Provided by: arename_4.1-1_all 
NAME
arename - automatically rename audio files by tagging information
SYNOPSIS
arename [OPTION(s)] FILE(s)...
OPTIONS AND ARGUMENTS
--ambiguous-use-first
Sets the ambiguoususefirst option. See below for details.
--compare-versions
Prints the version of the arename script and the version of the Perl module, that contains most
of the code. These versions should be the same. If not, that would indicate a possibly broken
installation.
--copy (short option: -c)
Copy files instead of renaming (moving). This can be useful to copy tracks from your audio
archive to a portable device for example.
--debug Enable debugging output. This actually sets `verbosity' to 10000. This output option will cause
very noisy output. You probably want something less verbose, like `--verbosity 20'.
--disable-hooks (short option: -H)
Do not make use of hooks of any sort (neither global nor local ones).
--disable-profiles (short option: -N)
Do not use configuration profiles (see below). Overwrites the useprofiles setting.
--dryrun (short option: -d)
Go into dryrun mode. This means, that no action will be taken. arename will print what it would
do, if called without -d.
--enable-hooks
Explicitly enable hooks.
--force (short option: -f)
Overwrite files if needed.
--help (short option: -h)
Display a short help text.
--list-cfg (short option: -L)
List the current configuration in the actual configuration format.
--list-file-types
Lists all file types currently supported by arename, one type per line.
--list-exts-for-type <type[,type[,...]]>
Lists all extensions recognised file name extsionsion for type <type>, one extension per line. If
a list of types is given as a comma-separated list, extensions for all listed types are listed.
--list-profiles (short option: -S)
Print a list of profile names defined in the active configuration. (This is primarily used by
the zsh completion for the --profile option.)
--read-local (short option: -l)
Read a local config file (./.arename.local). Overwrites the uselocalrc configuration setting.
--stdin (short option: -s)
Read filenames from stdin after processing files given on the command line. It reads one file
name per line, which means that file names containing newlines are not supported.
--version (short option: -V)
Display version information.
--verbosity <integer-value>
Sets the `verbosity' setting to `integer-value'.
--suppress-skips (short option: -Q)
When a file is skipped, because its name would not change, this option will cause arename to
suppress any output. This sets the `suppress_skips' option.
Note that if the `verbosity' setting is at a high enough level, you may still get messages about
the file being processed in the first place.
--rc <file>
Read file instead of ~/.arenamerc.
--post-rc <file>
Read file after ~/.arenamerc and before ./.arename.local.
--prefix <prefix> (short option: -p)
Define a prefix for destination files.
--profile <profile(s),...> (short option: -P)
Define a list of one or more profiles to use forcibly, no matter if they would be activated
normally or not.
--compilation-template <template> (short option: -T)
Define a template, that will be used for files that contain a compilation tag.
--template <template> (short option: -t)
Define a generic template (for all files that do not contain a compilation tag).
--userset <variable=value> (short option: -u)
Set a user defined variable to a given value (see "User defined variables" below).
FILE(s)...
Input files, that are subject for renaming.
A word about option name stability: With arename version 3.0 we are now using Getopt::Long for parsing
command lines options. That change was made, because the meaningful single letter options where used up.
Every option is available via a --long-option. That interface will remain stable. If changes to the
--long-option interface are done, that will happen with an appropriate deprecation phase, so users can
adjust. So, if you want to use arename in scripts, those are the options you should use. There are
currently no plans of removing or changing any further short options, but there are no guarantees. If it
is indeed better to change a short option, we will do so.
A list of options that changed from arename 3.x to 4.0 can be found in the project's CHANGES file and
general advice about incompatible changes from major version to major version are documented in the
UPGRADING file.
Deprecated Command Line Options
The following options are deprecated and will be removed in a later version of arename.
--quiet
This option is a short hand for "--verbosity 10".
--uber-quiet
This option is a short hand for "--verbosity 5".
--verbose
This is a short hand for "--verbosity 20".
DESCRIPTION
arename is a tool that is able to rename audio files by looking at a file's tagging information. It uses
this information to assemble a consistent destination file name. The user can define the format of the
destination filename by the use of template strings.
Templates can be defined in the "Configuration files", by the template and comp_template settings (See
"SETTINGS" below).
By default, arename will refuse to overwrite destination files, if the file in question already exists.
You can force overwriting by supplying the --force option.
In order to see what would happen instead of actually modifying files, you can use the --dryrun option.
This way you can avoid problems, that would occur if the situation (e.g. the information in the files or
your configuration) is not exactly as you expected it.
Supported file formats
Since version 4.0, arename supports a lot more file formats than it used to (version 3.0 only supported
.mp3, .ogg and .flac files). Thanks to Audio::Scan, we now support a much wider range of file types, of
which most may exist using different file name extensions (e.g. *.ogg and *.oga are both of the type
ogg).
You may use the `--list-file-types' and `--list-ext-for-type' options to find out which file type is
mapped to which file name extensions.
If you would like support for another file type in arename, you will have to persuade the Audio::Scan
developers to extend their module with said feature. Adding support for it in arename after that should
be trivial.
To give you an idea, arename (in connection with Audio::Scan 0.85) lets you rename mp3, mp4, aac, ogg,
flac, asf, musepack, monkey audio, wav (this type also supports aiff) and wavpack files.
