRIPTION

       Cue2toc  converts  cuefile from CUE to TOC format and writes the result to tocfile.  If either cuefile or
       tocfile is omitted or a single dash "-" cue2toc reads from standard input and writes  to  standard  ouput
       respectively.

       CUE files are text files describing the layout of a CD-Rom and typically carry the extension ".cue".

       Cdrdao  is  a  CD-burning  application  which  has its own native TOC format to describe the disc layout.
       Although cdrdao has direct support for reading CUE files, it is currently limited to data tracks only. So
       cue2toc's main usefulness lies in converting CUE files containing audio tracks.

       CUE  files for audio discs often come with data files in compressed audio formats like MP3 or Ogg Vorbis.
       To burn such a disc with cdrdao these files must be converted to WAVE or raw format.  Cue2toc can do this
       automatically if configured properly (see section CONFIGURATION below for more information).

       Cue2toc  normally  displays  warning messages for unsupported commands and constructs as well as for each
       data file converted. The -q option disables these messages.

OPTIONS

       -d     print debugging information

       -h     print a short help message

       -o tocfile
              write result to tocfile instead of standard ouput

       -q     quiet mode; do not print warnings

       -v     display version information

CUE FORMAT

What follows is a description of the CUE format expected by cue2toc. For information about the TOC
format please consult the cdrdao(1) manual page.

CUE files consist of commands and their arguments which must be separated from each other by any number
of whitespace characters. Space, horizontal tabulator, newline and carriage return are recognized as
whitespace characters except inside strings surrounded by double quotes, where they are part of the
string. Commands are not case sensitive. CD-Text data can be at most 80 characters per item.

Timecode values are accepted in the forms "X:X:X", "X:X" and "X" where each "X" must consist of at most
two digits and may be zero padded to the left. They are interpreted as "M:S:F", "S:F" and "F"
respectively where "M" means "minutes" and must be in the range 0 <= M <= 99, "S" means "seconds" and
must be in the range 0 <= S <= 59, and "F" means "frames" and must be in the range 0 <= F <= 74.

CUE files are logically divided into a global section and one to 99 track sections. Inside these sections
the following commands are allowed:

Global Section
REM anything_to_newline
CATALOG string
CDTEXTFILE string
TITLE string
PERFORMER string
SONGWRITER string
FILE string BINARY|MOTOROLA|AIFF|WAVE|MP3

REM Optional. Introduces a comment. Anything from there on up to and including the next newline
character is ignored. Comments can appear anywhere in the file but not between a command and its
arguments.

CATALOG
Optional. The Media Catalog Number of the disc. Must be exactly 13 characters.

CDTEXTFILE
Optional. Specifies an external file containing CD-Text data. Ignored.

TITLE Optional. The CD-Text title of the disc.

PERFORMER
Optional. The CD-Text performer of the disc.

SONGWRITER
Optional. The CD-Text songwriter of the disc.

FILE Required. The name and type of the file to be used for all following tracks. The string contains
the name of the file followed by one of BINARY, MOTOROLA, AIFF, WAVE or MP3. As far as cue2toc is
concerned the type of the file is effectively ignored. Nonetheless MOTOROLA, AIFF and MP3 cause
printing of a warning message since these file types can not be used directly with cdrdao.

The first appearance of a TRACK command causes leaving of the global section and entering the track
section.

Track Section
TRACK number mode
REM anything_to_newline
FLAGS [DCP] [4CH] [PRE] [SCMS]
ISRC string
TITLE string
PERFORMER string
SONGWRITER string
PREGAP timecode
INDEX number timecode
POSTGAP timecode
FILE string BINARY|MOTOROLA|AIFF|WAVE|MP3

TRACK Required. Starts a new track definition. The number is ignored. The mode must be one of AUDIO,
MODE1/2048, MODE1/2352, MODE2/2336 or MODE2/2352.

