CDRDAO(1)CDRDAO(1)NAMEcdrdao - reads and writes CDs in disc-at-once mode
SYNOPSIScdrdao {show-toc|toc-info|toc-size|read-toc|read-cd|read-cddb|show-
data|read-test|disk-info|discid|msinfo|drive-info|unlock|scanbus|simu‐
late|write|copy|blank} [--device device] [--source-device device]
[--driver driver-id] [--source-driver driver-id] [--simulate] [--speed
writing-speed] [--blank-mode mode] [--datafile file] [--read-raw]
[--read-subchan [--no-mode2-mixed] mode] [--tao-source] [--tao-source-
adjust link-blocks] [--fast-toc] [--buffers buffer-count] [--multi]
[--overburn] [--eject] [--swap] [--session] [--force] [--reload]
[--keepimage] [--on-the-fly] [--paranoia-mode mode] [--with-cddb]
[--cddb-servers server-list] [--cddb-timeout timeout] [--cddb-directory
directory] [--tmpdir directory] [--keep] [--save] [-n] [-v verbose-
level] toc-file
DESCRIPTIONcdrdao creates audio and data CD-Rs in disk-at-once (DAO) mode driven
by a description file called toc-file. In DAO mode it is possible to
create non standard track pre-gaps that have other lengths than 2 sec‐
onds and contain nonzero audio data. This is for example useful to
divide live recordings into tracks where 2 second gaps would be kind of
irritating.
Instead of a toc-file a cue file (used by a famous DOS/Windows master‐
ing tool) may be used. See the CUE FILES section for more details.
COMMANDS
The first argument must be one of the following commands:
show-toc
Print out a summary about what will be written to the CD-R.
toc-info
Prints out short toc-file summary.
toc-size
Prints total number of blocks for toc.
read-toc
Analyze each track of the inserted CD and create a toc-file that
can be used to make a more or less exact copy of the CD. This
command does not read out the audio or data tracks, use read-cd
for this purpose.
You can specify a filename for the data file via the --datafile
option.
read-cd
Copies all tracks of the inserted CD to an image file and cre‐
ates a corresponding toc-file. The name of the image file
defaults to "data.bin" if no --datafile option is given.
read-cddb
Tries to retrieve title and artist data from a CDDB server for
the CD represented by the given toc-file. The retrieved data is
added as CD-TEXT data for language 0 to the toc-file. Existing
CD-TEXT data for language 0 will be overwritten.
show-data
Print out all samples that would be written to the CD-R. Each
line contains the sample number (starting at 0) and the decimal
sample value for the left and right channel. Useful to check if
the byte order of audio files is correct.
read-test
Check if all data can be read from the audio files that are
defined in the toc-file. This will also check the communication
with the slave process that is responsible for writing the audio
data to the CD-recorder. Mainly used for testing.
disk-info
Shows information about the inserted CD-R. If the CD-R has an
open session it will also print the start of the last and cur‐
rent session which is used by mkisofs to create an image for a
second or higher session.
discid Prints out CDDB information.
msinfo Shows information required for creating multi session disks with
mkisofs. The output is meant for processing by scripts.
drive-info
Shows drive information.
unlock Tries to unlock the recorder device after a failed write or sim‐
ulation run. If you cannot eject the CD after a cdrdao run try
this command.
blank Blanks a CD-RW. The CD-RW is minimally blanked by default. Use
option --blank-mode to select another blanking mode. Sometimes
the blanking speed must be manually reduced for a successful
blanking operation. Use option --speed to select another blank‐
ing speed.
scanbus
Scan for devices.
simulate
Like write but laser stays cold. It is a shortcut for write
--simulate.
write Write the CD-R according to the specifications in the toc-file.
copy Performs all steps to copy a CD. The device containing the
source CD must be specified with option --source-device and the
recorder device with option --device. If only a single device
is available the option --source-device must be omitted and cdr‐
dao will prompt to insert the CD-R after an image of the source
CD was created.
The image file with name "cddata<pid>.bin" will be created in
the current working directory if no --datafile option is given.
The created image will be removed after it has been written.
If option --on-the-fly is given no image file is created and the
data will be directly piped from the reading device to the CD
recorder.