Inputting a *lot* of files
arename can be used to keep the file names of whole audio archives in sync. However, that means that you
will have to tell the script the location of many files, thousands maybe.
In order to do that you will face the problem, that on most UNIX-like systems, the length of the argument
list for external programs is limited (recent Linux versions, as an exception, do not have that
limitation anymore).
So, even if your shell can do recursive globbing like ksh or zsh, this will most likely get you into
trouble (for more than just a few files):
% arename -d **/*.mp3
There are several ways to overcome that limitation, of course.
The first solution is to use find in connection with arename's -s option:
% find . -name "*.mp3" -print | arename -d -s
This will break for file names that contain newlines, because --stdin will read one file name per line
from the standard input stream.
Another way of using find to deal with this problem is to use find's -exec option:
% find . -name "*.mp3" -exec arename -d '{}' '+'
This will work for every possible file name. No matter if it has spaces or newlines in it. The + at the
end of the call causes find to call the external program (arename in this case) with as many arguments as
possible, without exceeding the limit. This requires a POSIXly correct find. GNU find for instance, did
not support the + way for a long time. If you are stuck with an old version, you can exchange the + with
a ; (note, that a semicolon must be quoted in any case), or use the xargs tool instead.
A last solution for zsh users would be zargs (which requires 'autoload zargs' in your zsh configuration):
% zargs -- **/*.mp3 -- arename -d
GENERAL USAGE
When you are first confronted with arename and you try to get started with the documentation you might
argue, that a 1000+ lines manual, that is not filled with too many examples is hardly starter-friendly.
Therefore, this section was introduced to give you the bare minimum of information in order to use the
program without going through too much fuzz.
If you are really afraid of documentation, you could of course just read the output of the --help option
and see which options to provide in order to get what you want. Then again, you will soon be pissed by
the weird default values arename uses.
You will probably want other templates. After all, the ability to have these expanded strings is one of
the points to use arename in the first place. They are described in the TEMPLATE section; and reading
that section is the minimum effort you will want to go through.
After that, you can open the file ~/.arenamerc in your favourite text editor and resemble the following
text (and presumably change the few values in there to your liking):
# now you certainly want your own templates, so define them here
# one for your normal files
template &artist - &album - &tracknumber. &tracktitle
# and another one for files that orignate from compilations
comp_template va - &album - &tracknumber. &artist - &tracktitle
If you want more automation or more customization, you will not get around reading the manual below. If
you need to solve special problems, the "HOOKS" part even further below is for you.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
ARENAME_LOAD_QUIET
When set to 1, arename will not output any startup messages; not while reading the configuration
or hook files, nor will arename emit messages about whether it is in copy mode or on a dry-run or
similar.
However, if warnings or errors are encoutered while loading the configuration, those messages are
still emitted, of course.
Any other value but 1 - and that includes ARENAME_LOAD_QUIET being absent from the environment -
will cause arename to start up in its normal manner.
ARENAME_SUPPRESS_COLOURS
When set to 1 (and only 1 - arename will ignore any other setting), arename will turn off its
output colourations. As of version 4.0, arename uses Term::ANSIColor to produce output, that
features terminal colours.
FILES
arename's behaviour can be altered by a number of files it reads when starting up.
Normal configuration tasks are done in (how convenient) "Configuration files", described below.
If you need more control, or want to solve special problems you are having, you can do so by supplying
Perl code in "Hook definition files".
arename can be configured to read configuration files as well as hook definition files from the current
working directory. This feature is disabled by default, because they can be a security issue on multiuser
systems.
There are no such things as system wide configuration files in arename.
For all setup files arename tries to find (except for the local ones) four different locations are tried.
If the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/arename directory exists, all files are expected to be there. If that directory
does not exist, ~/etc/arename/ and if that is not there ~/.arename are are tried instead. If those
directories could not be found either, arename will try to find the file it is looking for directly in
the user's home directory.
The default for $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is ~/.config.
The first setup directory we find always wins. arename does not consider more than one setup directory.
If, for example, ~/etc/arename/ exists and we are looking for the normal configuration file (see below),
but ~/etc/arename/rc could not be found, we do not try to find it in ~/.arename/ or the user's home
directory.
Configuration files
arename uses up to three configuration files. As for most programs, the script will try to read a
configuration file, that is located in the user's home directory. In addition to that, it will try to
load local configuration files, if it finds appropriately named files in the current directory (and the
uselocalrc feature is enabled):
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/arename/rc
~/etc/arename/rc
~/.arename/rc
~/.arenamerc
per-user normal configuration file.
./.arename.local
per-directory local configuration file (only read if uselocalrc is set or the --read-local option
is given on the command line).
The per-user normal configuration file can be substituted by another file, if specified via the --rc
option.
Last but not least, you can specify an intermediate configuration file, that is read in between the
normal and the per-directory file, via the --post-rc option.
File format
The format of the aforementioned files is pretty simple. It is parsed line by line. Empty lines, lines
only containing whitespace and lines, whose first non whitespace character is a hash character (#) are
ignored.
There are two different types of settings: boolean and scalar settings.
Booleans can be set like this:
<setting> [true|false]
If the value is omitted, true is assumed. true and false are recognized case insensitively, and a value
of 1 is synonymous to true, as is 0 to false.
Scalar settings are done in a very similar way:
<setting> <value>
If the value is omitted, string values will be set to an empty string and numeric values will be set to
zero.
