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FLAC(1)                                                                                                                  FLAC(1)



NAME
       flac - Free Lossless Audio Codec

SYNOPSIS
       flac [ OPTIONS ] [ infile.wav | infile.aiff | infile.raw | infile.flac | infile.oga | infile.ogg | - ... ]


       flac [ -d | --decode | -t | --test | -a | --analyze ] [ OPTIONS ] [ infile.flac | infile.oga | infile.ogg | - ... ]


DESCRIPTION
       flac is a command-line tool for encoding, decoding, testing and analyzing FLAC streams.

OPTIONS
       A summary of options is included below.  For a complete description, see the HTML documentation.

   GENERAL OPTIONS
       -v, --version
              Show the flac version number

       -h, --help
              Show basic usage and a list of all options

       -H, --explain
              Show detailed explanation of usage and all options

       -d, --decode
              Decode (the default behavior is to encode)

       -t, --test
              Test a flac encoded file (same as -d except no decoded file is written)

       -a, --analyze
              Analyze a FLAC encoded file (same as -d except an analysis file is written)

       -c, --stdout
              Write output to stdout

       -s, --silent
              Silent mode (do not write runtime encode/decode statistics to stderr)

       --totally-silent
              Do  not print anything of any kind, including warnings or errors.  The exit code will be the only way to determine
              successful completion.

       --no-utf8-convert
              Do not convert tags from local charset to UTF-8.  This is useful for scripts, and setting tags in situations where
              the locale is wrong.  This option must appear before any tag options!

       -w, --warnings-as-errors
              Treat all warnings as errors (which cause flac to terminate with a non-zero exit code).

       -f, --force
              Force  overwriting  of  output files.  By default, flac warns that the output file already exists and continues to
              the next file.

       -o filename, --output-name=filename
              Force the output file name (usually flac just changes the extension).  May only be used  when  encoding  a  single
              file.  May not be used in conjunction with --output-prefix.

       --output-prefix=string
              Prefix  each  output file name with the given string.  This can be useful for encoding or decoding files to a dif-
              ferent directory.  Make sure if your string is a path name that it ends with a trailing `/' (slash).

       --delete-input-file
              Automatically delete the input file after a successful encode or decode.  If there was an error (including a  ver-
              ify error) the input file is left intact.

       --keep-foreign-metadata
              If encoding, save WAVE or AIFF non-audio chunks in FLAC metadata.  If decoding, restore any saved non-audio chunks
              from FLAC metadata when writing the decoded file.  Foreign metadata cannot be transcoded, e.g. WAVE  chunks  saved
              in  a  FLAC  file  cannot be restored when decoding to AIFF.  Input and output must be regular files (not stdin or
              stdout).

       --skip={#|mm:ss.ss}
              Skip over the first number of samples of the input.  This works for both encoding and decoding, but  not  testing.
              The alternative form mm:ss.ss can be used to specify minutes, seconds, and fractions of a second.

       --until={#|[+|-]mm:ss.ss}
              Stop  at the given sample number for each input file.  This works for both encoding and decoding, but not testing.
              The given sample number is not included in the decoded output.  The alternative form mm:ss.ss can be used to spec-
              ify  minutes,  seconds, and fractions of a second.  If a `+' (plus) sign is at the beginning, the --until point is
              relative to the --skip point.  If a `-' (minus) sign is at the beginning, the --until point is relative to end  of
              the audio.

       --ogg  When  encoding,  generate Ogg FLAC output instead of native FLAC.  Ogg FLAC streams are FLAC streams wrapped in an
              Ogg transport layer.  The resulting file should have an '.oga' extension and will still be decodable by flac.

              When decoding, force the input to be treated as Ogg FLAC.  This is useful when piping input from stdin or when the
              filename does not end in '.oga' or '.ogg'.

       --serial-number=#
              When  used with --ogg, specifies the serial number to use for the first Ogg FLAC stream, which is then incremented
              for each additional stream.  When encoding and no serial number is given, flac uses a random number for the  first
              stream, then increments it for each additional stream.  When decoding and no number is given, flac uses the serial
              number of the first page.

