CHDMAN(1)

💅 CHDMAN(1) — the MAME Compressed Hunks of Data manager, bestie edition 🎀

okay so like. the manual name is CHDMAN(1) and this whole page is about one iconic little tool, and honestly? she ate. let's get into it. ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

chdman — MAME Compressed Hunks of Data (CHD) manager. yes that's really what CHD stands for. (C)ompressed (H)unks of (D)ata. iconic acronym behaviour fr fr. 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

chdman option

that's it. that's the whole vibe. one option, she does the thing. 💖

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

chdman is the (C)ompressed (H)unks of (D)ata (CHD) manager for MAME. she's the tool that manages CHD images. that's the whole job description, no cap. 🫶

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

okay bestie listen up, this is the important part. each option lets you use a bunch of switches, and what each switch means is explained down in the SWITCHES section (scroll down, i gotchu). and here's the tea: whenever a short form of a switch is listed, you can just use the long form instead. same energy, different letters. 💅

• help [option] — prints a summary of all the available options. and if you pass option, she gives you a detailed list of all the valid switches for that option. like a lil personalized tour. 🧚
• info -i filename [-v] — dumps the header information out of a drive image. just the header. the receipts, if you will. 📋
• verify -i filename [-ip filename] — validates the MD5/SHA1 on a drive image. yes bestie she WILL check those hashes. 🌈
• createraw -o filename [-op filename] [-f] -i filename [-isb offset] [-ish offset] [-ib length] [-ih length] -hs bytes -us bytes [-c none|type1[,[...]]] [-np processors] — creates a brand new compressed raw image from a raw file. ✨
• createhd -o filename [-op filename] [-f] [-i filename] [-isb offset] [-ish offset] [-ib length] [-ih length] [-hs bytes] [-c none|type1[,[...]]] [-chs cylinders,heads,sectors] [-ss bytes] [-np processors] — creates a brand new compressed hard disk image from a raw file. hard disk girlies rise 🫶
• createcd -o filename [-op filename] [-f] -i filename [-hs bytes] [-c none|type1[,[...]]] [-np processors] — creates a brand new compressed CD image from a raw file. 💿
• createld -o filename [-op filename] [-f] -i filename [-isf offset] [-if length] [-hs bytes] [-c none|type1[,[...]]] [-np processors] — creates a brand new compressed laserdisc image from a raw file. laserdisc?? retro queen behaviour. 📀
• extractraw -o filename [-f] -i filename [-ip filename] [-isb offset] [-ish offset] [-ib length] [-ih length] — extracts a raw file out of a CHD image. 🍓
• extracthd -o filename [-f] -i filename [-ip filename] [-isb offset] [-ish offset] [-ib length] [-ih length] — extracts a hard disk block image out of a CHD image.
• extractcd -o filename [-ob filename] [-f] -i filename [-ip filename] — extracts a CDRDAO .toc/.bin, a CDRWIN .bin/.cue, or a Sega Dreamcast .GDI file out of a CHD-CD image. three formats, one queen. 👑
• extractld -o filename [-f] -i filename [-ip filename] [-isf offset] [-if length] — extracts a laserdisc image out of a CHD-LD image.
• copy -o filename [-op filename] [-f] -i filename [-ip filename] [-isb offset] [-ish offset] [-ib length] [-ih length] -hs bytes [-c none|type1[,[...]]] [-np processors] — copies all the hunks of data from one CHD file to another. and get this: the hunk sizes do not need to match, she's flexible like that. but heads up — if the source is shorter than the destination, the source data gets padded with 0s. no drama, just zeros. 💀
• addmeta -i filename -t tag [-ix index] [-vt text] [-vf filename] [-nocs] — adds metadata to the chd. 💖
• delmeta -i filename -t tag [-ix index] — removes metadata from the chd. bye bestie 👋
• dumpmeta -i filename [-o filename] [-f] -t tag [-ix index] — dumps metadata from the chd, either to standard output or to a file. your choice, main character. ✨

💜 SWITCHES 💜

these are the lil building blocks that all those options above are made of. memorize them and you're unstoppable, fr fr.

• --chs, -chs cylinders,heads,sectors — specifies the CHS geometry values for CHD harddisks. 🎀
• --compression, -c none|type1[,[...]] — which compression codecs to use. and bestie, it's up to 4 of them. four!! 🍓
• --force, -f — force overwriting an existing file. she said MOVE. 💅
• --hunksize, -hs bytes — size of each unit, in hunks.
• --ident, -id filename — name of the ident file that provides CHS information.
• --index, -ix index — the indexed instance of the metadata tag.
• --input, -i filename — input file name. the one you're reading from.
• --inputbytes, -ib length — effective length of the input, in bytes.
• --inputframes, -if length — effective length of the input, in frames.
• --inputhunks, -ih length — effective length of the input, in hunks.
• --inputparent, -ip filename — the parent CHD's input file name.
• --inputstartbyte, -isb offset — starting byte offset within the input.
• --inputstartframe, -isf offset — starting frame offset within the input.
• --inputstarthunk, -ish offset — starting hunk offset within the input.
• --nochecksum, -nocs — do not include this metadata information in the overall SHA-1. so like, opting out of the checksum party. 🙈
• --numprocessors, -np count — limits how many processors get used during compression. multitasking but make it controlled. ⚡
• --output, -o filename — output file name. the one you're writing to.
• --outputbin, -ob filename — output binary file name, specifically for extractcd.
• --outputparent, -op filename — the parent CHD's output file name.
• --sectorsize, -ss bytes — size of each hard disk sector.
• --tag, -t tag — a 4-character tag for metadata. exactly four. no more no less. 🎯
• --valuefile, -vf filename — text file containing the data to add.
• --valuetext, -vt text — the text for the metadata.
• --unitsize, -us bytes — size of each unit, in bytes.
• --verbose, -v — outputs additional information about the operation. she gets chatty. love that for her. 🗣️

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• mame(6)
• mess(6)

go say hi to them too, they're family. 🫶

and that's the whole page bestie!! this was CHDMAN(1), brought to you by version 0.176, dated 2016-07-21. she's an older queen but she still slays. mwah 💋✨