CDWRITE(1)

NAME

cdwrite is a console shell for reading, writing, and copying audio CDs as well as for creating and writing ISO images on CD media and data or ISO images on DVD media. It can also encode WAV files or audio CDs to FLAC, MP3, or OGG files, using optionally CDDB data and setting audio tags.

Users that prefer command line interfaces can use cdwr.*, cdencode, and settags scripts instead of cdwrite (see the next to the last section of README file for more information).

To use cdwrite and the scripts the user have to have the basic understanding of the processes of reading and writing CD and DVD media as well as of the processes of encoding audio data or at least he or she have to want to get to know these processes during the work with cdwrite.

If cdwrite prompts you at the start to type your password it means the configuration of the program is not valid (see INSTALL file for more information).

The program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3.

The initial version of cdwrite was based on cdcopy by H. P. de Vries.

SYNTAX
cdwrite [ OPTION [<device_number>] ]

OPTIONS

-c, --config [<device_number>]
    displays the configuration settings -- used without a device number displays the configuration for the first device.

-C, --commands [<device_number>]
    displays predefined commands -- used without a device number displays the commands for the first device.

-a, --abort [<device_number>]
    sends abort sequence to the unusable drive -- used without a device number aborts the first device.

-r, --reset [<device_number>]
    resets the drive when the previous writing was interrupted -- used without a device number resets the first device.

-u, --unlock [<device_number>]
    unlocks the drive if it is impossible to eject the CD after copying audio CD -- used without a device number unlocks the first device.

<device_number>
    the number of the device in the configuration file (from 1 to 5).

BASIC CONFIGURATION

The shell uses ~/.cdwriterc or /usr/local/etc/cdwrite.conf, or another configuration file depending on the installation method. To check that run cdwrite and use ``Preferences | Display config'' menu. To configure cdwrite, edit cdwrite.conf for global configuration or ~/.cdwriterc file for local configuration and check all the settings, especially:

    - device,
    - reader,
    - writer,
    - number,
    - driver,
    - dvd_rw,
    - speed,
    - buffers,
    - cd_dir,
    - and dvd_dir.

for the first -- default -- device.

See INSTALL file for more information.

FURTHER CONFIGURATION

The further configuration implies allowing /bin/umount, /usr/bin/mkisofs, /usr/bin/cdrecord, /usr/bin/cdda2wav, /usr/bin/cdrdao, and /usr/bin/dvd+rw-format to work with cdwrite. There are six alternative methods you could choose from to achieve that (the last two are not recommended):

    1 use rec group for /dev/sr0 device and register yourself in that group,

    2 or register yourself in cdrom group,

    3 or register mentioned programs in /etc/sudoers file and use sudo in cdwrite configuration file,

    4 or set suid bit for mentioned programs,

    5 or set suid bit for cdwrite,

    6 or register cdwrite in /etc/sudoers file and use sudo to run cdwrite.

The third method is default in cdwrite and it requires the appropriate /etc/sudoers file.

See INSTALL file for more information.

BASIC REQUIREMENTS

The cdwrite shell uses the dialog program to display dialog boxes. If your Linux distribution repositories do not include dialog you will find it here: http://invisible-island.net/dialog/.

The other requirements include:

    - cdda2wav, cdrecord, mkisofs, and isoinfo from cdrtools package (in some Linux distributions cdda2wav is a part of icedax package, cdrecord is a part of wodim package, and mkisofs and isoinfo are a part of genisoimage package),

    - normalize or normalize-audio from normalize or normalize-audio package,

    - cdda-player from libcdio or libcdio-utils package,

    - growisofs and dvd+rw-mediainfo from dvd+rw-tools package,

    - oggenc from vorbis-tools package,

    - and also cdparanoia, cdrdao, lame, mp3gain, mplayer, perl, and gawk packages.

OPTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

Optional requirements allow to use CDDB data and ID3 tags:

    - CDDB_get Perl module package is required for communication with CDDB servers (see: http://search.cpan.org/),

    - mid3v2 from mutagen package for mass ID3 tagging of MP3 files using UTF-8 encoding (see: https://bitbucket.org/lazka/mutagen/).

    - id3lib (libid3) and id3v2 are required for mass ID3 tagging of MP3 files (see: http://id3lib.sourceforge.net/ for the library and http://id3v2.sourceforge.net/ for the program).

DIRECTORIES AND FILES

Default cdwrite directory depends on an installation method and it can be: /usr/local/ or /usr/, or /opt/cdwrite/.

