Provided by: beets_1.3.1-1_all 
NAME
beetsconfig - beets configuration file
Beets has an extensive configuration system that lets you customize nearly every aspect of
its operation. To configure beets, you'll edit a file called config.yaml. The location of
this file depends on your OS:
• On Unix-like OSes (including OS X), you want ~/.config/beets/config.yaml.
• On Windows, use %APPDATA%\beets\config.yaml. This is usually in a directory like
C:\Users\You\AppData\Roaming.
• On OS X, you can also use ~/Library/Application Support/beets/config.yaml if you prefer
that over the Unix-like ~/.config.
• If you prefer a different location, set the BEETSDIR environment variable to a path;
beets will then look for a config.yaml in that directory.
The config file uses YAML syntax. You can use the full power of YAML, but most
configuration options are simple key/value pairs. This means your config file will look
like this:
option: value
another_option: foo
bigger_option:
key: value
foo: bar
In YAML, you will need to use spaces (not tabs!) to indent some lines. If you have
questions about more sophisticated syntax, take a look at the YAML documentation.
GLOBAL OPTIONS
These options control beets' global operation.
library
Path to the beets library file. By default, beets will use a file called library.db
alongside your configuration file.
directory
The directory to which files will be copied/moved when adding them to the library.
Defaults to a folder called Music in your home directory.
plugins
A space-separated list of plugin module names to load. For instance, beets includes the
BPD plugin for playing music.
pluginpath
Directories to search for plugins. These paths are just added to sys.path before the
plugins are loaded. (The plugins still have to be contained in a beetsplug namespace
package.) This can either be a single string or a list of strings---so, if you have
multiple paths, format them as a YAML list like so:
pluginpath:
- /path/one
- /path/two
ignore
A list of glob patterns specifying file and directory names to be ignored when importing.
By default, this consists of .*, *~, and System Volume Information (i.e., beets ignores
Unix-style hidden files, backup files, and a directory that appears at the root of some
Windows filesystems).
replace
A set of regular expression/replacement pairs to be applied to all filenames created by
beets. Typically, these replacements are used to avoid confusing problems or errors with
the filesystem (for example, leading dots, which hide files on Unix, and trailing
whitespace, which is illegal on Windows). To override these substitutions, specify a
mapping from regular expression to replacement strings. For example, [xy]: z will make
beets replace all instances of the characters x or y with the character z.
If you do change this value, be certain that you include at least enough substitutions to
avoid causing errors on your operating system. Here are the default substitutions used by
beets, which are sufficient to avoid unexpected behavior on all popular platforms:
replace:
'[\\/]': _
'^\.': _
'[\x00-\x1f]': _
'[<>:"\?\*\|]': _
'\.$': _
'\s+$': ''
These substitutions remove forward and back slashes, leading dots, and control characters—
all of which is a good idea on any OS. The fourth line removes the Windows "reserved
characters" (useful even on Unix for for compatibility with Windows-influenced network
filesystems like Samba). Trailing dots and trailing whitespace, which can cause problems
on Windows clients, are also removed.
art_filename
When importing album art, the name of the file (without extension) where the cover art
image should be placed. This is a template string, so you can use any of the syntax
available to /reference/pathformat. Defaults to cover (i.e., images will be named
cover.jpg or cover.png and placed in the album's directory).
threaded
Either yes or no, indicating whether the autotagger should use multiple threads. This
makes things faster but may behave strangely. Defaults to yes.
color
Either yes or no; whether to use color in console output (currently only in the import
command). Turn this off if your terminal doesn't support ANSI colors.
list_format_item
Format to use when listing individual items with the list-cmd command and other commands
that need to print out items. Defaults to $artist - $album - $title. The -f command-line
option overrides this setting.
list_format_album
Format to use when listing albums with list-cmd and other commands. Defaults to
$albumartist - $album. The -f command-line option overrides this setting.
original_date
Either yes or no, indicating whether matched albums should have their year, month, and day
fields set to the release date of the original version of an album rather than the
selected version of the release. That is, if this option is turned on, then year will
always equal original_year and so on. Default: no.
per_disc_numbering
A boolean controlling the track numbering style on multi-disc releases. By default
(per_disc_numbering: no), tracks are numbered per-release, so the first track on the
second disc has track number N+1 where N is the number of tracks on the first disc. If
this per_disc_numbering is enabled, then the first track on each disc always has track
number 1.
If you enable per_disc_numbering, you will likely want to change your Path Format
Configuration also to include $disc before $track to make filenames sort correctly in
album directories. For example, you might want to use a path format like this:
paths:
default: $albumartist/$album%aunique{}/$disc-$track $title
terminal_encoding
The text encoding, as known to Python, to use for messages printed to the standard output.
