xenial (1) jack.1.gz

Provided by: jack_3.1.1+cvs20050801-29.1_amd64 bug

NAME

       Jack - rip and encode CDs with one command

SYNOPSIS

       jack [options]

DESCRIPTION

       Jack transforms your audio-CDs to FLAC, MP3 or Ogg Vorbis files. It uses several helper programs in order
       to achieve functions such as ripping, encoding and, tagging files  with  meta  information.   Ripping  is
       either  done  via cdparanoia (in which case the ripping status is displayed by Jack as well) or cdda2wav.
       Jack works with several encoders, namely oggenc, flac, lame, gogo, bladeenc, l3enc, mp3enc and xing.  Any
       time  during  operation  (and even when everything is finished and the original CD lost) you can let Jack
       look up the track names at freedb.org and rename the tracks accordingly. Tagging of audio files with meta
       information about artist, track title, etc. is performed as well.

       If  no  freedb-lookup  has been performed, Jack drops all files in a directory ~/jack/jack-xxxxxxxx, with
       xxxxxxxx representing the CD's CDDB/FreeDB  disc  ID.   This  directory  is  renamed  by  Jack  when  the
       appropriate information is known.

       Most  options like ripper, encoder, preferred FreeDB-Server, directory and sound file format, etc. can be
       user defined by changing the defaults in  /etc/jackrc  or  by  saving  them  to  ~/.jack3rc.   Additional
       rippers,  encoders and FreeDB servers can be defined by users through the help of a plug-in directory (as
       defined by the plugin_path option which defaults to ~/.jack_plugins).

       While Jack is running, these keyboard commands are available:

              q or Q quit

              p or P disable ripping (for example, if you need the CD drive)

              p or P (again) or c or C
                     resume ripping

              e or E pause/continue all encoders

              r or R pause/continue all rippers.

              ?      toggle the copyright/help box

OPTIONS

       Different options need different data-types as arguments:

       bool   can be "yes" or "no", like in --vbr=yes

       string can be anything, like in --rename-fmt "%n.%t"

       int    an integer number, like in --bitrate 192 (or --bitrate=192 )

       list   multiple strings, delimited by the  final  ";".   Example:  --guess-toc  file1.mp3  file2.mp3  ...
              fileN.mp3 \;

       Jack understands the following options:

       --append-year string
              append this string to the directory name (useful with %y to add the year an album was released)

       -b, --bitrate int
              target bitrate (in kbit/s, default is 160).

       --char-filter string
              convert file names using a python method

       --charset string
              charset of filenames (defaults to your locale).

       -c, --check-toc
              compare toc-file and cd-toc, then exit. Jack caches the TOC of a CD in a file ("jack.toc"). If you
              want to know if the inserted CD matches the toc-file in the current directory, use this option.

       -C, --claim-dir
              rename directories even if they were was not created by Jack.

       --cont-failed-query
              continue without FreeDB data if query fails.

       -D, --create-dirs
              tells Jack to create sub-directories in which Jack puts all the files for the current  CD.  If  no
              FreeDB  data  is  available,  i.e.   when  not  using  -Q , these directories will be named "jack-
              xxxxxxxx" where "xxxxxxxx" stands for the CD's FreeDB ID. Otherwise dir_template (see above)  will
              be used. This option is turned on by default.

       --device string
              The device-name of your cdrom-drive. The default is /dev/cdrom

       --dir-template string
              if directories are renamed, this is the format used (default "%a/%l")

       -d, --dont-work
              don't  do  DAE,  encoding, tagging or renaming. This may be useful if you only want to do a FreeDB
              query, e.g. while another jack is running.

       --edit-freedb
              open an editor to change the CDDB information which has been obtained previously (only useful with
              -Q).

       --encoder-name, -E string
              use which encoder (default "oggenc")

       -e, --encoders int
              encode how many files in parallel. If you have a SMP machine or simply want to stress your system,
              you can have Jack encode several files at once (default 1).

       -x, --exec
              run predefined command when finished.

