A Better CD Encoder

Abcde is a frontend command-line utility (actually, a shell script) that grabs tracks off a CD, encodes them to ogg or mp3 format, and tags them, all in one go.

Please note that I no longer maintain abcde. These pages are no longer updated. Please download recent versions of abcde here or read about recent updates here.

Abcde supports:

• CDDA using cdparanoia or cdda2wav
  
• Ogg Vorbis using oggenc or vorbize
  
• MP3 using lame, gogo, bladeenc, mp3enc, xingmp3enc, or l3enc
  
• CDDB using cd-discid, wget, and FreeDB
  
• Ogg commenting using vorbiscomment
  
• Tagging using id3 and id3v2
  
• m3u playlists
  
• Distributed remote MP3 encoding using distmp3
  
• Simultaneous reading and encoding
  
• SMP systems
  
• Resuming interrupted sessions
  
• Noninteractivity
  
• Error logging of background processes
  
• Various Artists discs of all types
  
• Custom filename output and munging
  
• Passing arbitrary options to subprocesses
  
• Ejecting CD's after reading
  
• Encoder nicing
  
• Grabbing arbitrary ranges of tracks
  

Download abcde:

Debian packages:

Debian 2.x users should add the following line to their /etc/apt/sources.list file first:
deb http://lly.org/~rcw/ abcde/slink/

These packages were compiled in a hamm chroot environment and run on hamm, slink, and potato. id3lib and id3v2 packages will be added later.

Source:

Older versions:

Development versions:

Manual pages:

• abcde
  
• cddb-tool
  

Other documentation:

• Readme file
  
• TODO file
  
• Changelog
  
• Abcde Bug Report, courtesy of the Debian Bug Tracking System.
  
• Mailing list archive by date or by thread.
  

Next best thing to a screenshot:

Testimony:

Abcde is written and supported by Robert Woodcock <rcw@debian.org> with a lot of help from everyone else.