Ubuntu Manpage: mkvextract - extract tracks from Matroska(TM) files into other files

NAME

       mkvextract - extract tracks from Matroska(TM) files into other files

SYNOPSIS

       mkvextract {mode} {source-filename} [options] [extraction-spec]

DESCRIPTION

This program extracts specific parts from a Matroska(TM) file to other useful formats. The
first argument, mode, tells mkvextract(1) what to extract. Currently supported is the
extraction of tracks, tags, attachments, chapters, CUE sheets and timecodes. The second
argument is the name of the source file. It must be a Matroska(TM) file. All following
arguments are options and extraction specifications; both of which depend on the selected
mode.

Common options
The following options are available in all modes and only described once in this section.

-f, --parse-fully
Sets the parse mode to 'full'. The default mode does not parse the whole file but uses
the meta seek elements for locating the required elements of a source file. In 99% of
all cases this is enough. But for files that do not contain meta seek elements or
which are damaged the user might have to use this mode. A full scan of a file can take
a couple of minutes while a fast scan only takes seconds.

--command-line-charset character-set
Sets the character set to convert strings given on the command line from. It defaults
to the character set given by system's current locale.

--output-charset character-set
Sets the character set to which strings are converted that are to be output. It
defaults to the character set given by system's current locale.

-r, --redirect-output file-name
Writes all messages to the file file-name instead of to the console. While this can be
done easily with output redirection there are cases in which this option is needed:
when the terminal reinterprets the output before writing it to a file. The character
set set with --output-charset is honored.

--ui-language code
Forces the translations for the language code to be used (e.g. 'de_DE' for the German
translations). It is preferable to use the environment variables LANG, LC_MESSAGES and
LC_ALL though. Entering 'list' as the code will cause mkvextract(1) to output a list
of available translations.

--debug topic
Turn on debugging for a specific feature. This option is only useful for developers.

--engage feature
Turn on experimental features. A list of available features can be requested with
mkvextract --engage list. These features are not meant to be used in normal
situations.

--gui-mode
Turns on GUI mode. In this mode specially-formatted lines may be output that can tell
a controlling GUI what's happening. These messages follow the format '#GUI#message'.
The message may be followed by key/value pairs as in
'#GUI#message#key1=value1#key2=value2...'. Neither the messages nor the keys are ever
translated and always output in English.

-v, --verbose
Be verbose and show all the important Matroska(TM) elements as they're read.

-h, --help
Show usage information and exit.

-V, --version
Show version information and exit.

--check-for-updates
Checks online for new releases by downloading the URL
http://mkvtoolnix-releases.bunkus.org/latest-release.xml. Four lines will be output in
key=value style: the URL from where the information was retrieved (key
version_check_url), the currently running version (key running_version), the latest
release's version (key available_version) and the download URL (key download_url).

Afterwards the program exists with an exit code of 0 if no newer release is available,
with 1 if a newer release is available and with 2 if an error occured (e.g. if the
update information could not be retrieved).

This option is only available if the program was built with support for libcurl.

@options-file
Reads additional command line arguments from the file options-file. Lines whose first
non-whitespace character is a hash mark ('#') are treated as comments and ignored.
White spaces at the start and end of a line will be stripped. Each line must contain
exactly one option.

Several chars can be escaped, e.g. if you need to start a non-comment line with '#'.
The rules are described in the section about escaping text.

The command line 'mkvextract tracks source.mkv --raw 1:destination.raw' could be
converted into the following option file:

# Extract a track from source.mkv
tracks
source.mkv
# Output the track as raw data.
--raw
1:destination.raw

Track extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract tracks source-filename [options] TID1:dest-filename1
[TID2:dest-filename2 ...]

The following command line options are available for each track in the 'tracks' extraction
mode. They have to appear in front of the track specification (see below) they should be
applied to.

-c character-set
Sets the character set to convert the next text subtitle track to. Only valid if the
next track ID targets a text subtitle track. It defaults to UTF-8.

--blockadd level
Keep only the BlockAdditions up to this level. The default is to keep all levels. This
option only affects certain kinds of codecs like WAVPACK4.