       --extt-is-artist
              the artist is contained in the EXTT fields. The EXTT fields are lines in  the  FreeDB  file  which
              contain additional data for each track. As it's the submitting user's choice what to use them for,
              Jack can't determine by itself what they were intended for. You have to provide this information.

       --extt-is-title
              the track title is contained in the EXTT fields.

       --extt-is-comment
              a track comment is contained in the EXTT fields.

       --force
              do not ask. Like when deleting incomplete files.

       -f, --from-tocfile string
              rip from a cdrdao created CD image on hd. The specified toc-file contains the name  of  the  image
              file. Use -F if jack can't find the image file.

       -F, --from-image string
              read audio data from image file. Like --from-tocfile, but the image itself is specified instead of
              the tocfile. If you do not have a toc-file (or don't specify a toc-file), the TOC is read from the
              CD itself.

       -g, --guess-toc list
              make  up  a  TOC  from the list of sound file given. The format is track_01.ogg ... track_nn.ogg ;
              Note that the trailing " ; " is only necessary if you want to append more options to your  command
              line.   You  can use it to do a FreeDB query based on your sound files alone - no need for the CD.
              Very useful if you have no idea which CD the songs are from. The songs must be given in  the  same
              order as they were on their CD. The generated TOC file is similar, but not identical to the TOC of
              the CD - do not submit these!

       -G, --id3-genre string
              set ID3 genre. Use 'help' to get a list of all known genres. (You can also specify the ID3v1 genre
              as an int)

       -Y, --id3-year int
              set the year of the album (the term ID3 comes from MP3 but this option also works with other audio
              formats, such as OGG Vorbis and FLAC)

       -h, --help
              Show summary of options.

       -k, --keep-wavs
              do not delete WAVs after encoding them.

       -m, --mail-submit
              submit FreeDB entry via e-mail. HTTP submission is preferred.  You will have to enter the category
              of the CD.

       -l, --max-load float
              only start new encoders if your system's load is below the specified value.  /proc/loadavg must be
              readable by you for this to work.

       --multi-mode
              try to query FreeDB for all dirs in searchdirs which have no FreeDB data.

       --my-mail string
              your e-mail address, needed for FreeDB submissions.

       -n, --nice int
              nice-level with which the encoders are started. Default is 12 which  shouldn't  hurt  your  system
              much.

       -o, --overwrite
              overwrite existing files, i.e. do not check if already ripped WAVs or an already encoded file seem
              to be OK. Use this if you know something went wrong last time. This is off by default.

       -O, --only-dae
              only produce WAVs, implies --keep-wavs.  This is off by default.

       --otf=bool
              On-the-fly operation. Only on some encoders/rippers.  Do  not  create  WAVs,  pipe  ripper  output
              through the encoder. Default is no as it's a torture for the CDROM drive.

       --quality int
              vbr encoding quality. -1 is lowest, 10 highest (default 6). You can also specify a float.

       -q, --query
              do  FreeDB  query  when  all  is  done. This is useful if Jack was previously run without a FreeDB
              query. If all tracks are done you don't even have to have a CD inserted as the TOC  is  cached  by
              Jack. After having finished ripping and encoding, Jack will rename the files and tag them.

       --query-if-needed=bool
              like --query-now, but only if FreeDB data hasn't been successfully queried before.

       -Q, --query-now
              do  FreeDB  query when starting. Use this if you are connected to the Internet when starting Jack.
              Know that the query may need user-interaction. After having finished ripping  and  encoding,  Jack
              will rename the files and tag them.

       -a, --read-ahead int
              read  how  many  WAVs in advance. At most read_ahead + num_encoders WAVs are ripped before a track
              has completely been encoded.  Default is 99 which will read the whole CD, provided there is enough
              disk space.

       --remove-files
              have Jack remove its temp jack*-files.  Be careful - don't delete them too early!

       -R, --rename
              rename  and tag files according to FreeDB file. On startup, Jack creates a blank FreeDB entry file
              (except if --query-now is used, then the file is queried from your FreeDB  server).  If  you  have
              changed  its  contents (e.g. because the CD was unknown to FreeDB) and want to rename and tag your
              audio files accordingly, use this option.  Give all other needed options too, like -t , -E , ...