OPTIONS--device [prot:]bus,id,lun
Sets the SCSI address of the CD-recorder in form of a bus/id/lun
triple, e.g. '0,2,0' for the logical unit 0 of SCSI device with
ID 2 on bus 0. ATAPI devices can be specified by using the pre‐
fix 'ATAPI:', e.g. 'ATAPI:0,0,0'. On some systems a device node
may be specified directly, e.g. '/dev/sg0' on Linux systems.
Linux 2.6 users may also try the newer ATAPI interface with the
'ATA:' prefix.
--source-device [prot:]bus,id,lun
Like above but used for the copy command to specify the source
device.
--driver driver-id:option-flags
Force usage of specified driver instead of the automatically
determined driver. Available driver IDs:
cdd2600, plextor, plextor-scan, generic-mmc, generic-mmc-raw,
ricoh-mp6200, yamaha-cdr10x, teac-cdr55, sony-cdu920, sony-
cdu948, taiyo-yuden, toshiba.
Specifying an illegal driver ID will give a list of available
drivers. Option flags may be used to modify the behavior of
some drivers. See README for details.
--source-driver driver-id:option-flags
Like above but used for the device specified with option
--source-device.
--speed value
Set the writing speed to value. Default is the highest possible
speed.
--blank-mode mode
Sets the blanking mode. Available modes are full and minimal.
Please consider that the data of minimally blanked disks may be
easily recovered. Use the full blanking mode for completely
erasing all data. The default blanking mode is minimal.
--datafile file
Used for read-toc, read-cd and copy. Set the default data file
placed in the toc-file by read-toc. Use "-" to indicate STDIN.
For commands read-cd and copy it specifies the name of the cre‐
ated image file.
--read-raw
Only used for commands read-cd and read-toc. All data sectors
will be written as 2352 byte blocks including the sector header
and L-EC data to the image file. The track mode will be set to
MODE1_RAW or MODE2_RAW in the created toc-file.
--read-subchan mode
Used by commands read-cd, read-toc and copy. Specifies the type
of sub-channel data that is extracted from the source CD and
written to the track image or copied to the destination CD.
Mode may be rw for reading packed R-W sub-channel data (de-
interleaved and error corrected) and rw_raw for reading raw R-W
sub-channel data (not de-interleaved, not error corrected, L-EC
data included in the track image). If this option is not speci‐
fied no sub-channel data will be extracted.
--no-mode2-mixed
Only used for commands read-cd and read-toc. If we have
MODE2_FORM1 or MODE2_FORM2, don't extract it as MODE2_FORM_MIX.
toc-file.
--tao-source
This option indicates to the commands read-toc and read-cd that
the source CD was written in TAO mode. It will be assumed that
the pre-gap length between all tracks (except between two audio
tracks) is the standard 150 blocks plus the number of link
blocks (usually 2). The number of link blocks can be controlled
with option --tao-source-adjust.
Use this option only if read-toc or read-cd give error messages
in the transition areas between two tracks. If you use this
option with pressed CDs or CDs written in DAO mode you will get
wrong results.
--tao-source-adjust link-blocks
Specifies the number of link blocks for tracks written in TAO
mode. This option has only an effect if option --tao-source is
given.
--fast-toc
Only used for command read-toc. This option suppresses the pre-
gap length and index mark extraction which speeds up the read-
toc process. Standard 2 second pre-gaps (but no silence!) will
be placed into the toc-file. The resulting CD will sound like
the source CD. Only the CD player's display will behave slightly
different in the transition area between two tracks.
This option might help, too, if read-toc fails with your drive
otherwise.
--buffers buffer-count
Specifies the number of buffers that are allocated to avoid buf‐
fer under runs. The minimal buffer count is fixed to 10,
default is 32 except on FreeBSD systems, on which default is 20.
Each buffer holds 1 second of audio data so that dividing buf‐
fer-count by the writing speed gives the maximum time for which
reading of audio data may be stalled.
--multi
If this option is given the session will not be closed after the
audio data is successfully written. It is possible to append
another session on such disks, e.g. to create a CD-EXTRA.
