tagbkup - back up and restore mp3 tags
tagbkup [ options ] filename ...
backupdir
If you have a lot of information in your mp3 tags, you want to
protect it against accidental deletion. You could back up your mp3 files
every time you update the tags but that will take a lot of disks. Using
tagbkup you can back up just the tags from your mp3 files and restore
them into the files at any time.
tagbkup can restore tags to your mp3 files even if the mp3
files have been renamed or moved to different directories.
To back up your tags, create a separate directory where your tag
backup will be stored on your hard drive. Running tagbkup will copy
all of the tags from your mp3 files into files in that directory.
You can run tagbkup again and use the same backup directory
to update your backup with files whose tags have changed. Do this on a
regular basis to make sure you have backed up the most current data.
Include your tag backup directory in the list of directories
backed up with your regular backup process.
tagbkup also includes an option to copy tags from one mp3
to another or to copy them to empty mp3 files of the same name in another
directory. You can also strip the tags off a file (use the -cm option, see
below).
-b
Backup tags from mp3 files to the directory that is
mentioned in the last parameter. Any tags that are already up to date in that
directory are not copied.
-r
Restore tags from the directory that is mentioned in the
last parameter to the mp3 files listed before it. Any mp3 file whose tag was
not backed up to that directory will not be restored.
-c
Copy tags from mp3 files to like named mp3 files in
backupdir or copy tags from an mp3 file to another mp3 file, where the output
mp3 file name is supplied instead of backupdir.
-c1
Append ID3V1 tag from mp3 file to output file.
-c2
Copy ID3V2 tag from mp3 file to output file, overwriting
existing file.
-cm
Append mp3 data without tags from mp3 file to output
file. If the output file does not exist it is created. This can be used to
strip tags off a file.
-d dir
Copy restored mp3 files to this directory. Since
restoring tags always involves copying the whole mp3 file you can save time
here. If you have your mp3 files on a cd and want to restore them to the hard
drive and restore their tags you can do this at the same time. In this case
the file listing of mp3 files would be the contents of the CD and the desired
hard drive place would be in the '-d' parameter.
-t
Test - no copying of data. This is useful to get a
preview of what will be done in a backup or restore.
-v
Verbose. This lists every input file and whether it was
backed up, restored, etc.
-u
Report updates done. This lists only the files that were
backed up. In cases where the latest data was already in the output directory
they are not listed.
-n
No overwriting of backup files, append log file. If this
option is selected and the tag data is already backed up in the output
directory an additional copy of it is created. This is useful if you are
creating a first backup with several runs of tagbkup. If you are creating a
second backup of updated tags it will start creating files with _001, _002 and
these files are never restored when running a restore.
-f filename
Input filename list is in file filename. If you
have a large number of mp3 files, create a file with the names in it first and
use this option. For example dir /b/s *.mp3 > listfile (under windows), or
find . -name '*.mp3' > listfile under unix or cygwin
-y
Continue if there are errors, skipping failed files. If
you are doing a restore and you know that a lot of your tags were not backed
up, this saves time.
-s
File signature based on front part of file instead of
end. The program creates a backup file name for the tag based on the contents
of the music near the end of the file. Using this option changes it to base
the backup file name on the music near the start of the file. If this option
is used for backup it must also be used for restore. Use this option if you
have faulty tag updating software that corrupts the end of the file. My
experience is that faulty tag editing software is more likely to corrupt the
start of the file. Note that these corruptions of the file do not normally
affect the listening experiencing because they only delete a couple of
thousandths of a second from the start or end of the file. I recommend using
Jampal as your tag editor because it does not corrupt the beginning or end of
the file.
-x
Tags in 256 subdirectories. The tag backup files will be
placed in subdirectories named 00,01, ... up to ff, (256 in all). This has the
following advantages:
(1) It overcomes a limitation in the FAT32 file system of 16384
files per directory, so if you have more than that number of mp3 files and
you are using FAT32 you will have to use the -x option.
(2) It makes it easier for File Managers - If you click on a
directory with 16000 files in it, the system can hang for a minute or so
while it retrieves the information. If you use the -x option when creating a
backup, you must use it when restoring tags and also when updating the
backup. I recommend using the -x option even if you are using a file system
that handles such large directories, beacuse the smaller directories are
more manageable.
tagbkup -v -r -x -d $MAINDIR/000904_1758_rest /cdrom/*/*.mp3
$TAGBKUP/tagbkup
Restore files from a cdrom in a directory structure than
includes album directories. While restoring them copy the tags from the tag
bakup in directory $TAGBKUP/tagbkup. Any files that have no tag backup are not
copied.
tag_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_000.mp3
When creating a backup, the program creates files with
names like tag_486c9c23c09d87c8_000.mp3. The long string of hexadecimal digits
identifies a checksum of the actual mp3 sound data. This tag file is a real
mp3 file containing a few milliseconds of silence, you can examine it with a
tag editing program (e.g. load it into the jampal library). In some systems
you can display the song titles, artists, etc. in the backup files by
selecting options on the title bar.
tagbkup.log
This is created in the backup directory. This contains a
list of the backup file names and the original files they came from.
http://jampal.sourceforge.net/tagbkup.html