README

STREAMRIPPER(1)                                                STREAMRIPPER(1)



NAME
       streamripper - rip shoutcast radio streams to mp3 files

SYNOPSIS
       streamripper URL [options]


DESCRIPTION
       Streamripper records shoutcast and icecast compatible streams, in their
       native format. The following formats are supported: mp3, nsv, aac, and
       ogg. The meta data within the stream are interpreted to determine the
       beginning and end of each song, and stores the songs on your hard disk
       as individual files. In addition, streamripper includes a relay server
       for listening to the station while you are recording.


OPTIONS
       -h
           Print help and exit

       -v
           Print version info and quit

       -d dir
           The destination directory
       Select a different base directory for ripping, just in case you dont
       want to dump tons of mp3s into whatever directory your at.

       -s
           Dont create a directory for each stream
       Normally streamripper will make a directory with the same name as the
       stream to place the tracks into, this disables that.

       -D pattern
           Use a pattern to format the output file names
       This option tells streamripper how to form the filenames. If -D is
       used, the options -s and -P will be ignored. If the pattern represents
       an absolute path, the -d option will also be ignored. If both -D and -q
       are specified, -q will only be used to set the start count if a %q
       token is included.

       By default the output files are put in a directory that has the same
       name as the stream, and files are formed from the artist and title. But
       you can override this behavior and create the output files as you like.
       The output file names are generated by substituting tokens with values
       that depend on the stream, track, or environment. The following tokens
       can be used for substitution.


               %S        Stream
               %A        Artist
               %T        Title
               %a        Album
               %D        Date and time (per song)
               %d        Date and time (per execution)
               %q        Sequence number (automatic detection)
               %Nq       Sequence number (starting from number N)
               %%        Percent sign

       Note
       On windows you may be required to supply an extra % because the symbol
       is consumed by the shell. Therefore, you would put "%%S/%%A/%%T"
       instead of "%S/%A/%T".


       The extension (such as .mp3) is appended automatically.

       The tokens %D and %d differ because %D gives a unique timestamp for
       each song, whereas %d gives a unique timestamp each time streamripper
       is run.

       The tokens %q and %Nq differ because %q tries to figure out the correct
       sequence number from the existing files, wherease %Nq does not. The N
       is your starting number. For example %32q means start numbering at 32.

       -r [base port]
           Create a relay server on base port, defaults to port 8000
       Creates a relay server on base port. if base port is not specified it
       defaults to 8000, otherwise whatever you entered for base port. Note
       that if the -z option is not used, it will keep trying higher ports if
       the port is unavailable.

       -R num_conn
           Maximum connections to relay stream
       In addition to creating a relay server, you can also control how many
       clients are allowed to simultaneously connect. The default is 1 client,
       but if you specify the -R option you can increase this number to
       <num_conn> clients. If <num_conn> is set to 0, the number of
       connections is limited only by your processor and network speed. The -R
       option has no effect if -r was not used to create a relay stream.

       -z
           Dont scan for free ports if base port is not available
       Disables the "scan for free port" feature. Use it if your paranoid, or
       dont like ports being open.

       -p url
           Use HTTP proxy server at <url>
       If you are behind a proxy server, use the -p flag to specify its url.
       You can also use the http_proxy environment variable to specify your
       proxy server.

       -a [pattern]
           Rip to single file
       The default mode of operation is to separate the each track into a
       separate file. But sometimes this is not what you want. Sometimes you
       want the stream recorded to a single (big) file without splitting into
       tracks. The -a option does this. If you use -a without including the
       [pattern], a timestamped filename will automatically be used.

       The pattern can be used in a manner similar to the -D flag, but
       generally only %S, %q and %d are useful.

       -A
           Dont create individual tracks
       The default mode of operation is to create one file for each track. But
       sometimes you dont want these files. For example, you might prefer a
       single file (using the -a option), or you want to use streamripper as a
       relay (using the -r option), without creating these files. Using the -A
       option, the individual files for each track are not created.

