abcde – CD ripping software for the command line

Last Updated on July 22, 2020

Summary

If you’re looking to grab your CD collection, compress it to different formats (both lossless and lossy), and automate the whole process, abcde is just the ticket.

abcde is a beautifully written Bash script that invites you to explore a host of open source programs. It shows the power of the command-line, offering an amazing amount of flexibility for all your CD encoding requirements.

Most of abcde’s defaults are fairly sane. abcde defaults to using cdparanoia for the ripping process. It’s probably not the best default option in my opinion. Similarly, I’d prefer a lossless compression format by default, although I appreciate I may be in a minority here.

Grab abcde today. You won’t regret it!

Website: abcde.einval.com
Support: FAQ, Mailing List
Developer: Steve McIntyre (current maintainer) and many contributors
License: GNU General Public License v2 or any later version, or Larry Wall’s Artistic License

Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Encoders
Page 4 – Other Features
Page 5 – Summary