The main cdwrite files are:

~/.cdwriterc
    local configuration file,

/default_directory/etc/cdwrite.conf or /etc/cdwrite.conf
    global configuration file,

/default_directory/bin/cdwrite
    the cdwrite shell (main program),

/default_directory/bin/settags
    script setting tags in MP3, OGG, and FLAC files. It assumes the parent directory and audio files use the appropriate naming convention and it uses the mentioned above packages mutagen or id3lib (libid3) and id3v2 for MP3s, vorbis-tools for OGGs, and flac for FLACs.

DIALOG USAGE

The cdwrite uses the dialog program to display windows. The following summary describes the usage of dialog.

Navigation
    to select an option use up and down arrow keys; to select OK, Cancel, or Help button use left and right arrow keys; to use a highlighted button press Enter.

Checklists and radiolists
    to switch a checkbox [ ] or select a radiobox ( ) use the space key.

Shortcuts
    to select an option from the list quickly use the first digit or the first letter of its name.

Directory selection
    to select the directory write its name followed by /, for example: ./ is for the current directory, ./../ is for the directory above the current directory, and /home/ is for /home directory; it is enough to write one or a few first letters of the name of the directory to highlight it and then press the space key to select that directory; to move the highlight use Tab and arrow keys.

File selection
    to select the file write one or a few first letters of its name to highlight it and then press the space key to select that file; to move the highlight use Tab and arrow keys.

DESCRIPTION

The main menu and its submenus:

1 Preferences

1 Select device
    allows to select between up to five devices (first is default).

2 Select speed
    allows to select recording speed from 1x to 56x (12x is default).

3 Scan SCSI devices
    scans for all SCSI devices.

4 Umount device
    umounts a mounted device -- an option useful in systems that mounts automatically inserted CD or DVD media.

5 Display config
    displays the configuration settings.

2 Audio CD

1 Audio CD media info
    displays audio CD media information.

2 Read audio CD tracks
    reads audio tracks from the CD as well as the indexes and CD-TEXT and writes them to WAV files and temporary files -- it can compile up to 9999 tracks into the same directory (by default it uses for ripping cdparanoia but it allows to use cdda2wav too).

    1 Read entire CD

    2 Read selected tracks

3 Write WAV files
    writes WAV files from the current directory to the audio CD taking into consideration indexes and CD-TEXT if available.

4 Rename WAV files
    renames WAV files using CDDB data; WAV files for renaming have to have the names compatible with the following standard: ????.wav where ???? is a four-digit number; renaming works for complete audio CDs.

5 Remove WAV, INF, and TOC files
    removes all WAV, INF, and TOC files.

6 Copy audio CD
    copies audio CD creating temporary audio BIN file instead of WAV files and using the same drive for reading and writing; in the case of the discs using Copy Control technology reading tracks to WAV files and writing WAV files to the audio CD gives better results.

7 Write BIN file
    writes audio BIN file to the consecutive audio CDs; the user has to select the appropriate TOC file.

8 Remove BIN and TOC files
    removes all BIN and TOC files.

9 Encode WAV files or CD tracks
    encodes WAV files or audio CD to FLAC, MP3, or OGG files using cdparanoia or cdda2wav and flac, lame, or oggenc and offering different compressions as well as constant and variable bitrates; it can also use CDDB data and set ID3 tags (by default it uses cdparanoia, lame and variable bitrate preset --r3mix -- see README.bitrates file for more information).

10 Normalize FLAC, MP3, OGG, and WAV files
    adjusts volume levels of FLAC, MP3, OGG, and WAV files; MP3 and OGG files normalization relies on decoding and consecutive encoding of the audio files with the new bitrate so the sound quality of the resulting files can deteriorate (by default both MP3 and OGG files normalization is disabled when the normalization is performed by normalize* program but it is enabled for MP3 files when the normalization is performed by mp3gain program).

11 Change gain (MP3 VBR or 192 and more kb/s)
    changes the gain of the MP3 files -- it works with the files using constant 192 kb/s compression bitrate or the higher one as well as with the variable bitrates -- both using stereo mode instead of joint-stereo one; in the case of the overloaded files start from -1 dB and go down if necessary; in order to reverse that change restore the gain (increase it using the value which balances the sum of the decreasing values).

12 Convert audio files
    converts audio files from APE, FLAC, M4A, MP3, MPC, OGG, WAV, or WMA formats to FLAC, MP3, OGG, or WAV formats using musica script (that option uses musica script settings for flac, lame, and oggenc compressions, bitrates, and qualities).

13 Play audio files
    plays audio files in the following formats: APE, FLAC, M4A, MP3, MPC, OGG, WAV, and WMA.

14 Play audio CD
    plays audio CDs using cdda-player or mplayer; the first plays CDs smoothly but with some devices does not produce the sound -- the second works with all devices but inserts gaps between the tracks (default player is mplayer for compatibility reasons).