       -o (always | never | larger | version)
           Overwrite tracks in complete directory
       When streamripper rips tracks they are put into the incomplete
       directory until they are finished. Normally, they are then moved into
       the complete directory. However, when the track is already there, can
       use this option to tell streamripper what you want to do. There are
       three choices: always, never, and larger. If you dont include any of
       the -o options on the command line, the default is "-o larger" for
       version through 1.63.4, and "-o version" starting with 1.64.5.

       If you use the "-o never" option, this tells streamripper to never
       overwrite any existing file in the complete directory.

       If you use the "-o always" option, this tells streamripper to always
       overwrite any existing file in the complete directory.

       If you use the "-o larger" option, this tells streamripper to overwrite
       an existing file in the complete directory if the newer file is larger.

       If you use the "-o version" option, this tells streamripper to keep
       both versions, renaming the existing file.

       -t
           Dont overwrite tracks in incomplete directory
       Normally streamripper writes the files in the incomplete directory, and
       then moves it to the base directory (the complete directory) when it is
       done. If the file with the name of the track already exists in
       incomplete, it will overwrite the old track. When you use the -t flag,
       however, this will tell streamripper to backup the existing file in
       incomplete (appending a version number), and then create the new file.

       This is useful for streams that dont have meta-data. Because these
       streams only have a single file, reconnects will cause overwriting the
       existing file, which is not desired.

       -T
           Truncate completed tracks in incomplete directory
       When you are not overwriting files in the complete folder, the
       duplicate files will normally stay in the incomplete folder. This
       option tells streamripper to truncate the files to zero bytes in the
       incomplete folder if they are a duplicate.

       -c
           Dont auto-reconnect
       Normally streamripper will be very aggressive and try to re-connect to
       a dropped stream. This option disables this behavior.

       -l seconds
           Run for a predetermined length of time, in seconds
       Usually, streamripper runs until it crashes. Or rather, I meant to say
       that it runs until you kill it, yes, Im sure thats what I meant. But
       you can instead tell streamripper to run for a certain length of time,
       and then exit using this flag.

       -M megabytes
           Stop ripping after this many megabytes
       Use this flag to tell streamripper to rip a certain number of
       megabytes, then stop. As of version 1.64.5, megabytes are defined as
       2^20 bytes.

       -q [start]
           Add sequence number to output filenames
       When the files are copied from incomplete to complete, the filename can
       be prepended with a sequence number (beginning with 0000). This can be
       used to, for example, show the order that the files were created. If
       desired, a starting count can be used with -q to begin the sequence at
       any number you like.

       -i
           Dont add ID3 tags to output file
       Mp3 files have two different kinds of header information which describe
       the contents of the file: ID3V1 and ID3V2. By default, only ID3V2 is
       included in the mp3 files generated by streamripper. If you use the
       option, then neither are included.

       --with-id3v1
           Add ID3V1 tags to output file

       --without-id3v2
           Dont add ID3V2 tags to output file

       -k count
           Specify the number of files to leave in the incomplete directory.
       Usually you start ripping in the middle of the song, so the default is
       to leave one file in the incomplete. But sometimes you want to discard
       extra tracks generated by a stream, because they are advertisements,
       the station intro, broken songs, etc. Conversely, some streams always
       start you at the beginning of a complete song. In this case, you could
       specify "-k 0" to save the first song.

       -m timeout
           Timeout to restart connection
       Some streams will "hang", which means they havent disconnected, but
       they arent sending any data. When this happens, if you used the -m
       flag, streamripper will shut down the stream and reconnect after
       <timeout> seconds of inactivity.

       -u useragent
           Use a different UserAgent than "Streamripper"
       In the http request, streamripper includes a string that identifies
       what kind of program is requesting the connection. By default it is the
       string "Streamripper/1.x". Here you can decide to identify yourself as
       a different agent if you like.

       -w parse_file
           Use customized parsing rules
       This tells streamripper to use custom meta-data parsing rules. Without
       this flag, streamripper will use its built-in parsing rules.

       There are two cases where you want to do this. In the first case, you
       are using a stream that changes the meta data within a song. Usually
       this is a thank-you notice or possibly an advertisement for an upcoming
       show. When this happens, the current track will become split into
       fragments. To prevent this, you can tell streamripper to ignore
       meta-data.

