MP3info	- Adds, deletes, or changes MP3 ID3 tags.


ABOUT
=====

Q: What's MP3Info?

A: MP3Info is a little utility used to read and modify the ID3 tags in MPEG 
layer 3 (MP3) files.  In case you don't know, MP3 is a very popular digital 
audio format which encodes a recording with a lossy compression algorithm 
resulting in files representing a minute of near-CD quality stereo sound in 
less than a megabyte of data.   An ID3 tag is a little scrap of data added to 
the end of the MP3 file which stores information about the audio recording 
including the title, artist, album, copyright date, and musical genre.  


HISTORY
=======

MP3Info was originally written by Ricardo Cerqueira <rmc@rccn.net>.  As of 
January 2000, MP3Info is being maintained by Cedric Tefft 
<cedric@earthling.net>.  If you have any bug reports or patches, please email 
them to me.  Bugs get fixed a lot faster if you include patches -- especially 
if the problem is platform specific.


PORTABILITY
===========

MP3Info was developed under Linux, but should work on most UN*X variants.
Included with the text-based version is a gui version which requires the GTK
libraries (see http://www.gtk.org).  The console version runs in plain
command-line and interactive curses mode.  The curses or ncurses library is
required.


INSTALLATION
============

Pretty basic.  After unpacking the archive run the following two commands:

make
make install 		(this command must be run by the root user)

If you want to compile just the console or GTK version use 'make mp3info' or 
'make gmp3info' (respectively).


USAGE: Console Version
======================

mp3info [-h | -G] (-i | -d | -t title -a artist -l album -y year -c comment
                             -g genre) MP3_FILE [ MP3_FILE [ ... ]]

-h      --      Display this info and exit
-G      --      Display genre list and exit
-i      --      Edit ID3 tag interactively
-d      --      Delete ID3 tag

  Specify ID3 tag fields:

-t  title      --     Track title
-a  artist     --     Artist Name
-l  album      --     Album Name
-y  year       --     Copyright Year
-c  comment    --     Comment
-g  genre      --     Genre (use -G option for a list of valid genres)

Non-specified fields, if existant, will remain unchanged.
Genres can be specified as numbers or names: '-g 17' same as '-g Rock'
Remember: Multiple word fields must be enclosed in "" (eg: -t "A title")

Usage: GTK Version
==================

gmp3info song.mp3


EXAMPLES
========

Display existing ID3 tag information (if any) in song.mp3

	mp3info song.mp3

Set the title, author and genre of song.mp3. (All other fields unchanged)

	mp3info -t "Song Title" -a Author -g "Rock & Roll" song.mp3

Set the album field of all MP3 files in the current directory 
to "The White Album"

	mp3info -a "The White Album" *.mp3

Delete the ID3 tag from song1.mp3 and song2.mp3

	mp3info -d song1.mp3 song2.mp3


KNOWN BUGS
==========

There's no "save and quit" in interactive mode. You must fill in all the 
fields (even if it is with blanks) and let the program finish by itself. 
CTRL+C does leave MP3info, but the data isn't saved.

Using space to erase tags in interactive mode does not work correctly if you 
then backspace over the deleted text.

Some valid MP3 files are rejected as being invalid. This is a thorny one.  If 
you figure it out, please let me know.


KNOWN LIMITATIONS
=================

The title, author, and album fields are limited to 30 characters.  This is a 
limitation of the ID3 tag format, not MP3Info.

Genres cannot be specified arbitrarily.  They must be specified from a 
pre-determined list (use mp3info -G to see that list).  Again, this is a 
limitation of the ID3 tag format.


MISCELLANEOUS NEWS & INFO
=========================

MP3Info is looking for a new name!  Several people have pointed out that there 
are other, older programs out there called mp3info which arguably have more of 
a "right" (in as much as such a thing exists in the open source world) to the 
name than this program.  Name suggestions, like bug reports, are happily 
accepted.


DISCLAIMER
==========

I do not take responsibility for damaged files, MP3s or not. If you decide to 
run this on something other than an MP3, tough luck. You're on your own. It 
shouldn't cause any damage, but if it does, blame yourself!


TO DO
=====

Fix the known bugs? :-)

Add an "Open file" option to GMP3info.



					- Cedric Tefft <cedric@earthling.net>