--overburn
By default cdrdao will not allow to write more data on a medium
than specified by the current medium. This option allows to
ignore this condition.
--eject
Eject the CD-R after writing or write simulation.
--swap Swap the byte order of all samples that are send to the CD-
recorder.
--session session-nr
Used for read-toc and read-cd to specify the session which
should be processed on multi session CDs.
--reload
Indicates that the tray may be opened before writing without
prompting the user to reset the disk status after a simulation
run.
--force
Forces the execution of an operation that otherwise would not be
performed.
--paranoia-mode mode
Sets the correction mode for digital audio extraction. 0: No
checking, data is copied directly from the drive. 1: Perform
overlapped reading to avoid jitter. 2: Like 1 but with addi‐
tional checks of the read audio data. 3: Like 2 but with addi‐
tional scratch detection and repair.
The extraction speed reduces from 0 to 3.
Default is the full paranoia mode (3).
--keepimage
If a CD is copied with command copy this option will cause that
the created image is not removed after the copy process has fin‐
ished.
--on-the-fly
Perform CD copy on the fly without creating an image file.
--with-cddb
Enables the automatic fetching of CDDB data for use as CD-TEXT
data for commands copy, read-toc and read-cd.
--cddb-servers server-list
Sets space or ',' separated list of CDDB servers used for com‐
mand read-cddb or for commands where the --with-cddb option is
active. A server entry may have the following forms:
<server>
Connect to <server>, default cddbp port (888), use cddbp proto‐
col.
<server>:<port>
Connect to <server>, port <port>, use cddbp protocol.
<server>:<cgi-bin-path>
Connect to <server>, default http port (80), use http protocol,
url: <cgi-bin-path>.
<server>:<port>:<cgi-bin-path>
Connect to <server>, port <port>, use http protocol, url: <cgi-
bin-path>.
<server>:<port>:<cgi-bin-path>:<proxy-server>
Connect to <proxy-server>, default http port (80), use http pro‐
tocol, url: http://<server>:<port>/<cgi-bin-path>.
<server>:<port>:<cgi-bin-path>:<proxy-server>:<proxy-port>
Connect to <proxy-server>, port <proxy-port>, use http protocol,
url: http://<server>:<port>/<cgi-bin-path>.
The <cgi-bin-path> is usually "/~cddb/cddb.cgi".
All servers of the server list will be tried in the given order
until a successful connection can be established. For http proxy
servers the first successful connected http proxy server will be
used independent of the ability to connect to the target http
server.
Example: freedb.freedb.org:/~cddb/cddb.cgi
--cddb-timeout timeout
Sets the timeout in seconds used for connections to CDDB
servers.
--cddb-directory directory
Specifies the local CDDB database directory where fetched CDDB
records will be stored. If this option is not given a fetched
CDDB record will not be stored locally.
--tmpdir directory
Specifies the directory in which to store temporary data files
created from decoding MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files. By default,
"/tmp" is used.
--keep Upon exit from cdrdao, do not delete temporary WAV files created
from MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files.
--save Saves some of the current options to the settings file
"$HOME/.cdrdao" and exit. See section ´SETTINGS´ for more
details.
-n Suppresses the 10 second pause before writing or simulating.
-v verbose-level
Sets verbose level. Levels > 2 are debug levels which produce a
lot of output.
TOC FILES
The toc-file describes what data is written to the CD-R and allows con‐
trol over track/index positions, pre-gaps and sub-channel information.
It is a simple text file, use your favorite text editor to create it.
A toc-file contains an optional header and a sequence of track specifi‐
cations. Comments starting with '//' reaching until end of line can be
placed anywhere.
Header
CATALOG "ddddddddddddd"
Specifies the optional catalog number of the CD. The string must
contain exactly 13 digits.
The following flags specify the type of session that will be created.
It is used to create the correct CD-TOC format and to check the consis‐
tency of the track modes for the desired session type. If multiple
flags are given the last one will take effect.
CD_DA The disc contains only audio tracks.
CD_ROM The disc contains just mode 1 tracks or mode 1 and audio tracks
(mixed mode CD).
CD_ROM_XA
The disc contains mode 2 form 1 or mode 2 form 2 tracks. Audio
tracks are allowed, too. This type must be used if multi session
disks are created (option --multi).