       The second case you might want to use this is if the artist and title
       information is sent in an unusual format. For example, they might be
       separated by a comma instead of a hyphen, or there might be an extra
       advertisement attached to the end of the meta-data string. In this
       case, you can tell streamripper how it should identify the title,
       artist, album and track from the metadata string using regular
       expressions.

       See the file parse_rules.txt, which is included in your distribution,
       for examples of the parse rules.

       -E external_command
           Use external command to get track information
       Some streams do not send artist or title information using metadata,
       but instead send this information using other means. For example, some
       streams update the current artist and title using html or xml. Another
       example is icecast 1.x, which sends metadata through a UDP socket.

       Streamripper can get artist and title information from these kinds of
       streams using a helper application, specified using the -E option. The
       helper application works by finding the title and artist, and writing
       it to stdout. Streamripper reads the output of the helper program, and
       splits the tracks accordingly.

       To help you in creating external commands to use with streamripper,
       please look at the example file fetch_external_metadata.pl, which is
       included in your distribution.

       --debug
           Save debugging log
       This creates a file called "gcs.txt" that contains all sorts of
       debugging information.

       --quiet
           Quiet operation
       Dont write any text to the console, except error messages

       --stderr
           Write output to stderr instead of stdout

       --xs_silence_length=num
           Set silence duration
       The volume must be less than xsd_min_volume for a period of time
       greater than this.

       --xs_search_window=num:num
           Set search window duration
       This is how long to search for the silence. 1st number is msec before
       nominal center, 2nd number is msecs after nominal track change
       position.

       --xs_offset=num
           Set offset from center of silence window

       --xs_padding=num:num
           Set amount to pad before and after splitpoint. The 1st number is
           the number of msec to add to the end of each song. The 2nd number
           is the number of msec to add to the beginning of each song.

       --xs-none
           Dont search for silent spot
       This is a shorthand for the following combination of options:
       --xs-search-window=0:0 --xs-silence-lenghth=0 --xs-offset=0
       --xs-padding=0:0. Note, however, that streamripper will still decode
       the stream in the region near the meta-data change, in order to split
       at an exact mp3 frame boundary.

       --xs2
           Use capisces new algorithm (Apr 2008) for silence detection.

       --codeset-filesys=codeset
           Tells streamripper what codeset to use for the file names when it
           writes to your hard drive.

       --codeset-id3=codeset
           Tells streamripper what codeset to use for the id3 information.

       --codeset-metadata=codeset
           Tells streamripper what codeset is being used for metadata in the
           stream coming from the network.

       --codeset-relay=codeset
           Tells streamripper what codeset to use for metadata that it sends
           to your player on the relay stream.

GETTING STARTED
       The easiest way to get started is to find the URL of a stream you want
       to rip, usually I find the URL by loading it up in winamp or xmms and
       querying for the source URL (right click on the playlist). Once you
       have the URL you can begin ripping. For example:


             streamripper http://205.188.245.132:8038

       This would rip Monkey Radio (as of 1/10/2001), it places the tracks
       into two directorys one called "Monkey Radio" and a sub-directory
       "Monkey Radio/incomplete" the incomplete directory is for tracks that
       streamripper does not know the begging or end of. The first and last
       tracks your rip for instance, would be in incomplete.


LISTENING TO THE RELAY
       You can listen to the stream while you are ripping by creating a relay
       server. This is done by using the -r option.


             streamripper http://205.188.245.132:8038 -r

       When streamripper starts it will display what port its relaying the
       stream on. It defaults to 8000 but you can choose another port. To
       listen to your relay server, open up XMMS or Winamp and enter your
       machine name with the port as you would any other stream. For example,
       if you are using the default relay stream, you would want to open up
       this URL:


             http://localhost:8000

       However, if you are ripping an ogg stream, you usually need to tell the
       player that the stream is ogg, which can be done by appending ".ogg" to
       the stream URL.


             http://localhost:8000/.ogg

       Similarly, if you want to watch an nsv stream while you rip, you need
       to tell the player that the stream is nsv, which can be done by
       appending ";stream.nsv" to the URL.


             http://localhost:8000/;stream.nsv

SPLITPOINT DETECTION
       Streamripper automatically splits tracks based on detection of a silent
       near the meta interval where the track changes. However, this method is
       imperfect, and sometimes the track splitting occurs is too early or too
       late. These options will fine tune the track splitting capabilities for
       streams that use cross-fading, which causes streamrippers automatic
       silence detection routine to fail.