--cuesheet
Causes mkvextract(1) to extract a CUE sheet from the chapter information and tag data
for the following track into a file whose name is the track's output name with '.cue'
appended to it.

--raw
Extracts the raw data into a file without any container data around it. Unlike the
--fullraw flag this flag does not cause the contents of the CodecPrivate element to be
written to the file. This mode works with all CodecIDs, even the ones that
mkvextract(1) doesn't support otherwise, but the resulting files might not be usable.

--fullraw
Extracts the raw data into a file without any container data around it. The contents
of the CodecPrivate element will be written to the file first if the track contains
such a header element. This mode works with all CodecIDs, even the ones that
mkvextract(1) doesn't support otherwise, but the resulting files might not be usable.

TID:outname
Causes extraction of the track with the ID TID into the file outname if such a track
exists in the source file. This option can be given multiple times. The track IDs are
the same as the ones output by mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option.

Each output name should be used only once. The exception are RealAudio and RealVideo
tracks. If you use the same name for different tracks then those tracks will be saved
in the same file. Example:

$ mkvextract tracks input.mkv 1:output-two-tracks.rm 2:output-two-tracks.rm

Tags extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract tags source-filename [options]

The extracted tags are written to the console unless the output is redirected (see the
section about output redirection for details).

Attachments extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract attachments source-filename [options] AID1:outname1 [AID2:outname2 ...]

AID:outname
Causes extraction of the attachment with the ID AID into the file outname if such an
attachment exists in the source file. If the outname is left empty then the name of
the attachment inside the source Matroska(TM) file is used instead. This option can be
given multiple times. The attachment IDs are the same as the ones output by
mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option.

Chapters extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract chapters source-filename [options]

-s, --simple
Exports the chapter information in the simple format used in the OGM tools
(CHAPTER01=..., CHAPTER01NAME=...). In this mode some information has to be discarded.
Default is to output the chapters in XML format.

The extracted chapters are written to the console unless the output is redirected (see the
section about output redirection for details).

Cue sheet extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract cuesheet source-filename [options]

The extracted cue sheet is written to the console unless the output is redirected (see the
section about output redirection for details).

Timecode extraction mode
Syntax: mkvextract timecodes_v2 source-filename [options] TID1:dest-filename1
[TID2:dest-filename2 ...]

The extracted timecodes are written to the console unless the output is redirected (see
the section about output redirection for details).

TID:outname
Causes extraction of the timecodes for the track with the ID TID into the file outname
if such a track exists in the source file. This option can be given multiple times.
The track IDs are the same as the ones output by mkvmerge(1)'s --identify option.

Example:

$ mkvextract timecodes_v2 input.mkv 1:tc-track1.txt 2:tc-track2.txt

OUTPUT REDIRECTION

       Several extraction modes cause mkvextract(1) to write the extracted data to the console.
       There are generally two ways of writing this data into a file: one provided by the shell
       and one provided by mkvextract(1) itself.

       The shell's builtin redirection mechanism is used by appending '> output-filename.ext' to
       the command line. Example:

           $ mkvextract tags source.mkv > tags.xml

       mkvextract(1)'s own redirection is invoked with the --redirect-output option. Example:

           $ mkvextract tags source.mkv --redirect-output tags.xml

           Note
           On Windows you should probably use the --redirect-output option because cmd.exe
           sometimes interpretes special characters before they're written into the output file
           resulting in broken output.

OUTPUT FILE FORMATS

The decision about the output format is based on the track type, not on the extension used
for the output file name. The following track types are supported at the moment:

V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
H.264 / AVC video tracks are written to H.264 elementary streams which can be
processed further with e.g. MP4Box(TM) from the GPAC(TM) package.

V_MS/VFW/FOURCC
Fixed FPS video tracks with this CodecID are written to AVI files.

V_REAL/*
RealVideo(TM) tracks are written to RealMedia(TM) files.

V_THEORA
Theora(TM) streams will be written within an Ogg(TM) container

V_VP8, V_VP9
VP8 / VP9 tracks are written to IVF files.