   ANALYSIS OPTIONS
       --residual-text
              Includes the residual signal in the analysis file.  This will make the file very big, much larger  than  even  the
              decoded file.

       --residual-gnuplot
              Generates  a  gnuplot  file  for every subframe; each file will contain the residual distribution of the subframe.
              This will create a lot of files.

   DECODING OPTIONS
       --cue=[#.#][-[#.#]]
              Set the beginning and ending cuepoints to decode.  The optional first #.# is the track and index  point  at  which
              decoding  will  start; the default is the beginning of the stream.  The optional second #.# is the track and index
              point at which decoding will end; the default is the end of the stream.  If the cuepoint does not exist, the clos-
              est  one  before it (for the start point) or after it (for the end point) will be used.  If those don't exist, the
              start of the stream (for the start point) or end of the stream (for the end point) will be  used.   The  cuepoints
              are  merely translated into sample numbers then used as --skip and --until.  A CD track can always be cued by, for
              example, --cue=9.1-10.1 for track 9, even if the CD has no 10th track.

       -F, --decode-through-errors
              By default flac stops decoding with an error and removes the partially decoded file if it encounters  a  bitstream
              error.   With  -F,  errors  are still printed but flac will continue decoding to completion.  Note that errors may
              cause the decoded audio to be missing some samples or have silent sections.

   ENCODING OPTIONS
       -V, --verify
              Verify a correct encoding by decoding the output in parallel and comparing to the original

       --lax  Allow encoder to generate non-Subset files.  The resulting FLAC file may not be streamable or might  have  trouble
              being  played in all players (especially hardware devices), so you should only use this option in combination with
              custom encoding options meant for archival.

       --replay-gain
              Calculate ReplayGain values and store them as FLAC tags, similar to vorbisgain.  Title gains/peaks  will  be  com-
              puted  for  each input file, and an album gain/peak will be computed for all files.  All input files must have the
              same resolution, sample rate, and number of channels.  Only mono and stereo files are allowed, and the sample rate
              must  be  one  of  8,  11.025, 12, 16, 22.05, 24, 32, 44.1, or 48 kHz.  Also note that this option may leave a few
              extra bytes in a PADDING block as the exact size of the tags is not known until all  files  are  processed.   Note
              that this option cannot be used when encoding to standard output (stdout).

       --cuesheet=filename
              Import  the  given  cuesheet  file  and  store it in a CUESHEET metadata block.  This option may only be used when
              encoding a single file.  A seekpoint will be added for each index point in the cuesheet to  the  SEEKTABLE  unless
              --no-cued-seekpoints is specified.

       --picture={FILENAME|SPECIFICATION}
              Import  a  picture  and  store  it in a PICTURE metadata block.  More than one --picture 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".  The format of SPECIFICATION is

              [TYPE]|[MIME-TYPE]|[DESCRIPTION]|[WIDTHxHEIGHTxDEPTH[/COLORS]]|FILE

              TYPE is optional; it is a number from one of:

              0: Other

              1: 32x32 pixels 'file icon' (PNG only)

              2: Other file icon

              3: Cover (front)

              4: Cover (back)

              5: Leaflet page

              6: Media (e.g. label side of CD)

              7: Lead artist/lead performer/soloist

              8: Artist/performer

              9: Conductor

              10: Band/Orchestra

              11: Composer

              12: Lyricist/text writer

              13: Recording Location

              14: During recording

              15: During performance

              16: Movie/video screen capture

              17: A bright coloured fish

              18: Illustration

              19: Band/artist logotype

              20: Publisher/Studio logotype

              The default is 3 (front cover).  There may only be one picture each of type 1 and 2 in a file.

              MIME-TYPE is optional; if left blank, it will be detected from the file.  For best compatibility with players, use
              pictures  with  MIME  type image/jpeg or image/png.  The MIME type can also be --> to mean that FILE is actually a
              URL to an image, though this use is discouraged.

              DESCRIPTION is optional; the default is an empty string.