       Various --xs flags can be used to add an offset for streams that have a
       meta interval that comes too early or too late, to add extra padding to
       the beginning and end of each song, and to decide where the length of
       the search window and silence window.


   Default splitting
       The default spitting algorithm is used when no silent point can be
       found. Suppose you have a meta-int with track change information at the
       time "mi" (see figure below).

       If the xs_offset is positive, the track separation point "ts" is later
       the "mi" point. If xs_offset is negative, "ts" is earlier than "mi".
       Once "ts" is determined, a user-defined "prepad" and "postpad" are used
       to determine where the next track begins "ntb", and where the previous
       track ends "pte". The interval between "ntb" and "pte" will be copied
       to both songs.


           /mi
           |
           |           /ts
           |-----------|
             xs_offset |
                       |
                       |
             /ntb      |         /pte
             |---------|---------|
               prepad    postpad

   Silence separation
       Splitting based on silence separation is similar to default splitting,
       only slightly more complex. Again, suppose you have a meta-int with
       track change information at the time "mi" (see figure below).

       A search window "search_win" is determined by the xs_offset, pre_sw,
       and post_sw field. The beginning of the search window is at: mi
       xs_offset - pre_sw and the end of the search window is at: mi xs_offset
       + post_sw.

       If there is a silent interval of length "silence_win" within the
       "search_win", the center of "silence_win" is selected as the track
       separation point "ts".

       Once "ts" is determined, a user-defined "prepad" and "postpad" are used
       to determine where the next track begins "ntb", and where the previous
       track ends "pte". The interval between "ntb" and "pte" will be copied
       to both songs.


               /mi
               |
               |-----------|
                 xs_offset |
                           |
                       ts\ |
                 |-------+-|---------| *search_win
                  pre_sw |   post_sw
                         |
                     |---+---| *silence_win
                         |
           /ntb          |         /pte
           |-------------|---------|
                 prepad    postpad

USAGE EXAMPLES
       Rip from a stream:


             streamripper URL

       Rip from a stream for one hour:


             streamripper URL -l 3600

       Rip the stream, putting the mp3 files into the directory
       /my/music/stream1:


             streamripper URL -d /my/music/stream1 -s

       Rip the stream, creating a single file and dont create individual
       tracks:


             streamripper URL -a -A

       Rip from a stream and create a relay stream at port 9000:


             streamripper URL -r 9000

       Rip from a stream, creating a relay stream at port 8000, and allowing
       twenty clients to connect:


             streamripper URL -r -R 20

SPLITPOINT USAGE EXAMPLES
       Each of my songs contain about 5 seconds of the previous song. How can
       I fix this?


             streamripper URL --xs_offset=5000

       Each of my songs contain about 5 seconds of the next song. How can I
       fix?


             streamripper URL --xs_offset=-5000

       Each of my songs contain between 5 and 10 seconds of the previous song,
       but it depends on the song. How can I include all of this zone within
       both songs, and edit them later?


             streamripper URL --xs_offset=7500 --xs_padding=2500:2500

RESOURCES
       Please check out the following web sites. Linked to the streamripper
       home page is a forum that can can be used to chat and ask questions.

       Streamripper home page:

           http://streamripper.sourceforge.net/

       Sourceforge project page

           http://sourceforge.net/projects/streamripper

       Shoutcast

           http://www.shoutcast.com

       Icecast

           http://www.icecast.org

COPYING
       Copyright  2000-2002 Jon Clegg,  2004-2009 Gregory C. Sharp. Free use
       of this software is granted under the terms of the GNU General Public
       License (GPL).




                                  03/08/2009                   STREAMRIPPER(1)