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 different 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 verify 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 specify 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 closest 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 computed 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 number; 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 determine 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 characters,
              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, triangle,
              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/local/share/doc/flac/html.

AUTHOR
       This manual page was written by Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org> for the
       Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).



                               14 September 2007                       FLAC(1)