In both cases, setting and value are separated by one or more whitespace characters. The value will be
the rest of the line (all of it, including trailing whitespace).
If the value part starts with a backslash, that backslash is left out of the value. That makes it
possible to define templates with leading whitespace.
If a line contains only a string within square brackets, that string is the start of a section. Section
names are matches for starts of file names. That means, the settings following such a section definition
will only applied for input file names that start with the same string as the section name. Where file
name means the string, handed over to arename. The string ~/ at the beginning of a section name is
expanded to the user's home directory.
You may start as many sections as you would like.
A section named /foo/bar/ supersedes a section named /foo/ for a file named /foo/bar/baz.ogg. So, the
longest match wins.
Another possible configuration file entry is a user variable, which is defined via the set command. These
settings are very different from the normal settings. Therefore, they are defined in a different way.
That way is described in the "User defined variables" subsection below.
Last but not least, you may define so called profiles, see below.
Configuration profiles
Profiles are a very flexible and context sensitive way of using multiple configuration files at once.
With profiles, local configuration files (and local hook definition files) can be substituted in a secure
way; even on multi-user systems.
Reading local files (configs and hook-files) is still supported for backwards compatibility (see
uselocalrc and uselocalhooks options). However, you are strongly encouraged to use profiles whenever you
can.
As normal configuration files and global hook-files, profile-related files are searched in one of the
setup directories described above. They are using the following naming conventions:
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/arename/profile.PROFILENAME
~/etc/arename/profile.PROFILENAME
~/.arename/profile.PROFILENAME
~/.arename.PROFILENAME
Profile related configuration files; read if PROFILENAME is active.
They are read after a intermediate config file defined by --post-rc and a local config file (if
enabled).
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/arename/profile.PROFILENAME.hooks
~/etc/arename/profile.PROFILENAME.hooks
~/.arename/profile.PROFILENAME.hooks
~/.arename.PROFILENAME.hooks
Profile related "Hook definition files" (see below for details); read if PROFILENAME is active.
These files are read, between global and local hook-definition files.
In order to define profiles, you need to use the profile keyword:
profile <name> <pattern>
Where name is a string, that is used in the place of PROFILENAME in the file location lists above. This
name may contain of the following character range: a-zA-Z0-9_-
pattern is part of a Perl regex pattern (see perlreref and perlretut manpages). The pattern will be
anchored at the beginning and is open at the end, somewhat like this pseudocode:
if ($working_directory =~ m/^PATTERN/) { use_this_profile(); }
Example:
profile music /mnt/audio/music/
Will cause the profile music to be active when the working directory is /mnt/audio/music/ or below. So,
do not be afraid. You can use profiles without understanding regular expressions.
Like many other values in arename's configuration, a leading backslash of a pattern will be ignored to
allow patterns, that start in white spaces. Furthermore, if a pattern starts in ~/, that string is
replaced by the user's home directory.
You may add as many patterns to a profile name, as you want:
profile music /mnt/audio/music/
profile music /mnt/extern/audio/music/
The above activates the music profile in /mnt/audio/music/ and /mnt/extern/audio/music/, for example.
More than one profile can be activated at the same time. If that is true, the according configuration
files are read in lexical order.
Sections versus Profiles
Since arename provides two context sensitive configuration facilities, you might ask yourself when to use
which, when you are confronted with both for the first time.
First of all, profiles are more powerful. They may even introduce new hooks for arename to use. But that
is not the conceptual difference between the two.
sections are sets of configuration settings, that are considered for each and every input file and they
are only enabled for input files, whose name matches the section name.
profiles on the other hand are sets of configuration and hook-definition files, whose inclusion in the
current arename run is decided at the beginning of the program's execution (not for every input file) -
namely, if the name of the current working directory matches one of the profile's patterns.
That means, that if you need to introduce slight configuration changes based on an input file's name you
want to use a section.
If you need to make broader configuration changes, considering the name of the current working directory,
profiles are the way to go.
Of course, profile configuration files may introduce new sections, too.
Configuration file example
# switch on verbosity
verbosity 20
# canonicalize file names before working with them
canonicalize
# the author is crazy! use a sane template by default. :-)
template &artist - &album (&year) - &tracknumber. &tracktitle
# activate the 'music' profile below /mnt/audio/music/.
profile music /mnt/audio/music/
# force files from /foo/bar/ to stay below that directory
[/foo/bar/]
prefix /foo/bar
Hook definition files
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/arename/hooks
~/etc/arename/hooks
~/.arename/hooks
~/.arename.hooks
Defines global hooks, that are in effect in every directory if the usehooks option is set to true.
./.arename.hooks.local
This allows you to define special hooks, that will only be applied for processes that run in the
directory the local file is found (and if the uselocalhooks option is set to true).
For details about hooks in arename, see "HOOKS" below.
SETTINGS
The following settings are supported in all configuration files.
Not all of them are usable in sections. The ones you can use in sections are: All default_* options,
force, prefix, sepreplace, tnpad, comp_template and template.
ambiguoususefirst
Some tag types support setting the sametag multiple times. The scanning backends before arename
4.0 did not support such tags. When this option is set to false (default), arename gives up when
it encounters such tags.
When set to true, arename just uses the first value it encounters.