By default, this is determined automatically from the locale environment variables.
clutter
When beets imports all the files in a directory, it tries to remove the directory if it's
empty. A directory is considered empty if it only contains files whose names match the
glob patterns in clutter, which should be a list of strings. The default list consists of
"Thumbs.DB" and ".DS_Store".
max_filename_length
Set the maximum number of characters in a filename, after which names will be truncated.
By default, beets tries to ask the filesystem for the correct maximum.
id3v23
By default, beets writes MP3 tags using the ID3v2.4 standard, the latest version of ID3.
Enable this option to instead use the older ID3v2.3 standard, which is preferred by
certain older software such as Windows Media Player.
IMPORTER OPTIONS
The options that control the import-cmd command are indented under the import: key. For
example, you might have a section in your configuration file that looks like this:
import:
write: yes
copy: yes
resume: no
These options are available in this section:
write
Either yes or no, controlling whether metadata (e.g., ID3) tags are written to files when
using beet import. Defaults to yes. The -w and -W command-line options override this
setting.
copy
Either yes or no, indicating whether to copy files into the library directory when using
beet import. Defaults to yes. Can be overridden with the -c and -C command-line options.
The option is ignored if move is enabled (i.e., beets can move or copy files but it
doesn't make sense to do both).
move
Either yes or no, indicating whether to move files into the library directory when using
beet import. Defaults to no.
The effect is similar to the copy option but you end up with only one copy of the imported
file. ("Moving" works even across filesystems; if necessary, beets will copy and then
delete when a simple rename is impossible.) Moving files can be risky—it's a good idea to
keep a backup in case beets doesn't do what you expect with your files.
This option overrides copy, so enabling it will always move (and not copy) files. The -c
switch to the beet import command, however, still takes precedence.
resume
Either yes, no, or ask. Controls whether interrupted imports should be resumed. "Yes"
means that imports are always resumed when possible; "no" means resuming is disabled
entirely; "ask" (the default) means that the user should be prompted when resuming is
possible. The -p and -P flags correspond to the "yes" and "no" settings and override this
option.
incremental
Either yes or no, controlling whether imported directories are recorded and whether these
recorded directories are skipped. This corresponds to the -i flag to beet import.
quiet_fallback
Either skip (default) or asis, specifying what should happen in quiet mode (see the -q
flag to import, above) when there is no strong recommendation.
none_rec_action
Either ask (default), asis or skip. Specifies what should happen during an interactive
import session when there is no recommendation. Useful when you are only interested in
processing medium and strong recommendations interactively.
timid
Either yes or no, controlling whether the importer runs in timid mode, in which it asks
for confirmation on every autotagging match, even the ones that seem very close. Defaults
to no. The -t command-line flag controls the same setting.
log
Specifies a filename where the importer's log should be kept. By default, no log is
written. This can be overridden with the -l flag to import.
default_action
One of apply, skip, asis, or none, indicating which option should be the default when
selecting an action for a given match. This is the action that will be taken when you type
return without an option letter. The default is apply.
languages
A list of locale names to search for preferred aliases. For example, setting this to "en"
uses the transliterated artist name "Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky" instead of the Cyrillic
script for the composer's name when tagging from MusicBrainz. Defaults to an empty list,
meaning that no language is preferred.
detail
Whether the importer UI should show detailed information about each match it finds. When
enabled, this mode prints out the title of every track, regardless of whether it matches
the original metadata. (The default behavior only shows changes.) Default: no.
MUSICBRAINZ OPTIONS
If you run your own MusicBrainz server, you can instruct beets to use it instead of the
main server. Use the host and ratelimit options under a musicbrainz: header, like so:
musicbrainz:
host: localhost:5000
ratelimit: 100
The host key, of course, controls the Web server hostname (and port, optionally) that will
be contacted by beets (default: musicbrainz.org). The ratelimit option, an integer,
controls the number of Web service requests per second (default: 1). Do not change the
rate limit setting if you're using the main MusicBrainz server---on this public server,
you're limited to one request per second.
AUTOTAGGER MATCHING OPTIONS
You can configure some aspects of the logic beets uses when automatically matching
MusicBrainz results under the match: section. To control how tolerant the autotagger is of
differences, use the strong_rec_thresh option, which reflects the distance threshold below
which beets will make a "strong recommendation" that the metadata be used. Strong
recommendations are accepted automatically (except in "timid" mode), so you can use this
to make beets ask your opinion more or less often.
