
cdwrite 3.5.1

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 the
present README 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.


CONFIGURATION

The shell uses /usr/local/etc/cdwrite.conf or ~/.cdwriterc configuration
file.  Before using cdwrite for the first time check and update its
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 methods you
could choose from to achieve that.

See INSTALL file for more information.


REQUIREMENTS

The cdwrite shell uses the dialog program to display dialog boxes as well as
cdda2wav, cdrecord, mkisofs, cdrtools, growisofs, dvd+rw-mediainfo,
dvd+rw-tools, oggenc, isoinfo, cdparanoia, cdrdao, lame, normalize or
normalize-audio, cdda-player, and mplayer programs and packages to read,
write, and play CDs and DVDs.  It requires also perl and gawk.

Optional requirements include CDDB_get Perl module package for communication
with CDDB servers (see: http://search.cpan.org/) as well as id3lib (in some
Linuxes called libid3) and id3v2 packages for mass ID3 tagging (see:
http://id3lib.sourceforge.net/ and http://id3v2.sourceforge.net/).
Alternatively it is possible to use mid3v2 from mutagen package to set ID3
tags using UTF-8 encoding (see: https://bitbucket.org/lazka/mutagen/).

See INSTALL file for more information.


DESCRIPTION

The cdwrite shell offers six main menu options:

    - Preferences,
    - Audio CD,
    - Data CD,
    - DVD-R/DVD-RW Disc,
    - About cdwrite,
    - and Exit.

See ``man cdwrite'' for more information.


GENERATED TOC-FILES

The cdwrite shell generates toc-files for writing audio CDs in a few ways.
First of all it seeks for ``audio_??.inf'' files in the current directory.
If it will find them it generates toc-file using the data stored in these
files.  If there are no ``audio_??.inf'' files but there are ``????.lng''
files generated by cdwrite on the basis of ``audio_??.inf'' files it uses
these ``???.lng'' files to establish tracks lengths and generates simple
toc-file.

If there are only ``????.wav'' files in the current directory cdwrite counts
their lengths in minutes, seconds, and frames on the basis of the sizes of
those files and generates toc-file.  If ``Update toc-file using CDDB data?''
or ``Use pregaps?'' options have been selected cdwrite reads CDDB data and
includes CD-TEXT in the generated toc-file.  It also adds manually
preselected pregaps.

If there is an old toc-file in the current directory cdwrite uses it.  So in
order to generate toc-file using the other set of parameters you have to
remove earlier the old toc-file.


ADDITIONAL SCRIPTS AND SYMBOLIC LINKS

The cdwrite shell uses settags script to set tags in MP3, OGG, and FLAC
files.  That script uses, in turn, the mentioned above mutagen or id3lib
(libid3) and id3v2 packages for MP3s, vorbis-tools package for OGGs, and
flac package for FLACs.  To set the tags after the encoding with cdwrite it
requires CDDB_get Perl module and it has to read CDDB data so an Internet
connection is required for it to work.  It is also possible to use that
script manually if directories and filenames preserve the following
convention: audio files have names ``01 Track Title.*'', ``02 Track
Title.*'', etc. where * is the lowercase extension mp3, ogg, or flac, and
the parent directory has the name ``Artist Name - Album Title [Genre,
Year]''.

Two following scripts -- cdwr.cdparanoia and cdwr.cdda2wav -- are simplified
versions of cdwrite.  If you prefer command line interface rather than the
dialog window use those scripts.  According to their names the first script
rips audio CDs with cdparanoia and the second script rips them with
cdda2wav.  I have prepared two relatively simple scripts instead of the one
fancy script in order to provide the tools you can easily modify if
required.

Instead of calling for example cdwr.cdparanoia you can create a symbolic
link to it named cdwr -- cdwrite does it for you during the default
installation. Next you can create consecutive symbolic links to the cdwr
link such as default cdwrite's links: liteon, x60s, t60, and t40.  If you
use a name for such a link be sure to include it in the configuration
section of cdwr.cdparanoia and cdwr.cdda2wav.

As a result you can call cdwr.cdparanoia with cdwr link to run the first --
default -- configuration or you can use the other links for the other
configurations.  In order to change the default script from cdwr.cdparanoia
to cdwr.cdda2wav it is enough to remove old cdwr link and create a new
symbolic link to cdwr.cdda2wav named cdwr.  You do not have to change the
other links because they point the cdwr link.

Apart of that two additional scripts are provided -- cdencode and musica.
One script performs six different encodings using cdda2wav or cdparanoia
with flac, lame, or oggenc and requires the appropriate symbolic links to
run it. The other script performs thirty one conversions from and to
different audio formats and -- depending on the type of the selected
conversion -- requires the following programs: flac, lame, oggenc (from
vorbis-tools package), mac
(see: http://etree.org/shnutils/shntool/support/formats/ape/unix/3.99-u4-b5/),
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).


ABOUT DIRECTORIES SELECTION

In a few cases cdwrite allows the user to select a directory.  The directory
selection window works in a non-intuitive way so this short description will
be useful for some users.  By default cdwrite takes into consideraton the
directory from which it was started.  It is so-called current directory and
it has ./ name.  So if you have WAV files to write to audio CD or to encode
to MP3 ones, or data files to create ISO image, or ISO image to burn, or the
files to burn on DVD media in the current directory just press Enter to
accept it.

If the directory of the interest is above the current directory add to ./
name the following ../ once or a few times.  As a result you will see the
list of the subdirectories of the selected directory.  To select one of them
type the beginning of its name to highlight it and then press the space key.

Of course you can also delete the current directory ./ name, type / name for
the root directory, and then write the name of the directory followed by /
-- for example /home/ for /home directory.  It is enough to type the
beginning of the name of the directory to highlight it and then to press the
space key to select it.

The other method is to use Tab key and arrows keys to navigate inside the
directory selection window in order to highlight the directory name and then
to use the space key to select it.


cdwrite: Copyright (C) 2001-2015 Cezary M. Kruk <c.kruk@bigfoot.com>
cdcopy:  Copyright (C) 1999 H. P. de Vries <h.p.d.vries@stud.tue.nl>