For maximum control over how tags with ambiguous values are handled, you may use the
`ambiguoustag' hook. (default: false)
canonicalize
If set, a given file name will be transformed to its cleaned up absolute path. You may want to
set this, if you are using sections in the configuration. If you do not use sections, all this
will give you is a performance penalty. (default value: false)
checkprofilerc
If set, arename will check if there is a configuration file for a profile as soon as it reads a
profile definition in the setup and only consider the profile if it found the according config
file. Profiles without config file will cause a warning if this is set, which may cause the
dryrun option to be set if the warningsautodryrun option is set.
If unset, profiles without config file will not cause warnings. You will see messages about
missing configuration files, if a profile without config file is active. (default: true)
checktemplatesinitially
If set, arename will inspect all template and comp_template settings for possible problems.
Unsetting this option probably only makes sense, if you are working with templates within hooks
and know what you are doing. Normal users will most likely want to stick with the default.
(default: on)
comp_template
Defines a template to use with files that provide a compilation tag (for 'various artist' CDs,
for example). This setting can still be overwritten by the --compilation-template command line
option. (default value: va/&album/&tracknumber - &artist - &tracktitle)
default_*
default_artist, default_album, default_compilation, default_genre, default_tracknumber,
default_tracktitle, default_year
Defines a default value, for the given tag in files, that lack this information. (default value:
undefined)
hookerrfatal
If this is set to false, arename will continue execution even if reading, parsing or compiling a
hooks file failed. (default value: false)
prefix Defines a prefix for destination files. Setting this to '/foo/bar' results in destination files
named '/foo/bar/Expanded Template.ogg'
This setting can still be overwritten by the --profile command line option. (default value: .)
sepreplace
Tagging information strings may contain slashes, which is a pretty bad idea on most file systems.
Therefore, you can define a string, that replaces slashes with the value of this setting.
(default value: _)
suppress_skips
Like the `--suppress-skips' command line option, this disables messages for files that arename
will skip because the file name would not change.
template
Defines a template to use with files that do not provide a compilation tag (or where the
compilation tag and the artist tag are exactly the same). This setting can be overwritten by the
--compilation-template command line option. (default value:
&artist[1]/&artist/&album/&tracknumber - &tracktitle)
template_aliases
If this option is set, arename allows the use of abbreviated taq names in template and
comp_template. See "Available expression identifiers" below for details. (default value: off)
tnpad This defines the width, to which the track number field is padded with zeros on the left. Setting
this to zero disables padding. (default value: 2)
usehooks
If set to true, use hooks defined in ~/.arename.hooks. (default value: true)
uselocalhooks
If set to true, use hooks defined in ./.arename.hooks.local. (default value: false)
uselocalrc
If set to true, read a local configuration file (./.arename.local), if it exists. (default value:
false)
useprofiles
If set to true, configuration profiles will be used. If false, they are not. (default value:
true)
usetypeasextension
One file type may be used for different file name extensions. For example, files matching *.ogg
and *.oga will both be handled as type ogg in Audio::Scan (the information gathering backend,
arename is using since version 4.0).
When this option is set to true, a file matching *.oga would be renamed using .ogg as the
extension, since its type is ogg. Otherwise, the original extension is left untouched. (default:
true)
verbosity
Integer option, that sets the verbosity of arename's output. The default value is `10'. The
`--verbosity' option may be used to override this setting.
warningsautodryrun
Switches on the dryrun option (if not enabled already), as soon as the configuration file parser
encounters non-fatal warnings. This option was introduced to avoid destructive behaviour due to
incorrect lines in any of the configuration files. (default value: true)
Deprecated Settings
verbose
This setting has no effect and will be removed in a later version. Use an appropriate `verbosity'
setting instead.
quiet
This setting has no effect and will be removed in a later version. Use an appropriate `verbosity'
setting instead.
quiet_skip
This setting has no effect and will be removed in a later version. Use an appropriate `verbosity'
setting instead.
debug
This setting has no effect and will be removed in a later version. Use an appropriate `verbosity'
setting instead.
User defined variables
You can use the set command in arenamerc files. This way the user can define his own variables. The
namespace is separate from arename's normal settings. (That means, you cannot, for example, overwrite
the internal template variable with this command.)
The sytnax is quite simple (and different to normal settings on purpose!):
set varname = value
There may be an arbitrary amount of whitespace around the equal sign (including no whitespace at all). If
you want to have a value that starts in a whitespace character, you may start the value with a backslash
character (just like with the normal settings, a leading backslash is always ignored).
You may also set user defined variables on the command line by using the --userset option:
% arename --userset variable0=value
% arename -u variable0=value
User defined variables are useful to make hooks configurable (see "HOOKS" below). Starting with version 4
of arename, user defined variables may also be defined within sections, which (just like normal option)
makes them applicable only if said section is used for a given file.
TEMPLATE FORMAT
arename's templates are fairly easy to understand, but powerful.
At simplest, a template is just a fixed character string. However, that would not be exactly useful,
because then every file you would ever want to rename would be getting the exact same name. That is why
arename is able to expand certain expressions with information gathered from the file's tagging
information.
An expression basically looks like one of the following forms:
&identifier
This is the `trivial' expression. It will expand to the information stored within the
corresponding tag. If the tag in question is not available, the expansion of the template string
will fail.
&identifier[length]
The `sized' expression. The length modifier in square brackets defines the maximum length, to
which the expression should be expanded.
That means, if the artist of a file reveals to be 'Frank Zappa', then using '&artist[1]' will
expand to 'F'.