CD_TEXT { ... }
Defines global CD-TEXT data like the album title and the used
languages. See the CD-TEXT section below for the syntax of the
CD-TEXT block contents.
Track Specification
TRACK <track-mode> [<sub-channel-mode>]
Starts a new track, the track number is incremented by 1. The
length of a track must be at least 4 seconds. The block length
of the input data depends on the <track-mode>: AUDIO: 2352 bytes
(588 samples), MODE1: 2048 bytes, MODE1_RAW: 2352 bytes, MODE2:
2336 bytes, MODE2_FORM1: 2048 bytes, MODE2_FORM2: 2324 bytes,
MODE2_FORM_MIX: 2336 bytes including the sub-header, MODE2_RAW:
2352 bytes. The <sub-channel-mode> is optional. If given it
specifies the type of sub-channel data for each sector. RW:
packed R-W sub-channel data (96 bytes, L-EC data will be gener‐
ated if required), RW_RAW: raw R-W sub-channel data (interleaved
and L-EC data already calculated, 96 bytes). The block length is
increased by the sub-channel data length if a <sub-channel-mode>
is specified. If the input data length is not a multiple of the
block length it will be padded with zeros.
The following flags may follow the track start statement. They are used
to set sub-channel information for the current track. Each flag is
optional. If not given the following defaults are used: copy not per‐
mitted, no pre emphasis, two channel audio, no ISRC code.
[ NO ] COPY
Sets or clears the copy permitted flag.
[ NO ] PRE_EMPHASIS
Sets or clears the pre emphasis flag (only for audio tracks).
TWO_CHANNEL_AUDIO
Indicates that track contains two channel audio data (only for
audio tracks).
FOUR_CHANNEL_AUDIO
Indicates that track contains four channel audio data (only for
audio tracks).
ISRC "CCOOOYYSSSSS"
Sets ISRC code of track (only for audio tracks).
C: country code (upper case letters or digits)
O: owner code (upper case letters or digits)
Y: year (digits)
S: serial number (digits)
An optional CD-TEXT block that defines the CD-TEXT data for this track
may follow. See the CD-TEXT section below for the syntax of the CD-TEXT
block contents.
CD_TEXT { ... }
At least one of the following statements must appear to specify the
data for the current track. Lengths and start positions may be
expressed in samples (1/44100 seconds) for audio tracks or in bytes for
data tracks. It is also possible to give the length in blocks with the
MSF format 'MM:SS:FF' specifying minutes, seconds and frames (0 <= 'FF'
< 75) . A frame equals one block.
If more than one statement is used the track will be composed by con‐
catenating the data in the specified order.
SILENCE <length>
Adds zero audio data of specified length to the current audio
track. Useful to create silent pre-gaps.
ZERO <length>
Adds zero data to data tracks. Must be used to define pre- or
post-gaps between tracks of different mode.
[ FILE | AUDIOFILE ] "<filename>" <start> [ <length> ]
Adds the audio data of specified file to the current audio
track. It is possible to select a portion of an audio file with
<start> and <length> which allows non destructive cutting. The
first sample of an audio file is addressed with <start> = 0. If
<length> is omitted or set to 0 all audio data from <start>
until the end of file is used.
Audio files may have raw or WAVE format with 16 bits per sample,
44.1 kHz sampling rate, stereo. Raw files must have the layout
'MSBLeft LSBLeft MSBRight LSBRight ...' (big endian byte order).
WAVE files are expected to have little endian byte order. The
option --swap reverses the expected byte order for all raw and
WAVE files. Only filenames with a ".wav" ending are treated as
WAVE files, all other names are assumed to be raw audio files.
Use tools like sox(1) to convert other file formats to supported
formats.
Specifying a "-" as filename causes data to be read from STDIN.
Currently only raw files are supported from STDIN.
If you are unsure about the byte order of your audio files try
the command 'show-data'. If the byte order is correct you will
see a sequence of increasing or decreasing numbers for both
channels. Otherwise numbers are jumping between very high and
low values - high volume static.