              The next part specfies the resolution and color information.   If  the  MIME-TYPE  is  image/jpeg,  image/png,  or
              image/gif,  you  can usually leave this empty and they can be detected from the file.  Otherwise, you must specify
              the width in pixels, height in pixels, and color depth in bits-per-pixel.  If the image  has  indexed  colors  you
              should  also  specify  the number of colors used.  When manually specified, it is not checked against the file for
              accuracy.

              FILE is the path to the picture file to be imported, or the URL if MIME type is -->

              For example, "|image/jpeg|||../cover.jpg" will embed the JPEG file at ../cover.jpg, defaulting to  type  3  (front
              cover) and an empty description.  The resolution and color info will be retrieved from the file itself.

              The  specification "4|-->|CD|320x300x24/173|http://blah.blah/backcover.tiff" will embed the given URL, with type 4
              (back cover), description "CD", and a manually specified resolution of 320x300, 24 bits-per-pixel, and 173 colors.
              The file at the URL will not be fetched; the URL itself is stored in the PICTURE metadata block.

       --sector-align
              Align encoding of multiple CD format files on sector boundaries.  See the HTML documentation for more information.

       -S {#|X|#x|#s}, --seekpoint={#|X|#x|#s}
              Include  a  point  or  points  in  a SEEKTABLE.  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 num-
              ber; it can be, for example, 9.5, meaning a seekpoint every 9.5 seconds).   You  may  use  many  -S  options;  the
              resulting  SEEKTABLE  will be the unique-ified union of all such values.  With no -S options, flac defaults to '-S
              10s'.  Use --no-seektable for no SEEKTABLE.  Note: '-S #x' and '-S #s' will not work if the encoder  can't  deter-
              mine  the  input  size  before  starting.  Note: if you use '-S #' and # is >= samples in the input, there will be
              either no seek point entered (if the input size is determinable before encoding starts) or a placeholder point (if
              input size is not determinable).

       -P #, --padding=#
              Tell  the  encoder  to  write  a PADDING metadata block of the given length (in bytes) after the STREAMINFO block.
              This is useful if you plan to tag the file later with an APPLICATION block;  instead  of  having  to  rewrite  the
              entire  file  later just to insert your block, you can write directly over the PADDING block.  Note that the total
              length of the PADDING block will be 4 bytes longer than the length given because of the 4  metadata  block  header
              bytes.  You can force no PADDING block at all to be written with --no-padding.  The encoder writes a PADDING block
              of 8192 bytes by default (or 65536 bytes if the input audio stream is more that 20 minutes long).

       -T FIELD=VALUE, --tag=FIELD=VALUE
              Add a FLAC tag.  The comment must adhere to the Vorbis comment spec; i.e. the FIELD must contain only legal  char-
              acters, terminated by an 'equals' sign.  Make sure to quote the comment if necessary.  This option may appear more
              than once to add several comments.  NOTE: all tags will be added to all encoded files.

       --tag-from-file=FIELD=FILENAME
              Like --tag, except FILENAME is a file whose contents will be read verbatim to set the  tag  value.   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.  --tag-
              from-file="CUESHEET=image.cue").  Do not try to store binary data in tag fields!  Use APPLICATION blocks for that.

       -b #, --blocksize=#
              Specify the block size in samples.  Subset streams must use one of 192, 576, 1152, 2304,  4608,  256,  512,  1024,
              2048, 4096 (and 8192 or 16384 if the sample rate is >48kHz).

       -m, --mid-side
              Try mid-side coding for each frame (stereo input only)

       -M, --adaptive-mid-side
              Adaptive mid-side coding for all frames (stereo input only)

       -0..-8, --compression-level-0..--compression-level-8
              Fastest compression..highest compression (default is -5).  These are synonyms for other options:

              -0, --compression-level-0
                     Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -r 3

              -1, --compression-level-1
                     Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -M -r 3

              -2, --compression-level-2
                     Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -m -r 3

              -3, --compression-level-3
                     Synonymous with -l 6 -b 4096 -r 4

              -4, --compression-level-4
                     Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4096 -M -r 4

              -5, --compression-level-5
                     Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4096 -m -r 5

              -6, --compression-level-6
                     Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4096 -m -r 6

              -7, --compression-level-7
                     Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4096 -m -e -r 6

              -8, --compression-level-8
                     Synonymous with -l 12 -b 4096 -m -e -r 6

       --fast Fastest compression.  Currently synonymous with -0.