&{identifier:default-template}
This is the first complex expression, called `complex-default'. When the tag, which corresponds
to `identifier' is available, this expression will expand exactly like the trivial expression
would.
If it is not available though, the expansion doesn't fail, but instead the `default-template'
string is expanded.
&{identifier?set-template!unset-template}
This expansion is called `complex-set-unset'. Again, what will be used during template expansion
depends on whether the tag which corresponds to `identifier' is set or not.
If it is set, the string set-template is expanded; if it is unset, the unset-template string is
used.
Both simple expansions may be used with braces, like the complex expansions are:
&{identifier}
This is equal to `&identifier'.
&{identifier[length]}
And this is equal to `&identifier[length]'.
Backslashes are special in template strings, because they are used to quote characters that bear special
meaning (for example, to get a ampersand character, you need to use "\&"). To get an actual backslash in
the resulting string, you need to use a backslash, quoted by a backslash. A backslash on non-special
characters is silently dropped.
Nesting expressions
In complex expressions, the strings called `default-template', `set-template' and `unset-template' are
subject to regular template expansion. Hence, expressions like the following are possible:
"&{album?&album/!}"
If `album' were set, it would expand to its value followed by a slash; otherwise it would expand to
nothing. Using this, it is fairly easy to deal with album-less tracks:
"&artist/&{album?&album/&tracknumber. !-no-album-/}&tracktitle"
That will effectively use the following template if `album' is set:
"&artist/&album/&tracknumber. &tracktitle"
But if it is not set, it will instead use this:
"&artist/-no-album-/&tracktitle"
Caution has to be taken if certain characters are to be used within conditional template expressions. For
example, to use a closing curly bracket in either of them, it needs to be quoted using a backslash
character.
Similarly, if an exclamation mark is to be used in a `set-template', it needs to be quoted by a backslash
to avoid the character being interpreted as the end of the `set-template' string.
Available expression identifiers
The data, that is expanded is derived from tagging information in the audio files. There are two kinds of
information available. One is the purely informational tag (like a track's artist) and the other further
describes the format of the audio file (like the file's bitrate).
If you are defining a lot of templates on the command line, you may find that these identifiers take
quite a while to type. If the template_aliases option is set, you may use shorter alias names instead of
the the real identifier. Available aliases are listed with their corresponding idetifier below.
This is a list of all informational identifiers available for all file-types:
album The album the currently processed track is part of. (alias: al)
artist The artist for the current track. (alias: ar)
compilation
Compilation tags are not very stable across different file types. Usually, this is set to a
string like "Various Artists" for tracks that are part of some sort of compilation album (like
motion picture sound-tracks). (alias: cmp)
genre The genre or content type of the audio file. (alias: gn)
tracknumber
The number of the position of the track on the disc. Obviously. However, this can be in the form
of '12' or '12/23'. In the second form, only the part left of the slash is used. The tracknumber
is a little special, as you can define to what width it should be padded with zeros on the left
(see tnpad setting in "SETTINGS"). (alias: tn)
tracktitle
The title of the currently processed track. (alias: tt)
year Chronological information about the track (usually the year a song was written or the year the
album a track is part of was released). (alias: yr)
Here is a list of file-format information tag available for all file-types:
bitrate The bitrate the file was recorded/encoded with. (alias: br)
channels
The number of channels available in the file (for example, this is `2' for stereo files). (alias:
ch)
length_ms
The length of the track in milli-seconds. (alias: ln)
samplerate
The samplerate the file was recorded/encoded with. (alias: sr)
For all file-types, the following tags are generated from the ones listed above (for convenience):
kbitrate
Kilobits per second (bitrate / 1000). (alias: kbr)
ksamplerate
Kilosamples per second (samplerate / 1000). (alias: ksr)
length_sec
The length of the track in seconds. (alias: ls)
Some tags are only available for certain file-types. They are always called `type_*'. File-type specific
identifiers do not have alias names. Here is a list of those tags:
flac_wordsize
The word-size used in a flac file. `24' if samples are 24 bits wide.
mp3_id3_version
The version of the id3 tag used in mp3 files (e.g. "ID3v2.3.0").
wav_id3_version
The same as `mp3_id3_version', but for wave files.
EXIT STATUS
arename returns zero if everything went fine; non-zero on fatal problems. This may change in future
versions.
HOOKS
Before we start, a word of warning: Hooks can solve a lot of problems. That amount of flexibility comes
at its price. All data passed to hook functions are references to the actual data in the script (except
for the namespace argument, which is a copy). If you write hooks carelessly, arename will get back at
you! HOOKS ARE A BIG HAMMER, THAT CAN CRUSH PROBLEMS AS WELL AS LIMBS!
You have been warned!
Discussion
The reason for implementing hooks was to have a simple way of post processing tags, filenames etc.
without having to invent own magic in the configuration files, when Perl has regular expressions on
steriods anyway. Hooks can do more then pure pre and post processing, because they are called in numerous
places and give broad access to the script's data structures. Still, post processing is probably the most
useful feature they implement.
Hooks are just Perl subroutines, which are defined in one of two files (see "FILES"). They are run at
certain events during the execution of arename. The contents of the argument list for each hook depends
on what hook is called (see the "List of hook events" below). However, the first argument (argument zero
aka. $_[0]) to all hooks is the hook namespace, the subroutine is called in.
