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 FLAC(1)                                                             FLAC(1)
                              14 September 2007



 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



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           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



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           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



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                              14 September 2007



           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)



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                              14 September 2007



           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



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                              14 September 2007



           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.



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           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




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           -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.



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      -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





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      --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 <mdz@debian.org> for
      the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).













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