flac (1)





NAME

       flac - Free Lossless Audio Codec


SYNOPSIS

       flac [ OPTION ] infile ...


DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents briefly the flac command.

       This  manual  page  was  written  for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution
       because the original program does not have a manual page.  Instead,  it
       has documentation in HTML format; see below.


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)

       -o filename, --output-name=filename
              Force the output file name (usually flac just changes the exten-
              sion).  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
              for  both  encoding and decoding, but not testing.  The alterna-
              tive 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 sam-
              ple  number is not included in the decoded output.  The alterna-
              tive form mm:ss.ss can be used to specify minutes, seconds,  and
              fractions  of  a  second.  If a `+' (plus) sign is at the begin-
              ning, the --until point is relative to the --skip point.   If  a
              `-' (minus) sign is at the beginning, the --until point is rela-
              tive 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 '.ogg'  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 '.ogg'.

       --serial-number=#
              When used with --ogg, specifies the serial number to use for the
              FLAC stream.  When encoding and no serial number is given,  flac
              uses  '0'.   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 con-
              tain  the residual distribution of the subframe.  This will cre-
              ate a lot of files.

   DECODING OPTIONS
       -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.

       --replay-gain
              Calculate  ReplayGain values and store in Vorbis comments, simi-
              lar to vorbisgain.  Title gains/peaks will be computed for  each

       --cuesheet=filename
              Import  the given cuesheet file and store it in a CUESHEET meta-
              data 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  speci-
              fied.

       --sector-align
              Align encoding of multiple CD format WAVE files on sector bound-
              aries.  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-seek-
              table 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 4096 bytes by default.

       -T FIELD=VALUE, --tag=FIELD=VALUE
              Add  a  Vorbis  comment.   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 sev-
              eral  comments.   NOTE:  all  tags  will be added to all encoded
              files.

       -b #, --blocksize=#
              Specify the block size in samples.  The default is 1152  for  -l
              0,  else  4608;  must be one of 192, 576, 1152, 2304, 4608, 256,
              512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16384, or 32768  (unless  --lax  is
              used)

       -m, --mid-side
              Try mid-side coding for each frame (stereo input only)
                     Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -r 2,2

              -1, --compression-level-1
                     Synonymous with -l 0 -b 1152 -M -r 2,2

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

              -3, --compression-level-3
                     Synonymous with -l 6 -b 4608 -r 3,3

              -4, --compression-level-4
                     Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4608 -M -r 3,3

              -5, --compression-level-5
                     Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4608 -m -r 3,3

              -6, --compression-level-6
                     Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4608 -m -r 4

              -7, --compression-level-7
                     Synonymous with -l 8 -b 4608 -m -e -r 6

              -8, --compression-level-8
                     Synonymous with -l 12 -b 4608 -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!)

       -l #, --max-lpc-order=#
              Set the maximum LPC order; 0 means use only the fixed predictors

       -p, --qlp-coeff-precision-search
              Do  exhaustive  search  of  LP  coefficient quantization (expen-
              sive!).  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 3,3.

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

       --channels=#
              Set number of channels.

       --bps=#
              Set bits per sample.
              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
              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, avail-
       able 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).

                                10 January 2003                        flac(1)