The global hooks file is read before the local one, which means, that this local file may overwrite and
extend the definitions from the global file, as much as Perl permits. This also means, that hooks from
the local file are run after the ones from the global file (unless you are using your own method of
registering hooks; but if you do so, you know what you are doing anyway).
Subroutines must be registered to arename, to be known as hooks. Once registered, a subroutine can be
removed from the known hooks, if requested (see "Utility subroutines" below).
The keys in various data hashes passed to the hooks can be one of the following: album, artist,
compilation, genre, tracknumber, tracktitle, year.
Utility subroutines
Registration subroutines
There are two subroutines, that are used to tell arename about subroutines, you defined that shall become
hooks.
register_hook(event, coderef)
Registers a code reference (read: your subroutine) for the given event. Example:
register_hook('startup', \&custom_banner);
remove_hook(event, coderef)
Removes all entries of the code reference for the given event. Example: remove_hook('startup',
\&custom_banner);
If the coderef was added more than once, all entries are removed.
File access and manipulation
The currently processed file name can be accessed via two subroutines:
get_file()
Returns the current file name as a string. This way, you can get the name of the currently processed
file in every hook.
set_file(file name string)
This gives you the opportunity of manipulating the current file name. Be careful using this, because
if you break the file name, arename cannot work properly.
With these, you could even change the file name of the processed file, while arename works on it (which
you really should only do, if you know what you are doing).
User-defined-variable subroutines
Hooks can also use the data from user defined variables, via their Perl interface:
user_get(setting)
Returns the current value of setting. This is always a scalar value.
user_set(setting, value)
Change the value of setting to value.
Here is an example for user defined settings:
# Assume, the user set the myvar-variable to "bar" in his
# configuration file
my $foo = user_get('myvar'); # $foo is now "bar"
user_set('foo', "bar, baz");
my $foo = user_get('myvar'); # $foo is now "bar, baz"
API for accessing to arename's internal configuration
You can also access the configuration data of arename itself:
get_opt(setting)
Returns the current value of setting. This is always a scalar value.
set_opt(setting, value)
Change the value of setting to value.
A list of settings arename will use: canonicalize, dryrun, force, hookerrfatal, prefix, quiet,
quiet_skip, readstdin, sepreplace, tnpad, usehooks, uselocalhooks, uselocalrc, verbose, verbosity,
comp_template and template.
If you want to actually change these settings, you should have a profound knowledge of arename's
internals. Be careful.
API for default_* settings
If you need to access the current values of the default_* settings:
get_defaults(tagname)
Returns the value of default_tagname.
get_default_keys()
Returns a lexically sorted array of tag names of currently set default_* values.
set_default(tagname, value)
Sets the value of default_tagname to value.
Miscellaneous subroutines
And finally, a few miscellaneous functions ARename.pm provides, that might be of interest.
choose_template(data hash reference)
Return the appropriate template (normal versus compiliation template) by the data in the referenced
data hash.
expand_template(template string, data hash reference)
Return the expanded version of template string. The information, that is used to do the expansion is
taken from the referenced data hash.
Keep in mind that this function calls hooks itself. Avoid endless loops! See "Hooks when expanding
the template" for details.
ensure_dir(directory)
Makes sure directory exists. Think: mkdir -p directory
file_eq(file0, file1)
Checks if the name file0 and the name file1 point to the same file. Returns 0, if one of the file
names does not exist or if the files do not point to the same file, 1 otherwise.
Dies if it cannot stat one of the given files.
tag_supported(tagname)
Returns 1 if the tag tagname is supported by arename, 0 otherwise.
template_deep_inspect(template_string)
This tokenises a template string and then looks at the whole token tree, and tries to figure out any
potential problems in it.
If tokenisation already failed, a negative value is returned. In case of any warnings with the token
tree, zero is returned. If nothing came up, a positive value is returned.
This subroutine is called for the `template' and `comp_template' strings in all sections when arename
starts. If the user chooses to change a template string in a hook it is recommended to use this
function to avoid any errors due to broken templates.
xrename(src, dest)
Renames src to dest. Works across file systems, too. Dies if something fails.
List of hook events
This is a complete list of hooks events with descriptions.
The first argument (argument number "zero") for every hook is the name space they are called in. To find
out the name of the currently processed file, use the get_file() subroutine described above.
Hooks in the main loop
These hooks are called at the highest level of the script.
canonicalize
This is called in the middle of the file name canonicalization process (but only if the canonicalize
setting is set).
You can get the current file name via get_file(). The canonicalized file name is handed to you via
the hook's arguments. The value from this argument will be assigned to the processed filename after
the execution of this hook.
Arguments: 1: canonicalized file name
next_file_early
Called at the start of the main loop before any file checks and canonicalizations (if enabled) are
done.
Arguments:
next_file_late
Called in the main loop after the file checks and canonicalizations are done.
In this context, file checks means tests for read-access and for whether the processed file is a
symlink. arename will refuse to process symlinks and files it cannot read.
Arguments:
file_done
Called in the main loop after the file has been processed (unless filetype_unknown was triggered, see
below).
Arguments:
filetype_unknown
Called in the main loop after the file was tried to be processed but the file type (the extension,
specifically) was unknown.
Arguments:
filetype_known
Called when it has been established, that the file in question should theoretically be supported by
arename.
Arguments: 1: the current file name extension 2: the file type that has been detected
pre_rename
This is triggered directly before the actual file renaming process starts. All information about the
file has been gathered at this point.
