FLAC(1)FLAC(1)NAMEflac - Free Lossless Audio Codec
SYNOPSISflac [ OPTION ] infile ...
DESCRIPTION
This manual page documents briefly the flac command.
This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux dis-
tribution because the original program does not have a
manual page. Instead, it has documentation in HTML for-
mat; 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 extension). May only be used when
encoding a single file. May not be used in con-
junction 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.
--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, sec-
onds, and fractions of a second. If a `+' (plus)
sign is at the beginning, the --until point is rel-
ative 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 '.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 decod-
ing 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
-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 comple-
tion. 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, 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 pro-
cessed. 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 speci-
fied.
--sector-align
Align encoding of multiple CD format WAVE 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 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 deter-
minable).
-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 con-
tain 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.
-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)
-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 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
(expensive!). Overrides -q; does nothing if using
-l 0
-q #, --qlp-coeff-precision=#
Precision of the quantized linear-predictor coeffi-
cients, 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.
--sample-rate=#
Set sample rate (in Hz).
--sign={signed|unsigned}
Set the sign of samples (the default is signed).
--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 decod-
ing) 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 ALSOmetaflac(1).
The programs are documented fully by HTML format documen-
tation, 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).
10 January 2003 FLAC(1)