The threshold is a distance value between 0.0 and 1.0, so you can think of it as the
opposite of a similarity value. For example, if you want to automatically accept any
matches above 90% similarity, use:
match:
strong_rec_thresh: 0.10
The default strong recommendation threshold is 0.04.
The medium_rec_thresh and rec_gap_thresh options work similarly. When a match is above the
medium recommendation threshold or the distance between it and the next-best match is
above the gap threshold, the importer will suggest that match but not automatically
confirm it. Otherwise, you'll see a list of options to choose from.
max_rec
As mentioned above, autotagger matches have recommendations that control how the UI
behaves for a certain quality of match. The recommendation for a certain match is based on
the overall distance calculation. But you can also control the recommendation when a
specific distance penalty is applied by defining maximum recommendations for each field:
To define maxima, use keys under max_rec: in the match section. The defaults are "medium"
for missing and unmatched tracks and "strong" (i.e., no maximum) for everything else:
match:
max_rec:
missing_tracks: medium
unmatched_tracks: medium
If a recommendation is higher than the configured maximum and the indicated penalty is
applied, the recommendation is downgraded. The setting for each field can be one of none,
low, medium or strong. When the maximum recommendation is strong, no "downgrading" occurs.
The available penalty names here are:
• source
• artist
• album
• media
• mediums
• year
• country
• label
• catalognum
• albumdisambig
• album_id
• tracks
• missing_tracks
• unmatched_tracks
• track_title
• track_artist
• track_index
• track_length
• track_id
preferred
In addition to comparing the tagged metadata with the match metadata for similarity, you
can also specify an ordered list of preferred countries and media types.
A distance penalty will be applied if the country or media type from the match metadata
doesn't match. The specified values are preferred in descending order (i.e., the first
item will be most preferred). Each item may be a regular expression, and will be matched
case insensitively. The number of media will be stripped when matching preferred media
(e.g. "2x" in "2xCD").
You can also tell the autotagger to prefer matches that have a release year closest to the
original year for an album.
Here's an example:
match:
preferred:
countries: ['US', 'GB|UK']
media: ['CD', 'Digital Media|File']
original_year: yes
By default, none of these options are enabled.
ignored
You can completely avoid matches that have certain penalties applied by adding the penalty
name to the ignored setting:
match:
ignored: missing_tracks unmatched_tracks
The available penalties are the same as those for the max_rec setting.
PATH FORMAT CONFIGURATION
You can also configure the directory hierarchy beets uses to store music. These settings
appear under the paths: key. Each string is a template string that can refer to metadata
fields like $artist or $title. The filename extension is added automatically. At the
moment, you can specify three special paths: default for most releases, comp for "various
artist" releases with no dominant artist, and singleton for non-album tracks. The defaults
look like this:
paths:
default: $albumartist/$album%aunique{}/$track $title
singleton: Non-Album/$artist/$title
comp: Compilations/$album%aunique{}/$track $title
Note the use of $albumartist instead of $artist; this ensure that albums will be
well-organized. For more about these format strings, see pathformat. The aunique{}
function ensures that identically-named albums are placed in different directories; see
aunique for details.
In addition to default, comp, and singleton, you can condition path queries based on beets
queries (see /reference/query). This means that a config file like this:
paths:
albumtype:soundtrack: Soundtracks/$album/$track $title
will place soundtrack albums in a separate directory. The queries are tested in the order
they appear in the configuration file, meaning that if an item matches multiple queries,
beets will use the path format for the first matching query.
Note that the special singleton and comp path format conditions are, in fact, just
shorthand for the explicit queries singleton:true and comp:true. In contrast, default is
special and has no query equivalent: the default format is only used if no queries match.
EXAMPLE
Here's an example file:
library: /var/music.blb
directory: /var/mp3
path_format: $genre/$artist/$album/$track $title
import:
copy: yes
write: yes
resume: ask
quiet_fallback: skip
timid: no
log: beetslog.txt
ignore: .AppleDouble ._* *~ .DS_Store
art_filename: albumart
plugins: bpd
pluginpath: ~/beets/myplugins
threaded: yes
color: yes
paths:
default: $genre/$albumartist/$album/$track $title
singleton: Singletons/$artist - $title
comp: $genre/$album/$track $title
albumtype:soundtrack: Soundtracks/$album/$track $title
bpd:
host: 127.0.0.1
port: 6600
password: seekrit
(That [bpd] section configures the optional BPD plugin.)
SEE ALSO
http://beets.readthedocs.org/
beet(1)
AUTHOR
Adrian Sampson
COPYRIGHT
2012, Adrian Sampson