       --best Highest compression.  Currently synonymous with -8.

       -e, --exhaustive-model-search
              Do exhaustive model search (expensive!)

       -A function, --apodization=function
              Window  audio  data  with  given  the apodization function.  The functions are: bartlett, bartlett_hann, blackman,
              blackman_harris_4term_92db, connes, flattop, gauss(STDDEV), hamming, hann, kaiser_bessel, nuttall, rectangle, tri-
              angle, tukey(P), welch.

              For gauss(STDDEV), STDDEV is the standard deviation (0<STDDEV<=0.5).

              For  tukey(P), P specifies the fraction of the window that is tapered (0<=P<=1; P=0 corresponds to "rectangle" and
              P=1 corresponds to "hann").

              More than one -A option (up to 32) may be used.  Any function that is specified erroneously is  silently  dropped.
              The  encoder  chooses  suitable  defaults  in  the absence of any -A options; any -A option specified replaces the
              default(s).

              When more than one function is specified, then for every subframe the encoder will try each of them separately and
              choose  the  window that results in the smallest compressed subframe.  Multiple functions can greatly increase the
              encoding time.

       -l #, --max-lpc-order=#
              Specifies the maximum LPC order. This number must be <= 32. For Subset streams, it must be <=12 if the sample rate
              is  <=48kHz.  If  0,  the encoder will not attempt generic linear prediction, and use only fixed predictors. Using
              fixed predictors is faster but usually results in files being 5-10% larger.

       -p, --qlp-coeff-precision-search
              Do exhaustive search of LP coefficient quantization (expensive!).  Overrides -q; does nothing if using -l 0

       -q #, --qlp-coeff-precision=#
              Precision of the quantized linear-predictor coefficients, 0 => let encoder decide (min is 5, default is 0)

       -r [#,]#, --rice-partition-order=[#,]#
              Set the [min,]max residual partition order (0..16). min defaults to 0 if unspecified.  Default is -r 5.

   FORMAT OPTIONS
       --endian={big|little}
              Set the byte order for samples

       --channels=#
              Set number of channels.

       --bps=#
              Set bits per sample.

       --sample-rate=#
              Set sample rate (in Hz).

       --sign={signed|unsigned}
              Set the sign of samples (the default is signed).

       --input-size=#
              Specify the size of the raw input in bytes.  If you are encoding raw samples from stdin, you must set this  option
              in  order to be able to use --skip, --until, --cue-sheet, or other options that need to know the size of the input
              beforehand.  If the size given is greater than what is found in the input stream, the encoder will complain  about
              an unexpected end-of-file.  If the size given is less, samples will be truncated.

       --force-aiff-format
              Force  the  decoder  to  output AIFF format.  This option is not needed if the output filename (as set by -o) ends
              with .aiff.  Also, this option has no effect when encoding since input AIFF is auto-detected.

       --force-raw-format
              Force input (when encoding) or output (when decoding) to be treated as raw  samples  (even  if  filename  ends  in
              .wav).

   NEGATIVE OPTIONS
       --no-adaptive-mid-side

       --no-decode-through-errors

       --no-delete-input-file

       --no-exhaustive-model-search

       --no-lax

       --no-mid-side

       --no-ogg

       --no-padding

       --no-qlp-coeff-precision-search

       --no-residual-gnuplot

       --no-residual-text

       --no-sector-align

       --no-seektable

       --no-silent

       --no-verify

       --no-warnings-as-errors
              These flags can be used to invert the sense of the corresponding normal option.

SEE ALSO
       metaflac(1).

       The programs are documented fully by HTML format documentation, available in /usr/share/doc/flac/html on Debian GNU/Linux
       systems.

AUTHOR
       This manual page was written by Matt Zimmerman <mdzATdebian.org> for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by  oth-
       ers).



                                                        14 September 2007                                                FLAC(1)

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