A_MPEG/L2
MPEG-1 Audio Layer II streams will be extracted to raw MP2 files.

A_MPEG/L3, A_AC3
These will be extracted to raw MP3 and AC3 files.

A_PCM/INT/LIT
Raw PCM data will be written to a WAV file.

A_AAC/MPEG2/*, A_AAC/MPEG4/*, A_AAC
All AAC files will be written into an AAC file with ADTS headers before each packet.
The ADTS headers will not contain the deprecated emphasis field.

A_VORBIS
Vorbis audio will be written into an OggVorbis(TM) file.

A_REAL/*
RealAudio(TM) tracks are written to RealMedia(TM) files.

A_TTA1
TrueAudio(TM) tracks are written to TTA files. Please note that due to Matroska(TM)'s
limited timecode precision the extracted file's header will be different regarding two
fields: data_length (the total number of samples in the file) and the CRC.

A_ALAC
ALAC tracks are written to CAF files.

A_FLAC
FLAC tracks are written to raw FLAC files.

A_WAVPACK4
WavPack(TM) tracks are written to WV files.

A_OPUS
Opus(TM) tracks are written to OggOpus(TM) files.

S_TEXT/UTF8
Simple text subtitles will be written as SRT files.

S_TEXT/SSA, S_TEXT/ASS
SSA and ASS text subtitles will be written as SSA/ASS files respectively.

S_KATE
Kate(TM) streams will be written within an Ogg(TM) container.

S_VOBSUB
VobSub(TM) subtitles will be written as SUB files along with the respective index
files, as IDX files.

S_TEXT/USF
USF text subtitles will be written as USF files.

S_HDMV/PGS
PGS subtitles will be written as SUP files.

Tags
Tags are converted to a XML format. This format is the same that mkvmerge(1) supports
for reading tags.

Attachments
Attachments are written to they output file as they are. No conversion whatsoever is
done.

Chapters
Chapters are converted to a XML format. This format is the same that mkvmerge(1)
supports for reading chapters. Alternatively a stripped-down version can be output in
the simple OGM style format.

Timecodes
Timecodes are first sorted and then output as a timecode v2 format compliant file
ready to be fed to mkvmerge(1). The extraction to other formats (v1, v3 and v4) is not
supported.

EXIT CODES

       mkvextract(1) exits with one of three exit codes:

       •   0 -- This exit codes means that extraction has completed successfully.

       •   1 -- In this case mkvextract(1) has output at least one warning, but extraction did
           continue. A warning is prefixed with the text 'Warning:'. Depending on the issues
           involved the resulting files might be ok or not. The user is urged to check both the
           warning and the resulting files.

       •   2 -- This exit code is used after an error occurred.  mkvextract(1) aborts right after
           outputting the error message. Error messages range from wrong command line arguments
           over read/write errors to broken files.

ESCAPING SPECIAL CHARS IN TEXT

       There are a few places in which special characters in text must or should be escaped. The
       rules for escaping are simple: each character that needs escaping is replaced with a
       backslash followed by another character.

       The rules are: ' ' (a space) becomes '\s', '"' (double quotes) becomes '\2', ':' becomes
       '\c', '#' becomes '\h' and '\' (a single backslash) itself becomes '\\'.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       mkvextract(1) uses the default variables that determine the system's locale (e.g.  LANG
       and the LC_* family). Additional variables:

       MKVTOOLNIX_DEBUG and its short form MTX_DEBUG
           The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --debug option.

       MKVTOOLNIX_ENGAGE and its short form MTX_ENGAGE
           The content is treated as if it had been passed via the --engage option.

       MKVTOOLNIX_OPTIONS and its short form MTX_OPTIONS
           The content is split on white space. The resulting partial strings are treated as if
           it had been passed as command line options. If you need to pass special characters
           (e.g. spaces) then you have to escape them (see the section about escaping special
           characters in text).

WWW

       The latest version can always be found at the MKVToolNix homepage[1].

AUTHOR

       Moritz Bunkus <moritz@bunkus.org>
           Developer

NOTES

        1. the MKVToolNix homepage
           http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/