       --rename-dir=bool
              rename directory as well (default).

       --rename-fmt string
              format of normal files (default "%n - %t")

       --rename-fmt-va string
              format of Various Artists files (default "%n - %a - %t")

       --rename-num string
              format of the track number (%n, printf() style) used to rename the files (default "%02d")

       -r, --reorder=bool
              optimize track-order for disk space. This can save you some peak disk space  during  the  encoding
              process; this may make it possible to do a CD which would otherwise fail to be encoded.

       --replacement-chars list
              unusable chars are replaced by the corresponding list item (default "%").

       --ripper string
              which program to use for extracting the audio data (default "cdparanoia").

       --save save options to ~/.jack3rc file and exit.

       --scan-dirs int
              Scan  this  many  levels from the current working directory for a matching toc-file (0 to disable,
              default 2).

       --search list
              add these directories to the list of directories searched when looking for  the  workdir  (default
              ".").

       --server string
              which  FreeDB  server  to  use.  Don't  forget  to set your HTTP proxy.  Currently either "freedb"
              (default) or "freedb-de".

       --silent-mode=bool
              be quiet (no screen output).

       -s, --space int
              forcibly set usable disk space, in bytes. This option lets you limit the  disk  space  Jack  uses,
              maybe you need it for something else? Be careful: if set too high or too low, ripping and encoding
              will probably fail. The default is to look how much is free and to use this value.

       --submit
              submit FreeDB entry via HTTP. You will have to enter the category of the CD.

       -S, --swab=bool
              swap byte order from image file. As cdrdao momentarily only outputs "raw" .cdr  files,  you  quite
              likely  want  to  swap the byte order. Try this option if your WAVs and encoded files contain only
              noise.  This is on by default as cdrdao currently generates .cdr files that are "wrong".

       --todo print what would be done and exit.

       -t, --tracks string
              limit ripping and encoding to the specified tracks, use comma to separate tracks. Ranges are  also
              possible;  5-9  is  equivalent  to  5,6,7,8,9; 12- is like specifying track 12,...,last_track. The
              default is to process the whole CD.

       -u, --undo-rename
              undo file renaming and exit. If you don't like how Jack renamed your files,  use  this  option  to
              restore  the previous state.  Several levels of undo are possible. Note that meta information tags
              are not restored.

       --unusable-chars list
              characters which can't be used in filenames (default "/").

       --upd-progress
              have Jack re-create its temp files. Use this if you deleted them too early.

       --update-freedb, -U
              update the FreeDB info and exit.

       --usage-win=bool
              show the help screen while running.

       -v, --vbr=bool
              Generate variable bitrate files, only on encoders which support this. Default is yes.

       --various=bool
              when parsing FreeDB data, Jack assumes that if the disc´s artist is set  to  "Various"  the  track
              titles  have  the  format "[artist] - [title]". If the disc title is set to something else and you
              still want the above behaviour, use --various.

       --various-swap
              exchange artist and title, many FreeDB entries have them wrong.

       --wait=bool
              wait for key press before quitting.

       -w, --workdir string
              where to create directories and put the files.

       --write-id3v1=bool
              write a smart id3v1 tag to the encoded file.

       --write-id3v2=bool
              write an id3v2 tag to the encoded file.

       --write-m3u
              create a playlist in .m3u format. This has bugs, don't rely on it.

CONFIG FILE OPTIONS

       In addition the the command line options, there are some options that can only be  set  directly  in  the
       config file.

       freedb_dir
              all  FreeDB  queries will be done in this (local) directory; failed local queries will be done via
              the network.  Example: /var/spool/freedb

EXAMPLES

       Insert a CD, fire up jack:
              jack

       Now watch it work. It's fun for a while. After having finished, you have the following files on your  HD:
       track_01.mp3,  track_02.mp3,  ..., track_nn.mp3 plus jack.toc, jack.freedb, jack.progress. The last three
       are used to store the state jack is in so it can resume work when interrupted.