Arguments: 1: the file type, 2: the extension that will be used to assemble the target filename, 3:
the data hash
Hooks in the renaming procedure
When all data has been gathered, arename will go on to actually rename the files to their new destination
name (which will be generated in the process, see "Hooks when expanding the template" below).
pre_apply_defaults
This is the first action to be taken in the renaming process. It is called even before the default
values are applied.
Arguments: 1: data hash, 2: file extension
pre_template
Called before template expansions have been done.
Arguments: 1: data hash, 2: file extension
post_template
Called after the template has been expanded and the new file name has been completely generated
(including the destination directory prefix).
Arguments: 1: data hash, 2: file extension 3: the generated new filename (including directory prefix
and file extension)
post_ensure_dir
The destnation directory for the new file name may contain sub directories, which currently do not
exist. This hook is called after it is ensured, every directory portion exists.
Arguments: 1: data hash, 2: file extension 3: the generated new filename (including directory prefix
and file extension)
post_rename
This is the final hook in the actual renaming process. The file has been renamed at this point.
Arguments: 1: data hash, 2: file extension 3: the generated new filename (including directory prefix
and file extension)
Hooks when expanding the template
These hooks are called when the template string is filled with the data from tags in the audio files. To
do this, arename first tokenises the template string into a data structure, which is later used to
assemble the target file name.
pre_expand_template
Called before any expansions are done.
Arguments: 1: the template string, 2: the data hash
post_expand_template
Called after all expansions have been done, right before the the resulting string is returned.
Arguments: 1: the template string (fully expanded), 2: the data hash
expand_template_pre_expand_tag
Called each time the value of an existing tag is expanded. This may be more than once, as tags may be
used as often in a template as the user requires. At each point, this hook will be called right
before the data was retrieved and post-processed (like zero-padding the `tracknumber' tag).
Arguments: 1: the tag's name, 2: the data hash
expand_template_unknown_tag
This hook gets called whenever arename tries to expand a tag within a template, for which it does not
have any data available.
Arguments: 1: the supposedly expanded string (`undef' upon hook-entry), 2: the tag's name, 2: the
data hash
expand_template_post_expand_tag
Called each time the value of an existing tag is expanded. Like with the
`expand_template_pre_expand_tag' hook, this may be more than once.
At each point, this hook will be called right after the data was retrieved and post-processed.
Arguments: 1: the value, which will be used for expansion, 2: the tag's name, 2: the data hash
Hooks while gathering information
These hooks are triggered while the tag information is extracted from the audio files arename is
processing. This is done in two steps. First the Audio::Scan module is used to scan for the raw meta data
information from the current file. Then arename's data hash is being filled with that data.
pre_scan
This hook is called right before any scanning has been done.
Arguments: 1: the type of the file being processed (`ogg' for ogg vorbis files)
post_scan
This is triggered as soon as Audio::Scan is done processing the current file, but before arename's
data hash has been filled.
Arguments: 1: the type of the file being processed (`ogg' for ogg vorbis files), 2: the data
structure returned by `Audio::Scan'
ambiguoustag
When the data hash is being filled it is possible, that for one arename tag (like `artist') multiple
values where returned by Audio::Scan. This hook is triggered as soon as such a tag with ambiguous
values is processed.
The hook may be used for maximum control over how ambiguous values are handled. To do this, the
ambiguous value (passed as an array reference in the second argument) should be turned into the
desired scalar value.
If the array reference is left as it is, the usual `ambiguoususefirst' behaviour is followed. The the
option's description for details.
Arguments: 1: the name of the tag with the ambiguous value, 2: its current (ambiguous) value, 3: the
data hash in its current form (obviously not all values will have been filled in at this point), 4:
the data structure returned by Audio::Scan (see its documentation for details)
post_fill
Finally, the `post_fill' hook is called after the data hash has been filled. This is a good spot, if
post-processing the values of individual tag is desired.
Arguments: 1: return code of the filling process (`0' in case of an error, `1' otherwise), 2: the
type of the file being processed (`ogg' for ogg vorbis files), 3: the data structure returned by
`Audio::Scan', 4: the data hash.
Miscellaneous hooks
apply_defaults
This is triggered before values from the default_* settings are applied to missing values in the
audio file. This hook is only run if a default value for a tag will be used!
Arguments: 1: data hash, 2: current key
startup
Called directly after all the module initialisation is done, at the very start of the script.
Configuration files will have been read, as well as hook files (obviously) and command line options
will have been handled at this point already.
This hook may be useful for postprocessing the configuration as well as for debugging.
Arguments: 1: program name, 2: its version, 3: configuration hash, 4: array of supported tags, 5: the
program's argument list
normal_quit
Called at the end of the script. This is reached if nothing fatal happened.