15 Blank CD-RW disc
    blanks CD-RW discs using one of the seven possible options (fast blanking is default).

    1 Blank the disc fast

    2 Blank the entire disc

    3 Blank the last track

    4 Unreserve a reserved track

    5 Blank the tail of the track

    6 Unclose the last session

    7 Blank the last session

3 Data CD

1 Data CD media info
    displays data CD media information.

2 Create ISO image
    creates image.iso ISO image of the selected directory in single session or multi session mode following the symbolic links if required and setting the parameters for Linux or Windows compatibility (Linux compatibility is default).

    1 First session ISO image

    2 Next session ISO image

3 Write ISO image
    writes image.iso ISO image from the current directory to the disc; the valid name of that image is image.iso so in order to burn the image using the other name symbolic link image.iso is required.

    1 Multi session writing mode

    2 Closing session writing mode (see: BUGS)

4 Read data CD
    reads data CD and stores ISO image in image.iso file.

5 Link ISO file to image.iso
    links ISO file for burning to image.iso file.

6 Remove ISO image
    removes ISO image image.iso file.

7 Blank CD-RW disc
    blanks CD-RW discs using one of the seven possible options (fast blanking is default).

    1 Blank the disc fast

    2 Blank the entire disc

    3 Blank the last track

    4 Unreserve a reserved track

    5 Blank the tail of the track

    6 Unclose the last session

    7 Blank the last session

4 DVD-R/DVD-RW Disc

1 DVD media info
    displays DVD media information.

2 Write first session
    writes the first session on DVD media; with DVD-RW media it overwrites the previous sessions so blanking the disc is not required.

3 Write next session
    writes next session on DVD media.

4 Write ISO image
    writes ISO image on DVD media; the valid name of that image is image.iso so in order to burn the image using the other name symbolic link image.iso is required.

5 Read data DVD
    reads data DVD and stores ISO image in image.iso file.

6 Link ISO file to image.iso
    links ISO file for burning to image.iso file.

7 Remove ISO image
    removes ISO image image.iso file.

8 Blank DVD disc
    blanks DVD media fast.

9 Format DVD disc
    formats DVD media fast.

10 Erase DVD disc
    erases all DVD media data.

5 About cdwrite
    displays short information about cdwrite and license terms.

6 Exit
    removes /tmp/.cdwrite.tmp file and image.iso ISO image or symbolic link if allowed and exits the shell (default is to keep image.iso file).

ADD-ONS

A few additional scripts are provided:

    - cdwr.cdda2wav command line interface using cdda2wav for ripping -- it is possible to run it using symbolic links for different configurations,

    - cdwr.cdparanoia command line interface using cdparanoia for ripping -- it is possible to run it using symbolic links for different configurations,

    - cdencode performs six different encodings using cdda2wav or cdparanoia with flac, lame, or oggenc; instead of running it directly you have to use the appropriate symbolic link: cd2flac.cdda2wav, cd2flac.cdparanoia, cd2mp3.cdda2wav, cd2mp3.cdparanoia, cd2ogg.cdda2wav, or cd2ogg.cdparanoia.

    - settags sets tags in FLAC, MP3, and OGG files using metaflac from flac package for FLACs, mid3v2 from musepack package or id3v2 and id3lib (libid3) for MP3s, and vorbiscomment from vorbis-tools package for OGGs.

    - musica performs thirty one conversions from and to different audio formats and -- depending on the type of the selected conversion -- requires the following programs: lame, oggenc (from vorbis-tools package), mac (see: http://etree.org/shnutils/shntool/support/formats/ape/unix/3.99-u4-b5/), flac, faad (from faad2 or faad package), mpg321, sox with libsox-fmt-mp3 library in some Linux distributions, mpcdec (from musepack-tools package), ogg123 (from vorbis-tools package), or mplayer (see README.musica file for more information).

    - cdwrite.links makes or removes links to run cdwr.* and cdencode scripts.

AUTHORS

- Cezary M. Kruk <c.kruk@bigfoot.com> 2001-2015,

- Joe Klemmer <joe@webtrek.com> 2005 (the author of the first version of the man page and the first version of Makefile),

- H. P. de Vries <h.p.d.vries@stud.tue.nl> 1999 (the author of cdcopy -- the predecessor of cdwrite).

SEE ALSO

mkisofs(8), cdrecord(1), cdparanoia(1), cdda2wav(1), cdrdao(1), lame(1), and growisofs(1).

BUGS

See BUGS file for more information.