Provided by: flac_1.4.3+ds-2.1ubuntu2_amd64 
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)