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)