DATAFILE "<filename>" [ <length> ]
Adds data from given file to the current data track. If <length>
is omitted the actual file length will be used.
FIFO "<fifo path>" <length>
Adds data from specified FIFO path to the current audio or data
track. <length> must specify the amount of data that will be
read from the FIFO. The value is always in terms of bytes
(scalar value) or in terms of the block length (MSF value).
START [ MM:SS:FF ]
Defines the length of the pre-gap (position where index switches
from 0 to 1). If the MSF value is omitted the current track
length is used. If the current track length is not a multiple of
the block length the pre-gap length will be rounded up to next
block boundary.
If no START statement is given the track will not have a pre-
gap.
PREGAP MM:SS:FF
This is an alternate way to specify a pre-gap with zero audio
data. It may appear before the first SILENCE, ZERO or FILE
statement. Either PREGAP or START can be used within a track
specification. It is equivalent to the sequence
SILENCE MM:SS:FF
START
for audio tracks or
ZERO MM:SS:FF
START
for data tracks.
Nothing prevents mixing 'DATAFILE'/'ZERO' and 'AUDIOFILE'/'SILENCE'
statements within the same track. The results, however, are undefined.
The end of a track specification may contain zero or more index incre‐
ment statements:
INDEX MM:SS:FF
Increments the index number at given position within the track.
The first statement will increment from 1 to 2. The position is
relative to the real track start, not counting an existing pre-
gap.
CD-TEXT Blocks
A CD-TEXT block may be placed in the global section to define data
valid for the whole CD and in each track specification of a toc-file.
The global section must define a language map that is used to map a
language-number to country codes. Up to 8 different languages can be
defined:
LANGUAGE_MAP { 0 : c1 1 : c2 ... 7 : c7 }
The country code may be an integer value in the range 0..255 or
one of the following countries (the corresponding integer value
is placed in braces behind the token): EN(9, English)
It is just necessary to define a mapping for the used languages.
If no mapping exists for a language-number the data for this language
will be ignored.
For each language a language block must exist that defines the actual
data for a certain language.
LANGUAGE language-number { cd-text-item cd-text-data cd-text-item cd-
text-data ... }
Defines the CD-TEXT items for given language-number which must
be defined in the language map.
The cd-text-data may be either a string enclosed by " or binary data
like
{ 0, 10, 255, ... }
where each integer number must be in the range 0..255.
The cd-text-item may be one of the following:
TITLE String data: Title of CD or track.
PERFORMER
String data.
SONGWRITER
String data.
COMPOSER
String data.
ARRANGER
String data.
MESSAGE
String data. Message to the user.
DISC_ID
String data: Should only appear in the global CD-TEXT block. The
format is usually: XY12345
GENRE Mixture of binary data (genre code) and string data. Should only
appear in the global CD-TEXT block. Useful entries will be cre‐
ated by gcdmaster.
TOC_INFO1
Binary data: Optional table of contents 1. Should only appear in
the global CD-TEXT block.
TOC_INFO2
Binary data: Optional table of contents 2. Should only appear in
the global CD-TEXT block.
UPC_EAN
String data: This item should only appear in the global CD-TEXT
block. Was always an empty string on the CD-TEXT CDs I had
access to.
ISRC String data: ISRC code of track. The format is usually: CC-OOO-
YY-SSSSS
SIZE_INFO
Binary data: Contains summary about all CD-TEXT data and should
only appear in the global CD-TEXT block. The data will be auto‐
matically (re)created when the CD-TEXT data is written.
If one of the CD-TEXT items TITLE, PERFORMER, SONGWRITER, COM‐
POSER, ARRANGER, ISRC is defined for at least on track or in the
global section it must be defined for all tracks and in the
global section. If a DISC_ID item is defined in the global sec‐
tion, an ISRC entry must be defined for each track.
