CD ripping is the process of copying audio data from a CD and compressing it into small files. The most popular encoding format is mp3, but mp3 is patented and not free. A popular, free format is ogg.

Ripping from the command line

With several easy to use GUI rippers, ripping from the command line is mostly academic. But, it helps to understand what is happening behind the curtain. Ripping music from a CD is a two-step process:

1. Copy the raw data (as a .wav) from the CD to disk
2. Encode the .wav into either an .mp3 or .ogg

 

Copying data from a CD to .wav format is done with the cdparanoia program. You can do some wild things with cdparanoia, like ripping 12 seconds from the middle of a track. I've never wanted to do anything like that but it's possible.

To rip tracks 1-4 from a CD into separate .wav files in the current directory:
cdparanoia "1-4"

Once tracks have been copied, they can be encoded using either the ogg encoder (oggenc) or mp3 encoder (lame). The lame mp3 encoder is not included with most distros since it is patented. Uou'll have to hunt down the package and/or source code if you want to use it.

To encode to an ogg at 128 kb/s (creates input.ogg):
oggenc -b 128 input.wav

To encode to an mp3 at 128 kb/s (creates input.mp3):
lame -h input.wav input.mp3

GUI rippers

Probably the easiest way to rip is to use the KDE Konqueror file manager audiocd IO slave. With an audio CD loaded, open Konqueror, enter audiocd:/. It should display the raw audio CD data and virtual directories for each available encoder. Browse the ogg or mp3 virtual directories and drag the tracks you want to rip to a directory on disk. It will copy/encode the tracks in that format.

The Xandros file manager (enhanced Konqueror) is just as easy. Browse the CD, drag the tracks to a directory on disk and it will present a dialog box asking how it should encode the tracks.

Another great ripper is grip. It includes very detailed documentation, so there is no need to repeat it.

If a file with a bad name gets accidentally created, such as a name that begins with "-", it can't be deleted with a normal rm command. Use the "--" option to tell rm that no more options follow, then it can delete the file.

To delete a file whose file name begins with "-":

rm -- -bad-file-name
Or
rm ./-bad-file-name

To delete a file with non-printable characters in the name:

Use shell wildcards, "?" for one character and "*" for zero or more characters. For example, if the file name "bad file name" can't be deleted, one of the spaces may in fact contain a hex value. Try:

rm bad?file?name

caution: use echo bad?file?name first to make sure you are not matching more files than you think with wildcards before deleting them.

Fetchmail is a client program that creates an easy way to automate downloading email from one or more mail servers using different accounts and mail server types. It is ideal to consolidate email on one machine while maintaining multiple email addresses.

The user configuration file is stored in your home directory:
~/.fetchmailrc
since email passwords are stored in the file, set the permissions on the file to 0600 (u=rw).

A .fetchamilrc example using POP3:

        # Remote mail server
        poll pop-server.isp.com
        protocol pop3
        user "remote-user" to "local-user"
        pass "password"
        fetchall

 

Fetchmail can be run in daemon mode, but it makes more sense (to me) to schedule it using the user crontab.

Fetchmail normally delivers downloaded messages to the local SMTP port so it is expecting to have a local mail server running. If no SMTP server is available, it can deliver messages to a mail delivery agent like procmail with the -mda option.