FLAGS Optional. Defines the flags for this track. Must be followed by one or more of the following
commands: DCP (digital copy permitted), 4CH (four channel audio), PRE (pre-emphasis enabled) and
SCMS (serial copy management system). SCMS is ignored because there is no corresponding option in
the TOC format.

ISRC Optional. The International Standard Recording Code for this track. Must be exactly 12 characters
long.

TITLE Optional. The CD-Text title of this track.

PERFORMER
Optional. The CD-Text performer of this track.

SONWRITER
Optional. The CD-Text songwriter of this track.

PREGAP Optional. The length of the track pregap to be filled with zero data. Mutually exclusive with
INDEX 0.

POSTGAP
Optional. The length of the track postgap to be filled with zero data.

INDEX Optional. The number must be in the range 0 <= number <= 99. Index number 1 specifies the start
of the track. Index number 0 is the start of the track pregap filled with data from the file, i.e.
the difference between index 0 and index 1 is the length of the pregap. Index 0 is mutually
exclusive with PREGAP. Index numbers greater than 1 specify subindexes for this track and must be
sequential.

FILE Optional in track section. The syntax is the same as described above and if it appears inside a
track specification it takes effect on the next TRACK command.

CONFIGURATION

Cue2toc can be configured by specifying options in the file ~/.cue2tocrc. The syntax of this file and
allowed configuration options follow.

Comments are introduced by the hash character '#' and extend to the end of the line. Configuration
options take the form

OPTION = value

The value must be quoted if it contains whitespace characters. To include a double quote character in a
quoted string, precede it with a backslash. Option values can either be of boolean type or string type.
For boolean types any one of "yes", "y", "true" or "1" means true and anything else means false. The
"default value" in the descriptions of the individual options below is the value assumed by cue2toc in
the absence of the option from the configuration file.

CONVERTER = ext_from ext_to command
This option takes three string arguments and specifies a converter for files with the extension
ext_from. They are converted by the given command and the extension is replaced with ext_to in the
TOC file. When the command is run the environment will contain the two variables C2T_FROM and
C2T_TO which contain the original and new file name respectively. For example

CONVERTER = .mp3 .wav
"lame --decode \"$C2T_FROM\" \"$C2T_TO\""

will convert all MP3 files to WAVE format using lame. It is a good idea to quote the varibles
$C2T_FROM and $C2T_TO because they could contain whitespace or other funny characters with a
special meaning to the shell.

This option can be specified multiple times and each file is checked against the list of
converters to see if it matches any of them. If multiple converters match a given file only the
first match is used.

If a file with the name that results from replacing ext_from with ext_to already exists, the
conversion command will not be executed.

This option has no default value.

CONVERT = boolean
This option enables or disables the conversion of data files as described above for the CONVERTER
option. If this option is false, no conversion will take place. The default value is "yes".

QUIET = boolean
If this option is true it has the same effect as if cue2toc was invoked with the -q command line
option. The default value is "no".

CDTEXT = boolean
This option enables or disables the writing of CD-Text data to the TOC file if it is present in
the CUE file. The default value is "yes".

LIMITATIONS

       The command CDTEXTFILE and the flag SCMS have no equivalent in the TOC format and are ignored.

       CUE files containing data tracks which specify a starting time greater than zero cannot be  converted  by
       cue2toc  because the TOC format does not provide a way to specify a starting time at all for data tracks.
       However if the CUE file does not contain any audio tracks you can try to use the CUE file  directly  with
       cdrdao.

FILES

       ~/.cue2tocrc
              The configuration file. The format of this file is described in the section CONFIGURATION above.

BUGS

       Since  cue2toc's  definition  of  the CUE format is entirely based on a number of different CUE files the
       author came across there is a very high probability that it will not work correctly with  all  the  other
       CUE  files  you  might  encounter. If this is the case for you please send the problematic CUE file along
       with the version number of cue2toc to <dermatsch@gmx.de>.

AUTHOR

       Matthias Czapla <dermatsch@gmx.de>

                                                                                                      CUE2TOC(1)