Examples
Simple track without pre-gap with all audio data from WAVE file
"data.wav":
CD_DA
TRACK AUDIO
FILE "data.wav" 0
Standard track with two second pre-gap, ISRC code and CD-TEXT:
CD_DA
CD_TEXT {
LANGUAGE_MAP {
0 : EN
}
LANGUAGE 0 {
TITLE "CD Title"
PERFORMER "Performer"
DISC_ID "XY12345"
UPC_EAN ""
}
}
TRACK AUDIO
ISRC "DEXXX9800001"
CD_TEXT {
LANGUAGE 0 {
TITLE "Track Title"
PERFORMER "Performer"
ISRC "DE-XXX-98-00001"
}
}
PREGAP 0:2:0
FILE "data.wav" 0
Track with 10 second pre-gap containing audio data from raw file
"data.cdr":
CD_DA
TRACK AUDIO
FILE "data.cdr" 0
START 0:10:0
Composed track with data from different files. Pre-gap data and length
is taken from "pregapdata.wav". The first minute of "track.cdr" is
omitted and two seconds silence are inserted at '2:0:0'. Index will be
incremented after 2 and 4 minutes past track start:
CD_DA
TRACK AUDIO
FILE "pregapdata.wav" 0
START
FILE "track.cdr" 1:0:0 1:0:0
SILENCE 0:2:0
FILE "track.cdr" 2:0:0
INDEX 2:0:0
INDEX 4:0:0
Mixed mode CD with a data track as first track followed by two audio
tracks.
CD_ROM
TRACK MODE1
DATAFILE "data_1"
ZERO 00:02:00 // post-gap
TRACK AUDIO
SILENCE 00:02:00 // pre-gap
START
FILE "data_2.wav" 0
TRACK AUDIO
FILE "data_3.wav" 0
CUE FILES
Cue files may be used wherever a toc-file is expected. The correspond‐
ing bin file is not taken from the FILE statement of a cue file but
constructed from the cue file name by replacing ".cue" by ".bin". The
cue file must have exactly one FILE statement.
Currently, following track modes are supported: MODE1/2048, MODE1/2352,
MODE2/2336, MODE2/2352. The CATALOG, ISRC and POSTGAP statements are
parsed but not evaluated, yet.
SETTINGS
Some of the command line options can be stored as settings at following
locations. The files will be read on startup of cdrdao in that order:
1. /etc/cdrdao.conf
2. /etc/defaults/cdrdao
3. /etc/default/cdrdao
4. $HOME/.cdrdao
Command line options will overwrite the loaded settings. The settings
file contains name - value pairs separated by a colon. String values
must be enclosed by ". The file is automatically written if the command
line option --save is used but it is also possible to modify it manu‐
ally. Following values are defined:
write_device
Device used for operations simulate, write, copy, blank, disk-
info and unlock. Corresponding option: --device
write_driver
Driver (including driver options) that is used for operations
simulate, write, copy, blank, disk-info and unlock. Correspond‐
ing option: --driver
write_speed
Specifies writing speed. Corresponding option: --speed
write_buffers
Specifies fifo buffers used for recording. Corresponding option:
--buffers
read_device
Device used for operations read-toc, read-cd and copy. Corre‐
sponding option: --device or --source-device
read_driver
Driver (including driver options) used for operations read-toc,
read-cd and copy. Corresponding option: --driver or --source-
driver
read_paranoia_mode
Paranoia mode used for operations read-cd and copy. Correspond‐
ing option: --paranoia-mode
cddb_server_list
CDDB server list for read-cddb. Corresponding option: --cddb-
servers
cddb_timeout
CDDB connection timeout in seconds used by read-cddb. Corre‐
sponding option: --cddb-timeout
cddb_directory
Local directory where fetched CDDB records will be stored, used
by read-cddb. Corresponding option: --cddb-directory
tmp_file_dir
Directory where temporary WAV files will be created from decod‐
ing MP3 and Ogg Vorbis files. Corresponding option: --tmpdir
BUGS
If the program is terminated during the write/simulation process used
IPC resources may not be released. Use ipcs(8) and ipcrm(8) to delete
them.
AUTHOR
Andreas Mueller mueller@daneb.ping.de [DEFUNCT]
Denis Leroy <denis@poolshark.org>
Manuel Clos <llanero@users.sourceforge.net>
SEE ALSOgcdmaster(1), cdrecord(1), cdda2wav(1), cdparanoia(1), sox(1), ipcs(8),
ipcrm(8)
Jan 18, 2006 CDRDAO(1)