Arguments: 1: the program's argument list
Example
First, to give you an idea about how argument passing works in arename hooks, take a look at these two
`startup' hooks:
sub print_banner0 {
# Yes, everything handed over to hooks (except for the namespace)
# are references. This gives us simple two way communication, but
# it's also a pretty big responsibility to handle. Think before
# screwing up. :)
my ($ns, $nameref, $verref, $confref, $suptagsref, $argvref) = @_;
print "BANNER! $$nameref $$verref " . $argvref->[0] . "\n";
# The following actually changes the $NAME variable, used
# in ARename.pm, which doesn't hurt, because it is only the
# name of the program running. For other hook events and variables,
# there might be vital data in one of the references. Be very careful
# before changing values willy-nilly.
$$nameref =~ s/name/blame/;
}
register_hook('startup', \&print_banner0);
sub print_banner1 {
my ($ns, $nameref, $verref, $confref, $suptagsref, $argvref) = @_;
# Since $NAME used to be 'arename', the substitution
# in print_banner0() will have changed $NAME to 'areblame',
# which $$nameref below will reveal.
print "ANOTHER BANNER! $$nameref $$verref\n";
}
register_hook('startup', \&print_banner1);
After that short introduction, here is something more useful. The following hook will replace all
whitespace with underscores in generated file names.
sub replace_spaces_by_underscore {
my ($templateref, $datref) = @_;
$$templateref =~ s/\s+/_/g;
}
register_hook('post_expand_template', \&replace_spaces_by_underscore);
This will do the trick, but there is actually an arename extension that is distributed with the
application, which is designed to solve exactly this problem. See "EXTENSIONS" below for details on the
`ReplaceSpaces' extension module.
EXTENSIONS
Arename comes with a number of extensions implemented as Perl modules, to solve a number of more exotic
tasks, that are not addressed within the core Module `ARename.pm'.
All of these bundled extension modules (which are all children of the `ARename' namespace) are fully
documented within their source files and is accessible by the `perldoc' utility:
% perldoc ARename::ReplaceSpaces
Modules, that implement a hook all feature a convenience subroutine `register()', which registers the
hook code to the event the author intended. For example, to use the `RenameSpaces' hook, add the
following to your hooks file:
use ARename::ReplaceSpaces;
ARename::ReplaceSpaces::register();
Here is a list of bundled extensions:
BailOut
This is a hook, to terminate arename after reading all configuration files. It is designed to help
with testing new settings and is probably not very useful for the average user.
KillNonASCII
This module implements a hook that removes all non-ascii characters from generated file names.
This is also the extension module you want look at, if you are interested in writing your own
extension modules. It features all code and documentation, that is required of an extension to make
it into the arename package.
MP3RecodeToUTF8
`MP3RecodeToUTF8' is a hook that attempts to cure problems caused by the different types of mp3 tag
versions and the encoding mess that comes along with it.
If you are on an UTF-8 based system and wonder why arename produces latin1 characters for mp3 files,
that have non-ascii characters in their tags, this extension may be of help.
RemoveEmptySubdirs
This module tries to remove empty directories that might have emerged due to files being moved to
another directory in the renaming process.
ReplaceSpaces
This is a hook that replaces whitespace in generated filenames by a configurable string, which
defaults to a single underscore character "_".
Template::Albumless
Implements a hook to handle tracks with missing `album' tags, by offering to switch to an entirely
different template for these files.
TNPadAdjustByAlbum
This module allows one to adjust the value of the `tnpad' core setting based on patterns that are
matched against a track's `album' tag.
The idea is to have proper padding the large audiobooks that contain more than 99 tracks.
There are a few utility modules, that implement helpful code that is shared among all bundled extension
modules. Some of the code may be useful to user defined hooks or extension modules, too.
Util::Files
This is a module that contains file-related utilities.
Util::IsNumber
The purpose of this module is to provide helper subroutines, which check if values look like numbers
(integers, unsigned integers, etc.).
Util::RegisterModuleHook
This implements a helper to quickly create the `register()' subroutine of hook extension modules.
Util::VersionGuard
This module implements a subroutine, that is designed to detect version discrepancies between an
extension module and the `ARename.pm' core module.
User-defined Extensions
Say you have decided, that the `ARename::Extension::register()' idea to encapsulate extensions is a good
idea and now you want to do that yourself, too. Maybe because, you just like to keep your `hooks' file
tidy or maybe because you want to contribute your awesome extension code back to arename. Either way, you
will need a place to put your Perl code.
Arename does NOT set such a place by default. But it is very easy to set it yourself from the `hooks'
file:
BEGIN {
unshift @INC, $ENV{HOME} . q{/.arename};
}
That way you can place Perl modules into `~/.arename' like this:
~/.arename/ARename/MyAwesomeExtension.pm
And then just use it like the bundled extensions:
use ARename::MyAwesomeExtension.pm;
ARename::MyAwesomeExtension::register();
Take a look at the `KillNonASCII.pm.in' file in the `arename' sources, for details about how to write
proper extensions and how to make them configurable and how to make use of the bundled utilities to make
your extension appropriate for inclusion with `arename'.
SEE ALSO
find(1), xargs(1), perldoc(1), Audio::Scan.
ARename::BailOut, ARename::KillNonASCII, ARename::MP3RecodeToUTF8, ARename::RemoveEmptySubdirs,
ARename::ReplaceSpaces, ARename::TNPadAdjustByAlbum.
ARename::Template::Albumless
ARename::Util::Files, ARename::Util::IsNumber, ARename::Util::RegisterModuleHook,
ARename::Util::VersionGuard.
VERSION
This manual describes arename version 4.1.
AUTHOR
Frank Terbeck <ft@bewatermyfriend.org>,
Please report bugs.
LICENCE
Copyright 2007-2017
Frank Terbeck <ft@bewatermyfriend.org>, All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
provided with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS OF THE
PROJECT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL,
EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY
OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
perl v5.34.0 2022-02-26 arename(1)