Paraslash Audio Streaming
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para_afh

para_afh - print or modify meta information about audio file(s)

para_afh [--help] [--detailed-help] [--version] [--loglevel=<severity>] [--chunk-table] [--parser-friendly] [--modify] [--backup] [--preserve] [--year=<string>] [--title=<string>] [--artist=<string>] [--album=<string>] [--comment=<string>] [--] file...

By default para_afh prints information about the given audio files, such as format, duration, bitrate, etc., and the content of the most common meta tags (artist, title, album, year, comment). In modify mode it changes the meta tags to the values given at the command line.

Common options
The following options are implemented generically and are available for many of the commands.
-h, --help

print help and exit

--detailed-help

print help, including all details, and exit

-V, --version

print version and exit

-l, --loglevel=<severity>

control amount of logging

values: debug, info, notice, warning, error, crit, emerg

Log only messages with severity greater or equal than the given value. Possible values:

debug: Produces really noisy output. info: Still noisy, but won’t fill up the disk quickly. notice: Indicates normal, but significant event. warning: Unexpected events that can be handled. error: Unhandled error condition. crit: System might be unreliable. emerg: Last message before exit.

Printing meta information
-c, --chunk-table

print also the chunk table

The chunk table of an audio file is an array of offsets where each offset corresponds to chunk of encoded data. The exact meaning of chunk depends on the audio format.

Programs which are unaware of the particular audio format can read the chunk table to obtain the timing information needed to stream the file.

-p, --parser-friendly

do not use human-readable output format

This option only affects the format of the chunk table, so it has no effect if --chunk-table is not given.

The human-readable output (the default) consists of one output line per chunk and the output contains also the chunk number, the duration and the size of each chunk. The parser-friendly output prints only the offsets, in one line.

Modifying meta tags
-m, --modify

modify (rather than print) tags

If this option is given, para_afh creates a temporary copy of the given file(s), with meta tags changed according to the options below. On errors, the temporary file is removed, leaving the original file unchanged. On success, if --backup is given, the original file is moved away. Finally the temporary file is renamed to the name of the original file.

-b, --backup

create backup of the original file

The backup suffix is ’~’. That is, a single tilde character is appended to the given file name.

--preserve

preserve modification time

If this option is given, the mtime of the modified file is set to the value prior to the modification.

-y, --year=<string>

set the year tag

-t, --title=<string>

set the title tag

-a, --artist=<string>

set the artist tag

-A, --album=<string>

set the album tag

-C, --comment=<string>

set the comment tag

Written by Andre Noll
Copyright (C) 2025 Andre Noll
License: GNU GPL version 2
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
Report bugs to Andre Noll