       Jack will create a directory called jack-xxxxxxxx for you, there it stores all the file for the CD  whose
       id  is xxxxxxxx. After a FreeDB query this directory is renamed to something human readable, like "Artist
       - Title".

       When jack is interrupted, call it again using the same command line as before to  resume  work,  in  this
       case
              jack

       Now let's try a FreeDB query:
              jack -q
       If  the  query  is  successful  the  files  will be renamed to something more readable and will be tagged
       accordingly using ID3 or Vorbis tags.  The file jack.freedb will contain the queried  FreeDB  entry,  and
       the original file will be backed up as jack.freedb.bak.

       You  can  use  the  --rename-fmt option in order to specify the format of the name which will be given to
       your audio tracks.  A list of valid options can be found below.  You may also want to specify  a  set  of
       characters  which  are  not  usable  and  should be replaced.  For example, on Unix systems the slash (/)
       should most certainly be replaced with something else.  The VFAT filesystem also does not support  double
       quotes  (").   In  order  to replace such characters, you can specify the options unusable_chars together
       with replacement_chars.  For example,
              jack -Q --rename-fmt "%n-%t" --unusable-chars A I ; --replacement-chars a i ;
       will query the FreeDB server, rip and encode all tracks of the CD and save the files in  a  format  which
       will contain the track number and the title.  All occurances of the letters A and I will be replaced with
       their lower-case versions.  These options can also be put in one's configuration file using the following
       format:
              unusable_chars:[' ', '/']
              replacement_chars:['_', '_']
       This  will  replace  whitespace  and  slashes with underscores.  If you want to convert all characters to
       lower-case, you don't have to manually specify all of them but can use the following option instead:
              char_filter:.lower()

       All in one: query, rip, encode, cleanup:
              jack -Q --remove-files

       Editing / normalizing / stripping the WAV files before encoding:
              jack -O -D --remove-files ; gnoise *wav ; jack -g *wav ; jack
       Just replace gnoise by the operation you'd like to perform.

PLUG-INS

       Additional rippers, encoders and FreeDB servers currently not known by jack can be defined  using  jack's
       plug-in  mechanism.  Plug-ins have to be put in the ~/.jack_plugins directory (or the path defined by the
       plugin_path option).  The plug-ins are simple Python scripts which define a hash with the values for your
       ripper,  encoder  or  FreeDB server.  For rippers and encoders, the hash plugin_helpers has to be defined
       while additional FreeDB servers are specified in plugin_freedb_servers.  Both expect another  hash  whose
       names  corresponds  to the entry you want to add (prefixed by plugin_) and have to define certain values.
       Two examples are provided, jack_plugin_cddb.py (to define a new FreeDB  server)  and  jack_plugin_lame.py
       (to  show how rippers and encoders can be defined).  After defining plug-ins, you have to manually select
       them by specifying the ripper, encoder, or CDDB server.  An example would be:
              jack --encoder-name plugin_lame --ripper plugin_foo --server plugin_cddb
       Plug-ins can also be used to define your own rippers and encoders which uses different options than those
       used by default by jack.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

       There are several environment variables which can be used in jack's exec hooks:

       JACK_BASE_DIR
              lists jack's base directory in which files are stored.

       JACK_CUR_DIR
              lists the current directory of jack in which files of the current album are put.

       JACK_JUST_ENCODED
              lists all track names which have just been encoded.

       JACK_JUST_RIPPED
              lists all track names which have just been ripped.

FORMAT STRINGS

       %n     Track number

       %a     Artist

       %t     Track title

       %l     Album title

       %y     Album release year

       %g     Album genre

FILES

       /etc/jackrc
              Site-wide configuration file.

       ~/.jack3rc
              User-specific configuration file. Use the --save option to save your configuration to this file.

AUTHOR

       Arne Zellentin <zarne@users.sf.net> is the author of Jack.

SEE ALSO

       cdparanoia(1), cdda2wav(1), flac(1), oggenc(1) and lame(1)

                                                November 22, 2004                                        JACK(1)